One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: torch on August 05, 2019, 07:45:37 PM
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Blake Caracella LEAVING end of year :thumbsdown
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As good as he has been, we move on.
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Highly rated Tigers assistant set for new challenge
AFL.com.au
Marc McGowan
Aug 5, 2019 7:52PM
SENIOR-coach-in-waiting Blake Caracella will complete this season at Richmond before moving on from Tigerland.
AFL.com.au understands Caracella, who is the club's offensive coach, and the Tigers have agreed to an amicable parting of ways.
He re-signed for two seasons in October last year, after joining Richmond ahead of the 2017 season then performing a pivotal role in the club ending its 37-year premiership drought.
Caracella played 187 games for Essendon, Brisbane and Collingwood, including being part of the Bombers' 2000 premiership and the Lions' 2003 flag.
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick was a teammate of his in that Essendon side.
Caracella has since become a highly rated assistant coach at three clubs across 13 years and is regularly discussed as someone in the mix to be an AFL senior coach one day.
There are two openings at the Bombers, with AFL.com.au reporting in July that opposition strategy coach Rob Harding and forwards coach Paul Corrigan were pursuing other opportunities.
Part of Harding's current role includes ball movement, an area Caracella has excelled in at Richmond.
The 42-year-old previously worked at Geelong from 2010 to 2016, including the Cats' 2011 premiership, and Collingwood between 2007 and 2009.
He has worked alongside the Tigers' football boss Neil Balme at all three of his coaching stops, after Balme also recruited him to the Magpies as a player for the 2005 season.
Caracella was also accepted into the AFL's exclusive Level Four coaching course in 2015, alongside the likes of Simon Goodwin, Stuart Dew and Brendon Bolton.
https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-08-05/highly-rated-tiger-assistant-set-for-new-challenge
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Mick Warner on Talking Footy reckons Caracella will end up at Essendon.
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The club is on the move, beware 17 other clubs.
Assistants and players = all wanna join Tigerland.
It's tough work knocking back offers...
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Man I am so bummed about this. His appointment to the club really changed the way we took the game on. Who ever replaces him has really big shoes to fill
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Hardwick has already put a plug in for his mate Bolton :chuck :chuck :chuck
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Caracella is the best AC out there!
Who would we replace him with?
Please NO to Bolton!
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There’s been many a great assistant coach who didn’t cut it as a senior coach their first go around.
Our boy leppa an example of this. Not saying Bolton is the answer but wouldn’t rule him out based on his stint at the blues.
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True, TK. Bolton was assistant coach at Hawthorn when they won their threepeat. Leppitsch is another who struggled as a senior coach but has been an important part of our success as an assistant.
It'll be interesting to see who we go after. Do we go after an assistant from another top challenger to get the intellectual property. Likewise, they could be from a club we've had trouble beating even over the past 3 years (eg: Bulldogs).
ps. I think this will be Essendon's third ex-Tiger poach/appointment if Caracella ends up there: Richardson, Rutten and now Caracella. Everybody wants to be us :yep.
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Massive loss IMO.
We can be as positive as we want about it but it’s not a coincidence the side was turned around when he got to the club.
Why are people wanting to leave the RFC? Especially while we have been so successful in the past 3 seasons.
3 really good operators in the last couple of years.
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Massive lose IMO.
We can be as positive as we want about it but it’s not a coincidence the side was turned around when he got to the club.
Why are people wanting to leave the RFC? Especially while we have been so successful in the past 3 seasons.
3 really good operators in the last couple of years.
People leave for many reasons. I would think Blake is looking to move up to a senior position. That won’t happen at Richmond. Worsfold, however, is nowhere near as secure and I’d imagine Blake is all over that.
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Very big loss. Very astute assistant coach.
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Assistant coaches move around all the time.
As for Dan Richardson (assume that’s the third person you are referring to) his position was heavily marginalised after Balmey came in and took over the majority of his responsibilities.
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Massive lose IMO.
