AFL NEWS
Wednesday, 3 June, 2009
LYON: McKENNA FOR RICHMOND
Garry Lyon, former Melbourne captain turned highly-respected AFL media commentator, has thrown his weight behind Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna (pictured) to be the long-term coaching successor to Terry Wallace at Richmond. Writing in The Age today, Lyon suggests if the Tigers have put a line through Guy McKenna as a candidate due to his involvement with the Gold Coast franchise, then it is imperative that they think again. He said: “McKenna shapes as the outstanding candidate for the position and the fact that he has a year to run on his contract with the new boys on the block should not be seen as an insurmountable hurdle.”
Lyon continued: “The fact is, he is no different to the plethora of assistant coaches who have been bandied around in the media in the past 24 hours who are contracted beyond this year. Michael Voss, having just signed on as an assistant coach at West Coast last year, was able to negotiate an immediate release to accept the senior role at the Brisbane Lions when it was offered. It is almost an unwritten rule in football that an aspiring coach, not at senior AFL level, will be released from his contractual obligations to take up one of the 16 coveted positions. McKenna is contracted to be coaching the Gold Coast team in the VFL next year. His future beyond 2010 is unsecured and it is a window of opportunity that the Richmond Football Club should take advantage of.
“I have counted 22 potential candidates listed in the two main newspapers in this town in the past 24 hours. McKenna's name was not mentioned once and nor was he listed by the corporate bookmakers who are keen to frame a market. It is an amazing oversight given the background of McKenna and his role over the past 12 months. I believe McKenna is a standout candidate for Richmond. He ticks almost every box and the feedback from well-placed and experienced football people, a notoriously cynical group, hard to impress, regarding the job he is doing with the young Gold Coast group is overwhelmingly positive.
“His presentation to the young academy squad in South Africa recently was said to have held the group spellbound. Talent scouts from around the country, who monitor the under-18 competition forensically, have raved about his handling of the group, their rapid and ultra-impressive development and the manner in which he addresses the team and the clarity of his coaching philosophies. Any rough edges he may have had before heading north have been well and truly knocked off.
“Significantly he has been able to coach, at senior level with Claremont in the WAFL, and now with the Gold Coast under 18s. I think it is a crucial, but underrated consideration in the appointment of a senior coach. To be the ultimate decision-maker in terms of the direction a side takes demands accountability and responsibility. The consequence of any decision ultimately rests with the head coach, and that demands thorough preparation and an unwavering faith in your philosophies.
“To have been able to take charge of both a senior list, as well as a developing group, provides invaluable experience in dealing with the psychology and challenges that come with motivating and handling a broad gamut of personalities. It must give you a head start, however small, over those who have served only in the supporting roles.”
Lyon concludes: “The Tigers have stolen a march on a number of clubs who may be in the market for a new coach in the coming months. They have to get it right, and the first door I would be knocking on would be Guy McKenna's. As it stands, he can do all the legwork for the Gold Coast, only to see a Leigh Matthews, Mick Malthouse or Paul Roos appointed over the top of him when the team enters the AFL in 2011. He may not be interested, but they will never know if you don't ask the question. The promise of a senior job and a three-year contract may be the thing to lure him away from a backdrop of uncertainty and a further 12-month apprenticeship.”
AFL WEIGHS UP 24-ROUND SEASON
The AFL is likely to play a 24-week season in 2011 to cater for the 17th team, with all teams having two byes, reports Jon Ralph of the Herald Sun. The league has already done its preliminary modelling to cater for the 11 home games that will be created by the inclusion of the Gold Coast team, he reports today. The AFL is in no rush to finalise the structure of the 2011 fixture, to be released late next year, and says all its planning is at a preliminary stage. But the league will start the home-and-away season a week earlier, and is likely to play two extra rounds: one of eight games and one of just three. Effectively, there would be no set split round, but 11 teams would have a break the weekend three games were played. All teams would have two byes, staggered over the season. It would create the unfortunate - but necessary - situation where teams are judged by a win-loss ratio rather than premiership points because, until Round 24, sides will have played a different number of games.
AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said yesterday the league had several options, but the two-bye season looked likely. "Obviously 2011 is a long way away, but we have come up with one solution which sees us playing 22 rounds over 24 weeks," he said. "The 17th team essentially puts 11 home games into the fixture. You have one extra club playing 11 home games." Presently, there are 176 home games on the fixture, but Gold Coast's games will increase that to 187. "It effectively becomes another full round of eight games, and a round of three," McLachlan said.
If all goes to plan, the AFL will introduce the western Sydney side in 2012, with the season to then expand to a 24-round fixture without a pre-season competition. This could conceivably push out the 2012 fixture to 26 weeks, considering the clubs will need up to two split rounds in what will be a long and arduous season.
The AFL is almost certain to keep the pre-season competition for 2011, before dispensing with it in 2012 because of the length of the 24-round season. If the league is forced to delay the 18th team's arrival by a year, the 2011 format would continue for an extra season. The league has already confirmed it will not expand the final-eight system, despite the introduction of two more teams.
LAKE CLEARED AT TRIBUNAL
The Western Bulldogs were the big winners at the AFL tribunal last night, according to the AFL website, after key defender Brian Lake was cleared to take on Richmond at Docklands on Friday night. After a 20-minute hearing, the three-man jury took only a minute to find the backman not guilty of tripping Sydney Swan Jarred Moore. In last night’s other cases, West Coast’s Daniel Kerr was rubbed out for a week for striking, while Carlton’s Mitch Robinson had his rough conduct charge downgraded from intentional to reckless – meaning he walked away with a reprimand and free to take on Brisbane at the Gabba Saturday night. Earlier in the day, St Kilda’s Michael Gardiner (striking) and Bulldog Scott Welsh (rough conduct) both accepted one-match suspensions, while Sydney’s Jared Crouch and Port Adelaide’s Travis Boak accepted $1950 fines for making negligent contact with umpires. Also, Hawthorn skipper Sam Mitchell was ruled ineligible for this year’s Brownlow Medal when he accepted a reprimand and 93.75 points towards his future record eventuating from a striking charge against Adelaide’s David Mackay, and Richmond’s Luke McGuane also accepted a reprimand and 93.75 points towards his future record for striking Fremantle’s Brett Peake.
TIGERS FINE COUSINS $10,000
Ben Cousins' one-finger salute has cost him $2500 and another $7500 if he misbehaves again, according to the Herald Sun. Mark Robinson reports today that Richmond last night imposed a $5000 fine but suspended $2500 until next year. The AFL, after CEO Andrew Demetriou said the gesture was totally unnecessary and unwarranted, also dished out a $5000 suspended fine. If Cousins reoffends in the next 12 months he will have to pay another $7500.
In a backflip, Cousins yesterday fully apologised for his "insulting gesture" to the changeroom's camera before last Saturday night's game against Fremantle at Subiaco. The Tigers said his action was obscene. "I met with the club this morning and have accepted their fine," Cousins said. "I apologised for raising my finger and explained that it was not a gesture I ever thought would go to air. I hadn't seen the footage until Monday afternoon and wasn't aware of my facial expression. Once I viewed the footage I realised why the public, the AFL and the Richmond Football Club were offended by my actions."
Cousins also met the Tigers leadership group yesterday. It's believed Cousins' lower salary - believed to be about $100,000 - was part of his submission yesterday. He said he meant his gesture to be seen only by a friend he thought was working.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said last night Cousins' newspaper explanation - in the Herald Sun - was written before he had seen the footage and particularly his expression. "He acknowledged he had not been contrite enough with this explanation . . . and wished to apologise for his actions," Anderson said. He said the AFL had taken into account Richmond's fine, Cousins' apology and his explanation in fining him $5000.
Richmond's general manager of football, Craig Cameron, last night said: "This was a breach of our standards and that is why it was important that Ben apologised and was also fined. As far as we are concerned the issue has been addressed by the club. We have told Ben we were disappointed with his actions and we are all ready to move on."
IS CHANNEL TEN THE REAL VILLAIN?
Greg Baum of The Age offers an alternative view on the Ben Cousins one-finger salute issue. He writes today: “If Cousins is to hang, at least let it be for a hanging offence. Cousins' gesture in flipping the bird, so-called, to an unmanned television camera in the Subiaco changerooms on Saturday night has gone to all the usual courts: the AFL, his club's leadership group, the media and public opinion. One by one, the verdicts are coming in. The public's is indifference. The media's lacks its usual trenchancy. The leadership group's was a fine, you suspect for thoughtlessness as much as vulgarity, half-suspended anyway. The AFL's was a suspended fine.
