Daryn Cresswell quits as Devils Coach

[MRobbo]

Daryn Cresswell has handed in his resignation today and has quit the club after 25 games with the club as coach for 5 wins.

One of his assistants will take over for this Saturday's game at Bellerive Oval against Port Melbourne

[bakerman]

Oh well. Maybe the next coach will not be pushed ou of the door by AFL TAS

[Duff TV]

Oh well. Maybe the next coach will not be pushed ou of the door by AFL TAS


1 clown gone 1 to go

[Kingpin]

1 clown gone 1 to go
Yep totally agree.
As I said on the other thread, I wondered whether he jumped before he was pushed given his track record of rather odd (poor) behavior.
Scott Wade needs to be given the bullet before anyone does IMO, he's single-handedly done more to harm Tasmanian football than any other individual involved with the game in the last 100 years.
Only Micheal Kent and Peter Hodgman would come close as heads of the TFL and Football Tasmania during the mid-to-late 90's.
Disappoints me to think Wade was a former champion of my old club, a premiership player, a William Leitch Medallist and coach.
No wonder they turned his photo to the wall up there a few years back!
Holy hell, you can see exactly why the game's in the state it's in here with the track records of gross mismanagement in the past 15 years.
The above three were a disgrace and Barry Breen and Roger Hampson were just plainly incompetent.

[TasBlue]

agree..the only way football in Tas can go ahead is to centralize it at ''York park'' everyone can see this except the people in charge ( rediculous ).Any coach who takes on the job is on a hiding to nothing and the team will always struggle.It's frustrating watching Tasmanian football go down the drain again and again with nothing done by the admin. except burying their heads deeper and deeper in the sand.

[MadBomberfan]

agree..the only way football in Tas can go ahead is to centralize it at ''York park'' everyone can see this except the people in charge ( rediculous ).Any coach who takes on the job is on a hiding to nothing and the team will always struggle.It's frustrating watching Tasmanian football go down the drain again and again with nothing done by the admin. except burying their heads deeper and deeper in the sand.

What exactly is the "it" that you want relocated to York Park? The devils? AFL Tasmania? To assume that relocating anything to York Park is going to be the magic silver bullet to fix the woes of Tasmanian footy is simplistic at best.

AFL Tasmania is seemingly littered with incompetence from the top down. I'm yet to come across anyone who has confidence in the present administration, and moving them to Launceston will not change that or their performance as administrators of the sport. Structural and personnel change is needed before any steps forward can take place, not relocation.

[Kingpin]

agree..the only way football in Tas can go ahead is to centralize it at ''York park'' everyone can see this except the people in charge ( rediculous ).Any coach who takes on the job is on a hiding to nothing and the team will always struggle.It's frustrating watching Tasmanian football go down the drain again and again with nothing done by the admin. except burying their heads deeper and deeper in the sand.
No, I doubt just upping stumps and shifting AFL Tasmania and the Devils to York Park will be anymore beneficial to the sport here as it currently stands.
It's got nothing to do with where it's located, it's got everything to do with the types of people they've got running the show and the egos they have.
They don't give a crap about football below the Devils/Mariners either in the North, North West, East, North East or in the South.
If one was to have a look at how many clubs, leagues/associations that have gone under in the South in the past twenty years, it could be seen that football is in even more a parlous state down South - right under the noses of the sport's administrators - than in the North.
If it isn't Devils or Mariners they're just not interested, simple as that.

It's sad just how little by way of funding and promotion AFL Tasmania put into the sport outside the Devils & Mariners.
More interested in boosting the coffers of the VFL rather than putting anything back into our football.

Every single one of them needs to be weeded out and sacked.

[Lazza1981]

What would the head coach of the Tassie Devils be on a year

[Kingpin]

Now it has emerged in Tuesday's Mercury that Cresswell owes Tassie Mariners coach Andrew Mellor the sum of $100,000.
Also allegedly owes quite a considerable sum of money to several rather shady characters in the Hobart area.
It may only be the tip of the iceberg unfortunately.

