The cult of Australian coaching is everywhere, all the time.
Overseas, Celtic FC manager Ange Postecoglou is making headlines for lecturing the press over questions about his recruiting.
"It is lazy for all of us to say I have just brought in four Japanese," he said this week.
"I have brought in four quality players. They are all totally different, they all have different personalities, they have had different careers so far and they offer something different to the club."
Postecoglou famously quit as Socceroos boss before a World Cup, revealing his four years in charge had "taken a toll on [him] both personally and professionally".
Not far away, Aussie Eddie Jones is still confusing English rugby hard-heads.
A Six Nations loss to Scotland has pundits questioning his excellence – again.
In response, the two-time World Cup finalist Jones offered up a story about his axing as Australian coach in 2005:
"I can always remember this situation. May he rest in peace, Greg Growden (the late Sydney Morning Herald rugby correspondent), said to me, 'I have heard you are going to be sacked.'
"It sat with me for the rest of the week and I probably didn't realise it affected the way I spoke to people because I was carrying that around with me. Now, that is why I don't pay any attention to the media. I just get on with the job.
"I love coaching this (England) team and I want to do the best job by this team."
Another dumped Australian coach, Lisa Alexander, is also in England these days, overseeing high performance at London Pulse.
World champion Alexander was shown the Diamonds door without controversy or upheaval in 2020.
Her team lost Commonwealth Games and World Cup finals by a goal.
She walked away with an international winning record of 81 per cent and the Diamonds were still number one when she moved to the UK.
To cricket, and a coaching drama
Justin Langer, who quit this week as Australian men's cricket coach, could also entertain a job abroad after a couple of weeks of Cricket Australia meetings and musing he might never comprehend.
Until recently, Langer's four-year record had been hard to assess.
He took over as coach after Sandpapergate in 2018.
"Australian cricket was under fire," Langer told ABC's One Plus One host Barrie Cassidy in a leadership series in 2020.
"(New captain) Tim Paine and myself got together with (CEO) James Sutherland and (high performance manager) Pat Howard at the time. (We said) what's our remit here? We gotta make Australians proud of us again. We gotta earn back respect."
Mixed results followed, before former captain Steve Smith's return from exile helped the Aussies retain the Ashes with a drawn series in 2019.
During the One Plus One interview, Langer gave Cassidy an insight into his famous competitiveness.
The coach revealed he had built a gym at home and covered its walls with permanent marker scriptures and quotes, such as "The pain of discipline is nothing compared to the pain of disappointment."
"You just learn so many lessons from reading," he told Cassidy. "I love knowing about leaders."
During a COVID-hampered 2021 touring schedule, after another string of defeats and reports of some unrest within the squad, Cricket Australia felt compelled to release a statement supporting Langer.
"He is contracted as head coach through to the middle of next year with the focus now on a successful T20 World Cup campaign followed by the home Ashes defence in what is one of the most anticipated series and summers of cricket in Australia for many years."
Langer later posted on social media, among other words: "The wise man says: BE YOURSELF. YOU ARE UNIQUE and YOU ARE SPECIAL. Be happy, be healthy, be calm, be strong and BE YOURSELF."
Then he became a T20 coaching world champion.
Before the Ashes began in Brisbane, Langer caught up with Australia's most successful cricket coach, John Buchanan.
"We've sort of stayed in touch probably since he took over," Buchanan told the Coaching in Clubland podcast. "Obviously he's faced a few challenges along the way, more so than many.
"If you're winning, it certainly gives a bit of a shield against those sorts of criticisms and generally those criticisms are pretty superficial.
"They (critics) really don't understand the role of the coach. They don't understand the dynamics of a team. They don't really step inside a team culture to find out more about maybe some claims that some individuals might have at some time."
Buchanan said Langer was the right person for the job; he correctly predicted an Ashes victory.
"That should give him the opportunity and breathing space to go about doing the job that he was empowered to do."
But not even the master manager could have anticipated Langer's rich pickings would hold so little value.
A month of mayhem
Captain Tim Paine had walked away from the team after a sexting scandal, leaving Pat Cummins to take over as skipper for the Ashes.
