ON MONDAY night, Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans went to Stuart Dew's house to deliver the news no coach wants to hear.
It was an abrupt end to a tenure that began with such optimism, with the Suns hopeful Dew would take them to a maiden finals' appearance when appointing him in late 2017.
As little as 10 days before Evans delivered the news, it seemed almost inconceivable Dew would be sacked so soon.
Gold Coast was 7-7 and very much in the hunt for that elusive finals berth ahead of season-shaping, and ultimately career-defining, matches against top two Collingwood and Port Adelaide.
There was already a feeling within the club it had regressed from 2022, and the ensuing losses only confirmed it.
Dew has been flat for weeks, "withdrawn" as some around the club have put it. This came to a head following the devastating loss to the Magpies, the sell-out home game in round 16 where the Suns trailed by 84 points early in the third quarter.
He looked a defeated man in his post-match press conference. Bereft of answers.
Fair or not, Dew knew his fate. Whether it was last week, this week or season's end, the breadcrumbs were already laid.
Dew is popular among players – but not all of them.
He's a jovial character, happy to engage in banter with them at training.
Like most, he had favourites. However, if you weren't in the AFL team, the feeling was you wouldn't quite get the same attention. Whether it was fair, perception is reality.
Peter Wright, Will Brodie and Jack Bowes were all taken in the top 10 of their respective drafts that were ultimately consigned to the VFL.
Once they were out, they were out.
It's been said that once Dew saw a weakness in a player, he found it difficult to see past that to the positives.
On the flipside, the Port Adelaide and Hawthorn premiership player has been responsible for stabilising a club that wasn't much more than a breeding ground for talent to develop before moving on to greener pastures before he came.
He needed to invest the majority of his time in his young stars, to both retain them and ensure they developed. After all, it was they who would take him up the ladder.
Ben King, Jack Lukosius, Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and Bailey Humphrey are all examples of young players that have committed well beyond their initial two-year deals in the knowledge Dew was the man to lead them into the future.
That was no small feat.
However, over time, players have drifted. And more than the crop outside the AFL set-up that he put so much time into.
He was given a generous rope. After his first 12 months, the club went for a total "reset". Co-captains Tom Lynch and Steven May left, the list was overhauled and over the ensuing two years the football department would be too.
Neil Craig was added in a consultancy role, coaches were re-jigged and the assistance package from the AFL in 2019 certainly helped the playing stocks.
Some will be disappointed, and a few delighted to have a new voice to impress. Whichever camp they fall in, you can be assured they'll move on quickly – that's what players do.
Ultimately Gold Coast became impatient with Dew, thinking they'd surrounded him with everything possible, only to again be floundering outside the eight with less than a third of the season remaining.
Evans has now been at the club when it has moved on from two coaches. The next appointment needs to hit the jackpot, or him and many others won't be around to see the back of a third.