We can be as positive as we want about it but it’s not a coincidence the side was turned around when he got to the club.
Why are people wanting to leave the RFC? Especially while we have been so successful in the past 3 seasons.
3 really good operators in the last couple of years.
Surely for senior opportunity.
Agreed otherwise. I hope his influence sticks and losing him doesn't hurt too much.
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Great.
Dan Richardson you try hard flog
Is it just me or is this guy a complete dud.
Thanks Blake but I hope your time at the dons is littered with failure
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Considering Essendon will likely also be in the finals, probably best he leave after roumd 23. :shh
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Essendon’s GM of Football Dan Richardson told essendonfc.com.au: “We are thrilled Blake has indicated his desire to join our club next season.
“We respect he is currently contracted and committed to the Richmond Football Club. We thank the Tigers for their understanding and as such, Blake will commence his role with the Bombers at the start of our 2020 pre-season campaign.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/08/06/richmond-assistant-set-for-essendon-return/
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Will be coaching Essendon by the start of next season :shh
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Massive lose IMO.
We can be as positive as we want about it but it’s not a coincidence the side was turned around when he got to the club.
Why are people wanting to leave the RFC? Especially while we have been so successful in the past 3 seasons.
3 really good operators in the last couple of years.
People leave for many reasons. I would think Blake is looking to move up to a senior position. That won’t happen at Richmond. Worsfold, however, is nowhere near as secure and I’d imagine Blake is all over that.
You don’t have to coach at the club there is a vacancy for! Especially if you are already a past player...
Caracella could just as easily get the Essendon job if it came up if he was at Richmond.
I know assistance coaches move all the time but not when they could be 2 premierships in 3 years.
If he was moving to a senior coaching job, good on him, but he is not.(maybe)
It’s a sideways move and IMO you only do that if you are not happy.
Just my opinion...
And I wish him luck whatever he does as IMO he was a massive reason 2017 happened.
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We should have asked for compensation
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This is a stuffen joke.
Players won’t listen to a thing he says now. Personally I’d march him from the place today
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Essendon’s GM of Football Dan Richardson told essendonfc.com.au: “We are thrilled Blake has indicated his desire to join our club next season.
“We respect he is currently contracted and committed to the Richmond Football Club. We thank the Tigers for their understanding and as such, Blake will commence his role with the Bombers at the start of our 2020 pre-season campaign.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/08/06/richmond-assistant-set-for-essendon-return/
Richo is a poor mans GM with no original ideas. Just head hunts from our shop
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If it was my industry and he was leaving to go a competitor he would be marched out the door.
This is really strange.
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If it was my industry and he was leaving to go a competitor he would be marched out the door.
This is really strange.
Its a conundrum.
Footy common practice doesn't really allow him to move across until the season's end, in October. Obviously he'll go over much earlier than that. I think we're probably in the middle of an industry shift which see's a lot more of this type thing happening.
Do we keep him on, doing what he's hired to do and trust that he's a professional and will still be diligent with his work? Or do we give him gardening duties (a bit like the Weagles with Rawlings) until his contract at Richmond expires.
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Essendon’s GM of Football Dan Richardson told essendonfc.com.au: “We are thrilled Blake has indicated his desire to join our club next season.
“We respect he is currently contracted and committed to the Richmond Football Club. We thank the Tigers for their understanding and as such, Blake will commence his role with the Bombers at the start of our 2020 pre-season campaign.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/08/06/richmond-assistant-set-for-essendon-return/
Richo is a poor mans GM with no original ideas. Just head hunts from our shop
💯
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This is a stuffen joke.
Players won’t listen to a thing he says now. Personally I’d march him from the place today
I actually think this will help us in the long run. He has brought his ideas and the players have now heard them many times. Get some new blood in that has shown potential (e.g. someone like Sam Mitchell) and the players will listen even harder..... :shh
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Massive lose IMO.
We can be as positive as we want about it but it’s not a coincidence the side was turned around when he got to the club.
