Tiger boss seems to have faithful on side
By Dan Oakes
The Age
December 16, 2004
Richmond president Clinton Casey strolled among the crowd yesterday at the club's final fans' training day for 2004, and if the mood of the members gathered at Punt Road Oval was any indication, he will be doing the same thing in the same role next year.
The
overwhelming majority of Tigers faithful spoken to by The Age said they intended voting or had voted for Casey's ticket as he battles Charles Macek's team for control of the club. Polling closes tomorrow and the result should be known by Saturday.
It is believed that Casey's team has surveyed more than 4000 members and found that it has the support of 65-75 per cent of them, a figure that fits with yesterday's findings.
The reasons given yesterday for supporting Casey were varied, but most people said that the club made infamous in the past 20 years for its turnover of coaches and administrators needed some stability in order to progress.
Brian Wethling, a member for 25 years, said he also admired Casey's refusal to walk away from the club despite its woes.
"At the end of the day, he put in a lot of money from his own pocket to keep Richmond above board," Wethling said. "He (also) tried to do things like put more money into the football department, getting Wayne Brittain and those sort of things...
"It never paid off, players got injured, players never responded to the coach's game plan, and he could have easily walked off, but he said 'no, I'm going to stay here and stick with the club'."
In a worrying sign for the opposition group, football operations manager Greg Miller's decision to join the Casey ticket also swayed many members. Macek said this week that his ticket feared that the "Miller factor" might get his opponents over the line.
"He didn't have Miller before," said Fred Hanlon,, a member for 10 years. "The Miller factor sold me. If (Miller) was going to say that he was going to stay with either party, I would have have picked and chosen, split (my vote). It would have been down the middle without Miller."
The feelings towards Miller were not entirely positive. One member who did not want to be named because of links to the club accused Miller of "putting a gun to the club's head" by saying he would walk away from it if the Macek ticket triumphed.
"I think it's an absolute disgrace, 'Vote for me or I'll walk away'. Who said that Greg Miller is our saviour? In my opinion he's not. What has he done for this club?" the member asked.
"To date he's thrown a bucket of money at Nathan Brown, who's a fine acquisition, but nothing else."
Other Macek voters said that they were influenced by the recent news of Richmond's poor financial performance. Casey announced recently that the club had lost $2.2 million this year, leaving it $3 million in debt.
William Whittle, a member for 13 years, said the board deserved to be thrown out on the basis of the club's accounts.
"If you're going to have two years like we've just had and lose $3 million, there's something wrong. Why would you vote for something wrong?" Whittle said.
"That's the bottom line; you've missed out on the field and you've missed out off the field. If this crowd hadn't come along and opposed them, we'd still be going downhill."
The fans were at Punt Road not only to see their team train, but also to watch the opening of the Jack Dyer Foundation walkway of honour, which commemorates every player throughout Richmond's history with a brick.
The honours were done by Richmond's oldest former player, 96-year-old Sid Dockendorff, and Alice Hayden, a member for 72 consecutive years.
Hayden would not be drawn on who she voted for, but admitted she was disappointed with the club's recent performance on and off the field.
"Let's hope from now on there's unity on and off the field," she said.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/12/15/1102787144549.html
