I'll preface what I'm about to say by stating that I believe we currently have a significantly better list for future years than what we have had at any stage since Bartlett got dumped for not getting results fast enough.
The "Wasted Decade" thread title refers to the perpetual off-field debacles that have plagued this club since our last premiership.
At the end of this season we'll have (hopefully) honoured two successive 5yr contract spans with coaches, but in the process done absolutely nothing to remove the shameful and highly destructive tag that we 'eat our own' and are a completely dysfunctional club in almost constant turmoil. In actual fact, in the last year and last week we'll have enhanced that reputation to the point where it may well hang over the club's head forever just waiting for us to slip up again (even if we do have some success), rather than just the last couple of decades.
Fair enough, if you made a mistake and a coaching appointee is actually a poor coach who came in with no proven record, make a change, live and learn.
In Frawley's case, it was fairly obvious to much of the football world that he did actually fail in key areas - topping up when 2001 was a one-off season where a lot of things fell our way, not recruiting at all for the future, being solely responsible for making players like Fiora think they could coast through their first 100 games, continuing to foster a poor culture and attitude among senior and junior players, being a poor tactical coach etc.
Wallace however, may not be well loved, but he is very well respected as a coach in the highest football circles (i.e. coaches and 'smart' former and current players - NOT the media nitwits) for very good reason.
His head to head record against the best coaches of his era speaks for itself, as does the fact he was able to get enough from a ragtag bunch of willing goers at the Dogs to have them knocking off the 'invincible' Bombers who had arguably the best list on paper so far this century at the time.
His pace derived run and carry, hard-ball winning style of gameplan has been adopted at least in part by many other coaches and throughout his coaching career he's been a perpetual source of innovation and forward thinking.
Given our reputation, our miserable finances and the playing list at the end of 2004, we were incredibly fortunate to land a coach of Wallace's calibre.
How did the club react to this thoroughly undeserved stroke of fortune?
Obvious internal pressure to go from spoon winning club to finals contender immediately.
Coterie group members not only agitating for the return of Sheedy almost immediately after Wallace took over, but also offering to bankroll the coup...all while our football department was the most shamefully under-resourced in the comp and our clubrooms and facilities were a disgrace.
Expectations from within that many of our draft selections in the early Wallace years would become champions while still in their teens and early 20's.
The usual lack of grit and backbone from our few senior 'leaders' when Nathan Brown stopped performing miracles in '05.
--------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Wallace patiently explained the state of our list in great detail, that it would take 6-7 years for our list to start peaking via the younger players (as opposed to the senior and mid-age players we already knew couldn't be relied upon often enough when it counted), and that he hoped that at the end of his 5yr contract we would be set up to play regular finals and over the following few years start gaining the experience and unity needed to seriously challenge for a flag.
Plain old common sense and a passing knowledge of the time it takes MOST juniors to become mature bodied, good AFL players indicates that he was spot on in his assessment.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is an outright fool in the football sense.
Rather than take Wallace's realistic assessment onboard as solid, fact based wisdom...
We sacked Miller (the bloke who probably most sealed the deal for Wallace to come and work with us) and replaced him with the bloke who built the league cellar dweller's list after we yet again embarrassed ourselves by not being able to attract any genuinely worthwhile replacements.
We let a former player and now boardmember with apparently no media nouse whatsoever embarrass us in the media with very little repercussion.
Our club president very publicly turned the blowtorch on a proven senior coach employed to develop young players at the 3.5yr mark of his contract and that coach has had to suffer the resulting rumour, innuendo and consequences ever since, culminating in our latest 'oh so Richmond' farce.
We appointed a former captain who was a renowned political agitator and divider at the club who has obvious aspirations for the senior coaching job as an assistant coach.
We have a current captain and last year's captain allegedly going out of their way to get the coach sacked and certainly (once again) have a truckload of unaddressed dissent in the playing ranks.
