March opens mouth, swaps feet
Damien Barrett | April 21, 2009 09:43pm
GARY March was at it again on Monday, first on radio then in the evening with this newspaper.
He was making comments that were to push the club he runs, Richmond, even further into the state it knows oh so well - chaos.
Given March's track record with public comments, one would have thought by now he would have learnt how the game works.
But he hasn't, and there he was talking about coaching contingency plans and even more startlingly, a perceived mental fragility in the players.
That latter observation may well be true, but it is not one that should ever be made public by a club president.
As if Terry Wallace didn't have enough to worry about, he now has to prepare for Saturday night's match against North Melbourne with players publicly humiliated by their own president.
As the Tigers analyse how they yet again find themselves in turmoil, March must ask himself if he is as much the cause of the latest embarrassing problems as the coach.
Here's a little help, Gary. The answer could be yes.
And while March is contemplating that little poser, here's one for Richmond supporters.
It's April, and you know almost for certain you're going to have a new coach pretty soon, so what do you make of your president ruling out a highly credentialled, favourite-son candidate even before the parameters of a coaching process have been nutted out?
Then again, knowing Richmond, it probably won't even bother with formulating a strategic process.
It didn't bother with a proper one the last time it changed coaches, instead just giving the keys to Wallace without sufficient thought and analysis of other possibilities.
Surely, Richmond now needs to have as open a mind as it has ever had on what is best for its future.
Not for March, though, such contemplation.
No, March thinks it appropriate categorically to dismiss a four-time premiership coach in Kevin Sheedy.
Sheedy may not be the right man for Richmond, but to refuse even to consider him in a contingency plan is wrong.
Maybe March is doing with Sheedy what he did late last year with Ben Cousins - saying one thing publicly and doing the opposite behind the scenes.
That's another problem with March. You just don't know when to take him at his public word.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25367991-19771,00.html
