David Parkin

Oh, no, no.

I hate to say it was a poison chalice job, but...

But I think in any AFL club and game, the new one that's starting in Tasmania, it's an unknown, Gerard.

And you're going to something where you hope, like, hell, what you bring as a person and the values and behaviours of those at your point around you is going to achieve the job.

But hell, it's one... When you think of the competition and the opposition to what you want for you, it's the most demanding, I would have thought...

sporting role without doubt without fear or favor and others will argue against that but i always think it's the most difficult task in australian sport and sometimes i think in world sport yes is to get one of the afl clubs in a position where you can strike out and have a an opportunity to to win a flag it's it's it's an enormous mountain to climb and there are lots of uh

multiple difficulties along the way that you've got to confront and get over.

I don't encourage anybody unless they're absolutely and totally committed and understand the pitfalls of the role that they're taking.

It's tough, absolutely.

The people, the kind of people, the personalities, if you like, or the characters that get into what I would call the...

presidential and committee and uh board positions in those clubs and uh it seems that that culture if you like over a period of time is very very difficult to change and uh i think that's and i you know i i sense and feel that for the clubs that i worked in when i got there i found that they're all significantly different in their makeup and that you needed to understand the values and drivers that uh

that club were sitting on if you were going to work in it and be successful.

So it's a very demanding job, as you well know, better than anybody else I would have suggested.

And I'm just very disappointed that Michael got to the position where he thought that, A, he wasn't wanted, and, B, that he...

He couldn't do the job that was required.

One thing as a senior coach, you never lose hope as much as the ridicule is around you and the pressure's on.

I think the day you lose your personal self-belief and hope that you can turn it around, then you're done.

Well, you never give up.

In his private moments, he would now recognise he's not getting another contract, wouldn't he?

If that's the case, then you should knock on the door.