AFL NEWS
Tuesday, 2 June, 2009
CAMPBELL EARLY FAVORITE AT RICHMOND
Richmond have ruled out veterans Mick Malthouse and Kevin Sheedy as its senior coach next year, with assistant coach Wayne Campbell the early favourite for the job, according to the Herald Sun. Jon Ralph and Mark Robinson report today that the The Tigers yesterday met assistant coaches Campbell, Craig McRae, David King and Jade Rawlings, asking if they were prepared to take on the caretaker role that will be created by Terry Wallace's departure after Friday night's match against the Western Bulldogs. Last night the club was yet to make a final call on the replacement. All four are considered legitimate contenders, but the successful candidate is far from guaranteed the senior role next year. The Tigers will begin an exhaustive search for a senior coach immediately, with the decision likely to involve a coaching sub-committee led by head of football Craig Cameron. The club said yesterday the caretaker coach would be named after Friday's game at Etihad Stadium.
President Gary March confirmed last night Sheedy would not be the interim coach, and indicated the Tigers were leaning towards a younger coach for 2010. Asked about the possibility of Sheedy replacing Wallace, March said: "None . . . zero." It is believed Malthouse, previously linked to the Tigers role, is not a consideration for 2010, with growing speculation he will stay at the Magpies.
Former Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley fits the club's criteria: he's young, marketable and widely acknowledged as an outstanding coaching prospect. The field will include Sydney's John Longmire, Hawthorn's Damien Hardwick, Fremantle's Chris Bond and Geelong's Ken Hinkley.
Former skipper Campbell will apply for the head coaching job at the end of the season, and is known to have strong support from March and former teammate and board member Tony Free.
Cameron dismissed discussion on the interim coach. "We won't talk about that or the process at this stage," Cameron said yesterday. "The process is ongoing but it will be made this week. We are happy to share that after this week's game and the process will start on Saturday."
The Age, publishing a possible market on Wallace’s long-term successor, also had Campbell favorite from Hardwick,with Rawlings and Buckley on the third line. Michael Gleeson reports that Campbell comes from inside the tent, which is a good and bad thing for his prospects. He knows the club and the team intimately and thus has entrenched views on how it can and should be fixed. The interview process will illicit answers to these questions and judgement on that basis will be telling.It has been observed that he is still too raw in his coaching education to assume the mantle, yet that same observation does not trouble consideration of Buckley. The former Brownlow medallist and Collingwood captain is certain of being a senior coach somewhere. One early question for Richmond, therefore, will be whether the timing suits it and Buckley. Buckley has said he ideally wishes to work as an assistant before taking a senior job but may have moderated that view after working with the Australian Institute of Sport academy. Buckley's stocks have not been harmed by his performance as a media commentator where his insights during radio and television coverage of games has generated a new respect.
Michael Voss' early experiences at the Brisbane Lions will not have harmed the attitude to employing Buckley without an apprenticeship. Some have observed that a coach should be measured on their third season, and not their first. Hardwick is ready to go as the next serious senior coach. Whether that means he escapes the attentions of former club Port Adelaide should its attraction to Williams wane is another matter.
Several others with sufficient history at Punt Road to brand them "Richmond People" — such as Leon Cameron and Chris Bond — will also be drawn into the process. Cameron is a low-key character with strong views on the game and a personality type that might suit the Tigers' needs. Bond is respected for his knowledge and will doubtless be approached about his interest after moving out of coaching into football management at the Dockers. That move was made as much from frustration at the difficulty of breaking into senior coaching positions as it was a loss of appetite for coaching. Former Lions premiership player Brad Scott, coaching at Collingwood, is a player with a mind for the game and a reputation for how he played it that carries respect and assumptions of how he might instruct teams.
While early internal lists have focused on such individuals, doubtless a recruiting firm will explore respected senior assistants at successful clubs such as Geelong's Ken Hinkley, Todd Viney at Adelaide and Hawthorn before that, John Longmire at Sydney — if there is no Swan pact that will lead to him taking over in the medium term from Paul Roos — and Justin Leppitsch at the Lions.
The initial feeling at Richmond is that the coach should confront the culture of the team. Just as Alastair Clarkson sought to alter attitudes within the players he inherited at Hawthorn, Richmond appears keen for a coach with a development bent and an ability to challenge the culture. That could bring Essendon's Alan Richardson under consideration. Richardson has a similar CV to Clarkson's when he was appointed by the Hawks, having been a successful development coach at Collingwood before being poached by Essendon, where he has moved out of development and is an assistant. Richardson has also successfully coached at lower levels, which is considered by many coaches to have been an advantage.
