Smart move to enter the Kevin Sheedy ageAdrian Dunn | July 11, 2009
KEVIN Sheedy knows how to ignite passions, no matter how old you are. And that's precisely the point.
The old fox has been doing it since he was a young fox setting alight the terraces at Toorak Park, Prahran, before setting tongues wagging at Richmond and then creating headlines for more than a quarter of a century at Windy Hill.
Now he's doing it again. But, curiously, the naysayers now say he's too old to be taken seriously as a prospective Richmond coach.
Too old? OK, he's 61, but so what? It's a young man's caper, the narks sing in unison.
Obviously the doubters need a lesson in sports history, and we're not talking about ancient history.
Already some learned colleagues have trotted out Sir Alex Ferguson, numero uno at Manchester United, aged 67 and Guus Hiddink, 62, who took the Socceroos to the World Cup to support the Sheedy for coach cause.
But, really, that's barely scratching the surface.
Anyone heard of Bart? For those who switch their mind to racing only when the spring carnival rolls around, Bart is Bart Cummings, who won his 12th Melbourne Cup a couple of weeks shy of his 81st birthday.
Bart has won no less than five Melbourne Cups since he turned 60 and a stunning 68 Group 1s in the same period.
To put that in perspective, only a handful of trainers have won more than 68 Group 1s in their entire career, let alone after they passed 60.
The late, great Jim Houlahan won seven Grand National Hurdles - all were after he celebrated his 60th birthday.
Heard of Phil Jackson? Yeah, he's that hulking, basketball dude who led the Los Angeles Lakers last month to the NBA title. Oh, he's 63.
How about Charlie Manuel? He took the Philadelphia Phillies to last year's World Series baseball crown. He was a pup at 64.
And then there's Joe Torre, who manages the Los Angeles Dodgers, who this season lead all of Major League Baseball in wins.
Man, he's 69.
If you're still blinkered by the age thing, consider what Sheedy offers to Richmond, a club that has effectively been starved of success since, well, when Sheedy was last at Punt Road wearing the No. 10 guernsey.
He's savvy, he's street smart, he connects with Generations X and Y and whatever other letter you want to stick in.
Sheeds is forever young, he's continually reinvented himself to stay ahead of the game. He's as much in sync, probably more so, than anyone 20 years his junior.
He's a veritable walking cash cow that any club, let alone Richmond, can ill-afford to thumb their nose at.
But above all, what Kevin Sheedy brings to Richmond is something that all Tigers, myself included, crave - success.
Hey, he won four flags as a player at Richmond and matched that as a coach at Essendon.
Put in racing parlance, Sheedy is a winner.
Always has been and that's a quality you never lose, no matter when your birthdate clicks past the big 60.
And, as any punter will vouch, backing proven winners, regardless of their age, is manna from heaven.
Senior racing writer Adrian Dunn is a long-suffering Richmond supporterhttp://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25763069-19742,00.html
