Coaching in the AFL is a chalice that can be poisoned or make you immortal.
That's the deal made when someone agrees to become a head coach of an AFL club 99.9 per cent of the time: If you win a premiership, you are a success; anything less and you have failed. It's as ruthless a business as any.
The pressure internally and externally, the media scrutiny, would become all-encompassing. Just look at what Carlton coach Michael Voss is experiencing right now as people list the best person to become the Blues coach while he is still at the helm.
But for all its flaws, it is so heavily desired by the competitive few who seek eternal glory and have a deep burning desire to become a premiership-winning coach.
Having been born in the first year of the 21st century, that is where this ranking list shall begin. The work of coaches from 2000 to the present will be the main source of argument, but the ability to look further back in time at their exploits can be used as a form of tie-breaker.
To enter the top 10, a coach must have won a premiership, so St Kilda's Ross Lyon, despite leading two of the league's "smaller teams" to a total of three (four if you count the draw) grand finals, is omitted from the pool.
1. Damien Hardwick - Richmond 2017, 2019, 2020
No matter who gets picked to be the number one coach of the 21st century, fans will be up in arms from all parts of the country. But this writer believes that Hardwick is the greatest coach we have seen since the clocks moved from 11:59 pm, December 31, 1999, to 12:00 am, January 1, 2000.
Had this been stated a decade ago in 2016 after Hardwick had led Richmond for seven mediocre seasons, it would have had to have been a poor joke. But that's nearly the point. Hardwick turned his Richmond side from consistent failures into a three-time premiership-winning Goliath.
And with arguably less talent than any of the other coaches in the top five had access to.
Yes, the Tigers had Dustin Martin, Trent Cotchin, Jack Riewoldt, Tom Lynch, Alex Rance (one flag), but it was the lesser names that turned Richmond's fortunes around. The likes of Kane Lambert, Jason Castagna, David Astbury, Kamdyn and McIntosh.
What also changed the luck at Punt Road was Hardwick's ability to pivot and change his on and off-field philosophy at the end of 2016 - when he nearly lost his job - that then shaped how clubs and coaches lead their players to this day.
Hardwick has since taken over at Gold Coast, and while he has a lot more talent to play with at the Suns than he did at the Tigers, he has already taken them to new heights and appears on track to guide them through the club's first premiership tilt.
