18 Facts About Dean Bailey

Dean Bailey was an Australian rules football player and coach.

Dean Bailey wore guernsey numbers 42 and 31, and preceded Dustin Fletcher in wearing the latter number.

Dean Bailey became senior coach of Mount Gravatt Football Club in Queensland at the end of the 1997 season, In 1998, In his first season as senior coach, he guided Mt Gravatt to fourth place.

Dean Bailey left the Essendon Football Club at the end of the 2001 season.

Dean Bailey joined the Port Adelaide Football Club in 2002 as an assistant coach under senior coach Mark Williams, a position he held in guiding the club to the 2004 premiership.

Dean Bailey replaced Melbourne Football Club caretaker senior coach Mark Riley, who replaced Neale Daniher, after Daniher resigned in the middle of the 2007 season.

Things did not get better, as the Demons under Dean Bailey lost the next six games, however they won their second game in Round 14 against Brisbane.

Melbourne under Dean Bailey finished 16th in the last position on the ladder at the end of the 2008 season, claiming the wooden spoon with three wins and 19 losses.

At the mid-way point of the 2009 season, the Demons under Dean Bailey sat last on the ladder with one win and eleven losses, but Dean Bailey retained his commitment to youth and gave many youngsters on Melbourne's list valuable experience over the first half of the year.

The club under Dean Bailey, finished the 2009 season with four wins and 18 losses and finished last on the ladder for the wooden spoon again in the second consecutive year running.

The 2010 season for the Demons under Dean Bailey began with a first round-loss to Hawthorn by 56 points in which the playing group and Dean Bailey were criticised in the media for their on-field performance.

Ultimately the Demons under Dean Bailey finished 12th on the ladder at season's end, a somewhat huge improvement from the past two seasons.

The day after the match, the Melbourne Football Club held a board meeting, where it was announced by the club president Jim Stynes, that Dean Bailey was sacked as Melbourne Football Club senior coach.

Dean Bailey was replaced by assistant coach Todd Viney as caretaker senior coach for the remainder of the 2011 season.

Dean Bailey then made statements, interpreted by some as an admission of tanking, at the press conference which followed his sacking as Melbourne Football Club senior coach in August 2011.

On 4 October 2011, Dean Bailey was appointed to the Adelaide Football Club as an assistant coach in a new role as a strategy and innovation coach.

Dean Bailey never returned to work, though he did visit the club in late 2013 and early 2014 during pre-season training before his untimely death in March.

Dean Bailey died on 11 March 2014, following a battle with lung cancer.