The market, supplied by Sportsbet, is:
$3.30 Wayne Campbell
$5 Damien Hardwick
$8 Jade Rawlings, Nathan Buckley
$10 Todd Viney
$12 Mick Malthouse
$14 Stephen Silvagni
$15 Ken Hinkley, Mark Williams
$17 Brad Scott
$21 Leigh Matthews, David King
$26 John Longmire
$34 Craig McRae
$51 Kevin Sheedy
$67 Denis Pagan, Brian Royal
A “FRIENDLY” FAREWELL
Terry Wallace and Richmond president Gary March famously fell out for four messy weeks at the end of the 2008 season, reports Caroline Wilson of The Age. But by midday yesterday, when the end finally came for Wallace, the two men behaved like genuine friends. So much so that before the news conference in one of football's grittier graveyards — the Richmond Social Club — Wallace asked March whether he would mind if the outgoing coach could use the occasion to make a long-overdue apology to his old club, the Western Bulldogs. If Wallace's imminent sacking had been the AFL's worst-kept secret of 2009, then the seven-year-old story of how Wallace quit as Bulldogs coach on the promise of the coaching position in Sydney has haunted him since the Bulldogs players refused to play under him for what should have been his last game at that club in 2002. Conceding his 32 years as an AFL player and coach would come to an end, coincidentally against the Bulldogs, on Friday night, Wallace said he was sorry for how he had behaved in his final week at his former club. He directed the apology to the Bulldogs players, supporters and president David Smorgon.
Smorgon was surprised to learn of the Wallace apology. The Age caught up with him yesterday in Queensland, where he had been unaware the coach and Richmond were parting company, despite some premature speculation a fortnight ago. "It takes a man of strength to admit he's done the wrong thing," said Smorgon, "and in doing so Terry has done the right thing. I accept his apology and I look forward to knocking him off on Friday night." Confirming that Wallace — "a great player for our club" — had never returned to the Whitten Oval since leaving, Smorgon declared him welcome at any time.
Richmond entered the 2009 season full of hope, and the coach firmly believed he could take the team to its first finals appearance since 2001. But like so many massive theatrical productions, the Tigers never recovered from their disastrous opening night against Carlton, and the firm decision to replace Wallace as coach was made towards the middle of May. For almost three weeks it had been obvious to all parties that the end was near, and by the time Wallace drove to March's South Melbourne house on Sunday night he knew it was all over.
Wallace said he was leaving now because the situation was becoming untenable, not so much for him but for the players, who had not coped well with the constant speculation. Captain Chris Newman, who confronted him two weeks ago after the close loss to Port Adelaide but never fell out with the coach, stood alongside his teammate Joel Bowden observing the proceedings yesterday, along with Wallace's assistants, from whom his short-term replacement will come.
March said it was better that Wallace depart now given the massive decisions facing the club, particularly regarding its underperforming playing list and the ageing 30-somethings on it. Richmond remains a club that has never known success in the expanded AFL and has not won a premiership for almost three decades.
Wallace had hoped that yesterday's formal parting with the Tigers would end the undue pressure that had been placed upon him and his family. But that was not the case. Last night he told The Age he was "very angry" at the harassment of his family by the Herald Sun. The newspaper had offered to pay his wife, Kerryn, for an exclusive interview in today's paper and remained parked outside the Wallace home last night. While Kerryn briefly left the house to collect her husband from a regular catch-up with friends, the newspaper, according to Wallace, had twice approached the house and attempted to interview his teenage sons.
Wallace's dignified performance yesterday included his stated ambition to remain working in football. Despite the bridges he has set out to rebuild, there remain some enemies who would describe it as karma that he chose Richmond over Hawthorn five years ago and that Sydney ultimately overlooked him for Paul Roos. He said his apology had taken seven years partly because of legal issues, and it is known there was some form of settlement with Sydney.
Two years ago, Wallace insulted his predecessor Danny Frawley when he described the Richmond he had inherited as a "train wreck". Yesterday he described the Tigers at the end of 2004 as a "basket case — a club with no recruiting boss, no development coach and no talented 21 to 23-year-olds". Certainly, there was no process in place to choose the coach. Wallace was handpicked by the Tigers' then football boss, Greg Miller, and former president Clinton Casey, who were in election mode. He was handed a five-year contract worth an estimated $2.5 million — the remainder of which he will receive in a deal struck eight days ago. Given that the Casey regime had seen the club plunge $4 million into debt, there was not much money left for anything else. The president won his election but resigned a year later. Miller was sacked just over a year ago.
