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Club Legend
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As found on the O and M website
WODONGA Raiders plunged deeper into crisis on Saturday when senior coach Dean Lupson failed to address his shell-shocked players after their capitulation against Corowa-Rutherglen at the John Foord Oval.
Players and officials were left stunned by Lupson's no-show in the rooms after the Raiders' 130-point loss which followed a 124-point thrashing from reigning premier Wodonga in the season opener at Birallee Park.
"I am better off saying nothing than something I am going to regret," Lupson said yesterday.
"I accepted a fair bit of the blame for the first game, but I don't think we can pull up the same excuses this week.
"We didn't have a go, we got smashed out of the centre and got smashed all over the ground.
"We didn't have a bloke who could win the ball at the bottom of a pack.
"When you give them strict instructions on how to play the game and then they don't do it what do you say to them after the game?
"I don't think there is anything in the coaching manual that says you have to address your players after a game is there?"
A clearly frustrated Lupson also only made a brief address to his players at the last change when they had managed one point to three quarter time and trailed by 122 points.
Veteran Ross Hedley, the Raiders' best player against the Roos, kicked the team's first goal at the six-minute mark of the final quarter.
Raiders' start to the season is the worst by an Ovens and Murray league club since Wangaratta opened a disastrous 1997 with successive defeats of 185, 152, 206 and 214 points in the opening four rounds.
Lupson, a multi-premiership winning coach in the Ballarat league, took over as Raiders' coach last year after 12 months earlier the team finished the 2003 home and away season as minor premiers.
Raiders' fortunes have dipped dramatically in two seasons with an exodus of players leaving the club at its lowest ebb since joining the O and M in 1989.
The Raiders entered the season with an unorthodox preparation under Lupson which included not exposing his senior players to practice matches.
Lupson accepted the blame for the round one debacle against the Bulldogs and resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes for the Corowa-Rutherglen encounter.
"As 'Luppo' has stated his preparation has been different and he didn't expect to beat the teams we've played," Raiders president Mick Wernert said.
"His idea was to work towards winning one in the coming weeks.
"The club is still behind him and giving him everything we can, but these are hard times.
"He is just disappointed and probably felt he said enough to them at his other addresses.
"As you know he is a very passionate person and he probably thought he would be better off to leave it at that and go and cool down."
To compound the Raiders on-field problems, possible senior inclusions Trent Storey and Tim Seymour, were both injured in the reserves on Saturday.
WODONGA Raiders plunged deeper into crisis on Saturday when senior coach Dean Lupson failed to address his shell-shocked players after their capitulation against Corowa-Rutherglen at the John Foord Oval.
Players and officials were left stunned by Lupson's no-show in the rooms after the Raiders' 130-point loss which followed a 124-point thrashing from reigning premier Wodonga in the season opener at Birallee Park.
"I am better off saying nothing than something I am going to regret," Lupson said yesterday.
"I accepted a fair bit of the blame for the first game, but I don't think we can pull up the same excuses this week.
"We didn't have a go, we got smashed out of the centre and got smashed all over the ground.
"We didn't have a bloke who could win the ball at the bottom of a pack.
"When you give them strict instructions on how to play the game and then they don't do it what do you say to them after the game?
"I don't think there is anything in the coaching manual that says you have to address your players after a game is there?"
A clearly frustrated Lupson also only made a brief address to his players at the last change when they had managed one point to three quarter time and trailed by 122 points.
Veteran Ross Hedley, the Raiders' best player against the Roos, kicked the team's first goal at the six-minute mark of the final quarter.
Raiders' start to the season is the worst by an Ovens and Murray league club since Wangaratta opened a disastrous 1997 with successive defeats of 185, 152, 206 and 214 points in the opening four rounds.
Lupson, a multi-premiership winning coach in the Ballarat league, took over as Raiders' coach last year after 12 months earlier the team finished the 2003 home and away season as minor premiers.
Raiders' fortunes have dipped dramatically in two seasons with an exodus of players leaving the club at its lowest ebb since joining the O and M in 1989.
The Raiders entered the season with an unorthodox preparation under Lupson which included not exposing his senior players to practice matches.
Lupson accepted the blame for the round one debacle against the Bulldogs and resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes for the Corowa-Rutherglen encounter.
"As 'Luppo' has stated his preparation has been different and he didn't expect to beat the teams we've played," Raiders president Mick Wernert said.
"His idea was to work towards winning one in the coming weeks.
"The club is still behind him and giving him everything we can, but these are hard times.
"He is just disappointed and probably felt he said enough to them at his other addresses.
"As you know he is a very passionate person and he probably thought he would be better off to leave it at that and go and cool down."
To compound the Raiders on-field problems, possible senior inclusions Trent Storey and Tim Seymour, were both injured in the reserves on Saturday.
