Eade, Wallace to decide soon
By Stephen Rielly, Caroline Wilson
realfooty.theage.com.au
July 30, 2004
The simmering competition for a coach began to boil yesterday when Collingwood offered Rodney Eade an innovative position as overseer and chief strategist for its football operations.
Meanwhile, Terry Wallace, Eade's main competitor to fill one of the three senior coaching vacancies on offer, is expected to decide within a week where he wants to continue his career.
Wallace, the former Bulldogs coach, is the preferred choice at both Richmond and Hawthorn, whose interim coach Donald McDonald yesterday put his hand up for the job next year.
Sources at both clubs believed the coaching jigsaw puzzle could be resolved as early as next Wednesday. Wallace is in the process of analysing unofficial job offers from the two clubs to have interviewed him over the past week.
Richmond yesterday indicated that Wallace had been appeased to a degree by the temporary truce called between Clinton Casey and his challenger Brendan Schwab.
While former Wallace charge Nathan Brown, who crossed to Richmond this season, has privately placed pressure on his old coach to choose the Tigers, key Hawthorn figures from Wallace's past have also prevailed upon him to return to the club he left under a cloud in 1986.
Wallace was interviewed by caretaker Hawk chief executive Jason Dunstall this week but has not yet met the Richmond group, now with former premiership wingman Byran Wood on the coaching sub-committee. Wallace will watch the Tigers' clash with Collingwood tomorrow, then return to the MCG on Sunday to watch Hawthorn take on Melbourne.
While Wallace appears to have largely discounted Adelaide from his calculations, he remains no certainty to coach next season given the relative instability at both clubs.
A significant part of his decision-making involves negotiations with both the Tigers and the Hawks regarding his ability to influence the make-up of his potential football department.
Eade, the former Sydney coach, flew to Melbourne and spoke with the Collingwood hierarchy yesterday morning.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, chief executive Greg Swann, coach Michael Malthouse and football manager Neil Balme all met Eade, who is understood to have told them that while his first preference is to coach again in his own right, he has interest in their proposal.
The role is believed to involve a match-day input and analysis but also include a brief to explore and bring to Collingwood any competitive advantages available in areas diverse as medical science and recruiting. "It was an all-encompassing role that was discussed," Eade confirmed.
McGuire, who has spoken recently of increasing the Magpies' store of intellectual property, spoke with Eade two months ago and called the former Sydney coach last week to arrange yesterday's meeting.
Collingwood's interest in Eade seemingly brings pressure upon Hawthorn, Richmond and Adelaide, who have all spoken to him in the past week.
Interim Adelaide coach Neil Craig said yesterday he was not expecting an endorsement from Gary Ayres for Adelaide's coaching position.
Ayres mentioned Craig only in passing on Channel Seven's Talking Footy on Tuesday night and stopped short of praising or recommending him for the position. "Knowing Gary as I do know Gary, he would normally play his cards pretty close to his chest, anyway, on a lot of those issues," Craig said.
"All I know is Gary Ayres, from my perspective, gave me every opportunity to work with the midfield and do pretty much what I wanted to do."
- with Alan Shiell
http://realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/07/29/1091080378651.html
