I'll eventually merge this article with the other thread but I'll post it separately here first so it's not lost deep in that threadFolly of Joseph's Sheedy plot
Caroline Wilson | August 4, 2007
THE powerbrokers at North Melbourne were last night still reeling at Ron Joseph's crazy plot to lure Kevin Sheedy back to Richmond and oust Terry Wallace in the process.
Although the maverick members-elected director of the Kangaroos tried to scoff at the story yesterday, his laughter was hollow. Joseph knew he had been sprung and that his fellow board members were furious.
Consider the situation at Arden Street. The club that few tipped could contest September football this season is sitting second on the ladder one game clear of West Coast.
Last week before the Hawthorn game Dean Laidley brought the Kangaroos' last premiership cup onto the ground for his players to fondle and take home in their dreams.
Not only is the club's future in doubt — its ability to sustain an existence in Melbourne is likely to be rejected in a consultant's report to be completed within weeks — but the coach remains unsigned, mildly insecure and has attracted some interest from rival clubs.
And yet having endured a shockingly unstable off-season, rivalled only by Carlton, that culminated in a messy election on the eve of the season — made messier by Joseph — Laidley and his team have overcome many obstacles to win 12 of their past 14 games. The board, too, has managed to keep itself off the back pages.
Then came Kevin Sheedy without a job and Richmond sitting on the bottom of the ladder, yet again a failed football team.
Just what all of this had to do with Joseph — it's not as if the Roos are overstaffed and not looking for help — is unknown.
But this is how it appears to have unfolded. Fittingly it began at an MCG function celebrating the Kangaroos' 1970s premiership president Allen Aylett.
Sheedy, whose termination had taken place 48 hours earlier, would have touched the romantic in Joseph with all of his star quality.
Joseph would have seen Sheedy's return to Richmond in the same light as Ron Barassi's move to the Kangaroos in the '70s. But that was the '70s and, remember, Barassi returned to Melbourne in the 1980s with similar fanfare and no success.
Remember, also, that St Kilda's bold million-dollar recruitment of Malcolm Blight in 2000 was organised by Joseph, whose 1970s philosophy of win now and pay later doesn't wash in the AFL the way it once did in the VFL.
We know that Joseph — and he has been prone to change his mind — is not a Wallace man, because he criticised the Richmond coach earlier this year after the axing of Darren Gaspar, a Joseph client.
Joseph denied trying to woo Richmond's beloved and wealthy patron David Mandie, but did schedule a meeting early yesterday with Clinton Casey to talk about Wallace's contract.
This is a claim denied by Joseph but confirmed by Casey to The Footy Show. Casey reportedly cancelled the meeting.
Joseph denied his attempts to contact past Richmond presidents — and there were at least two — had anything to do with his scheme.
But everyone else associated with the story broken on The Footy Show this week confirmed what Joseph was up to. He spoke with Sheedy at the pair's mutual unofficial office, the Melbourne Hilton, on Thursday. He spoke to Tigers' football boss Greg Miller, who may or may not have taken Joseph seriously.
Miller did not pass on his concerns, if he had any, to Tigers' president Gary March, who has ruled a line through Sheedy returning to the club in the short-term and learnt of the plot only on Thursday night.
Yesterday, March called his Kangaroos' counterpart, Graham Duff, demanding to know what was going on.
Duff was bemused but, at that point, had not heard back from Joseph, who will most likely be forced to explain himself to the Kangaroos board at its next meeting later this month.
Mark and James Brayshaw, the brothers who joined Joseph's members ticket, have been disappointed in him at least once already this year and remain disappointed at what took place with Sheedy and Richmond.
He is unlikely to be forced to resign because the club is looking right now for stability and Joseph seems to have the trust and belief of the players and the coach and, of course, he was elected by the members. How could he have even entertained such a scheme at this time?
At a Scotch College football breakfast at the MCG yesterday, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, a former Kangaroos player, pointed to Joseph's return to the Kangaroos as a major reason for its success this season.
Clarkson made a good point. Joseph appears to have been a hands-on, passionate and committed member of North Melbourne's team this season, even if he does rankle the board at times, and we have no doubt his unofficial Sheedy manoeuvre was fuelled by good intentions.
Wallace, though, may disagree, and Laidley probably didn't need this minor ripple to his fortunes, either.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/folly-of-josephs-sheedy-plot/2007/08/03/1185648149034.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