Neverending humiliating leaks from internal sources have gone on for decades without ever being addressed with a zero tolerance policy which is enforced from the highest level down.
----------------------------------------
Had we taken the Geelong route where a strong, long-sighted president decided the senior coach and head of the football department were the right men for the job and the best candidates we could attract, backed them absolutely at all times publicly, conducted a wide sweeping review undertaken by an external organisation, addressed our problems honestly at every level, and presented an always united front to the media and public, we would not be in our current abominable position.
Where will the genuine quality players we currently have be in a few years from now due to recent events?
Where will men like Steven Wright who have done so well for us be in a few years?
How did we manage to let football geniuses and outstanding communicators like Andy Collins slip from our grasp?
What chance do we have of attracting anyone genuinely capable of getting us back on track when internal incompetence from the highest level down which has nothing to do with actual football keeps derailing every attempt to get us back on track?
Wallace was and is a competent coach, savvy with the political stuff, self-confident, has a hide like an elephant, and was perceived as big enough to ride the usual Richmond BS.
And yet we've managed to shred him too.
I'm not upset about our results this season, they're merely disappointing in the short term.
What really upsets me is that the backroom 'powerbrokers' who have nothing to do with football in a playing or coaching sense have sabotaged and obliterated our club's reputation yet again and it seems that this will never, ever change.
The media will only hang you if you give them enough rope - we do it over and over again.
Every time it happens we get one step closer to being a club that nobody worthwhile wants to work for, play for, or be associated with at a professional level.
A couple of bumps in the road and hiccups in the long-term master plan and the wheels have totally fallen off yet again.
Until we fix the internal discipline and 'now not later' problems which go right to the top of the club's off-field heirarchy, we have no chance of improving.
Does anyone have the slightest bit of confidence that an internal mid-season review conducted by the same incompetent, backstabbing clowns who caused many of the problems is going to put us on the right track?
I don't and I can't see how anyone could, so where does that leave us?
Board coup?
A patron saint who doesn't appear to exist?
Or an endless repetition of the same old same old at Richmond?
The "Wasted Decade" thread title refers to the perpetual off-field debacles that have plagued this club since our last premiership.
At the end of this season we'll have (hopefully) honoured two successive 5yr contract spans with coaches, but in the process done absolutely nothing to remove the shameful and highly destructive tag that we 'eat our own' and are a completely dysfunctional club in almost constant turmoil. In actual fact, in the last year and last week we'll have enhanced that reputation to the point where it may well hang over the club's head forever just waiting for us to slip up again (even if we do have some success), rather than just the last couple of decades.
Fair enough, if you made a mistake and a coaching appointee is actually a poor coach who came in with no proven record, make a change, live and learn.
In Frawley's case, it was fairly obvious to much of the football world that he did actually fail in key areas - topping up when 2001 was a one-off season where a lot of things fell our way, not recruiting at all for the future, being solely responsible for making players like Fiora think they could coast through their first 100 games, continuing to foster a poor culture and attitude among senior and junior players, being a poor tactical coach etc.
Wallace however, may not be well loved, but he is very well respected as a coach in the highest football circles (i.e. coaches and 'smart' former and current players - NOT the media nitwits) for very good reason.
His head to head record against the best coaches of his era speaks for itself, as does the fact he was able to get enough from a ragtag bunch of willing goers at the Dogs to have them knocking off the 'invincible' Bombers who had arguably the best list on paper so far this century at the time.
His pace derived run and carry, hard-ball winning style of gameplan has been adopted at least in part by many other coaches and throughout his coaching career he's been a perpetual source of innovation and forward thinking.
Given our reputation, our miserable finances and the playing list at the end of 2004, we were incredibly fortunate to land a coach of Wallace's calibre.
How did the club react to this thoroughly undeserved stroke of fortune?
Obvious internal pressure to go from spoon winning club to finals contender immediately.
