http://blogs.thewest.com.au/sport/john-townsend-legacy-a-positive-for-schwab/JOHN TOWNSEND - Legacy a positive for Schwab
There is a marvellous story about Cameron Schwab that reveals much about his strengths and weaknesses as a football administrator.
In 2002, Melbourne centreman Shane Woewodin was one of the hottest properties in footy.
He had won a Brownlow and played in a grand final with the Demons only two years earlier but had just been sacked because of salary cap pressures.
Plenty of clubs thought he was worth recruiting – if the money was right – though Collingwood were the frontrunners after talking to Melbourne about a trade.
Enter Schwab.
He had been in charge of Freo for about a year and prided himself on his recruiting prowess.
There was no player he didn’t think he could get to the Dockers. It was just a matter of coming up with the right deal.
His Woewodin plan was easy.
He rang Woewodin’s manager and made a plain and powerful offer.
“We will pay him $600,000 a year to come to Fremantle,” Schwab said, elevating Woewodin to the most stratospheric level of the AFL pay scale.
“If he agrees, we will do a deal that will guarantee he comes to Freo.”
The manager had a couple of questions, including wondering what Fremantle coach Chris Connolly thought and how the Dockers would fit him under their salary cap.
“Don’t worry about that,” Schwab said. “I’ll look after it.”
The news of Schwab’s unilateral offer didn’t take long to get around, particularly given that Woewodin’s manager was driving in his car with another club’s assistant coach when he took the call.
It eventually came to nothing but not before the Dockers, not for the first time, suffered some internal angst about the right hand doing something that the left hand knew nothing about.
That was Schwab in a nutshell.
On one hand, a visionary with a stunning plan that could give his club an immediate boost; on the other, a flaky opportunist flying by the seat of his pants with little regard for the consequences.
The Woewodin deal never happened but it says much for Fremantle’s operations during nearly a decade with Schwab at the helm.
Questionable recruiting has been Fremantle’s Achilles heel during that period but, equally, there were remarkable coups that saw Jeff Farmer, Josh Carr and Luke McPharlin while the club’s off-field position has never been stronger.
Fremantle still lacks respect but it has never been better placed as a club to start to move upwards on the field as it has done off it.
Schwab has left a positive legacy. And he eventually did get Woewodin the club, even if it was only in a short-lived role as a coaching assistant.
What do you think?
