HAWTHORN has joined North Melbourne, Fremantle and Gold Coast in culling assistant coaches as the soft cap squeeze continues to hit clubs and staff hard.
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Damian Carroll, who was the Hawks' head of development and learning, confirmed on social media on Tuesday his 10-year stint at the club was over.
Carroll was in the group of Hawthorn staff, including Damian Monkhorst, Max Bailey, Torin Baker, Marco Bello and Brett Deledio, who were stood down when the AFL put the season on hold.
My time at the @HawthornFC after almost 10 years has come to an end. So many amazing people that I have been able to work with across the club and also at the @BoxHillHawks. Been a great ride and look forward to the next challenge!
— Damian Carroll (@damiancarroll18) August 25, 2020
Deledio has already changed direction and is in the process of becoming a player manager with Anthony McConville's Mac's Sports agency.
Carroll's news followed the Suns' announcement they had let go five assistant coaches, headlined by the highly respected Dean Solomon, and a number of football department staff.
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Fellow assistant Nick Malceski and development coaches Ashley Prescott, Andrew Swallow and Justin Koschitzke are also moving on, as is the club's head of personal excellence Shaun Hart.
It's understood Solomon and Malceski were under contract for two more seasons.
Gold Coast football boss Jon Haines will front the media on Wednesday, but said in a statement the changes owed to the "economic impact of COVID-19".
"This is a challenging time for everyone in the AFL and a range of difficult choices have been contemplated," Haines said.
"Like all clubs in the competition, we have been considering how we create a football program that can deliver against our football strategy with a different set of resources.
"As part of this process, we have been unable to offer a number of Suns football department staff an opportunity for 2021 and beyond."
The Dockers have announced the immediate departures of high performance boss Jason Weber and assistant coaches Anthony Rock and Michael Prior.
The Kangaroos previously made assistant coaches Brendan Whitecross and Jared Rivers, AFLW coach Scott Gowans, VFL coach David Loader and VFL general manager Andrew Carson redundant.
Each club's soft cap is set to drop from $9.7 million per season at the start of this year to $6.2 million for next season.
The deadline of August 1 for clubs to inform assistant coaches hasn't changed, but is only informal and there was an understanding within coaching ranks that this year would be more difficult to get early clarity on their positions.
