...Where does Dean Bailey rank among league coaches?

I understand that this can change year to year but here are the HC's in the league:

Malthouse, Lyon, Eade, Craig, Voss, Ratten, Hird, Scott, Scott, Harvey, Clarkson, Longmire, Worsfold, Mckenna, Primus, Hardwick

Suddenly this guys in the second tier of coaches in both respect and experience

There are only 3 guys that I personally rate as "better" (this can easily change), yet at this stage it's tough to rank Worsfold and Clarkson too poorly...despite the fact woosha seems done

Quite remarkable for a guy that for a guy that's finished 14th, 16th, 16th, and 12th

Big season can cement this guys rep

Good on the board for choosing wisely and showing confidence in him

You can't rate a coach highly until he has a winning record/wins finals/wins flags. He gets marks for being very good with teaching kids, but then so do a lot of assistant coaches. He's coached a couple of clever games, but has coached a lot of not-so-clever games. He's teaching the players to play like Geelong's best football, but that might turn out to be a method a few years behind. In other words emulating other teams isn't as good as innovating.

Malthouse, Lyon, Eade, Craig, Clarkson and Worsfold all miles ahead. Craig and Eade have been successful over a number of years without the big one, but deserve a LOT of credit.

Ratten's made the finals a couple of times, so is marginally ahead.

Scott (roos) and Hardwick are on the same level with Dean. They've done admirably with not much. Neither have won spoons. Harvey likewise has had a fair while, and the payoff has arrived. Harvey's only coached 8 more games than Dean, and has made the finals now. I couldn't put him ahead of Dean, as he has had a better list all along. So they're level too.

Longmire, McKenna, Primus, Scott (cats), Hird - not relevant as none have coached a full season yet.

Voss is the only one I can safely say is behind Bailey, as he's managed to decimate what was an ok list to begin with. And even he's made the finals.

I'm not saying Bailey is 15th, or 16th. But at the moment saying he's better than all but 3 is a bit rich. He hasn't earned that respect yet. He may well, but certainly not yet.