MITCHELL JOHNSON: Aussie coach Andrew McDonald won’t be able to give aging stars same send-off as David Warner

After taking the job in a storm of controversy after the abrupt finish to Justin Langer’s reign, there was little fanfare on Wednesday when Andrew McDonald had his contract extended as coach of the national cricket team.

While I was firm in my support for Langer to continue and in my distaste at the way player power appeared to have him removed despite successful results, McDonald has since ticked nearly all the boxes that Cricket Australia were after.

CEO Nick Hockley said McDonald had “built a strong coaching team, methodology and an excellent environment for the team to perform at its best”.

The results since he took over are on the board, with a couple hiccups along the way. Overall, the Australian cricket team are ranked No.1 in Test, No. 2 in one-day internationals and No.2 in Twenty20 with a World Cup and a Test championship in the cabinet.

The Langer ousting was a tense time and came despite him also having a good record as coach, getting Australia back to being the No.1 Test team in the world and breaking through for our first T20 World Cup triumph in 2021.

We have seen a different style of leadership when you compare Langer and the more laid-back McDonald.

We can all have our views on which coach we think is better or which way things should be done, but it doesn’t matter from the outside.

If the team is playing well, enjoying it and giving it a proper crack, then that’s a positive.

When Darren Lehmann first became coach, he used to tell us “you are playing for Australia. How bloody good is that!”

He would stress that we should be having fun and enjoying playing in front of our crowds, while also putting in the hard yards at training and out in the middle.

This Australian team seem to have that environment with McDonald and the extension for another two years is warranted.

It will take him to more than five years in the job and by that time it will raise the question of how long a coach should stay in a high-pressure job like that, particularly when he’s in charge of all three forms and in a sport that involves long overseas tours and lots of time away from home.

I like four years as a minimum stint because that gives you a good amount of time to work with players and get to know them well. But of course that depends on results, your home life and whether you can continue to be at your best.

In some ways, the Australian team has looked after itself for the past few years.

When McDonald took over in 2022, the Tim Paine drama had come and gone and Pat Cummins had been installed as skipper surrounded by a large group of senior players and the Test team has been very stable since.

With almost all of the Test side aged in their 30s, the interesting time for McDonald will come when the team starts losing players and new players come in.

The key will be guiding the side through the generational shift and being able to gel with the new faces and give them the coaching they need, which may be quite different to when it is an experienced group who know the way they like to do things.

Handling the departures will be another test. We saw David Warner nominate his final Test match well ahead of time last summer and get a farewell home season.

But we’ve seen throughout history that not all great players get to choose their own times and terms.

Deciding which players warrant a special send-off and the planning around it might become McDonald’s biggest challenge.