The Adelaide Crows have sacked Brenton Sanderson as coach of the AFL club.
Sanderson, who has coached Adelaide since 2012, was axed after a review of the club’s football operations.
Sanderson took Adelaide to the finals in his first season but missed the play-offs in the past two years.
The 40-year-old initially signed a three-year contract to coach the Crows.
The deal was extended last December, tying him to Adelaide until the end of the 2016 season.
Crows players reportedly heavily criticised Sanderson and some of his assistant coaches in post-season interviews.
“Brenton is a quality person and accomplished coach but recent weeks have unearthed a need for change,” Crows chairman Rob Chapman said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Both parties have realised they have different perspectives on where we are at as a footy team.
“It is a tough decision but one the club feels pushes us closer to realising our ambitions.”
The surprise sacking comes just two days after the Crows appointed a new chief executive officer, former rugby union official Andrew Fagan.
Some senior Crows players, including key forward Taylor Walker, were understood to have criticised Sanderson in post-season interviews.
The player interviews prompted the review of football operations by chairman Chapman, Sanderson, head of football David Noble and board directors Andrew Payze and Mark Ricciuto, who is a former club captain and Brownlow Medallist.
In his first season in charge in 2012, Sanderson took the Crows to within a goal of the grand final – they were beaten in a preliminary final by five points by Hawthorn.
But the Crows finished 11th last season and 10th this season.
Adelaide said they would immediately search for a new coach to replace Sanderson, who won 39 of his 69 games in charge – a 56 per cent success rate, the best of any coach of the club.
Former Crows captain Simon Goodwin, currently an assistant coach at Essendon, was touted as a frontrunner along with Mark Thompson, who coached the Bombers this year but will step down next season when James Hird returns to the job after serving an AFL suspension.
– AAP