Lazza1981 - he was on $80,000 a year.

[The Birch]

For Tassie Football to become a strong football state again, 2 things definately need to happen:

1: Scott Wade needs to be replaced, Scott grew up hating the North of the state, and fair enough when the rivalry is strong between Clarance and the Northern States. But When you are the General Manager of Football Tasmania. I will say that again Football "TASMANIA", you need to treat the state on an equal playing field. He has bought his dislike of the North from his playing days, into the way he operates the footy in the State, it is so plain obvious.

Scott Wade was a great footballer, but he has ruined the brand of Tasmanian Football, since he has taken on the GM role. Hobart may be the capital, but I can tell you now Scott, there is a hell of alot of people live and play football away from Hobart. You have no regard for anyone else, unless they live in Hobart, you expect young kids 15 - 17yr olds, to uproot and leave there families and school friends to relocate to Hobart. Devil listed players have to travel to Hobart, which can vary from 8-10hr rounded trip, aswell as holding down a fulltime job and fulfilling family commitments! SCOTT, HOBART IS THE CAPITAL, NOT THE STATE!

Which leads me to my next point

2: Jim Bacon, if only you were still with us. Not only was he a good Premier, but he was a very sensible man. When Hawthorn and the state government were negotiating a deal to bring AFL to Tasmania, Jim Bacon was under extreme pressure to base the Hawks at Belerieve. But Jim being the smart guy he was, new that the logical choice was to place it in the middle of the State, being York Park, which now is Aurora Stadium. As He stated, it is even traveling time for the Hobart people and Smithton people, as all Tasmanians should be able to enjoy equally in what the state government provides.

This is what AFL Tas need to do, grow some balls, make Launceston the state of football, it makes it even for all tasmanians that want to play for the state, and all young kids should be privy to that choice.Launceton has the best ground in Australia, and it makes it a silly decision that this is not utilised every second week.

For the sake of our young kids which are the future of Tasmania and for the good of Football in Tasmania, P!ss Scott Wade and his Clarance Mates off, get a new GM that has Tassie Football at heart and relocate to Launceston. This is the fairest way for all Tasmanians to to embrace the Tassie Devils and Mariners and combine us all as one. Not the divided state we are now, which I thank Scott Wade for!

P1ss off Scott, for the goodness of Tasmanian football:mad::thumbsd:

[Kingpin]

I do agree with you that Wade has got to be removed from office.
In fact, the concensus of opinion that I've heard around Hobart and the South is virtually 100% the same.
I cannot remember a more unpopular leader of an organisation as what Scott Wade is with Tasmanian football.
Just to correct you on a couple of things, Wade didn't grow up playing for Clarence.
His father was a life member and president at Hobart, Scott played at Hobart from 1979-1986 I think it was (including a small stint with Hawthorn), before he jumped ship and went to Clarence and was roundly booed by all Hobart fans everytime he played against them with Clarence until he retired around 1994/95.
You could definitely argue that there was way too much Clarence influence on football related decisions during the latter part of the Statewide-era and into the early Devils-era, but in recent years not so much.
Remember the early 2000's when Football Tasmania used to be referred to by most people as Football Clarence? ;)
Was a very apt description at the time.

As for basing all football in Launceston, I think that's not such a great move.
Reason being that you'll have the reverse situation of the current problem with the Devils.
IE: Northern supporters shun the Devils as being a 'Hobart team'.
I've always held the view that they should be playing all around the state, Launceston, Hobart, Huonville, Devonport, Burnie, Longford, Scottsdale etc - taking the team to all parts of the state, actually getting behind and promoting the sport and showing great interest in the various regions.
Your description of Clarence being overly influential in football related decisions is quite an interesting one, many in the South held the very same view about North Launceston and their considerable influence in Northern media and political circles.
The view I've heard directed many a time from down this way is that the South had the biggest crowds and highest standard league for many, many decades yet because North Launceston made six Grand Finals in the Statewide League in the nineties they think they should be getting all the football. That's the perception many held in the South.
Perceptions of Clarence here were that they were greedy, "they got the cricket now they want the football as well, the greedy pricks" was what a lot down here used to say when Bellerive wanted to host big matches.

