Northern shenanigans

[Dave The Man]

LAST Friday Collingwood thought it had its man. Jonathan Brown would strut the forward line for the Magpies in 2009. Only days before that Brisbane thought it had its coach. Leigh Matthews said he wanted to coach on into 2009 and Brisbane chairman Tony Kelly said he thought it an excellent idea.
Yesterday morning Brown said he was staying at the Lions and Matthews decided he had lost the drive to coach the club he had taken to four grand finals in a row.
It seems more than a little quirky that these remarkable developments happened independently of one another. Brown out but in; Matthews staying but gone. And both those decisions have seen Michael Voss, one moment in Perth, now in Brisbane. It is worth further examination.
Collingwood had chased Brown hard, as everyone knew it would. The club would have been less than responsible if it did not hunt down the best out-of-contract match-winner on the market.
The Collingwood team had much to offer and Brown liked what he saw. First, a five-year contract. Second, Brown in Collingwood colours would, so long as he kept himself nice, become an industry all to himself in football-freaky Melbourne. The knockabout champion would be back in his home state with well-paid roles in the media guaranteed.
All indications last week said Collingwood had been able to beat off the other Victorian suitors. A wink and a nod from his advisers surely constituted a signature. The Collingwood thinking was that Brown's presence on the forward line along with Travis Cloke would be so dominant, a more regular and telling rotation of small forwards like Paul Medhurst and Leon Davis through the middle would follow.
As rumour was turning into fact that Matthews was about to step down, Collingwood got the news that Brown was staying put. If not directly linked, the timing of the two decisions is breathtakingly curious. Brown has held Brisbane at arm's length all season. Yet on the day the side is trounced yet again, this time by Sydney, it is suggested that his management and Brisbane came to an agreement. And for Matthews, seven days after saying he wanted to coach on, he changed his mind and handed back his clipboard.
At the 11am news conference, Matthews calmly explained his reasons for leaving the job. The four-time premiership coach is always frank. He does not draw curtains. Essentially, he wasn't convinced he wanted to do it any more at the zealot levels AFL coaching required. Brown was there, too, and quietly dropped, not the bombshell, but the WMD that he was staying on. For some reason no journalist at the media conference asked him about the length of the contract or what had ultimately changed his mind.
Not that it mattered. The club could not articulate the new agreement with its star player even hours later. An email said that Brown was effectively a Lion for life but "no other comments will be made on this matter in accordance with Lion policy". Brown's retention against the odds apparently was nothing at all worth shouting about.
Brown has the long-term commitment from the Lions that he wanted after the club initially said he could have a contract for three years and if he didn't like that he was welcome to go play in Victoria. Not so, it appears now. It also appears odd that Brown - so desperate apparently for a long-term career at Brisbane - did not seek from Matthews an assurance that his coach would remain in charge. Or did he seek an assurance that he would not? That he did neither would seem to be reckless negotiating after six months of careful positioning.
What happened for Matthews to change his mind between the Carlton match (round 21) and Saturday's defeat by Sydney? Reports that players were unhappy with Matthews have become more frequent as the season drew to an end. Clubs who chased Brown learnt that Brisbane was worried about his ability to last much longer than three years, such was the brutish way he played the game. Clubs report that Brown thought if he was not put through such demanding pre-seasons under Matthews that it would not be an issue.
Much is lost in translation as ruptures like Matthews' decision to stand down and Brown's epiphany on the flight to the SCG grab the headlines, especially given both happened on the same day. But there are as many clues to the machinations of last Saturday as there are rumours. By Sunday Brown's camp believed that Voss would be the new Brisbane coach? Why? How? Did Brown's signature come with a new coach?
Matthews by his own admission is tired. If it was put to him that he stood between Brown and his signature then he would not have thought for a moment of staying.
Whatever, Collingwood must now return to the marketplace. Daniel Kerr would give the Magpie midfield a more direct lift than Brown's recruitment. If Collingwood gets him it will be only if it can beat off Sydney.
Alan Didak was to be traded at the end of the year. He had mucked up too spectacularly, too often. He will not play again this year but he might next. It is in Didak's hands. He wants Collingwood to give him one last chance and has pledged that he seeks redemption. Collingwood will take some convincing. But Brown, already pencilled in, will take some replacing, too.
At the end of this most unpredictable day, Brisbane had hung on to a champion player and lost one of the game's greatest coaches and most influential figures. It just doesn't add up.