Such abrupt leadership turmoil can fracture any good team, but Australia seemed to grow stronger under Cummins's on-field leadership.
It raised the old cricket question about who was in charge – captain or coach? And who gets the credit?
Here was Langer talking in 2020 about the conundrum particular to a sport that never used to have coaches:
Finally, Langer's next contract was up for discussion, publicly and privately.
Cricket Australia offered a six-month extension, but the coach wanted, and felt he deserved a long-term deal.
What was the hold up? He was a winner.
Speculation focused on Langer being too intense, which didn't make much sense in the absence of other complaints about his style.
Often, great coaches are driven by a blinkered and burning desire to succeed.
The world's best rugby league coach, Craig Bellamy, is often taunted by commentators for being "too intense".
But talk to Bellamy's long-standing players and they'll tell you they love him like a father.
Cummins was asked by the press about Langer's popularity within the team but didn't want to say too much, which attracted criticism from ex-test players, including Mitchell Johnson.
"His recent interviews have been gutless by not respecting his coach when he could have been up-front from the start," Johnson said.
A never-ending board meeting was held to sort everything out. Nothing was resolved, so Langer threw down his shield.
The old guard, many of them former Langer teammates, were dismayed.
"He'll be the first to admit he had his frailties, he had his areas of weakness, but gee, he'll sit and look you in the eye and work it out with you."
On Wednesday, Cummins finally had his say.
"To be better players for Australia, from this solid foundation, we need a new style of coaching and skill-set," Cummins said. "This was the feedback the players gave to Cricket Australia. And it's the feedback I understand support staff also gave."
Intensity was dismissed as one of the players' criticisms.
"Justin has acknowledged that his style was intense, and it was," Cummins said. "He has apologised to players and staff for his intensity. I think the apology was unnecessary. Because the players were OK with JL's intensity.
"It came from a good place – his fierce love of Australia and the baggy green – something which has served Australian cricket well for three decades."
He said Langer wasn't "collaborative" enough.
"Some of these skill-sets are a little bit different to perhaps his traditional coaching style. I think he's tweaked his coaching style the last six months and did a really, really good job.
Then Cummins pushed back the baggy green brigade, using a line that will be long remembered.
In sporting fall-outs like these, fault is usually shared.
The handling of Langer's future, however, was the sole responsibility of an indecisive Cricket Australia executive and board, which never explained Langer's faults.
Player empowerment is an important management technique but asking athletes to have such a strong say in the appointment of their boss was risky.
"Never in my time as a player did [we], as a playing group, influence what a board was thinking as far as appointments," former skipper Ricky Ponting said.
"I might have got asked an opinion here or there on a certain coach, but it seems like the players and, maybe, a couple of other personnel around the Australian cricket team, might have influenced Cricket Australia into making the decision that they have."
Cummins will have no enemies at Jolimont headquarters after he endorsed their decision.
"CA have made a brave call to transition given the team has been winning," he said.
If it were a football or rugby or netball side, this cricket team might expect to go through months or even years of renewal under a changed leadership structure.
But cricket is different, and the role of the coach is so hard to define; not even Langer could put it into words.
CA will cop its knocks knowing it has a singular reason to feel confident the team will not fall apart: Pat Cummins.
On all evidence, the fast bowler was the right choice as captain, a young man growing in power as sportsman and statesman.
He is likely to overshadow the next coach.
Justin Langer's future might have to be overseas, where the likes of Postecoglou, Jones, and Alexander have turned to recover their strength.
And the cult of coaching will continue in Australia beyond this drama – on fields and courts, in boardrooms and parliament.
Worth noting, the Victorian Liberal Party needed a guest speaker this week, so they invited four-time VFL/AFL premiership-winning Kevin Sheedy.
The old plumber lasted 27 years at Essendon before getting the tap.
What he said to the pollies has hardly rated a mention (apparently, he talked about "common sense and planning") because of a mask non-compliance issue.
They've all got the weekend to think about it and regroup and move on. To take things one game at a time.
As the legendary rugby league coach Jack Gibson liked to say: "Winning starts on Monday".