Coterie group members not only agitating for the return of Sheedy almost immediately after Wallace took over, but also offering to bankroll the coup...all while our football department was the most shamefully under-resourced in the comp and our clubrooms and facilities were a disgrace.
Expectations from within that many of our draft selections in the early Wallace years would become champions while still in their teens and early 20's.
The usual lack of grit and backbone from our few senior 'leaders' when Nathan Brown stopped performing miracles in '05.
--------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Wallace patiently explained the state of our list in great detail, that it would take 6-7 years for our list to start peaking via the younger players (as opposed to the senior and mid-age players we already knew couldn't be relied upon often enough when it counted), and that he hoped that at the end of his 5yr contract we would be set up to play regular finals and over the following few years start gaining the experience and unity needed to seriously challenge for a flag.
Plain old common sense and a passing knowledge of the time it takes MOST juniors to become mature bodied, good AFL players indicates that he was spot on in his assessment.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is an outright fool in the football sense.
Rather than take Wallace's realistic assessment onboard as solid, fact based wisdom...
We sacked Miller (the bloke who probably most sealed the deal for Wallace to come and work with us) and replaced him with the bloke who built the league cellar dweller's list after we yet again embarrassed ourselves by not being able to attract any genuinely worthwhile replacements.
We let a former player and now boardmember with apparently no media nouse whatsoever embarrass us in the media with very little repercussion.
Our club president very publicly turned the blowtorch on a proven senior coach employed to develop young players at the 3.5yr mark of his contract and that coach has had to suffer the resulting rumour, innuendo and consequences ever since, culminating in our latest 'oh so Richmond' farce.
We appointed a former captain who was a renowned political agitator and divider at the club who has obvious aspirations for the senior coaching job as an assistant coach.
We have a current captain and last year's captain allegedly going out of their way to get the coach sacked and certainly (once again) have a truckload of unaddressed dissent in the playing ranks.
Neverending humiliating leaks from internal sources have gone on for decades without ever being addressed with a zero tolerance policy which is enforced from the highest level down.
----------------------------------------
Had we taken the Geelong route where a strong, long-sighted president decided the senior coach and head of the football department were the right men for the job and the best candidates we could attract, backed them absolutely at all times publicly, conducted a wide sweeping review undertaken by an external organisation, addressed our problems honestly at every level, and presented an always united front to the media and public, we would not be in our current abominable position.
Where will the genuine quality players we currently have be in a few years from now due to recent events?
Where will men like Steven Wright who have done so well for us be in a few years?
How did we manage to let football geniuses and outstanding communicators like Andy Collins slip from our grasp?
What chance do we have of attracting anyone genuinely capable of getting us back on track when internal incompetence from the highest level down which has nothing to do with actual football keeps derailing every attempt to get us back on track?
Wallace was and is a competent coach, savvy with the political stuff, self-confident, has a hide like an elephant, and was perceived as big enough to ride the usual Richmond BS.
And yet we've managed to shred him too.
I'm not upset about our results this season, they're merely disappointing in the short term.
What really upsets me is that the backroom 'powerbrokers' who have nothing to do with football in a playing or coaching sense have sabotaged and obliterated our club's reputation yet again and it seems that this will never, ever change.
The media will only hang you if you give them enough rope - we do it over and over again.
Every time it happens we get one step closer to being a club that nobody worthwhile wants to work for, play for, or be associated with at a professional level.
A couple of bumps in the road and hiccups in the long-term master plan and the wheels have totally fallen off yet again.
Until we fix the internal discipline and 'now not later' problems which go right to the top of the club's off-field heirarchy, we have no chance of improving.
Does anyone have the slightest bit of confidence that an internal mid-season review conducted by the same incompetent, backstabbing clowns who caused many of the problems is going to put us on the right track?
I don't and I can't see how anyone could, so where does that leave us?
Board coup?
A patron saint who doesn't appear to exist?
Or an endless repetition of the same old same old at Richmond?
