Dyl & Friends Andrew McQualter: What it takes to coach the biggest club in the land | Footy & Friends #311
Yesssss welcome to the 2026 Coaches Series on Footy & Friends!
Thanks to our great friends at Tackle Your Feelings, we are bringing you an episode with a current AFL coach for the next few weeks. This week we have the youngest coach in the AFL, Andrew McQualter from the West Coast Eagles.
As he explains in the podcast, Mini had to work extremely hard for his opportunities as a player in the AFL. He found his niche and played 61 matches for St Kilda across 2008-2010, including in all 3 of the clubs Grand Final appearances.
After a year at the Gold Coast Suns which yielded 5 AFL matches, 'Mini' moved back to Melbourne where we worked as an assistant under Damien Hardwick for the best part of a decade. It was here where he worked with a myriad of current AFL coaches including Adam Kingsley, Craig McRae and others.
After missing out on Richmond's top job following Damien Hardwick's departure, Mini joined the Dees under Simon Goodwin for a singular season before successfully applying for the West Coast Eagles head job.
It wad a tough first year for Mini, with the Eagles only winning a single match in 2025, but following this chat, there is certainly plenty of optimism for the biggest club in the land going forward.
It was an awesome opportunity to sit down and chat about life, coaching and everything in-between with Mini. Thanks again to Tackle Your Feelings & the AFLCA for making it happen.
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Video and audio production by Clubby Sports. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catch up on the coaches we've spoken to so far: