Does our club know what it is doing?????

[nut]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/tiger-turmoil-on-free-speech/2008/07/30/1217097331636.html

RICHMOND director Tony Free has been hauled over the coals for breaking with club protocol and being interviewed on Melbourne radio following the Greg Miller sacking and has been warned to stop destabilising the Tigers' football department.

President Gary March confirmed last night that he had strongly reprimanded Free for speaking publicly about club and its politics and agreed Free had been "naive and over-eager" in attacking the job of examining Terry Wallace and his assistant coaches.

But March denied that Free would be stepping down as a board member, despite suggestions yesterday that the former Richmond skipper had irretrievably damaged his relationship with the Tigers' coaching staff and would be departing as a director after joining the board last month.

"I won't be moving him off the board," March told The Age last night. "We as a board are not moving Tony on. Would he step down? I wouldn't think so. I think he's a bit sheepish at the moment and I think he realises he's overstepped the mark on a couple of occasions but it's our job to educate him."

Free, who sat in the coach's box last Saturday night during the Richmond-Brisbane Lions game at the coach's invitation, has upset staff in the football department by his confrontational interviewing process and by his gung-ho approach to reviewing the club's football operation. He gave an interview to radio station SEN on Tuesday against the club's wishes.

Free has held talks with a number of assistant coaches at other clubs, along with recently retired Nathan Buckley, and some of his comments about Richmond are understood to have filtered back to Wallace's team.

March, who has insisted there was never any intention to clean out Wallace's coaching panel, admitted Free had ruffled feathers since replacing Miller on the board. "Tony's gone into it like he's played footy," said March. "With a bit of whiteline fever.

"That eagerness has come out as though we are trying to make changes. Tony's got no authority to make change. He's not the director of football. He's a Richmond Football Club director. At the moment he's not even a part of our football sub-committee although that will happen."

March also denied allegations Free had been identified as "Tiger Tony", an outspoken supporter on the Richmond website. Miller investigated whether or not Free had been contributing to the site and questioned him over the matter but Free vehemently denied it and March has accepted his denial.

March added that the board had not given Free enough direction.

"I take some responsibility for this," said March. "We never carried out a full board induction with him and that will now happen. Tony has run off trying to learn about footy again and I've tried to explain he needs to step back and do less and observe more.

"In fairness to him most of us have been on boards before and we need to help him with some guidance."

March has spoken this week with Wallace, Brian Royal, David King, Jade Rawlings and Craig McCrae regarding the speculation about coaching jobs and assured them suggestions they would be removed were inaccurate.

Of Free's relationship with Wallace's assistants, March said: "I think he's got a bit of work to do there … Has Tony acted naively? Yes, he has."



After reading this you wouldn't think so.....

Tony Free's eagerness to make changes?????WHY?????? FFS...... another ex-player with an EGO, that wants to throw his weight around and try to be the hero.... there was only ever one Greame Richmond.... can people stop trying to be the next one....

LEAVE the club alone FFS

 

[PHX]

Exactly what I said somewhere the other day when I thought it the interview was under board approval and on the straight and narrow.

What the **** was he thinking?

He's a board member, not a media spokesman for the Richmond football club.

FFS this is getting messy and I'm afraid the media is doing the majority of the damage.

 

[PHX]

Oh and I'm getting more convinced by the day that Tony-the-Tiger certainly was Tony Free the way this whole saga has panned out since he joined the board with the outcomes since and his frosty relationship with Wallace.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Just great

Agree snickers

He gotta go

 

[nut]

Can the club just come out and say we F%ked up and move Tony the tiger on back where he came from.

I just cant understand why we would allow someonr to be a director of our football club that has to learn on the job?????? why do we have to put up with incompetence just because he is an ex-player?????? the romantics of it all just doesn't cut it with me....
The appointment of Tony Free by all accounts has been a monumental F$%k up. If Gary March had any balls he would admit he stuffed up and find a more qualified replacement.

It seems a funny article from Caroline Wilson who not that long ago was calling for more richmond people back at the club.... she seems to know whats going on before it happens.
She wasn't a Miller fan either... noticed she hasn't commented on how badly the club handled his sacking????

Now for all you twits that think sacking Miller was a good Idea... if you were Nathan Buckley or any other assistant coach in the making would you want to join our disorganized mess?

Miller I miss you already.

 

[froars]

Miller used to come in and intervene when Frawley had a dose of foot in mouth. Who's going to come in now to cover for Free?

I'm glad March accepts Tony's not TAT on Y&B. That's very gracious of him to accept someone at their word. I don't

 

[itsintheblood]

Can the club just come out and say we F%ked up and move Tony the tiger on back where he came from.

I just cant understand why we would allow someonr to be a director of our football club that has to learn on the job?????? why do we have to put up with incompetence just because he is an ex-player?????? the romantics of it all just doesn't cut it with me....
The appointment of Tony Free by all accounts has been a monumental F$%k up. If Gary March had any balls he would admit he stuffed up and find a more qualified replacement.

It seems a funny article from Caroline Wilson who not that long ago was calling for more richmond people back at the club.... she seems to know whats going on before it happens.
She wasn't a Miller fan either... noticed she hasn't commented on how badly the club handled his sacking????

Now for all you twits that think sacking Miller was a good Idea... if you were Nathan Buckley or any other assistant coach in the making would you want to join our disorganized mess?

Miller I miss you already.

There are only 2 ex players I'd like to see on the board. Brendan Gale and Richo after he retires.

Tony Free is making a dick of himself and pretending to be a powerbroker.

Geezus this club shits me. Just when things are looking up we're finding ways of impoding again.

PULL YOUR FINGER OUR GARY MARCH AND STOP THIS NONSENSE.

