Leigh Matthews's coaching door still open

chinggis77

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Thread starter #1
See: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25232088-5014663,00.html

Probably the only guy out there who you would consider in place of Harvey at the moment. The rest of the candidates being failures (e.g. Wallace) or untried (e.g. Buckley).

I don't think anyone would disagree that Matthews would be a coup for the club. Regardless of what you think of Harvey, Leigh would be preferable to anyone currently coaching AFL.

He is a legend of the game, will demand respect from all players, has a fantastic coaching (and playing) record and will demand total commitment and effort from the players like no other coach can.

Freo has the resources to be able to put forward a large offer to entice him out of coaching retirement.

Of the other coaches coming out of contract - Wallace (no), Malthouse (will get an extension unless Bucks wants to take over), Worsfold (no), Laidley (possibly - he always exceeds expectations with North and seems to be able to get the best out of players?? Also a West Aussie boy), Eade (will re-sign - WB in their premiership window - why leave), Thompson (will re-sign), Williams (will probably re-sign or will head east to Coach Collingwood as it has always been a goal of his).

Its Leigh or nothing, possibly Laidley as alternatives to Harvey.

Time to mount operation "Get Leigh"
 

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estibador

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If worst comes to worst and we haven't won a game by halfway through the season under Harves I would give Lachy's left testicle and Ripper's bundy hat for Lethal to come to our club.

A proven, experienced coach like him is exactly what this club needs to get our shit in order. And it's heartening to hear that a legend like Mathews hasn't ruled out coaching again. Methinks a challenge like turning Freo into the powerhouse we all know it should be would be just the thing to reignite his passion for coaching.
 
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Don't think Leigh wants to coach anymore, looks pretty happy commentating, has nothing left to prove. He had a great list when he went to Brisbane, and lets face it, we don't. He's not a coach that wants to rebuild the foundations of a club.

I'd take Bomber Thompson in a heartbeat.
 

chinggis77

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Thats probably the key - would it be attractive to him?

Freo has the resouces to offer a substantial remuneration package to him, but is that enough?

We don't need him to stay long enough for the next premiership window. We should aim for a Barassi effect. Barrassi spent 2 1/2 seasons at Sydney and whilst he didn't take them to the finals he turned around what was a bigger basketcase than Freo into a genuine competitive club. Eade then took them to the GF the following year.

Even if we can get him for a two year contract would give him enough time to build up the list and turn the club around. Arguably, you want someone like him to be the one teaching all our young kids.

So is a two year term at Freo with a substantial remuneration package attractive enough? Worth someone having a quiet chat to him. Hopefully the challenge of turning the club around and nurturing a competitive outfit can ignite his coaching desire. We should know by halfway through the season/endof the season whether there is enough potential in the 14 draftees of 2008 to entice him. Plus he has Pav and Sandi to work with.
 

estibador

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#5
Freo has the resouces to offer a substantial remuneration package to him, but is that enough?
If that's all he's interested in then I'm not interested. We all saw the debacle that ensued when the Saints lured Blight reluctantly out of retirement with bucketloads of cash.

But if Matthews genuinely still has the passion to coach then I'd love us to make a play for him.
 

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Donno, some coaches have used by dates, Walls, Blight, etc. Anyone heard Blight recently? He is the most senile person I've heard on TV in a while and I did catch a Fox news show the other day.

I didn't like Matthew's last year at Brisbane, their performances reminded me of Freos. He seems like he has moved on to better (media, real estate, etc) pastures, but meh. To think Harvey will be with us when we are going for a premiership is silly, because he will be culled half way through the rebuild with the way things are going and his poor picks in the draft. We are playing much worse this year than last year and half our side was injured or retired last year, so there is no real excuse for what we are dealing up.
 

Belnakor

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If that's all he's interested in then I'm not interested. We all saw the debacle that ensued when the Saints lured Blight reluctantly out of retirement with bucketloads of cash.
Debatable whether Blight caused that, or egos in the club did.