Why? Because Cousins' action was shocking? No; if "flipping the bird" ever shocked, it does no longer. It is shocking only as a glimpse of frilly knickers was once called shocking, tut-tut shocking. Because it was obscene? Hardly; the colloquialism "flipping the bird", in its very benign-ness, contradicts it. Because it was offensive? Only to whomever it was intended, and no one, not even Cousins, can say for sure who that was. Almost certainly, it was meant for no one in particular, but was a reaction, mindless and reflexive, to the camera itself. Yet, selectively, some have chosen to take offence anyway.
Why? Because Cousins is a role model? Yes he is, for better or worse, and he has been both. It is fair enough that role models are held to higher standards, not fair if those standards are impossible, not to every-waking-minute consciousness of all sensitivities and every innocent. Because, from the AFL's point of view, it does not want to be seen to be licensing even a hint of the laxity that allowed Cousins to embarrass it and the game previously? Almost certainly. Because Cousins has become an easy target? Incontestably. And it means some of his assailants have as much of a schoolyard mentality as his.
Actually, it is not Cousins' gesture that ought to be at issue here, but the airing of it. If it was immediately before a game, or immediately afterwards, Cousins could reasonably expect the camera to be operating, perhaps live. But this was nearly two hours before the game. It was not live, and would not have come to light at all except that someone at Channel Ten spotted it, and someone else thought to telecast it, after the game and out of context, gratuitously.
This, far more calculated and devious than Cousins' own action, was the real mischief. You only had to see the demeanour of the on-air presenters to know it; they were embarrassed. So should Channel Ten be. A lifetime spent in press boxes tells me that Channel Ten would not have to search too far through its own archives to find examples of its own people in unguarded moments in front of non-live cameras, picking their noses, scratching their backsides or preening themselves narcissistically in the reflection from the lens. Other than at Christmas parties, they are excused their distractedness and vanities. But they did not spare Cousins.
Underlying, there is another issue. A footballer's world is privileged, but also exposed, on the field and off. The one sanctuary, apart from home, is the changeroom. Almost certainly, a scan of the unedited footage from Saturday night would show some players wearing nothing more than ankle bandages and an air of insouciance, but these were not telecast, of course. Television cameras provide a fascinating insight into the mien and mood in this sanctuary, but it is only fair that they are used discreetly. On Saturday night, Cousins was indiscreet, but Channel Ten was brazen. It says something of the balance of power in modern football that the AFL took the player to task, not the broadcaster.
STADIUM PEACE TALKS ON THE CARDS?
The Herald Sun’s Damien Barrett offers a ray of hope for Melbourne-based AFL clubs in their fight for a better deal from Etihad Stadium. He reports today that, in what is being viewed as a potential peace play, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and Etihad Stadium boss Ian Collins will meet on Friday at Docklands. While the two football powerbrokers, who are long-time friends, have had regular dialogue throughout the saga, which relates to clubs' financial returns from matches, in recent times they have found it difficult to talk civilly. The meeting will come seven days after a low point was reached in the stoush, with the AFL being forced to abandon a push to transfer the Round 14 St Kilda-Geelong match from Etihad Stadium to the MCG. In declaring the game would stay at Docklands, Demetriou said the decision, which will rob 30,000 spectators of the chance to attend the season's most anticipated game, was based largely on a legal threat by Etihad Stadium management. Stadium management angrily denied the claim.
It is believed the talks on Friday will focus on a clause in the current user-agreement that reduces the number of matches required to be played at the venue each season from 2014 from 44 to 30. Stadium management is seeking more games, and the AFL will have more games to fixture, with Gold Coast and western Sydney to enter the competition respectively in 2011 and 2012. The most alarming facet of the AFL-Etihad Stadium war was the revelation that St Kilda was required to pay $125,000 to the venue for its first three home games this season. The AFL instigated legal action against stadium management late last year and is seeking access to contracts the venue had signed with other sports bodies. A judge is expected soon to make a finding on that claim.
