FORMER Hawthorn and Carlton player and current media pundit Daniel Harford has criticised the "brutal" nature of the AFL coaching landscape and lamented how the media can treat a coach under pressure as "almost a blood sport at times".
Harford has coached Carlton's AFLW side for the past five seasons after a playing career of 153 games for Hawthorn and nine for Carlton, but he has also enjoyed a sizeable media career since hanging up the boots.
His dual role as a commentator and a coach have left him with a belief that there is too much pressure placed on coaches in the AFL industry.
"I'm very uncomfortable at times with the way that we as a media industry cover those scenarios," Harford told The Inside Game in September.
"It's almost a blood sport at times and it makes me very uncomfortable.
"I'm really conscious of my part in that conversation. Not just because I'm a coach, but I think sometimes we forget the human element.
"There's no greater scrutiny than a coach under pressure in Australia.
"It's a pretty brutal industry, and we don't always treat the people with great empathy and we forget about them as people."
The 2022 season saw the end of four coaching tenures in the men's competition, with Leon Cameron (GWS), David Noble (North Melbourne), Ben Rutten (Essendon) and Brett Ratten (St Kilda) all exiting their posts this year.
After his playing days, Harford worked in Collingwood's AFLW program in 2017 before he began coaching Carlton in 2019 and says, in some ways, the culture of the AFLW is preferable to the men's competition.
Given the AFLW is not yet fully professional, he says it has a wholesome enthusiasm akin to local sport while still having the resources of a big AFL club.
"I fell in love with the whole women's footy environment ... it's very pure," he said.
"The boys could learn a lot about the way the girls go about their business.
"I hope that it doesn't get to a point where the women's game becomes the men's game and it becomes dog-eat-dog.
"I hope it doesn't get to the point where it becomes a burden to people."
Harford himself felt somewhat burdened by playing in the men's competition during his time at Hawthorn and eventually Carlton, which led to his retirement in 2004 at the age of just 27.
It was a steep learning curve for Harford to walk into a club full of premiership heroes at the Hawks, and ultimately the training standards and demands of professional football took their toll after he moved to the Blues.
He recalled that just 600 metres into a pre-season run before his second year at Carlton, Harford decided it was time to end his career and informed Blues coach Denis Pagan of his decision.
"I was never the greatest trainer, I liked to play ... (and) it was made clear pretty quick that the standard needed to lift," he said of his early days in the AFL system.
"I was washed up at 27 ... I just didn't want to grind anymore.
"I said, 'Denis, I think it's time to hang up the boots'. And without skipping a beat, he went, 'I think you've made the right call, son.'"
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