Why the Tigers must turn to Sheedy
Patrick Smith | July 04, 2009
THE Richmond Football Club - both board and administration - has been forced to grow up quickly.
Become wise overnight. Learn to balance the fuzzy emotion of sport against the chill of logic. Very few find the balance. Football, in particular, is overrun by cheerleaders.
Think of North Melbourne. It was faced with a decision to move to the Gold Coast, receive as much as $100million in AFL funding and have its long-term future secured. The alternative was to remain at Arden St in suburban Melbourne and fight day-to-day for every breath.
North stayed put. Now coach Dean Laidley has gone mid-season and the club officials have done nothing but bleat that times are tough. The quality of debate about North's very future was that of simpletons. Those who could shout the loudest won the day. There was no proper analysis of the options available. What was a critical financial decision that would ultimately determine North's place in the AFL's future, was reduced to an equation where the heart alone did the calculating.
Richmond president Gary March inherited coach Terry Wallace at Punt Rd. Wallace is gone all but a season before his time. The new president and the coach never marched arm-in-arm in battle, both men appeared unclear about each other's motives.
As Team Wallace began to unravel after three years of a five-year contract, March appointed Craig Cameron, a recruiting officer, to the decisive position of general manager of football. Cameron was not so much wet behind the ears but a walking swamp. Suddenly an inexperienced football manager and a naive president were faced with two decisions of such consequence that some club administrators might not face their like in a lifetime.
First came Ben Cousins, a recovering drug addict who had won both a Brownlow Medal and a premiership with West Coast. As Cousins waited out his 12-month suspension - applied by the code's commissioners for bringing the game into disrepute - every AFL club thought about drafting Cousins for this season but ultimately declined to add the champion midfielder to their list.
Wallace, March and Cameron were all on the public record saying the club would not select Cousins. Like all AFL clubs, the Tigers considered the intelligence gleaned about Cousins and opted not to pick him. And so they did just the opposite. Cousins became a Tiger with the last pick available in the pre-season draft.
It was a window into a club that had no meaningful strategy or resonant philosophy. No vision. Any culture of success or self-belief that drove the premiership years between 1967 to 1980 had evaporated. All lost in myriad poor decisions, delivered with a twitch and without thought and lashings of self-indulgence.
The decision that brought Cousins to Richmond killed off season 2009. Financially, it was successful. Cousins drew an extra $1m to the club through membership and attendance. But the weight of expectation proved too much for a club that shook in the gentlest of winds. In round one against Carlton the football team crumpled on national television and in front of 86,972 fans at the MCG.
Immediately Wallace's future at the club was questioned and a season disabled. A fourth-round loss to the previously incompetent Melbourne confirmed that Richmond was an AFL club in colours only. The players were at the brink of revolt. These were catastrophic times and Richmond urgently needed leadership, a sense of direction. The club was in danger of falling in on itself.
It was at this moment that March found his feet as a club president and Cameron his voice as a football executive. March stood up, Cameron spoke out. Wallace was gently guided to an early grave by round 11 and Jade Rawlings appointed to coach until the end of the season. A thorough process was drawn up to select a new coach for 2010. Ordered, precise and scrupulous.
Then along came Kevin Sheedy, former Richmond captain and best and fairest winner, premiership coach at Essendon and football legend. Richmond would face a second unprecedented decision that would determine its place in the AFL. All in the space of one season. No club's depth of wisdom had been so publicly examined and no club wishes that it might.
Immediately, the majority of the football community did the only thing it knows to do. Sheedy - 61, and his tenure at Essendon closed at the end of 2007 - was either too old and tired or the only man for the job. All passion and no clarity, the debate since Sheedy offered his services to Richmond this week has been passionate but superficial. To say that the game has passed Sheedy by is just a guess. To say that it has is damning criticism of Rodney Eade, Wallace and Neale Daniher, all younger coaches who could not match Sheedy in his last year at Essendon.
Sheedy is no ordinary coaching applicant. He took Essendon to 19 finals series and four premierships. He is a cherished offspring of Richmond where he won three premierships as a player. But while he has no divine right to the coaching position, what is not in dispute is his love of the Tigers or his ability to coach and nurture not just a team but a club. Significantly, he has the support of Kevin Bartlett, a football and Tiger legend.
Bartlett, a teammate of Sheedy's and prominent broadcaster since a four-year stint as Richmond coach, has never previously spoken out about the club. But this year his love of Richmond and his distress at seeing the Tigers' performance last week meant he had to act.
At the very least Bartlett has forced the club to take Sheedy seriously where it previously might not have. Cameron meets Sheedy tomorrow. This will shape the club's future, for not only must the club consider what Sheedy can do at the controls of the team but also what might happen without him. If Richmond fares no better with Sheedy occupied elsewhere, the decision not to anoint him will haunt March, Cameron and the club perhaps for eternity.
What is certain is that the time is not right for experimentation at Richmond. The man who takes over as coach cannot be given the indulgence of learning on the job. The stakes are too high, failure too costly.
What will work in Sheedy's favour is the state of the list. It is deplorable and needs at least three years of careful replenishing and teaching before it can make any meaningful push towards the top of the competition. Sheedy builds lists, even dynasties. Look at the raw material Matthew Knights has at his disposal at Essendon. That will take time.
Building pride in the club, restoring respect and rediscovering the roar of the Tiger can be done quickly and efficiently. That's what you get with a reinvigorated Sheedy, it is home delivered such is his stature in the game. Sheedy does not need to spruik. The name Sheedy alone shouts passion, respect and innovation. Sheedy is stuff for all of these things.
That said, he cannot be handed the job. Protocols have been established, a course set. But to argue from afar that Sheedy is too old is as illogical as saying he needs no critical assessment. March and Cameron have arrived at Richmond at one of the most vulnerable moments in the club's rich story. They have grown impressively as administrators this year. What they decide over the next few months will define their place in football history. Right now Tigerland is no place for pussy.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25729749-12270,00.html