Like I said in my previous post, it doesn't matter diddly squat where the sport is based, it matters a hell of a lot more that the people who run it are of good character and are competent - currently we generally see neither.
You could uproot the current lot to Lake Leake and whole schmozzle would continue.
Tasmania can't afford to base matches in one area over another in the longterm or else you run a massive risk of alienating the other half like what is currently going on with the Devils.

In my opinion the last decent football administrator we had in this state was David Smith. I spoke to his widow a year or so back, she worked near me, she was horrified at the state of football here and the sorts of people running it into the ground.
Roger Viney that ran the SFL for awhile there was very good, very proactive and oversaw some good changes, unfortunately he retired though.

You're right though, Wade has to go.

[The Birch]

I'm glad that the South agree that Scott Wade needs to be moved on, but King Pin, how long has he got left in Office??

To me, AFL Tas is being run similar to the Labour party, a boys club that seem to do what they want, and bugger the rest. Really Scott Wade has no regard to the North and his comments of several yrs ago to the young up and coming Mariners was, If you don't want to train in Hobart you will not be picked in the Mariners team! Now you tell me, I realise you need to show commitment to your chosen sport if you want to be successful, but to put that pressure on 15 - 17 yrs olds is purely disgusting. Not only do they have hsc's to worry about, but they are also doing part time jobs to help with there schooling. Scott Wade was happy for they hobart boys to travel 10minutes, but expected the North boys to be in the car for up to 8hrs on return trip! Is that fair? you tell me!

Scott Wade is a little germ that is reponsible for the demise os Tasmanian Football!

[Howard Littlejohn]

From this distance it seems a change of focus is needed more than anything.
The Devils seem to be the be-all and end-all of AFL Tas mania thinking (and that name change says a lot in itself, I'll get to that).

As they are right now, the Devils are a destructive force in Tasmanian football. They are the focus of administration to the point where the NTFL, SFL, etc are left to rot; and still get a better deal than country and suburban leagues. Centralising thr Devils, the former links with North Melbourne, etc, have destroyed the original reason for them being set up in the first place - as a pathway for all Tasmanians to have a crack at the big time.
That was unnecessary, as the old TFL could still have been salvaged when Hodgman seemingly killed it off to boost his ego. It seemed like he was simply trying to make sure his baby, the SFL, was the best league in the state; and that meant admninistering last rites to the TFL rather than trying to turn around what was (despite its problems) the best league the state has ever had. Then suddenly, the ego boost of being able to be seen with AFL people saw the Devils born.
And, while I'm a supporter of having a state league; its being done for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way, and is therefore set up to fail. The Devils and a state league can not (I believe) co-exist; and the clubs need to be worked with, not against, for any league to be viable.
That was also one of the problems with old league; one example being when they decided to clear their debt in two years and apply a masive match fee to do so. The TFL debt was cleared, at the expense of increasing debt of more vulnerable clubs. If they had listened to the clubs and done it over four or five years, with a smaller match fee, some clubs would have been in significantly less trouble (and able to make a profit on match day) and while the TFL's interest payments would have been more the debt still culd have got cvleared without sending clubs to the brink in the process. Forcing Launceston and South to play at York Park, without after match bar facilities, was another case in point.

And now we come to the "AFL Tasmania" branding. In a sense, its a meaningless change, neither of benefit or harm. It is, however, symbolic of the organisation's focus being outside the state rather than within.
The one thing they have no control over is the AFL - that was made quite clear when Wade tried to get games sent to Bellerive.
Ironically enough, if they started focussing on the game within Tasmania and showed Tassie could stand on its own without being an offshoot of Victoria (through the Devils), the AFL pipedream might at least be considered credible by a few more people.
(In some ways, this incompetence is a good thing, because even with good managment I firmly believe any AFL side would fail very quickly - and a failed AFL team would have the potential to not just harm football in the state; but the state's already poor reputation more generally if the one high profile thing in thew state was to fall over dramatically.)