SAINTS NOT INTERESTED IN RECORD
St.Kilda coach Ross Lyon isn't paying any attention to club history as the Saints eye a club-record 11th consecutive win on Saturday. The Saints' win against Melbourne on the Gold Coast last Saturday night equalled the club's previous best streak of 10 in a row at the start of the 2004 season, but Lyon yesterday played down the significance of a win against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium. "What's the lesson for 11 in a row or 10 in a row? It counts for nothing in home and away, that's the lesson if you want to look back on '04," Lyon said yesterday. "At this stage we just haven't won enough games to guarantee a finals appearance, we just need to continue to improve and win. It's not about how many games in a row. What does it mean going in this week? It means nothing."
Lyon was hopeful defender Sam Gilbert (ankle sprain) and goalsneak Stephen Milne (knee) would play against the Kangaroos. "Our medicos are confident that he (Gilbert) will play, but we really won't know until he does the work later in the week and the same with Milne," Lyon said. While Ben McEvoy is the most likely inclusion for suspended ruckman Michael Gardiner, the Saints may decide to recall either Matt Maguire or Max Hudghton, given the Roos' tall forward line.
NAITANUI CLOSE TO DEBUT
Nic Naitanui is in the mix to make his highly-anticipated AFL debut in Sunday's clash with Geelong at Subiaco Oval, reports the AAP Perth office. And West Coast coach John Worsfold has staunchly defended the form of ruckman Dean Cox, who has copped heavy criticism for his recent lacklustre efforts. Naitanui starred for Swan Districts in the WAFL last Saturday, tallying 14 possessions, 15 hit-outs, 10 tackles and goal to go with a spectacular grab. The 19-year-old, snared with pick No.2 at last year's national draft, was grounded for the first part of the season after undergoing surgery on his knee in January. But the 201cm ruckman has impressed since making his competitive return via the WAFL last month. Worsfold said he was yet to decide whether to unleash his star pick against the unbeaten Cats or give him another hit out in the WAFL. "Fitness wise he's getting close to being ready to being capable of playing AFL footy," Worsfold said. "Form wise and requirement wise for our team -- that will now be assessed weekly in terms of when he's ready.
Although Cox's numbers have appeared solid in the past fortnight -- tallying 59-hit-outs during that period -- Worsfold has been disappointed with the output of the four-times All-Australian, particularly in defence. However, the Eagles coach felt the severity of the criticism levelled at Cox had been unfair. "I'm not really sure where all this is coming from because some of the people that were criticising him were also comparing him to Polly Farmer eight months ago," Worsfold said. "It's just a bit of a whim by some people to talk about that. Coxy hasn't been as much of a standout in the last two weeks ... (but) he's still been a very good contributor. On any other ruckman's terms he's played very good games."
AND JACK WATTS TOO?
On the opposite side of the country, the Herald Sun reports today that the door is also still open for a No.1 draft pick of last year, Jack Watts, to debut on Monday. Mark Stevens writes that Melbourne's match committee will today discuss the merits of unleashing its No. 1 draft pick against Collingwood in the Queen's Birthday clash. Watts is finally in the mix after winning 22 disposals playing on a wing for Casey Scorpions in the VFL at the weekend. But his schooling remains a factor in the selection dilemma. Watts has a VCE exam scheduled for Tuesday and playing an AFL game the day before would be an extraordinary preparation. Even if Watts doesn't get the nod this week, his debut looks certain to come some time this month - barring a significant setback.
LAYCOCK OUT FOR 2009
Essendon's ruck crisis has deepened, with luckless Jason Laycock in danger of missing the remainder of 2009 with a chronic foot injury, reports The Age. Bombers coach Matthew Knights said on Tuesday the club would decide in the next few days whether there was any point in trying to get the talented 24-year-old back on the park this season. Laycock has not played any senior football in 2009 and complained of further foot soreness during a recent training session. Essendon's No.1 ruckman David Hille is already out for the season after undergoing a knee reconstruction, while youngster Tom Bellchambers is set to miss four weeks after sustaining a less serious knee injury in Sunday's heavy loss to Geelong. That leaves Paddy Ryder to carry the Bombers' ruck division almost single-handed, starting with Sunday's clash against Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. The Essendon coaching staff will meet with club doctor Bruce Reid in the next few days to decide the best way forward for Laycock, who has played 58 senior games since making his debut in 2004.
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