Why are people wanting to leave the RFC? Especially while we have been so successful in the past 3 seasons.
3 really good operators in the last couple of years.
People leave for many reasons. I would think Blake is looking to move up to a senior position. That won’t happen at Richmond. Worsfold, however, is nowhere near as secure and I’d imagine Blake is all over that.
You don’t have to coach at the club there is a vacancy for! Especially if you are already a past player...
Caracella could just as easily get the Essendon job if it came up if he was at Richmond.
I know assistance coaches move all the time but not when they could be 2 premierships in 3 years.
If he was moving to a senior coaching job, good on him, but he is not.(maybe)
It’s a sideways move and IMO you only do that if you are not happy.
Just my opinion...
And I wish him luck whatever he does as IMO he was a massive reason 2017 happened.
That's not exactly what I think has gone down. They have told him, IMHO, that if he comes over now he will take over the senior coaching role in 2021 as Worsfold will almost certainly go at the end of next year if not earlier..... :shh
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I agree he has probably left for the chance to be a coach. I am surprised he has not been snapped up already. He did a brilliant job at this club and I am very sad to see him go.
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I agree he has probably left for the chance to be a coach. I am surprised he has not been snapped up already. He did a brilliant job at this club and I am very sad to see him go.
It is interesting, because while we, as Tigers supporters, rate him very highly, you rarely hear his name being mentioned in relation to vacant senior coaching roles, North and St Kilda at the moment for example. He always seems to be on the fringes. He might be watining for the right opportunity, but he has been waiting for a long time and that in itself might harm his prospects.
I think the theory that Essendon have offered a more attractive coaching role is on the money, although I reckon Rutten might not be impressed if it was the senior role.
Irrespective, we now need an assistant coach. I doubt he would come, but Peter Sumich strikes me as a good operator. He has a great eye for talented players and has done wonders with the WA U18s.
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The afl is also a massive boys club and half the tune they wouldn’t know a good senior coach even if it smacked them in the face. Like Carlton interviewed Voss ffs. Do people not remember the dumpster fire of his coaching career at the lions?
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That's because he came straight out of playing and into a head coaching job without doing any kind of apprenticeship and was coaching blokes he'd just finished playing with. Recipe for disaster. I'd say he'd be far more prepared now. :shh
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Isn’t he an assistant at port? I don’t think port is a bad team and gray is an absolute jet but their midfield hasn’t set the competition on fire since 2014
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Mini-Tigerland? Richmond frustrated at Dons' coach poaching
By Caroline Wilson
The Age
August 9, 2019
The result spoke for itself when Richmond cleared the decks at the end of 2016, replacing most of their assistant coaches, appointing Neil Balme as head of football and dividing his duties with his predecessor Daniel Richardson.
It's true that the transformed Damien Hardwick drove the change with captain Trent Cotchin but a key ingredient to that year of Tiger wonders was Richardson's willingness to swallow his pride and work alongside Balme, a close family friend who had played in premierships with his father Barry.
Had the man who became the new football boss been anyone but Balme, Richardson, who was being wooed by Geelong back then, might have left. Instead he spent one more season at Richmond before becoming football boss at Essendon.
To say that Richardson learned some valuable lessons over those last two years at Richmond would be something of an understatement. To say that the Tigers are not exactly thrilled with Richardson this week would be another.
The former player manager turned respected football administrator has poached two assistant coaches crucial to the Tigers' 2017 premiership in two years. First Ben Rutten, who has worked to transform the Bombers' defence, and now Blake Caracella, who will be charged with improving ball movement and the forwards.
If you asked Richardson about the moves he has made at Essendon - and there will be more by season's end - he would say that Balme had always told him to surround himself and his football club with good people.
If you asked Balme he would respond: "Yes, but I didn't mean you to take all my people."
Balme, who has enjoyed a long and almost paternal relationship with Caracella, is probably more pragmatic than some at Richmond regarding the defection. The experienced assistant who Geelong let go at the end of 2016 was contracted to the Tigers for 2020 but due to his personal circumstances had an out clause in his contract this year.
