Miller, Wallace take sides
By Caroline Wilson The Age
November 20, 2004
The embarrassing Rex Hunt affair has clarified at least one element of the murky scenario that simply becomes murkier at Tigerland.
If there was ever any doubt over who was running Clinton Casey's election campaign, then that doubt dissipated with the revelation that Greg Miller had been chasing Hunt for four weeks and even tracked him down in Arnhem Land some 10 days ago.
He visited Hunt with Casey and coach Terry Wallace on Monday night and officially asked the famous football commentator to run on Casey's ticket.
This is despite the fact that Wallace had reportedly requested a guarantee from Casey that he would be left out of the politics. And despite the official address from Richmond's new chief executive Steven Wright to all staff to remain independent of the boardroom battle.
If anyone ever believed Miller would remain at Richmond should Casey be defeated next month, then they also now know the opposite to be true. That much, at least, has been settled despite all the blarney that has been spoken over recent days.
Miller first made a name for himself in club circles in the early 1980s as a recruiting man, one of the best in the business. Graeme Richmond himself tried to lure him to Tigerland back then. And he has proved in his time at Richmond that he will go to exhaustive lengths to get his man.
Three days ago he was hunting down a young footballer in Darwin and last year he flew to London on an impulse to lure Dean Solomon, having engineered an agreement among his senior players to take a collective pay cut in order to secure the Bomber.
That bid failed despite Miller's best efforts. But the Rex Hunt attempt fell apart for the ridiculous reason that Hunt was not a member - something Miller had been warned about four days ago but apparently did not check. That it was never checked before the three-man visit remains unfathomable.
There is so much that is bewilderingly stupid about this farce that it is difficult to know where to start. Casey, in a series of radio interviews yesterday, chose to blame the entire episode on his opposition, a premise difficult to justify given that it could have been worse had the oversight been exposed following Hunt's planned official announcement on Sunday.
Casey also inaccurately said the move to lure Hunt had only just begun and therefore it had been too early to check his membership. The Herald Sun, he said, had exposed the campaign move prematurely. Wrong.
Hunt had already officially sought 3AW's blessing and Miller, as previously reported, had been calling him for weeks and had put the vice-presidency to Hunt on Monday.
The opposing ticket led by Charles Macek has taken the opportunity to say the entire exercise only underlines Casey's allegedly sloppy, mistake-riddled tenure.
But the Macek camp lacks focus, not least because the group lacks a clear front-person - not helped by Macek being low-profile and now overseas - and also because it seems to stand for little but ousting Casey.
While Wallace was clearly seconded by the chairman to visit Hunt - his former media colleague - there appears to be some friction between the new coach and Casey's opponents.
Further complicating what has been portrayed by some as a clear choice between two tickets is not only the voting process, which lists opposing candidates in a senate-style manner, but the fact that Casey's ticket is far from complete.
His board is divided with at least two directors - Rob Turner and John Matthies - clearly on the outer and a third, in Motorola boss Alan Niklos, considering resigning for business reasons.
Turner and Matthies have reportedly been assured by Casey that he would keep them on his ticket for the December spill but it is understood Turner would have been tapped on the shoulder to make way for Hunt and could well have refused. Neither current director was aware of the Hunt bid.
It is understood that Matthies, a lawyer elected by the Richmond members in January by defeating Tony Jewell, will refuse to stand down for the spill if Casey does not keep him on board.
Confused? Politics has always operated in its own unique and devastating style at Richmond but the days when the boys found success by kicking it long to Royce seem a lifetime away.
http://www.theage.com.au/realfooty/news/Caroline-Wilson/Miller-Wallace-take-sides/2004/11/19/1100838226820.html
