Taking on a senior coaching position can be tough at the best of times, but for Stuart Dew, being the youngest coach in the AFL has its own challenges.

He has to compete without the wealth of experience other coaches possess, but the 38-year-old is finding his own fresh way of doing things. 

Speaking on Adelaide radio station FIVEaa on Wednesday, Dew said it helped to have a trusted source to compare notes with.

“I’ve got a gentleman named George Stone who has been at Hawthorn in the 90’s with Allan Jeans and also Sydney and Melbourne with Roosy (Paul Roos) through those periods,” Dew said.

“He’s come on board as coaching advisor. We have our morning coffee meetings and set up the day and then at the end of the day we catch up as well just to see how we’re going and where we’re going.”

Dew worked closely with Stone in his time as an assistant coach at Sydney, before Stone moved to take up a strategy coaching position at the Demons under Roos.

Stone joined Dew on the Gold Coast in October last year and will look to mentor the young coach with his 30-plus years of VFL/AFL experience.

“For me personally he’s been an outstanding support,” Dew said.

“Any questions I’ve got in my head I can fire them across to George and he understands it really well so I look forward to that relationship, that will be fantastic.”

Dew also believes Stone will be able to offer more than simply tactical support.

“There’s smaller things as well which you don’t realise at the time but you might just be sitting on the fence with something and when you actually verbalise it with someone else who understands your philosophy well, you get to answers a lot quicker at times,” he said.

“Going forward whether you’re one year or ten years (into coaching) it’s always good to have someone to bounce things off.”

The Gold Coast SUNS are holding a Beach Open Training session this Friday, for more details click here.