Just as Richmond would not match Rutten's offer last year without giving pay rises to Caracella and Justin Leppitsch, the Tigers had the same dilemma this season. The Bombers have been negotiating for Caracella's services for some months and Richmond faced a football soft-cap squeeze had they retained him and also rewarded Leppitsch and Adam Kingsley.
Losing key coaches is the last thing clubs want as they head towards finals but nor did Essendon want the news made public as John Worsfold attempts to postpone more winds of change and hold his team of assistants and high performance personnel together as they work towards September.
Last year West Coast learned months out that Sam Mitchell was breaking his contract and heading back to Hawthorn. The still relatively inexperienced senior coach Adam Simpson faced the added burden of keeping his coaching team - including the defecting Mitchell - focused and united.
The AFL Coaches Association has attempted on two occasions to introduce an anti-tampering rule for coaches given the disruption these situations cause, particularly during finals campaigns.
But when push has come to shove the same club chiefs who loathe losing key personnel even to interviews and presentations elsewhere, have balked at legislating against in-season poaching.
Only last month the Port Adelaide board was unhappy that Michael Voss missed that club's main training session to present to Carlton. The Blues would not accommodate a request from Voss to present over the previous weekend when the Power were playing in Melbourne.
In the past, clubs have ordered departing assistants out immediately upon learning the news. Alastair Clarkson was gone from Port Adelaide before the 2004 finals series as was Mark Neeld from Collingwood before the 2011 grand final. Brenton Sanderson chose to leave Geelong as soon as he had accepted the senior role at Adelaide during the 2011 finals, although they wanted him to stay.
Not so Caracella, whose decision to return to Essendon after 17 years is a multi-layered tale which was reportedly not an easy decision for him, made easier by the fact that he will next year become one of the best-remunerated assistant coaches in the AFL.
He has told friends he hopes to help recreate something of the environment he has enjoyed over three seasons at Richmond at the club which last won a flag two decades ago with Caracella on a wing.
In the meantime, he has pledged himself to premiership teammate Hardwick - who is credited with identifying him during 2016 as an ideal candidate to convert the Tigers' stagnant ball movement - until the end of Richmond's 2019 campaign. Caracella will not be permitted to join Essendon until the end of October.
Despite the speculation surrounding Worsfold's coaching future at Essendon the expectation is that he will coach the club next season, albeit with some more key internal changes.
Another lesson Richardson learned at Tigerland was to act immediately to solve a problem, something the club failed to do at the end of 2015 when it made no changes to Hardwick's assistants when he was recontracted.
That's why Neeld was moved on with such brutal efficiency in May 2018 and Richardson, barely six months into his new job, set about reconfiguring the team and structure around Worsfold. Forwards coach Paul Corrigan and opposition strategist Rob Harding were given their marching orders in July.
Like so many before him Richardson has probably been challenged at times by the the Bombers' zealous but factionalised and influential supporter group but the club has held firm in supporting Worsfold and ensuring they surround him with the best possible team as Essendon rebuild their culture.
Caracella returns to Essendon after ending his playing days at the Brisbane Lions and then Collingwood under Leigh Matthews and Mick Malthouse respectively. He has coached under four premiership mentors: Malthouse, Mark Thompson, Chris Scott and Hardwick.
Although he has never harboured ambitions for a senior role previously but is reportedly rethinking that, his supporters say his football experience, intelligence and strategic talents ensure he would only need to overcome his introverted tendencies to succeed as a coach.
And Richmond?
Clearly Hardwick is disappointed at losing two key lieutenants in two years to lucrative offers from the Bombers but the club is saying Caracella has its blessing and it has moved on despite the collective frustration.
But the point has been made that a significant part of that frustration has come about by watching Richardson reshape Essendon in Richmond's image.
https://www.watoday.com.au/sport/afl/mini-tigerland-richmond-frustrated-at-dons-coach-poaching-20190809-p52fhp.html
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Definitely a blow, but he's not the only good AC out there, and I support the (fairly conventional) idea that AC's should be rotated and moved on regularly to keep ideas fresh, different voices for the players and to keep up to date with trends in the game.