 

[Bojangles17]

Oh and I'm getting more convinced by the day that Tony-the-Tiger certainly was Tony Free the way this whole saga has panned out since he joined the board with the outcomes since and his frosty relationship with Wallace.

did he post on these boards was it PRE?..i dont recognise the name

 

[PHX]

Pffft PRE, even Tony knows better than that.

Tonys-a-tiger was a member on Y&B.

 

[froars]

did he post on these boards was it PRE?..i dont recognise the name

Tonys a Tiger, whoever he is, posted on Y&B. He was anti-Wallace, anti-Miller, pro Cameron Schwab and made a few statements

When I and others questioned whether he had a conflict of interest in any review, all hell broke loose, the club came out and said it wasn't him and I got banned as a result for having the nerve to question this Mind you, no great loss to me.

I don't feel ashamed of asking questions anyone who sees something as unfair wouldn't ask.

But it's claimed it's not Free, so we will never know.

 

[emperor]

At least March is out there admitting the gaffes and mistakes, and not pretending all is good. Problem is a lot of this should not have happened. Free should know better than to go shooting his mouth off on radio, which makes me think he is not entirely appropriate for a director's position and the 'educating' him about being a board member also doesn't sound right to me.

The last thing we need now is for someone to come in like a bull in a china shop and try and shake up the place when things are going along pretty well. We don;t need TW and the players being stirred up publicly and made to think twice about their position.

Let me just add the writing was probably on the wall for Miller anyway and I don't disagree with that, just hope that TW doesn't get made to feel uncomfortable.

 

[tony_montana]

At least March is out there admitting the gaffes and mistakes, and not pretending all is good. Problem is a lot of this should not have happened. Free should know better than to go shooting his mouth off on radio, which makes me think he is not entirely appropriate for a director's position and the 'educating' him about being a board member also doesn't sound right to me.

The last thing we need now is for someone to come in like a bull in a china shop and try and shake up the place when things are going along pretty well. We don;t need TW and the players being stirred up publicly and made to think twice about their position.

Let me just add the writing was probably on the wall for Miller anyway and I don't disagree with that, just hope that TW doesn't get made to feel uncomfortable.

too late for that.

this is simply ridiculous and is escalating bc the media (and rightly so!) have seen some gross mismanagement from our "famous" club and are lapping it up, 1 gaffaw after another.

Just admit you made a manumental blunder March and right it, on the job training just bc hes an ex player FFS it doesnt get any more amateurish than that

stupid stupid club

 

[emperor]

too late for that.

fraid so

 

[tigerdan]

Quite a damning article!

Freezer better dot all his i's and cross all his t's from now on...

Pretty bad that he had not had an induction to the board and the way things are (should have been) handled.

My support for Free is waning, but I will give him one more chance.

 

[astro_toby]

looks like a tiger never changes its stripes

back to amateur hour

thank god the team is looking as good as ever

 

[_RT_]

Free should be told to pull his head in and say nothing. Thought March was doing a reasonable job of handling the stuff up and things were dying down somewhat and now this just brings it back to the spotlight. Only thing I want to hear from the board in the next few weeks is who is replacing Miller. Even then that is probably going to be told to us by some muppet in the media before the club does. Hell the media are already tipping Schwab is going to get the job according to sources at the club. Yet we don't have leaks.

 

[Top_4_Tiger]

Terry's comments the other day, along the lines of "it's a two-way ship, we've both got to be comfortable" moving forward seem to be his way of asking the club to bring in someone who won't make life difficult for him.

It doesn't have to be a friend of his, but if we bring in someone who Terry hates then it will be interesting how serious he is.

I think it'll push him that little bit harder to win a flag. We talk about not wanting too many ego's causing problems but Terry has the biggest of the lot - for the better.

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

Tony Free is doing a review of the football operations yet he admits its a learning curb along the way to exactly how a football department is suppose to work.
No wonder we are a joke

 

[diligaf]

I really hope this fiasco does not affect our on-field improvement for the remainder of '08 and beyond......very interesting times ahead!!!

 

[nut]

I would love to know WHY Miller was so desperately moved on.....

 

[1980]

We're stuffed

Nice one Free you tool. You've just destabilised our chance of making the finals

 

[froars]

I would love to know WHY Miller was so desperately moved on.....

Me too. If Free didn't have a major part in the review of Miller, why did he feel he should be a spokesperson on the subject. He said he came on the board when the review had already started. Surely someone, preferably the president, was better qualified to speak.

 

[1980]

I would love to know WHY Miller was so desperately moved on.....

Because he was unaccountable.
Because he was full of excuses for 7 years.
Because he cant manage a footy budget
Because until wallace came along, he used to trade our picks away.
Because he wouldnt give up his North shares.
Because the club has more faith in Jackson and Cameron
Because when we lost to the Blues, we looked like we hadnt gone anywhere in 4 years

Because Miller was all promise and no delivery. If he'd been sacked after the Carlton game, everyone on this board would have done handstands. Or if we'd lost to the Lions.

 

[itsintheblood]

I would love to know WHY Miller was so desperately moved on.....

Simple. Cameron Schwab.

 

[1980]

Me too. If Free didn't have a major part in the review of Miller, why did he feel he should be a spokesperson on the subject. He said he came on the board when the review had already started. Surely someone, preferably the president, was better qualified to speak.

Because he's a tool
Because he thinks the supporters love him and want to hear what he's got to say
Because he's too stupid to know when to shut his mouth
Because he's still living in the 90s
Because he likes the sound of his own whiney voice
Because he wants to be Mal Brown

LETS GO AND DUMP MANURE ON HIS CRAPPY JUICE BAR