I couldn't find this on the net so I scanned it in....
Musts for the Tigers' checklist
By GRANTLEY BERNARD
Sunday Herald-Sun 12 JUL 2009, Page S11
THE focus on the Richmond coaching vacancy, at least publicly it seems, has all been about Kevin Sheedy and what he could or couldn't bring to the career-killing Punt Rd job.
It's actually a convenient scenario for Richmond. While everyone has clogged talk-back radio and blown bubbles in their beer over Sheedy going back to Punt Rd after retiring as a player there in 1979, the Tigers' search committee can work in peace and come up with other options.
But now Sheeds says he's out of the race.
So, everyone will be throwing names up, as they have done already.
But it's more the type of person Richmond needs as coach that has to be identified before they can start adding names to the search list and interviewing candidates.
What the Tigers need is simple criteria, and it comes from a simple source: The list of premiership coaches over the past 20 years. Check it out and see what their football backgrounds, achievements and personalities are. A common thread runs through most of them.
Consider this list: Mark Thompson, John Worsfold, Paul Roos, Mark Williams, Leigh Matthews, Sheedy, Denis Pagan, Malcolm Blight, David Parkin, Michael Malthouse.
They have, or had, a wow factor that made their teams winners. They brought with them an aura and a quiet intimidation.
All of them except Pagan (whose awe and intimidation was built by taking his North Melbourne teams from puberty to manhood) have at least one of these things and usually a combination in their playing experience: Club captain, premiership, best and fairest, Brownlow Medal.
The other odd men out in the premiership list are Alastair Clarkson and Alan Joyce, which is not to say this theory is 100 per cent watertight, but that they were perhaps exceptions and achieved greatness as coaches above their station as players. Just as men who have the qualifications have failed as coaches.
But back to the premiership list and their credentials. Those coaches came from a culture of hard work and success and achieved more than any of their players (until they succeeded in their own right as coaches). They all had instant respect, which is perhaps what the next Richmond coach needs more than anything. Richmond needs a coach to come into Punt Rd from a position of strength.
Just as Michael Voss did at Brisbane as an untried coach. Voss ticks those boxes. He was a captain, a best and fairest winner, a Brownlow medallist and premiership player. It all adds up to instant respect and command.
No player, not the dumbest rookie or his most experienced former teammate, could question Voss because he has been there and done that. He didn't buy the T-shirt; he made it and printed it up.
Finally, he has that quiet intimidation and hardness.
So here's the list of people Richmond should be going after as coach and/or their coaching staff: Matthews, Malthouse, James Hird, Mark Ricciuto, Nathan Buckley, Paul Kelly, Ben Hart, Wayne Schwass, Robert Harvey, Glenn Archer and Anthony Stevens.
When they talk, players will listen and things will happen.
Of course, football knowledge, man-management skills, character and personality are important qualities a coach should own, but that's what Richmond needs to find out during the interview process that must be conducted by the people running the club and who will make the final decision.
There may be other suitable candidates, but nobody could question that aforementioned list. Now Richmond must start asking these people if they are interested in the job of coaching a moribund football club that needs transforming. Make no mistake, it is a transformation that needs a special coach with a strong reputation.
That line about the Richmond job being a career-killer? Whoever takes the chair in the coach's office should check for hazards. It's a death trap.
Since Tommy Hafey left for Collingwood at the end of the 1976 season, 13 men have been in the job, including current interim coach Jade Rawlings.
Of that unlucky 13, only two men, John Northey and Tony Jewell, have gone on to coach at AFL level again. Everyone else disappeared down the coaching trapdoor. The Tigers need to seal up that trapdoor and assure their next coach of a strong future and unconditional support to do what needs to be done.
But the first and important task is to go and get a coach that fits the formula.