[Kingpin]

I'm glad that the South agree that Scott Wade needs to be moved on, but King Pin, how long has he got left in Office??
He's as slimy as a politician. He'll leave when he's ready I'm afraid.

To me, AFL Tas is being run similar to the Labour party, a boys club that seem to do what they want, and bugger the rest.
Pretty much, that's it. Answerable to virtually nobody in this state.

Really Scott Wade has no regard to the North
He has no regard for anything outside of the Devils and a little part of the Mariners.
I still remember his comment to me in the North Hobart Oval timekeeper's box the day the Devils played their very first game (against Box Hill), Hobart & North Hobart were playing the curtain raiser and he told us to get this game off early so they can 'get the real game on'.
Can also remember an SFL Premier League match at Bellerive (involving Lauderdale) being ended at about 12 minutes into the last quarter at AFL Tas' instructions so the Devils could have a longer warm-up.
No respect for the game whatsoever.

and his comments of several yrs ago to the young up and coming Mariners was, If you don't want to train in Hobart you will not be picked in the Mariners team! Now you tell me, I realise you need to show commitment to your chosen sport if you want to be successful, but to put that pressure on 15 - 17 yrs olds is purely disgusting. Not only do they have hsc's to worry about, but they are also doing part time jobs to help with there schooling. Scott Wade was happy for they hobart boys to travel 10minutes, but expected the North boys to be in the car for up to 8hrs on return trip! Is that fair? you tell me!
No it isn't all that accommodating at all.
If they want it to work properly they need to split it 50/50 each way, train (and play) at both ends of the state.
I still remember his pathetic comments lambasting the North West Coast for failing to turn out in their thousands for a Devils match at Devonport Oval one day.
Accusing Coastal fans of focusing too much on their local teams and not taking enough interest in the Devils.
Expecting the local fans to turn away from their teams they've supported all their lives and jump on board that lot, who turn up to their region once a year. :o
Appointing a known convicted embezzler to lead the SFL and be in charge of the money in that league, not long after he'd done Porridge for his crime.
When it was raised on the old SFL website message board, the response was to threaten to sue the posters for raising the question - it was a perfectly valid question too I might add - and close down the facility.
Then when the inevitable shit hit the fan and $22,000 went AWOL again, his response was to sweep it under the carpet, despite the law here wanting to charge the perpetrator, AFL Tasmania refused to press charges.
You and I both know that if that was in a real workplace what would happen if we did that!! ;)
I don't think the cash ever got paid back either.

Scott Wade is a little germ that is reponsible for the demise os Tasmanian Football!
Along with Peter Hodgman, Michael Kent, Finbar "Barry" Breen, Roger Hampson, Doug Davey, 'Tarfingers' Morrison etc.
They're all as guilty as one another.
Breen and Hampson were only here being paid to lower their golf handicaps, let's be honest. They were just big names sent here by the AFL to lend credibility to a crumbling organisation.
Wade would be equally as arrogant (although less pompous) as Michael Kent anyway, and there weren't too many as arrogant as that fat c__t. :thumbsd:
Just ask Noel Gray Jr (former Hobart president in 1997) what kind of torture it was dealing with Kent, he's told me some harrowing stories.
No wonder Noel had a heart attack not long after.
Kent's biggest problem was that he had no clue whatsoever about football and no clue about passionate football supporters.
He was a ruthless businessman who owned the old Purity (now Woolworths) chain and viewed clubs and their fans as mere packets of biscuits on his supermarket shelves.
Would rip 'em down off the shelves and chuck 'em in the bin as quick as looking at them.
This attitude won him no friends and pretty much was the reason why people went to watch other leagues and avoided the Statewide League like the plague in the end.
Whereas Wade seems to like hobnobbing with bigboys and trying to get in on the AFL gravytrain at the expense of the rest of the game here.