A guy like Blight coming into Freo would be like a bull in a china shop. harvey did it a bit by getting rid of guys like M.Carr, Blight when he came into Adelaide got rid of guys like Bell, who were born whiteanters, the kind of guys Freo have let go.
 
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#9
Donno, some coaches have used by dates, Walls, Blight, etc. Anyone heard Blight recently? He is the most senile person I've heard on TV in a while and I did catch a Fox news show the other day.

I didn't like Matthew's last year at Brisbane, their performances reminded me of Freos. He seems like he has moved on to better (media, real estate, etc) pastures, but meh.
Blighty always sounded like a bit of a goose. I'd hardly think that stint at the Saints was long enough to get any real results, but it shows what you get when you throw a truckload of money at a coach.

To think Harvey will be with us when we are going for a premiership is silly, because he will be culled half way through the rebuild with the way things are going and his poor picks in the draft. We are playing much worse this year than last year and half our side was injured or retired last year, so there is no real excuse for what we are dealing up.
Your Balla bashing is well known....

Are you not happy with Hill, can you see an upside to any of these other guys.

I am pretty happy with the selections. Balla may have been a bit early, but I'll reserve judgement on him until he plays.
 

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#10
Blighty always sounded like a bit of a goose. I'd hardly think that stint at the Saints was long enough to get any real results, but it shows what you get when you throw a truckload of money at a coach.



Your Balla bashing is well known....

Are you not happy with Hill, can you see an upside to any of these other guys.

I am pretty happy with the selections. Balla may have been a bit early, but I'll reserve judgement on him until he plays.
Doesn't matter if everyone of those players turns out to be good for their positions. We had Pavlich, Tarrant, McPharlin, Sandilands, all australian KPPs and ruck at the peak of their careers. Without a midfield you aren't going to do anything. By failing to address our problems we are simply delaying success in the best case, worst case missing out on it.
 
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Donno, some coaches have used by dates, Walls, Blight, etc. Anyone heard Blight recently? He is the most senile person I've heard on TV in a while and I did catch a Fox news show the other day.
Walls' use by date was up the day he started. he won his premiership on the back of David Parkin. Blight was a mastercoach and ran into an entrenched culture at St Kilda, and they booted him. The settled for Grant Thomas and you can draw your own conclusions there.

I didn't like Matthew's last year at Brisbane, their performances reminded me of Freos. He seems like he has moved on to better (media, real estate, etc) pastures, but meh. To think Harvey will be with us when we are going for a premiership is silly, because he will be culled half way through the rebuild with the way things are going and his poor picks in the draft. We are playing much worse this year than last year and half our side was injured or retired last year, so there is no real excuse for what we are dealing up.
Mathews would be ideal but to get rid of Harvey just smacks of the Richmond merry go round.

Harvey has pruned the the squad and loaded up with youngsters. Then to cull him because the results aren't there just smacks of hypocrisy. He has to have his three years and that's that.

I would be focusing on moving on a core of players that have been around for a while but not risen to any great heights. Drum, Schammer, Browne, Campbell, Murphy to name a few. I would play Murphy and tell the players they have to kick it to him. He'll either cut it or not. But then its done.
 

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#12
Blight was a mastercoach and ran into an entrenched culture at St Kilda, and they booted him. The settled for Grant Thomas and you can draw your own conclusions there.
That's what I thought, but it's hard to know exactly what happened behind closed doors.


Mathews would be ideal but to get rid of Harvey just smacks of the Richmond merry go round.
Don't know if Mathews is a development coach, IMHO I think he gets the best out of the players, but if the list isn't top notch, they still wouldn't make the grade.


Harvey has pruned the the squad and loaded up with youngsters. Then to cull him because the results aren't there just smacks of hypocrisy. He has to have his three years and that's that.

