I honestly can't really fathom where the idea that we have to leave Wayne in the past has come from?
The guy is one of a handful of people who could claim to have quite literally built the Broncos as we know them today. He's certainly poured a significant part of his life and career into the place and without a doubt would have a desire to see us succeed long into the future after he's no longer around. To say that person should never again have a place at the club on principle (what principle that is I don't actually know - we shafted him, not the other way around remember) I think is foolish and not based in good objective reasoning. Wayne should be as welcome to apply for any role at the club like any other person in the game and if he is honestly the best person available for that role then I think his Broncos history should only help him in securing a role, certainly not something to be used against him.
I agree that in 2018 I felt it was time to go in a new direction for a Head Coach. Bennett himself even acknowledged that if they could get Craig Bellamy it would serve the club well in the long run and even offered to be part of that transition if the management could get Bellamy over the line. Even when that fell over he still agreed to help us transition to a new Coach that he would actively help to prepare to take over from him. The man obviously recognised even then that he cannot Coach forever and the club needed to think about the long term. What transpired since then was essentially us telling him to get fucked and the fallout from it suggests that the board and management themselves allowed personal ego and grudges to dictate that Wayne had to be removed from the place entirely. I think with the benefit of hindsight given the decisions they made following that, you could well argue they got that call wrong.
If a Coaching Director/Director of Football is a role that can add value to the club, then I can think of almost no person on Earth who would be better placed to fill that role at the Broncos. It would need clear guidelines around who was responsible for what and Wayne would obviously need to respect the Coaches authority and ability to make decisions, but I'm very confident Wayne himself knows he's not coming back here to Coach the football team himself and I think with so many runs on the board we can give him the benefit of the doubt to understand what the role would involve and how he would fit into the place going forward.
If the guy wanted to be a head Coach then he would no doubt still be one of the most in demand going around today, so if he's even considering a role like this it very likely tells you he's ready to take the next step in his career so I'm not sure I buy the whole 'Wayne is too hands on and overbearing' story line. As a Coach I'm sure it's true because that's what he's paid for, but he knows this time around he's filling a different role with different responsibilities.
If Ikin's argument is that no such role should exist, then I'm prepared to accept that, but I think if he was truly objective and there were no other factors at play then the prudent thing to do would come on board first and evaluate the place before making a call on if the role even warrants existing, let alone who should or shouldn't fill that role going forward. He might well be spot on in his evaluation, but personally I'm not a big fan of using your position in the media to rule someone out of a hypothetical role at place you don't work at using the authority of a job you don't actually have.
