Frawley still working, hurting
By Martin Blake
August 19, 2004
Danny Frawley came out on to Punt Road Oval chirping last night, as though nothing had happened in the past few weeks, goading his assistant Darren Crocker and smiling as he put the Tigers through their main training session of the week.
Frawley is a master of the brave face. Although he is not doing any media this week, Crocker said it was all systems go.
"Danny's been tremendous right through the nine weeks and right through this losing streak. We've been searching to challenge the players and he's been very upbeat and I don't think anyone's dropped away at all."
What this indicates is that Frawley has managed to hold his professionalism and keep the veneer up in circumstances that are virtually unique: the fact that his replacement for 2005 and beyond is already known, and that Terry Wallace is already out there in the public domain before the season has ended and before Frawley's time is officially done.
Frawley and the Western Bulldogs' Peter Rohde chose to continue coaching their clubs after it became known they would be replaced. Probably it was out of loyalty to their playing group, and perhaps because of professional pride and the need to be seen as not quitting.
But in hindsight, they might well realise that this was a mistake. Certainly it is a mistake Gary Ayres did not make, having been around the coaching game a little longer. And it is a mistake that Peter Schwab quickly corrected after his first week after Hawthorn opted to cut him.
A source close to Frawley said this week that far from the knockabout public persona, the Richmond coach had been decimated by the events of last week, when Wallace was paraded in the media by Richmond to sell the club's new direction.
Frawley was told the news on the morning of Wallace's appointment, and bears no malice to Wallace.
But according to the source, the appearance of Wallace in virtually every media outlet over the next few days accentuated the feeling of humiliation he has suffered.
Fortunately, Wallace has voluntarily moved into the background again now, or into as quiet a corner as you can go when you have regular media gigs to fulfil.
No such luck for Rohde, who is in the midst of enduring a few more days of Rodney Eade selling his vision for the Bulldogs' future while Rohde tries to coach the team.
Eade has said he is mindful of this, which is appropriate. Hopefully he finds a way to limit his media interviews for another week as well.
Rohde, Frawley and Schwab sat down and had breakfast together recently to talk about their admission to that exclusive club for sacked coaches.
They might have pondered that coaching's a tough business, no doubt, when you're in it. And maybe even tougher when it's time to go.
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