Just read this:
It's Judgment day for Ken
By Garry Lyon
Thursday, July 26, 2001
Coach may carry can for Eagles' dive
THERE are four teams definitely out of the race for this year's finals.
Two of them sacked their coach mid-season, while another parted ways with its president, for the time being at least, bringing forward an uneasy truce just moments before the outbreak of civil war that, had it happened, would still be waging.
That the war was averted out of respect for the team's performance is perhaps the greatest irony. Melbourne have again fallen victim to the ''roller-coaster syndrome'' that has plagued the club for the best part of a decade.
Neale Daniher warned last year that the club had a history of getting too comfortable with success, and performing poorly the following year. Now, after a Grand Final appearance, they are in the mix for the title of most disappointing team of the year.
Which leaves us with West Coast and the future of its coach Ken Judge. Three wins from 16 games, all of them against its companions in the bottom four on the ladder, an average losing margin of 54 points and the worst percentage of all, (63.3 per cent), including the hapless Freo.
As is always the case, when a side is performing at the level that the Eagles are at the moment, the heat ultimately is turned on the coach.
While the team he parted company with at the end of season 99, and many of the players he nurtured and introduced to football, head towards a position in the top four and their second consecutive finals appearance, Judge will be left to deal with the fallout of leading his side to its second bottom four position in two years.
Priority draft selections will be the reward for such a year. But taking a line through the history of football clubs, highlighted again by events of last week, and their intolerance of mediocrity, there has to be a question about whether Judgey will be around to make those decisions.
Their guns are ageing and tiring, with retirement looming for at least one of their all time greats, their youngsters have stagnated and their middle age bracket have not played the roles that might have been expected of them.
The football world has just about finished feasting itself on the St Kilda carcass, having filled their bellies earlier in the season with Fremantle.
They know they don't have to store anything away for a post-season banquet because the Melbourne board elections will more than sate the appetite there, so right now the blowtorch is being cranked up and the Eagles are looming on the menu.
West Coast are a proud organisation that has enjoyed amazing success.
They were a major player in every finals series in the 90s, enjoying two premierships and the mantle of one of the league's most powerful, financial and imposing clubs.
Sitting back and watching last year's finals campaign for the first time in 10 years would have been a strange experience it would have hoped to rectify very quickly.
But it hasn't happened. In fact, it has got much worse.
The decision to draft a host of players from other clubs was questioned at the start of the year and will be questioned even more strongly at the end.
COLLINGWOOD drafted mature players from other clubs to complement their kids and it has worked. They still have the youngest list in the competition.
The Eagles added Trent Carroll, Michael Collica, Richard Taylor, Greg Harding, Mark Merenda, Michael Prior, David Sierakowski and Troy Wilson. Injury robbed them of Sierakowski and Prior, and that hasn't helped, but the return from the rest would have to rate as disappointing. How many of these will still be running around in two years?
With Kemp, Jakovich, Peter Matera, McIntosh and Cummings all in the twilight of their careers, now would have been the ideal time to take a punt on young talent.
There would be some pain in the short term, and wins would be hard to come by. But no more pain than is being experienced at the moment, and at least with young talent there is the hope, enthusiasm and optimism of untapped improvement to sustain you through the dark times.
Watching them at times this year there has been a sense of resignation about the way they have played, and the results would suggest that that has been the case.
History will tell us that, at the Hawks, Judge endured two poor years, 15th in 1997 and 13th in '98, before they began their climb up, eventually missing the finals by half a game in his last year.
Whether or not he gets the chance to orchestrate a similar revival at the West Coast remains to be seen.
With the coaching comings and goings still in full swing for some time yet it will be one to watch closely.
Man the guy is a tool, knows absolutely nothing about WC this season. Our recruits have been crap have they??? Go look at Richard Taylors average stats for the game d***head. Likewise, look at who Carroll has had to face up to this season!
Vis
It's Judgment day for Ken
By Garry Lyon
Thursday, July 26, 2001
Coach may carry can for Eagles' dive
THERE are four teams definitely out of the race for this year's finals.
Two of them sacked their coach mid-season, while another parted ways with its president, for the time being at least, bringing forward an uneasy truce just moments before the outbreak of civil war that, had it happened, would still be waging.
That the war was averted out of respect for the team's performance is perhaps the greatest irony. Melbourne have again fallen victim to the ''roller-coaster syndrome'' that has plagued the club for the best part of a decade.
Neale Daniher warned last year that the club had a history of getting too comfortable with success, and performing poorly the following year. Now, after a Grand Final appearance, they are in the mix for the title of most disappointing team of the year.
Which leaves us with West Coast and the future of its coach Ken Judge. Three wins from 16 games, all of them against its companions in the bottom four on the ladder, an average losing margin of 54 points and the worst percentage of all, (63.3 per cent), including the hapless Freo.
As is always the case, when a side is performing at the level that the Eagles are at the moment, the heat ultimately is turned on the coach.
While the team he parted company with at the end of season 99, and many of the players he nurtured and introduced to football, head towards a position in the top four and their second consecutive finals appearance, Judge will be left to deal with the fallout of leading his side to its second bottom four position in two years.
Priority draft selections will be the reward for such a year. But taking a line through the history of football clubs, highlighted again by events of last week, and their intolerance of mediocrity, there has to be a question about whether Judgey will be around to make those decisions.
Their guns are ageing and tiring, with retirement looming for at least one of their all time greats, their youngsters have stagnated and their middle age bracket have not played the roles that might have been expected of them.
The football world has just about finished feasting itself on the St Kilda carcass, having filled their bellies earlier in the season with Fremantle.
They know they don't have to store anything away for a post-season banquet because the Melbourne board elections will more than sate the appetite there, so right now the blowtorch is being cranked up and the Eagles are looming on the menu.
West Coast are a proud organisation that has enjoyed amazing success.
They were a major player in every finals series in the 90s, enjoying two premierships and the mantle of one of the league's most powerful, financial and imposing clubs.
Sitting back and watching last year's finals campaign for the first time in 10 years would have been a strange experience it would have hoped to rectify very quickly.
But it hasn't happened. In fact, it has got much worse.
The decision to draft a host of players from other clubs was questioned at the start of the year and will be questioned even more strongly at the end.
COLLINGWOOD drafted mature players from other clubs to complement their kids and it has worked. They still have the youngest list in the competition.
The Eagles added Trent Carroll, Michael Collica, Richard Taylor, Greg Harding, Mark Merenda, Michael Prior, David Sierakowski and Troy Wilson. Injury robbed them of Sierakowski and Prior, and that hasn't helped, but the return from the rest would have to rate as disappointing. How many of these will still be running around in two years?
With Kemp, Jakovich, Peter Matera, McIntosh and Cummings all in the twilight of their careers, now would have been the ideal time to take a punt on young talent.
There would be some pain in the short term, and wins would be hard to come by. But no more pain than is being experienced at the moment, and at least with young talent there is the hope, enthusiasm and optimism of untapped improvement to sustain you through the dark times.
Watching them at times this year there has been a sense of resignation about the way they have played, and the results would suggest that that has been the case.
History will tell us that, at the Hawks, Judge endured two poor years, 15th in 1997 and 13th in '98, before they began their climb up, eventually missing the finals by half a game in his last year.
Whether or not he gets the chance to orchestrate a similar revival at the West Coast remains to be seen.
With the coaching comings and goings still in full swing for some time yet it will be one to watch closely.
Man the guy is a tool, knows absolutely nothing about WC this season. Our recruits have been crap have they??? Go look at Richard Taylors average stats for the game d***head. Likewise, look at who Carroll has had to face up to this season!
Vis
