manicmagpie
A slice of fried gold
This is the one I will never understand. I follow the argument about succession plans and Collingwood rating Buckling as a future premiership coach, but at the time Collingwood had won the 2010 flag and were the best team in the AFL. Why on earth would you even consider changing the coach?
Can never prove it, and the Geelong fans have every right to disagree, but IMHO I believe the turmoil within the club probably cost them the 2011 flag, and who knows after that?
I also believe the worst appointment was Carlton taking on Malthouse who wanted to coach for all the wrong reasons. I feel he wanted to coach against Collingwood for revenge, rather than FOR Carlton.
At the time the succession plan was put in place, it was mid 2009 and Malthouse was pretty much in the position Ken Hinkley is in now. He held the record for being at a single club the longest without winning a flag.
The succession plan lit a fire under him and we actually went out and fixed the holes in our best 22 and won a flag. If the plan cost us getting another it was just as responsible for us getting one in the first place.
On a positive note, the sackings of Tony Shaw and Nathan Buckley were both handled in the absolute best way possible. With Bucks we even made sure we wouldn't fall into the trap of making the temp coach permanent by appointing the god awful Robert Harvey so that we didn't get a dead cat bounce.