Leon Cameron takes a moment to ponder if he can take the GWS Giants no further and says "there's no doubt that definitely comes into my mind".
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Which is why the GWS Giants coach walks away from the role he held for almost a decade without the elusive flag he yearned for and with his side battling at 2-6 to start this AFL season.
Cameron will be at the helm for the Giants' clash with Carlton on Sunday, but when he drives home that night there is no tomorrow. Mark McVeigh will become caretaker coach, and the door opens for the club to make a play for four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson.
Cameron and Giants chief executive Dave Matthews insist the decision to part ways was mutual. The writing has been on the wall for some time, with the club long ago deciding to put contract talks on hold until the end of this season. Now, Cameron is at the end of the road.
"I was walking around here on Tuesday at training, and you just look at the amount of times you go out on the footy track with your players. I know I've still got the players, but it's a zapping job, and I'll be totally honest, sometimes that can wear you down a little bit," Cameron said.
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"But in saying that, it's not just the one reason. There's a whole bunch of reasons and sometimes, how you work out whether there's perfect timing ... we all, in life, try and find that perfect moment to make the perfect decision. This is a good decision - as much as it sounds right, it's a good decision, the timing is right for our footy club to look for its next senior coach."
The knock on Cameron will be that he couldn't take the Giants to the summit despite a plethora of top draft picks bolstering their ranks over the years.
Yet often overlooked is the fact Cameron was the man to oversee the development of so many from teenage prospect to bona fide AFL star as he amassed a coaching record of 101 wins from 192 games.
The outgoing Giants mentor came so very close in 2019 when GWS reached the grand final. But there they were cannon fodder for the Richmond juggernaut, as so many were during the Tigers' stirring resurgence into a football powerhouse.
"We've done a lot of good things. We've been at the pointy end for a number of years," Cameron said.
"We've had a bad run with injuries and things like that, at that specific time, trying to win that ultimate flag - we just fell short. That's disappointing because as a senior coach you hold responsibility for that. That's always going to play on your mind.
"But I like to think about what we've done right. I know we get judged on premierships, but I think there's a lot of people out there in the footy world who understand this club is on the right track and has been a consistent club, and will continue to be a consistent club in the future."
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