It just keeps getting worse for the poor old bluebaggers
. The Carlton president and board wanted Pagan gone but they wimped it. Now recent past players still want him gone. Basketcase Blues
.
Anyone passing a brown paper bag containing $600,000 under the desk?
.
-------------------------------
Brown still in favour of Pagan exit
Stephen Rielly
September 8, 2006
FRASER Brown, the former Carlton premiership midfielder who was prepared to bankroll much of the million-dollar payout that would have been required to remove Denis Pagan as coach of the Blues,
said yesterday the sacking still needed to take place.Brown, neither committing to nor ruling out a board challenge to have Pagan's near dismissal on Tuesday night realised, also said that a consortium of former players remain behind Stephen Kernahan and Adrian Gleeson, the directors and former players who first recommended that Pagan be dismissed but who were, he says, ultimately betrayed.
After the Carlton board voted 7-3 on Monday night to remove Pagan, the coach was granted the last two years of his contract less than 24 hours later when, at a second meeting, a majority of directors opposed the appointment of assistant coach Barry Mitchell.
Brown said it was his understanding that if Mitchell had been appointed, four other former players — Brett Ratten, Peter Dean, Craig Bradley and Greg Williams — would have joined him as assistants in a coup designed to reclaim some of the identity many believe the club has lost in Pagan's time.
Brown said the first decision ought to have been kept with, even if the club did not want to appoint Mitchell, for it now condemns Carlton to what he says will be "two years of travelling in neutral, if not reverse".
"I'm not saying I'm a football expert. Kernahan and Gleeson are the blokes on the inside who know what's really going on. They came up with the decision (to remove Pagan) and I was supporting their judgement. I would back them any day, because I respect them and I respect their football credentials. The rest of the board's got no idea," Brown said.
More hilarity at:
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/09/07/1157222264618.htmland:
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/09/07/1157222264621.html
