March backed on young talent (Age)

[Mr Magic]

That quote really has bitten Schwabby on the arz. Funny.

[Smokey]

all schwabs are men of il character, wasnt his dad or uncle that was found dead , over dosing whiling banging a hooker in a sydney motel

Without buying into the poor form of the comment itself, Cameron Schwab is the son of Alan Schwab who was a prime mover in our 'power' years.  Here is a small comment from the RFC website:

"ALAN SCHWAB
Graeme Richmond described him as “the last of the great administrators”... In his eight years of service, Alan Schwab certainly left an indelible mark at Tigerland. Schwab oversaw the 1969, 1973 and 1974 premierships. He was a passionate administrator, knowledgeable and wise, with a keen eye for young football talent, and helped keep Richmond as a pacesetter in the competition."

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/theclub/history/100tigertreasures/servantsofthecentury/tabid/11586/default.aspx

He left us to work as an administrator for the AFL and was still working in this role when he died.  I found this interesting blog from Cameron Schwab when digging around:

"From that point onwards, my own identity and that of my father were linked. Whilst Dad was not a politician, or even a famous athlete, he had a burgeoning profile in a game that captures the passions of an inordinate amount of Victorians.

And the game had captured my passion. I loved it, and continued to love it well past that day of reckoning when ability had in fact well and truly overtaken ambition. I was never going to be good enough to play at the highest level, but in no way did that dilute my obsession for the game. It was to become my life and my career.

And I could live out this obsession every day. Dad would come home, most often late in the evening, and I could hear first hand whether or not Royce Hart’s knee had recovered sufficiently to take on the Blues this weekend.

I was just so proud to be Alan Schwab’s son. I carried the surname around like a badge of honour, flashing it whenever the opportunity arose, and often it did.

He was my hero.

My hero died seven years ago, suddenly, aged 52 in a hotel room in Kings Cross. He would not have liked the way he died, it was so unnecessary.

But he did, and we carry on.

But we carry on with burden. The sadness in death that never leaves you. The fact that you still need a father. The fact that you still need a hero.

The burden of grief, not just your own but of others. I shared the loss of a father with my sister and brother, and we did what we could to support each other. But I shared Alan Schwab as hero with hundreds of others, who were Dad’s friends and for whom I became the vestibule for their grieving.

I even found myself being invited to functions and get-togethers that Dad would have attended but I was not entitled to attend in my own right. For a couple of years I became a proxy-Alan Schwab. They could still have their Schwabby.

None of this left a lot of time for me to grieve in my own right, I was too busy grieving on behalf of everyone else. This was one-way grieving, and in many ways I was just too sad and angry to grieve anyway.

Now, I am not sure what I miss most, the father or the hero. Perhaps they have always been so inextricably linked that I do not know the difference.

Most of the time, having your own real life hero was more important. If nothing else it made me a very charitable child in terms of my expectations of Dad as a father.

As I grew older I became far less charitable, and I judged Dad harshly.

We learn from death as we do from life. Perhaps my greatest lesson.

Heroes, and fathers, are indeed human, and they have human failings, they make mistakes.

I have now learnt to forgive.

I am a man now, and I am also a father. A life replaced. My son’s name is Lachlan, but I am sure he will be Schwabby one day, and he will have to work that out for himself. I hope he wears the moniker with pride as I did.

But more than anything, I hope he also learns how to forgive."

http://gameplans.tumblr.com/post/527832568/the-burden-of-forgiveness

[Owl]

It is a tragic story, nobody disputes this.  I would also like to point out though, that it also indicates something that has created a problem with our club, this sense that Cameron inherits his fathers position and influence at the club is akin to me inheriting my Grandfathers rank and accolades from the army after I joined the military.  You have to earn your own stripes from the ground up, that is one thing the 4 x 2's teach their kids in business even the wealthiest ones.  You start off sweeping the floors.  The club has built up legends around people and started to believe them and then transferred them onto their kids.  It is like father / son rules in the past, the old man is only half the gene pool, if he picked a dainty little flower for a wife, chances are the kids part dainty little flower too...

[Penelope]

interesting subject Owl.
At the risk of bringing the ire of some pedant for going off topic I was once told that family business often follow a trend.

The first generation establishes the business, his son will take it to the next level, but then his son, the third gen will stuff it up.

It's amazing how many times you see this happen