As the Adelaide Crows endured another group mourning session at the club on Saturday the horrible thought of who should coach these young men for the rest of the season was surely in the back of the mind of club football operations manager David Noble.
He has been given the responsibility of picking up the shattered dreams and emotions and somehow getting the Crows back onto the field against the West Coast Eagles at Domain Stadium next Saturday.
There is only one man capable of handling the most sensitive and emotionally charged role Australian football has ever been faced with following the tragic death of Phil Walsh – his mentor, John Worsfold.
There is uneasiness about discussing Adelaide's replacement interim coach within 48 hours of the passing of Walsh, but it is one of the many giant hurdles facing their board. There is nothing easy about death, especially one so loved and highly respected; he was close family at West Lakes.
Walsh was an assistant to Worsfold at the Eagles from 2009-13 and they were the closest of mates. Worsfold, who coached the team with success from 2002-13, obviously has a wealth of football knowledge and coaching ability. He knows the Adelaide game plan and their players well, having worked closely with Walsh as a mentor earlier this season.
But most of all, Worsfold is a good man, just like Walsh. It is too much for Adelaide's assistant coaches Scott Camporeale, Matthew Clarke, Darren Milburn and David Teague to step up given they are also going through incomprehensible emotional turmoil.
There is no doubt the players will somehow find courage in adversity and continue to play the Walsh brand of football that he would have expected of them. It is all they can do in their hour, days, months of need, and it would be near impossible for anyone other than Worsfold to immediately take over without first-hand experiencing what the players are going through. We all know they are grieving, but from the players' point of view they need someone who also worked closely with their hero.
The Crows need to find strength to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, a term used to signify you are there supporting others through a difficult time. These are horrendous moments.
The fallout of this tragedy has affected so many in different ways, especially Adelaide's players. They are grieving in different ways too, and while they obviously each have their unique bond with Walsh, one can look at midfielders Cam Ellis-Yolmen and Rory Atkins and see their pain in a slightly different light.
Like Luke Brown, Mitch Grigg and Sam Kerridge, they were just kids when picked up in the 2011 draft, and were immediately guided by assistant coach Dean Bailey. He died in March 2013. And in between the Kurt Tippett drama they were also groomed by Brenton Sanderson, who was sacked before the 2014 season ended. Now Walsh has died.
For Ellis-Yolmen and Atkins, it went a little deeper. Ellis-Yolmen had played just one AFL game three seasons before Walsh saw something extra in him and turned him into a first-pick midfielder this season, while Atkins was about to make his AFL debut, possibly in this weekend's match against Geelong, which has been cancelled. Imagine how they looked up to Walsh in their personal, special way.
Right now, these players who joined the club as teenagers and became men through grief need the guidance of John Richard Worsfold, who is more than a good coach; he's good at standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
