A player reaches 30 these days, plays three bad games and is pretty much gone. Footy, as they say, is a young man’s game. Young players, young coaches, young ideas. Which makes the thought of Denis Pagan coaching an AFL side again completely ridiculous. Pagan’s two premierships were a decade ago, and after his time at North he dismantled and destroyed Carlton to the point where they are still recovering. If Terry Wallace is going to be held accountable for the performance of his players and their game style and take some of the blame for the recruiting decisions during his tenure then Pagan is also responsible for what he did at Carlton.
Admittedly, the conditions under which Pagan began at Carlton were different. The club was broke and did not have a lot of early draft picks, so it decided to pick almost exclusively recycled, mature age players (Daniel Harford, David Clarke, Cory McGrath, Digby Morrel). From the 2003 draft only Heath Scotland and Andrew Walker remain. Rebuilding a club with rejects would never happen in the AFL today and six years ago it was already an outdated strategy.
But Pagan’s mistakes were much bigger than overseeing those horrible, short-sighted draft selections. Didn’t he cut Anthony Koutofides career short by insisting Kouta complete the same training as younger players? Didn’t he direct his team towards winning the pre season competition when every other club treats that competition as a warm up? (The moronic Carlton board gave him a new contract after a preseason flag, without consulting any senior players) Didn’t he base training drills around having the ball on the ground even when his captain and best player had back problems? Pagan’s winning ratio from his time at Carlton was 24%. Wallace’s ratio at Richmond was 41% at the start of this season. Pagan, clearly, will never coach an AFL club again.
It would be no surprise to see Terry commentating by round 10 this year. (Sportsbet had him at $501 to coach them next year – though the odds were ‘speculative’ and not available so they mean absolutely nothing) Most people believe that it’s not just the four losses Richmond have suffered this year that have ruined him but the pathetic nature of the losses. Two mass floggings (by quality teams), a gallant defeat (Geelong) and a loss to the super impressive Melbourne. The first month of the season has been a disgrace, but as everyone insists on forgetting, it is a very long season. One common argument from ultra-loyal, massively deluded Richmond supporters is that the skill errors plaguing their games simply result from a lack of confidence. Just go and see the boys hit their targets down at Punt Road. Could this confidence suddenly turn around with one win? (Coughlin’s back this week) Could the Tigers possibly turn their season around? (Cuzzy and Cotchin next week) Could they still make the finals? (Pettifer is ready!) They would need to go 12 and 6 for the rest of the season. I say, in a state of total sobriety and with a history of unbridled Richmond bagging: It is possible. Richmond will most likely beat North on pure emotion this weekend. Then they have Sydney (in Sydney) and Brisbane at the ‘G. Why couldn’t they go into round 8 at three wins and four losses and a head of steam drifting out from Wallet’s sunbed? As long as Richo is playing in front of goal instead of piss farting around on the wings (I said that from the very beginning) then they are a chance. Wallace is at his best when the game is broken down to emotion and pure mindless footy talk.
On other matters, big shout out to Collingwood and Jeff Kennett (I feel sick) for having a crack at the AFL and the current state of umpiring. The AFL is becoming more and more like a government that insists on ‘winning’ PR and media battles rather than confronting the serious problems that are affecting its stakeholders. The public and clubs have no effective channel for voicing their ideas regarding the rules of the game. For all their arrogance, Eddie and Jeff are flying the flag for the millions of pissed off fans watching the rubbish 50-metre penalties and double goals being handed out weekly by umpires. Massive shout out to Richard Hinds for summing it all up in this article
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/umpires-put-in-harms-way-by-stubborn-technocrats-in-ivory-towers/2009/04/21/1240079671037.html
On other matters, Fremantle doesn’t deserve an inch of column space as it is and their Ku Klux Klan ‘scandal’ is the stupidest thing that has ever been reported in the paper ever. Except that Pavlich should have left them years ago. They are cursed to a perpetual state of rebuilding.
Finally, it is time columnists stop condemning ‘hysterical and hypocritical’ media frenzies that they and their colleagues have created. That is my job. Two journalists are sitting next to each other. One is hounding the Tigers about sacking Terry Wallace whilst the other is writing an article condemning the irresponsible behaviour of his colleague. Their third colleague is reporting on the KKK scandal. They should just cancel each other out and concentrate on the feel good stories in football. Like the renaissance of the mighty dees. Or new footballing sage Dean Bailey (Melbourne’s coach if you didn’t know):
“Belief comes to its crescendo when wins become continual” It may be a while before that theory is tested down at Casey fields (Melbourne trains there if you didn't know), but at least Dean is speaking English.
“this is a pressure-cooker environment and if you don’t want to handle it, it’s too hot in the kitchen.”
Good luck Wallet.
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