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Nice bit of Spin by Carro 'It's true that the transformed Damien Hardwick drove the change with captain Trent Cotchin'
It wasBalme who cleaned out many Hardwick's hand picked assistants and brought in Caracella who introduced a new style of ball movement that suited our team.
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Nice bit of Spin by Carro 'It's true that the transformed Damien Hardwick drove the change with captain Trent Cotchin'
It wasBalme who cleaned out many Hardwick's hand picked assistants and brought in Caracella who introduced a new style of ball movement that suited our team.
Are you sure?
I thought they were told before Balme came on board?
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Nice bit of Spin by Carro 'It's true that the transformed Damien Hardwick drove the change with captain Trent Cotchin'
It wasBalme who cleaned out many Hardwick's hand picked assistants and brought in Caracella who introduced a new style of ball movement that suited our team.
Are you sure?
I thought they were told before Balme came on board?
Thanks for the correction Go Richo three assistants were told that their contracts would not be renewed just before Balme started.
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Formed part of the recommendations from the report we commissioned.
Strong mail was that Hardwick was told "it's you or them" after he offered strong resistance. Very loyal to his men.
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In breaking news, Caracella and Rutten have asked to return to the Tigers
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In breaking news, Caracella and Rutten have asked to return to the Tigers
2nd thoughts for Blake :rollin
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He knows he will be coach very soon
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He knows he will be coach very soon
I hear it might be sooner rather than later.
Worsefold wants to go home and there may be a job for him.
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https://twitter.com/vanders_rob/status/1160184175137136640
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another reason why we are in all sorts this year is this guy leaving
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It was $$$$ why he left wasn't it silly he should have be a priority since his gone our ball movement been garbage.
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No Caracella, No Richmond
Hardwick back to 2016 style.
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I was actually dreading this. I do think the team should have learned a lot from Caracella’s time at Richmond and as professionals evolve their game style. I trust Neil Balme though and I think he can help get us back on track in the absence of Caracalla but watching our last 3 matches I can’t help but think we are missing his coaching and movement style bad
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Didn't prevent Essendon losing to Carlton :whistle.
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One eyed are you going to compare Essendon list to ours? :lol :lol
We are missing his input terribly, amongst other things but anyone who thinks it's not a major issue are kidding themselves
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I agree massive loss disappointing he went,but gez if Dimma and his other assistants didn't learn anything in his 3 seasons at the club you'll pull your hair out.
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Didn't prevent Essendon losing to Carlton :whistle.
This is fair. How come Essendon cant fire a shot.
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Sorry guys, but I feel we are seriously out of touch from a skills point of view. Our handballs are way off the mark, we can’t hit a target by foot and as a result are forced down the line to marking contests, 20 less marks than the saints and we always look poor when it becomes a kick and mark game. When our skills have dropped off in the past we have become “kick to a contest” side that is far too small to compete. Nani must play in the side as he gives us grunt around the ground and doubles up in defence and attack. Unless I misread last night but Ross was forced to half back because Stack was way off and I can’t recall Bacha mishandling the ball as much as he did last night. I would like to see another Tallinn the side until we get our run back, where if we are forced to kick to a contest we at least have sufficient talks to offer up a target, having our gun full forward playing down the ground to offer up a get out target is playing right into the opposition hands, I could go on and on but then I am not a coach so it is only my I’ll informed opinion 😢😢
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One eyed are you going to compare Essendon list to ours? :lol :lol
We are missing his input terribly, amongst other things but anyone who thinks it's not a major issue are kidding themselves
No tactics will work if most of the team is not working hard enough and is failing to consistently execute the basics.
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Our ball movement is atrocious especially our forward 50 entries.
We aren’t pressuring or hunting the ball carrier like we are known for.
Hardwick doesn’t look happy in the box.