I know there have been threads on the individual players in the Roovolution but I wanted to look at it from a club wide perspective.
The sacking of Sando took supporters, media and outsiders by surprise. The immediate reaction by the media was that the AFC was a shambles as they scrambled to learn the real story about the events unfolding, which them caught with their collective peni5es in their hands. As a result there was some damage to our brand. The former Geelong players in the media were very vocal as has been well discussed. However, Sando had made puzzling decisions. I had generally been supportive of Sando given the draft sanctions etc. But his last two interviews made it clear he was lost. He became out of his depth and was floundering. His interview where Cornes questioned him left me with the feeling Cornes was unimpressed with the answers and had serious concerns about Sando as coach. His final interview was not good either. Now we have heard that Roo and others at the club had begun to worry about Sandos ability about mid-year. This was consistent with TMS's inside word about worrying news from inside the club. I admit I dismissed it at first because it truely did sound like news from people with an axe to grind. However, Sando's media performances and the news from the fall out of his sacking are entirely consistent with what TMS was insisting was the case much earlier in the year. Sando's sacking was planned well before hand, it appears, and the end of season reviews just confirmed to the hierarchy what had happened. In addition, it appears that Roo and Chapman had independently been impressed with Walsh for some time. He was clearly their preferred candidate and the media's guess that Goodwin was our man and we missed him proved incorrect. To their credit they did due diligence with a number of applicants, but Walsh's performance confirmed to the panel that they were correct. The transition has been well planned and most importantly kept secret.
Since Fagan's appointment he seems like a strong character. His interviews in the media are impressive and he seems to have a clear direction he would like to follow. I'm looking forward to seeing how Fagan performs as all signs so far are promising. Again, this appointment was a surprise. No leaks indicated who we had chosen and the Media had the appointment of Haysman being "ratified by the board on Monday". He has also already engaged with the fans in a more meaningful way than Trigg ever did in his entire tenure.
Walsh has been equally impressive. He is highly rated and is considered a master at tactics and strategy. He looks to demand a lot of himself and players. It looks like a strong appointment of head coach. A segment of the media have tried to paint the appointment as puzzling because we sacked a coach to replace him with one who has not coached before. Others, including those on the Port Power side of the fence see it as a strong appointment. He has clear ideas about our team structure, tactics and training methods.
Noble is a highly rated list manager. Two attempts to poach him from Melbourne based clubs in 2 years has shown us this. Now he has been promoted, and this year has taken on every role at AFC except perhaps janitor. His moves during trade week have drawn some criticism, particularly from Purple and Rucci. However, the explanation about the trades has demonstrated that there have been calculated moves to keep us in the draft and add much needed depth to the playing list. In addition the delistings have been quite deep. By picking up 2 players for 1 pick downgrade with 2 late pick upgrades seems to have been a master stroke. We have not even lost a pick while getting 2 players. They players have yet to prove themselves, but are an upgrade on players they would replace. Astute move or was it better to do nothing? Anyway, I am looking forward to a much more robust football department. Especially next year as some assistants come out of contract and Walsh has the chance to install new people.
Chapman seemed like a weak chairman. Through the Trigg debacle he seemed like he could not make the hard decisions. Has the departure of Trigg allowed Chapman to make better decisions. Did Trigg and by extension our SANFL overlords run the show and somewhat hog-tie Chapman weakening his ability to direct the club. We have seen a different Chapman. Has Roo joining the board given him the courage to step up? My perception of him has changed slightly through all of this. However, I still ask the question, when do we get a new Chairman?
So where is our club at? Are we the shambles and basketcase the media makes out? What I see is that we have put strong leadership at the head of the club. I have been impressed with Roo and Chapman as they seem to have been the public face of our turnaround. Fagan and Walsh likewise has strong presences and on the surface look like inspiring leaders.
It will be interesting how things pan out from here. There is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet. But as has been stated before, at least we have taken strong action to stop the backwards trajectory that we found ourselves in this year.
