Melbourne and returned to the coaching position for 1944. They finished the 1945 home and away season in third but lost to Carlton in the first Semi Final thus being eliminated. In 1947 became the first to coach 100 games for the club. He finished his coaching career with a stint at Hawthorn, McCaskill walked into a meeting in the Club's secretary office and announced "Gentlemen, I've decided that I am going to be the coach of Hawthorn Football Club". The first decision McCaskill made was to change the jumper from brown with a gold vee to brown and gold vertical stripes, he thought that the change would make the players look bigger and huskier. McCaskill as coach also wanted to make changes to the playing group, starting with Kevin Curran to be captain. Outgoing captain-coach Alec Albiston was angry as he was told by a member of the board that he would remain as captain. Brownlow Medallist Col Austen sided with Albiston and a split occurred. The board sided with the new coach and gave Albiston and Austen open clearances. Without the club’s best two players, the team did not win a match in 1950 but won 4 in 1951. Late in 1951 McCaskill's health began to fail, in and out of hospital he wasn't well enough to continue coaching, his assistant Jack Hale was appointed caretaker coach in the hope Bob would recover. He died at home on 23 June 1952. Outside Football A musically gifted man, he could play the cornet. McCaskill was recorded as a Bandmaster when he enlisted with The Army. Later in life McCaskill lead the Bendigo Citizens Band to an Australian championship. References External links VFL Coaches - R McCaskill 1895 births Richmond Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club coaches Hawthorn Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) 1952 deaths Shepparton Football Club players Sandhurst Football Club players Australian military personnel of World War I Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army soldiers