I would be focusing on moving on a core of players that have been around for a while but not risen to any great heights. Drum, Schammer, Browne, Campbell, Murphy to name a few. I would play Murphy and tell the players they have to kick it to him. He'll either cut it or not. But then its done.
:thumbsu::thumbsu:

Sacking Harvey would send a clear message to all coaches out there, don't go to Freo, it's career suicide.
 

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#13
Mathews would be ideal but to get rid of Harvey just smacks of the Richmond merry go round.

Harvey has pruned the the squad and loaded up with youngsters. Then to cull him because the results aren't there just smacks of hypocrisy. He has to have his three years and that's that.

I would be focusing on moving on a core of players that have been around for a while but not risen to any great heights. Drum, Schammer, Browne, Campbell, Murphy to name a few. I would play Murphy and tell the players they have to kick it to him. He'll either cut it or not. But then its done.
Well last year, results or no results Harvey showed us that the team was going forward in my mind. We had Palmer coming in, Ibbotson looked promising, Mayne was good. This year we have gone backwards, our draft was horrible, none of those players we have seen thus far have shown us "wow, we have a lot to look forward to" like last year.

Too many of our players have gone backwards, especially established players like Pavlich. The only guy holding his head high every game has been Palmer, and he continues to get mauled by the opposition with no teammates helping him out. When you see players on your team get mauled, if it doesn't make you want to deal some punishment out that team is going to fail.

I used to watch a fair bit of Hawthorn back in 2003/2004 and they were *always* making sure their players were looked after, suspension or not. And that sort of team building helped them forge success a few years later. And don't say it is because the game has changed, look at Mitchell dealing with Ablet last year in the grand final among other examples. They continue to play hard football, crash packs, injure and hurt other players.

Our players would fall over in a strong wind, let alone offer up some punishment for dealing with one of our players like Palmer. They don't seem to give two shits about most of their team mates.

Lets face it, our team is going nowhere this year, if our players get suspended backing up our players then so be it. I'd rather we get in a melee every time they did some stupid thing to our players so we can forge a tough attitude now whilst we can afford it compared to never having a tough edge. If you're not willing to throw a punch or take a punch for your team mates you shouldn't be out there.
 

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#14
Yes there are too many players going backwards. Experimenting has been a failure, and the players look dazed and confused for most of the match.
It is also confusing with selection policy on game day (and always has been).

Saying that, it would be a mistake to get rid of Harvey either way because he has done some good things with the club and getting certain aspects going in the right direction. The wipe out last year. Selection policy for youth. Seems to be more discipline coming into our players off the field and on the field - only one incident comes to mind with Pavlich.

I say stick with the coach, keep playing the kids and bring in more. See what happens and if we don't have a win soon, then don't win more than 5 games for the year (target a priority pick - if we are not going to make the 8 then it is pointless and naive to not get more quality youngsters).
 
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Younger players play for different reasons then the fringe players. Most of the fringe players are beaten mentally and think the top level is hard, so it is. The youngsters have lifted their performance in advancing a number of levels over a few short years, aren't as fearful of failure, and can identify the areas in their games where they can find improvement.

The fringe players are thinking about their contract and whether they'll be renewed if the f*** up again.
 

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#17
Well last year, results or no results Harvey showed us that the team was going forward in my mind. We had Palmer coming in, Ibbotson looked promising, Mayne was good. This year we have gone backwards, our draft was horrible, none of those players we have seen thus far have shown us "wow, we have a lot to look forward to" like last year.

Will you stop with this crap? It's way too early to judge our draft to begin with. You dearly wanted Ben Cousins, remember? Why are you so blinded with Daniel Rich? Do you really think we'd performed any better with him in the team?
I hope you're as prepared to eat a humble pie as you are keen to trash our draftees, because you will eat it in couple of years. :thumbsu:
 

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Will you stop with this crap? It's way too early to judge our draft to begin with. You dearly wanted Ben Cousins, remember? Why are you so blinded with Daniel Rich? Do you really think we'd performed any better with him in the team?
I hope you're as prepared to eat a humble pie as you are keen to trash our draftees, because you will eat it in couple of years. :thumbsu:
Let me rephrase it for you so it's easier to understand.