WALLACE EYES GOLD COAST JOB
Terry Wallace is in the running for a job with the new Gold Coast team, according to the Herald Sun. Jon Ralph reports 50-year-old Wallace is determined to stay involved in football, preferably at club level. "No one is angry with each other," Wallace said. "The club's not angry with me, I'm not angry with the club, I'm not angry with the players. It was just a mutual decision that this was the right time to step away."
Already potential jobs for Wallace have emerged, including football manager with the Gold Coast. It seems a perfect fit for Wallace, his wife Kerryn and their eldest son Brent, who is in his final year of school. Gold Coast boss John Witheriff confirmed the position would be filled within a month and he encouraged Wallace to apply. Wallace's manager Craig Kelly said the coach was eager to explore any opportunity that would keep him in the AFL. Wallace is likely to land a media role for the rest of the season, starting as early as next week. But Kelly said Wallace was more than happy to move interstate next year.
Wallace conceded part of his decision to walk away from Richmond in mid-season was to be available for positions at other AFL clubs. "I've got a strong corporate background," Wallace said. "I'm really keen to stay in the game. I still see that there's many areas of the game that I could be involved in."
COUSINS FACES HEAVY FINE
Should Ben Cousins offer the AFL today the same breezy explanation for his pre-match one-finger salute that he did to the public yesterday he can expect a fine of $5000 — possibly more, according to Samantha Lane of The Age. The league's head of football operations, Adrian Anderson, has given Cousins until this afternoon to provide an account for his actions on Saturday night in Perth where, in the changerooms before a match, Cousins raised a middle finger at a television camera. Anderson will review Cousins' response before determining a sanction, possibly by late today. AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has already made it clear, however, that he was disgusted by Cousins' rebellious display, branding it "totally unnecessary" and "unwarranted".
Anderson will use the league's fining of former Eagle Michael Braun in 2007 as a reference point in the Cousins case. Braun swore in a post-match interview that was broadcast on national television and after the club proposed to fine him $500 the AFL multiplied the sanction by 10. That sum was considered to be on the lenient side by the AFL, that factored in Braun's clean record, which would suggest Cousins — suspended for the 2008 season for bringing the game into disrepute through his drug use — could be in line for a greater penalty. Speaking at a medal presentation after he had been voted best on ground early in the 2007 season Braun said: "Thanks to all the fans for sticking by us through the tough times. Now let's have a great f ---ing year."
Richmond does not intend to fine Cousins and issued a short statement on Sunday night that quoted him as saying: "It was never my intention to cause any offence. However, I appreciate that my actions could have caused offence to some people, and for that I apologise." However on his regular radio appearance yesterday, Cousins showed minimal remorse. He said the footage, which he said he saw for the first time before yesterday's radio interview, was "quite humorous". He said: "What did it make me think I thought it was still quite humorous, but I guess I'm somebody that doesn't find that offensive. "Now if there's people out there that do, I apologise … it wasn't meant to do that in any way," Cousins said.
To the suggestion that his action was a bad example to children, Cousins laughingly replied: "You'd like to think parents would have steered their children away from me a long time ago." Cousins said he thought a friend was working in Network Ten's editing van at Subiaco on Saturday night and that he hoped that friend might have seen his gesture and found it amusing. "… (he) was freelancing that particular day, he's a mate of mine who worked on the documentary. I thought, on the off chance he may have been sitting in the van, it might have got a bit of a giggle about it," Cousins said.
Channel Ten was yesterday unaware of who Cousins was talking about and the network's head of AFL coverage, David Barham, stood by his decision to air the footage.
In a newspaper column yesterday, Cousins urged people not to be too precious about something he estimated he had done about half a dozen times over his career as a means of joking with staff in the TV broadcast vans who were monitoring the cameras. The matter is being handled by the AFL's football operations department rather than the match review panel because, like the Braun case, it relates to an incident that occurred out of play.
CORNES SIDELINED FOR SIX
Port Adelaide will have to do without super utility Chad Cornes for the next six weeks after it was confirmed his battered right knee requires a second dose of arthroscopic surgery in as many AFL seasons, reports the Age. Cornes's form trailed off badly in recent weeks, culminating in a particularly sore-looking display against Collingwood on Sunday night when he also sustained a calf injury, despite being eased into the match with a week of very light training. He is booked in for surgery on Tuesday to take a closer look at the joint and also clean out any floating debris. The need for another arthroscopy is concerning for a player who, at 29, has battled through plenty of sore spots - he missed the latter half of last season in an effort to get his body right for 2009. Cornes joins tagger Matt Thomas and centreman Shaun Burgoyne in being sidelined by knee trouble, Thomas's knee strain against the Magpies expected to keep him out for a month, with Burgoyne still at least three weeks away from a return. The Power could regain gifted forward Daniel Motlop for Saturday night's important fixture against Fremantle if he recovers from an ankle problem that kept him off the MCG.
