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.
8. Paul Roos - Sydney, 2005
In a similar vein, who could forget Roos bellowing, "Here it is", following Sydney/South Melbourne's first premiership in 72 years.
Roos was a key part of the coaching tactical change to dry up scoring and strengthen defence during the mid-2000s - a move that has troubled the AFL and made CEO after CEO change and adjust rules to bring back big scores ever since.
The Sydney-West Coast contests between 2005-06 were one of the best rivalries football has seen, with six consecutive games (which included two qualifying finals and grand finals) having a collective margin of 13 points.
Roos and his counterpart, John Worsfold (an unlucky omission from the list), duelled it out across that period, with both coaches taking a scalp.
But Roos being able to bring a premiership cup to a club that had moved states and thought it might never see one again makes him an immediate coaching great.
He is also boosted up this list thanks to his role as coach of Melbourne from 2014-16, when he helped rebuild the embattled club before passing the baton to eventual premiership coach Simon Goodwin.
