http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/tiger-turmoil-on-free-speech/2008/07/30/1217097331636.html Caroline Wilson and Patrick Bartley | July 31, 2008
RICHMOND director Tony Free has been hauled over the coals for breaking with club protocol and being interviewed on Melbourne radio following the Greg Miller sacking and has been warned to stop destabilising the Tigers' football department.
President Gary March confirmed last night that he had strongly reprimanded Free for speaking publicly about club and its politics and agreed Free had been "naive and over-eager" in attacking the job of examining Terry Wallace and his assistant coaches.
But March denied that Free would be stepping down as a board member, despite suggestions yesterday that the former Richmond skipper had irretrievably damaged his relationship with the Tigers' coaching staff and would be departing as a director after joining the board last month.
"I won't be moving him off the board," March told The Age last night. "We as a board are not moving Tony on. Would he step down? I wouldn't think so. I think he's a bit sheepish at the moment and I think he realises he's overstepped the mark on a couple of occasions but it's our job to educate him."
Free, who sat in the coach's box last Saturday night during the Richmond-Brisbane Lions game at the coach's invitation, has upset staff in the football department by his confrontational interviewing process and by his gung-ho approach to reviewing the club's football operation. He gave an interview to radio station SEN on Tuesday against the club's wishes.
Free has held talks with a number of assistant coaches at other clubs, along with recently retired Nathan Buckley, and some of his comments about Richmond are understood to have filtered back to Wallace's team.
March, who has insisted there was never any intention to clean out Wallace's coaching panel, admitted Free had ruffled feathers since replacing Miller on the board. "Tony's gone into it like he's played footy," said March. "With a bit of whiteline fever.
"That eagerness has come out as though we are trying to make changes. Tony's got no authority to make change. He's not the director of football. He's a Richmond Football Club director. At the moment he's not even a part of our football sub-committee although that will happen."
March also denied allegations Free had been identified as "Tiger Tony", an outspoken supporter on the Richmond website. Miller investigated whether or not Free had been contributing to the site and questioned him over the matter but Free vehemently denied it and March has accepted his denial.
March added that the board had not given Free enough direction.
"I take some responsibility for this," said March. "We never carried out a full board induction with him and that will now happen. Tony has run off trying to learn about footy again and I've tried to explain he needs to step back and do less and observe more.
"In fairness to him most of us have been on boards before and we need to help him with some guidance."
March has spoken this week with Wallace, Brian Royal, David King, Jade Rawlings and Craig McCrae regarding the speculation about coaching jobs and assured them suggestions they would be removed were inaccurate.
Of Free's relationship with Wallace's assistants, March said: "I think he's got a bit of work to do there … Has Tony acted naively? Yes, he has."
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