BELLCHAMBERS INJURY ROCK BOMBERS
Essendon will be forced to gamble with their ruck division in Sunday's AFL game against Adelaide because of a fresh knee injury suffered by Tom Bellchambers. According to The Age, he will be sidelined for six weeks after being hurt in Sunday's 64-point loss to Geelong, although the Bombers are relieved the injury is not far worse. But his absence, on top of the season-ending knee injury David Hille suffered on Anzac Day, means the Bombers must carefully consider how to handle stoppages against the Crows at Etihad Stadium. Jason Laycock has played only one VFL game since overcoming foot problems dating back to last year and the club's only other ruckman is rookie Christian Bock, 19, who has not played an AFL game.
EDWARDS SET FOR 300 CLUB
Adelaide veteran midfielder Tyson Edwards yesterday revealed his much-publicised fall-out with teammate Andrew McLeod had made life difficult for him at the Crows, but not once had he thought of leaving the club, reports Ashley Porter of the Advertiser. Edwards, who plays his 300th game, against Essendon this week, wants to play on next year and then go into a player management business with tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt, who also fell out with McLeod. At the height of the Edwards-McLeod rift a few years ago, which also involved their wives, Adelaide at one stage thought one or both may need to leave the club.
Coach Neil Craig, who poured enormous praise on both for reaching 300 games with the club, said the thing that he was really pleased about for the club was that Edwards and McLeod stayed. "I really mean that," Craig said. "They have been really professional (about their differences) and it is a great credit to the management of our footy club that it has been able to happen and they can finish their careers here."
Edwards said he always planned to stay and work through those issues with McLeod as best they could. "Myself and Mandy (Edwards' wife) did everything we could to try and work through that, and that's all we could do. It's not ideal, I guess, but these things happen. You have friends and these things happen, and that's just life. It has been a great learning tool for myself and Mandy to work out what we want in life and where we want to go. It's been a positive in some sense to go through something like what we have. It would not have looked too good for one of us, or both, having to leave. The people involved are better than that. We've (Edwards and McLeod) worked through it pretty well. Obviously it wasn't a great thing to go through, but we have both learned a lot from it."
Edwards said Hewitt was quite keen to put something together in regard to a manager-type business. "He is nearing the end of his career as well with a few years to go, so with his background in tennis and mine in footy we think we can offer more of a mentoring type of role. We are keen on doing something like that, and with different sports other than footy and tennis We still speak a fair bit. Lleyton knows exactly what is going on with the results and best players. He thinks he's a bit of a footy coach as well and gives me a few pointers. I do give him a few pointers but he doesn't listen to me much."
FIVE PLAYERS FACE SUSPENSION
Four players are facing suspension following the AFL Match Review Panel’s assessment of Round 10. The Age reports that West Coast star Daniel Kerr's recent on-field edginess has finally spilled into suspension, with the AFL match review panel banning him for a week. Kerr's crude forearm to the chest of Carlton's Marc Murphy before the opening bounce of their match last Friday night earned the panel's ire.His woeful tribunal record - banned for 10 matches over the past three seasons - means he cannot reduce his penalty even with a guilty plea.
St Kilda ruckman Michael Gardiner has also been hit with a ban for striking Melbourne's Mark Jamar. But he can have a two-match ban reduced to one if he pleads guilty, meaning he would only miss the Saints' upcoming clash with North Melbourne.
The Western Bulldogs face losing star backman Brian Lake and forward Scott Welsh for their clash with Richmond on Friday night after both received one-match penalties. Lake has been hit with a one-match ban for tripping Sydney's Jarrad Moore, while Welsh can have a two-match suspension reduced to one week if he pleads guilty to rough conduct over an incident involving Swan Jared Crouch.
The panel also slugged Carlton youngster Mitch Robinson with a one-week suspension for rough conduct, But Hawthorn skipper Sam Mitchell and Richmond's Luke McGuane can escape with reprimands on striking charges should they make early guilty pleas. Sydney's Crouch and Port Adelaide's Travis Boak have been fined $1,950 for negligent contact with umpires.
SECOND CHARGE FOR PROUD
Albert Proud will contest allegations he pushed a woman at a Gold Coast club, according to The Age. Proud attended Southport Magistrates Court yesterday to face a second assault charge after he previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm during the same night on January 31. Proud was fined and suspended by the Lions after the incident and will next appear in court on June 23.
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