Tiger coach could walk
By Mark Stevens
June 24, 2004
D-DAY for Danny Frawley is believed to be approaching, with speculation mounting the Richmond coach will announce his resignation early next week.
Frawley is still expected to be at the helm for the rest of the season, but there is a possibility he and the club will part company upon any announcement.
Any departure would be amicable as it is believed Frawley's relationship with the Tigers' powerbrokers is still strong.
If Frawley does walk away, assistant coach Wayne Brittain would be the obvious candidate to coach out the final nine games.
Richmond president Clinton Casey last night strongly denied a decision had already been made.
"That's all just speculation. I can't talk speak for Danny," Casey said. "From the club's position, nothing's changed. He's contracted until the end of the year."
Richmond star Matthew Richardson last night said Frawley had told him he would coach until the end of the season.
"I know he's a man who sticks to what he says," Richardson told Channel 7.
"I'm looking forward to playing under him for the rest of the year."
Frawley is understood to have come to the realisation he will not be coaching at Tigerland next year.
Now in his fifth year at Punt Rd, Frawley has achieved 45 wins from 104 games.
The contracts of all of the Tigers' assistant coaches - including Brittain - are aligned to Frawley's.
With all up for renewal at the end of the season, there are nervous months ahead for the football department.
Casey, along with football director Greg Miller and coaching legend David Parkin, is part of a sub-committee investigating coaching at Punt Rd.
"We're conducting the first part of the review - at the moment we're analysing essentially the last five years," Casey said. "We're looking at the areas of the footy department which have developed to the levels we'd expect, and ones which haven't.
"The outcome of that process would determine the skills of the person we think are required to take the football club to the next level.
"If that's Danny Frawley then that's great."
THE Bombers' greatest ruckmen predict Kevin Sheedy will see out his career with the club, reports Emily Power.
Paul Salmon and Simon Madden yesterday said they were confident the board would agree to extend Sheedy's contract for three years, and that he would not leave Windy Hill for Richmond if approached.
"I'm not sure it's a great idea (to go to Richmond)," Salmon said.
"Kevin as a coach is synonymous with Essendon."
Madden said: "For Sheeds to set Richmond up the way he'd want it, it would take him six, seven, eight years, the way it is. Is that good for him, is that good for Richmond? Probably not."
Bombers chairman Neil McKissock confirmed the board would discuss Sheedy's contract at a meeting tonight, but did not say when a decision would be made on the coach's future.
"We would expect to progress the issue because we obviously want to settle it as soon as we can," he said.
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