Does anyone Believe this is True.

Saying Friday we Had Brown in the Black and White but When Leigh Quit Brown Changed his Mind.

I Don't Believe that Happened but I do Believe we where chasing Hard

Story Here

 

[The Royal Sampler]

I don't rate Patrick Smith, I think he's a dill. Either way, it's not important as long as Brown stays in Brisbane.

 

[Dave The Man]

I don't rate Patrick Smith, I think he's a dill. Either way, it's not important as long as Brown stays in Brisbane.

True - We have Dawes and He could turn out to be just as good as Brown

 

[Helfarch]

I was waiting for the article to get to the point, turned out there wasn't one.

 

[thatday]

Umm, no, I don't think its true.

And I am happy brown is staying in Brisbane.

 

[Professor Knowall]

I don't rate Patrick Smith, I think he's a dill. Either way, it's not important as long as Brown stays in Brisbane.

Totally agree - on ALL those points.

 

[Optimax]

Bigger serving of bullshit i dont think i have ever had the displeasure to read

 

[Rush Stand]

Glad Brown stayed where he is. We have enough forward talent and options to take us to very nice places. We need to find another good key defender and two midfielders in the draft and a ruckman (Wood may be that man), then we are complete. We have less holes to fill than most other sides out there.

 

[boulos]

I've never read an article with less substance. Pathetic.

 

[chappo52]

My guess is when he wrote the first draft of this article he didn't meet the word limit, and then remembered something at journo school that said Collingwood sell papers...

 

[Godfrey Jones]

i hate the fact that alot of bigfooty posters put these 'journos' to shame

 

[VEEBEE]

how on earth was brown going to leave after telling luke power a couple of seasons ago, that he had been there through the good times, so had to stay through the hard times.i wanted brown to come to the pies, but never thought he whould leave the lions.

 

[The Dawes]

Who knows if there's any truth to it?

You'd like to think there would be some substance behind it, but none of us really know, and now that he's re-signed, who really cares?

 

[pongo_3931]

I've heard enough to believe that we certainly made a play for his services, however I never thought he would come back home. The man just built a new seven figure house up there and I figured that was evidence enough that his roots in Brizzy ran deep. To deep to be uprooted.

 

[well left]

You just never know who to believe do you?

Patrick says he was over the line at Collingwood yet Mike Sheehan's article yesterday said that Brown was staying "despite the best efforts of Carlton and Collingwood (and that is the correct order)".

How can two such well-respected and credentialled journalists have such different takes?? Why am I so shocked??

I also do not believe Patrick's views that we must now chase Kerr at all costs. I think and hope we will nab Cousins but we must continue to develop our list and build what is a young and impressive structure already. That's how Bomber Thompson belives it should be done anyway!

 

[rusdid24]

This entire article is a crock of shit. Undoubtedly we had a crack at him, but I highly doubt he ever agreed to come.

 

[Daicos Mullets]

Whatever the reason, I'm glad we didn't sign him. We have more pressing areas of deficiency to cover.

 

[GETSOMENUTS]

I dont see a problem with the article. He is having a dig at the lions if u read between the lines and I ( hate to do it) have to agree with Smithy that its all a bit fishy. Whos to say that we didnt come to a verbal agreement with brown? It would make sense considering such oddities surrounding lethal stepping down and Voss becoming the new coach that fast, that leighs headphones were still warm. If rumours about the players becoming disenfranchised with leighs "my way or the highway" coaching style, are to be believed then this article does have some merit.

Anyways I will leave it to the conspiracy theorists, but just dont dismiss Pats claims (only in this case though ) as nonsense.