[thegreenmachine]

If Scott Wade is even half the arrogant ____hole that his sooky sooky lala son Matthew is, then sorry guys but let me tell you that the the odds of him graciously stepping down from his role are less likely than going for a Sunday stroll down your street and finding a small piece of paper that has the winning numbers to Tattslotto! I do agree though, Scott Wade needs to go.

[BLPC08]

So what was Cressa's addiction for him to be so badly in debt?

Gambling? Drugs?

[saintscrazy]

For Tassie Football to become a strong football state again, 2 things definately need to happen:

1: Scott Wade needs to be replaced, Scott grew up hating the North of the state, and fair enough when the rivalry is strong between Clarance and the Northern States. But When you are the General Manager of Football Tasmania. I will say that again Football "TASMANIA", you need to treat the state on an equal playing field. He has bought his dislike of the North from his playing days, into the way he operates the footy in the State, it is so plain obvious.

Scott Wade was a great footballer, but he has ruined the brand of Tasmanian Football, since he has taken on the GM role. Hobart may be the capital, but I can tell you now Scott, there is a hell of alot of people live and play football away from Hobart. You have no regard for anyone else, unless they live in Hobart, you expect young kids 15 - 17yr olds, to uproot and leave there families and school friends to relocate to Hobart. Devil listed players have to travel to Hobart, which can vary from 8-10hr rounded trip, aswell as holding down a fulltime job and fulfilling family commitments! SCOTT, HOBART IS THE CAPITAL, NOT THE STATE!

Which leads me to my next point

2: Jim Bacon, if only you were still with us. Not only was he a good Premier, but he was a very sensible man. When Hawthorn and the state government were negotiating a deal to bring AFL to Tasmania, Jim Bacon was under extreme pressure to base the Hawks at Belerieve. But Jim being the smart guy he was, new that the logical choice was to place it in the middle of the State, being York Park, which now is Aurora Stadium. As He stated, it is even traveling time for the Hobart people and Smithton people, as all Tasmanians should be able to enjoy equally in what the state government provides.

This is what AFL Tas need to do, grow some balls, make Launceston the state of football, it makes it even for all tasmanians that want to play for the state, and all young kids should be privy to that choice.Launceton has the best ground in Australia, and it makes it a silly decision that this is not utilised every second week.

For the sake of our young kids which are the future of Tasmania and for the good of Football in Tasmania, P!ss Scott Wade and his Clarance Mates off, get a new GM that has Tassie Football at heart and relocate to Launceston. This is the fairest way for all Tasmanians to to embrace the Tassie Devils and Mariners and combine us all as one. Not the divided state we are now, which I thank Scott Wade for!

P1ss off Scott, for the goodness of Tasmanian football:mad::thumbsd:


OK to say p**off and i totally agree, BUT who is the "right" person to take over - and he can take with him the likes of Dominic Baker & "hanger on" Bill Sorell, we need in Tassie what happened to Melbourne FC with a Jim Stynes taking over, a business man with a solid sporting background, but where are we going to find one of those in Tassie, that would want the position for starters.....

The worst thing Tassie football did was to let Hamish Ogilvie go, he was respected amongst the players and his peers, an excellent role model, great football program on & off the field and totally committed to Tassie football!! He did his apprenticeship with the Mariners and knew Tassie junior football inside & out, he could have stepped up and taken that knowledge of the players coming through, most of us could see that why couldnt AFL Tas see that ??

[Cotchin 9]

Does anyone know why Matthew Armstrong quit??

[Duff TV]

Does anyone know why Matthew Armstrong quit??


I think Matty was burnt out. He put so much into it all and did a great job.

Very respected and is still part of the Devils and will coach them again down the track no doubt.

[Kingpin]

I think Matty was burnt out. He put so much into it all and did a great job.

Very respected and is still part of the Devils and will coach them again down the track no doubt.

...and he'd lost the players to a fair extent as well.

He'd been the only coach of the team to that stage so possibly some of the older heads in the team had started to tune out to his messages and wanted someone different.

Agreed that he did a great job with them though, yes.