Tigers aspirants to face scrutiny
Stephen Rielly | June 03, 2009 | The Australian
TERRY Wallace's temporary successor at Richmond will not be installed without presenting a case for his appointment, much like a prospective coach would when applying for a permanent position.
The Tigers, who interviewed all five of their potential caretaker coaches only hours after Wallace's imminent departure was announced on Monday, intend to subject them to further scrutiny and testing before a recommendation is put to the board no later than Friday. An announcement will be made on Saturday, after Wallace has coached his last game for Richmond the previous evening.
It is understood that the five - Wallace assistants David King and Wayne Campbell, development coaches Craig McRae and Jade Rawlings and director of coaching Brian Royal - will be interviewed a second time over the next 24 hours and be psychologically profiled.
Further, each will be asked to explain what it is they believe should occur, and what they see is possible to improve or develop, in the second half of the season.
While most caretakers are installed to serve an audition for the permanent position or appointed simply to fill the role in the last weeks of a spent campaign, neither will be the case with Wallace's successor.
A field of potential new senior coaches will be assembled and sifted by a recruitment firm over the coming months, regardless of how well the caretaker performs. It is still the thinking of the club that an outsider, probably younger rather than older, will lead the Tigers next season.
It is understood that Damien Hardwick, currently an assistant at Hawthorn, and Leon Cameron, who is working by Rodney Eade's side at the Western Bulldogs, have already had their cases recommended to the Tigers by third parties.
Campbell is the possible exception to this view, although his inexperience remains on Richmond's mind. He is seen as astute, forthright and passionate about coaching his former club and prepared not only to work hard but think hard, against which he is in his second season as a full-time assistant and a talent the Tigers don't want to expose prematurely.
If Campbell does not accept or receive the caretaker's role, either of which would seem to count against him taking the job on permanently next season, King is likely to be the short-term answer.
First, though, the Tigers want to establish who has the capacity to make the most of a much longer temporary reign than is usual. Most coaches are sacked towards the end of the season, not the middle of it.
The Richmond hierarchy believes that it is too long a period to aimlessly serve out and that the process of rebuilding a sense of unity and purpose that has been lost through the terrible first months of the season can, and should, begin as soon as possible.
Richmond football operations manager Craig Cameron would not elaborate on the process the Tigers intend to employ but said the appointment of Wallace's temporary successor "couldn't be a window-dressing exercise".
"There is lots to be done and we need the best person to do it," Cameron said.
Meanwhile, the Tigers have fined Ben Cousins $5000 for his pre-match middle-finger salute last Saturday night, with the AFL imposing a suspended $5000 penalty for what even the AFL Players Association described as indefensible.
Cameron spoke to AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou yesterday morning and the club later wrote a letter to AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson outlining its intention to penalise the midfielder.
The letter also included an apology from Cousins for raising his finger to a television camera in the changing-rooms, which was later seen by a national audience. With Richmond's sanction, which was endorsed by the club's senior players, and the apology, the AFL chose to suspend its penalty.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25578248-2722,00.html