If Freo had selected 6 players with the first 6 picks that were 175cm and played like Jeff Farmer how much closer to a grand final would we be? Individually they are all good players, so you wouldn't go "wow shit players with those picks".

However when you factor in the team they are going into, no team needs 6 Jeff Farmers. People say you pick the best player in the draft no matter what. So if 6 ruckmen happen to be the best players with your first 6 you take all ruckmen? No? Why not?

My analysis is we need midfielders, plenty of ball winning midfielders to match the likes of Geelong and Hawthorn. Since we got none of these types of midfielders in the draft (at least midfielders naturally known for this type of ball winning activity at a sufficient level of competition) the draft in my eyes was a failure. It's a failure because you need to have a core group of midfielders grow together, and every year you don't have them growing is adding more delay to eventual success.

So the players may turn out to be quite good but in the scheme of things the 2008 draft can still be considered a failure if no ball winning midfielders eventuate from it. If some eventuate then yes I will eat humble pie, however I am not used to the taste.
 
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#19
Stephen Hill got a bucket load of the footy in the 18's carnival and for the Falcons... Suban got a lot of the footy too...

You truly are a bit delusional if you think we drafted poorly 3 games into the season. Ibbotson was crap for 2-3 years...until his body got to the right size and he is still learning but has gone into a contributing player level now.

How can you say draft the best available, then say we should have drafted ball winners. We drafted the best available...Plus even Deboer one of our last picks, he basically had leather poisoning all of last year and the year before...

I expect Palmer, Ibbotson, Suban, Hill, DeBoer, Van Berlo to make up the core of our team for the next 5-7 years through the middle of the ground... Throw in maybe on or two pick ups over the next few years if we are lucky... quote me...
 

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#20
Let me rephrase it for you so it's easier to understand.

If Freo had selected 6 players with the first 6 picks that were 175cm and played like Jeff Farmer how much closer to a grand final would we be? Individually they are all good players, so you wouldn't go "wow shit players with those picks".

However when you factor in the team they are going into, no team needs 6 Jeff Farmers. People say you pick the best player in the draft no matter what. So if 6 ruckmen happen to be the best players with your first 6 you take all ruckmen? No? Why not?

My analysis is we need midfielders, plenty of ball winning midfielders to match the likes of Geelong and Hawthorn. Since we got none of these types of midfielders in the draft (at least midfielders naturally known for this type of ball winning activity at a sufficient level of competition) the draft in my eyes was a failure. It's a failure because you need to have a core group of midfielders grow together, and every year you don't have them growing is adding more delay to eventual success.

So the players may turn out to be quite good but in the scheme of things the 2008 draft can still be considered a failure if no ball winning midfielders eventuate from it. If some eventuate then yes I will eat humble pie, however I am not used to the taste.

From what I saw at the WAFL and the U18's C'Ship Walters and Hall are very good ball winners. It would've been very irresponsible from Swan's coaching staff if they put Walters in the midfield full time given his light frame because he didn't play against kids [like Victorian teenagers], but men. The fact that he was given stints in the midfield is a sign that he has future as a midfielder. Same goes for Hall. They don't necessarily play their entire careers where they started as juniors. Grover played his junior footy as a forward. Hell, Carlton will most definately groom Yarran into a mid. Not every player is ready made and physically developed like Rich. Adelaide copped a lot of shit for overlooking Ebert and opting for Dangerfield. I know who's laughing now.

Still, too early to brand our draft a failure. I'll be more than happy to talk about it in 2 years time.
 
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#21
Plus Leigh Matthews is one of the greatest coaches of all time andstill is, however much like Kevin Sheedy, the game has slightly passed by their strengths... No longer can you win a flag with a brutal unforgiving team like the lions...

But i would not be bummed out if Harvey was booted and we got Lethal...
 
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