Stuart Dew

Dew made his debut with the Port Adelaide Football Club in 1997, their inaugural year in the AFL. But it was not until the 1998 season that he received regular selection. He was occasionally criticised for his lack of dedication on the training track; however, as he matured, Dew became an important player for the Power as evidenced during the 2004 season when he kicked 31 goals and was a part of the club's premiership win. The 2005 season saw Dew play a running half-back role and played in all 24 games. On 6 November 2006, Dew announced his retirement from the AFL.[3]

Despite not playing football at any level during 2007, Dew announced his intentions to come out of retirement to play a final year with Central Districts. However, Alastair Clarkson, his former assistant coach at Port Adelaide and now head coach at Hawthorn encouraged him to nominate for the 2007 AFL National Draft,[4] where he was selected by Hawthorn with its third round selection (No. 45 overall). He debuted for Hawthorn against Melbourne in round 1 2008, and injured his hamstring in his second match against Fremantle. He missed some games later in the year by injuring his hamstring again but was fit and playing well by the time of the finals. Stuart repaid the faith shown in him with a brilliant burst in the Grand Final when the result was still in the balance in the third quarter, kicking two goals and setting up two others. A series of soft tissues injuries restricted Dew to 11 games in 2009 and he announced his retirement from AFL at the end of the 2009 season.[5]

After retiring as a player, Dew, accepted a position with the Sydney Swans as an assistant coach in 2010. He remained with Sydney until 4 October 2017.[6]

Dew was announced as the new senior coach of the Gold Coast Football Club on 4 October 2017.[1] Dew replaced Gold Coast Suns caretaker senior coach Dean Solomon, who replaced Rodney Eade during the 2017 season with three games left to go after Eade stepped down, when told he would not receive a contract renewal as senior coach with the Gold Coast Suns.[7][8]

In Dew’s first season as Gold Coast Suns senior coach In the 2018 season, The Gold Coast Suns under Dew did not see improved results with on-field performance when the Suns under Dew finished in seventeenth (second-last) position on the ladder with four wins and eighteen losses.[9] In the 2019 season, The Gold Coast Suns under Dew fell when the club's on-field performance further deteriorated to finish in eighteenth place, which is the (last-placed) position on the ladder for the wooden spoon with three wins and nineteen losses.[10] In the 2020 season,The Gold Coast Suns under Dew saw some little improvement in the on-field performance to finish in fourteenth place on the ladder with five wins, one draw and eleven losses.[11] In the 2021 season,The Gold Coast Suns under Dew still continued with little improvement, in the on-field performance results to finish in sixteenth position on the ladder with seven wins and fifteen losses.[12]

Statistics are correct to the end of round 3, 2022