In the high-stakes world of Australian Football League (AFL) competition, off-field drama rarely stays out of the headlines, but Melbourne Demons interim head coach Steven King is pushing back against any narrative that recent front-office upheaval has thrown his playing group off course.
The club sent shockwaves through the local footy community last week when it terminated chief executive Paul Guerra just seven months after he stepped into the top administrative role. Sources close to Guerra indicate he is currently reviewing potential legal action following his unexpected dismissal. In a swift move to steady the off-field ship, Melbourne’s board moved quickly to name former Stan chief executive Dan Taylor as Guerra’s permanent replacement.
Despite the swirling public speculation and front-office turnover that followed the sacking, King maintains the separation between the club’s football operations and administrative division has kept the disruption from touching the playing group. “To be honest, not really,” King told reporters when asked if the off-field chaos had pulled focus from the team’s on-field preparations. “Obviously there is noise around it externally, but the football department operates entirely on its own track. What we do as coaches, and what our players need to do to prepare for game day, that doesn’t change. It hasn’t taken too much focus off what we’re here to do. Externally there might be a lot of chatter, but for us day-to-day and week-to-week, the goal of winning matches stays exactly the same. Our job doesn’t shift – it’s still to build an environment where our players can improve every day, and walk onto the field confident they can get the win. The great thing, and the great challenge, of this game is you just focus on the next week and move on from everything else.”
The off-field shakeup came just days before Melbourne’s clash with ladder leaders Sydney Swans at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where the Demons turned in a gritty performance but fell short of an upset victory. The result broke Melbourne’s recent momentum, which had seen the side secure four wins from their previous five outings. King, who is in his first season leading the Demons and has already overseen a clear on-field rejuvenation, praised his side’s fight against one of the competition’s top sides but refused to celebrate a narrow, brave defeat.
“At the end of the day, it was a bad loss because we lost,” King said. “We went up there to win, so of course it’s disappointing. I was really proud of the way the boys fought it out for four quarters, but you don’t get any bonus points for just competing hard – you walk away with nothing. Looking back on it, we played three really solid quarters where we stuck to our game plan and played with courage, but the second quarter got away from us. To give credit where it’s due, Sydney is a fantastic side that capitalized on that lapse. It was a good chance for us to look back at that quarter and identify clear areas where we can improve moving forward.”