The sacking of Sando took supporters, media and outsiders by surprise. The immediate reaction by the media was that the AFC was a shambles as they scrambled to learn the real story about the events unfolding, which them caught with their collective peni5es in their hands. As a result there was some damage to our brand. The former Geelong players in the media were very vocal as has been well discussed. However, Sando had made puzzling decisions. I had generally been supportive of Sando given the draft sanctions etc. But his last two interviews made it clear he was lost. He became out of his depth and was floundering. His interview where Cornes questioned him left me with the feeling Cornes was unimpressed with the answers and had serious concerns about Sando as coach. His final interview was not good either. Now we have heard that Roo and others at the club had begun to worry about Sandos ability about mid-year. This was consistent with TMS's inside word about worrying news from inside the club. I admit I dismissed it at first because it truely did sound like news from people with an axe to grind. However, Sando's media performances and the news from the fall out of his sacking are entirely consistent with what TMS was insisting was the case much earlier in the year. Sando's sacking was planned well before hand, it appears, and the end of season reviews just confirmed to the hierarchy what had happened. In addition, it appears that Roo and Chapman had independently been impressed with Walsh for some time. He was clearly their preferred candidate and the media's guess that Goodwin was our man and we missed him proved incorrect. To their credit they did due diligence with a number of applicants, but Walsh's performance confirmed to the panel that they were correct. The transition has been well planned and most importantly kept secret.
Since Fagan's appointment he seems like a strong character. His interviews in the media are impressive and he seems to have a clear direction he would like to follow. I'm looking forward to seeing how Fagan performs as all signs so far are promising. Again, this appointment was a surprise. No leaks indicated who we had chosen and the Media had the appointment of Haysman being "ratified by the board on Monday". He has also already engaged with the fans in a more meaningful way than Trigg ever did in his entire tenure.
Walsh has been equally impressive. He is highly rated and is considered a master at tactics and strategy. He looks to demand a lot of himself and players. It looks like a strong appointment of head coach. A segment of the media have tried to paint the appointment as puzzling because we sacked a coach to replace him with one who has not coached before. Others, including those on the Port Power side of the fence see it as a strong appointment. He has clear ideas about our team structure, tactics and training methods.
Noble is a highly rated list manager. Two attempts to poach him from Melbourne based clubs in 2 years has shown us this. Now he has been promoted, and this year has taken on every role at AFC except perhaps janitor. His moves during trade week have drawn some criticism, particularly from Purple and Rucci. However, the explanation about the trades has demonstrated that there have been calculated moves to keep us in the draft and add much needed depth to the playing list. In addition the delistings have been quite deep. By picking up 2 players for 1 pick downgrade with 2 late pick upgrades seems to have been a master stroke. We have not even lost a pick while getting 2 players. They players have yet to prove themselves, but are an upgrade on players they would replace. Astute move or was it better to do nothing? Anyway, I am looking forward to a much more robust football department. Especially next year as some assistants come out of contract and Walsh has the chance to install new people.
Chapman seemed like a weak chairman. Through the Trigg debacle he seemed like he could not make the hard decisions. Has the departure of Trigg allowed Chapman to make better decisions. Did Trigg and by extension our SANFL overlords run the show and somewhat hog-tie Chapman weakening his ability to direct the club. We have seen a different Chapman. Has Roo joining the board given him the courage to step up? My perception of him has changed slightly through all of this. However, I still ask the question, when do we get a new Chairman?
So where is our club at? Are we the shambles and basketcase the media makes out? What I see is that we have put strong leadership at the head of the club. I have been impressed with Roo and Chapman as they seem to have been the public face of our turnaround. Fagan and Walsh likewise has strong presences and on the surface look like inspiring leaders.
It will be interesting how things pan out from here. There is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet. But as has been stated before, at least we have taken strong action to stop the backwards trajectory that we found ourselves in this year.
