Wallace says cutbacks caused Dog fight

[alwaysadog]

Spot on. We can criticise Wallace and blame him for our woes and yes he does deserve some blame, but the decision to appoint Rhode.....the "Cheap as Chips" option had implications.....not the smartest thing that Smorgo and Rose have done.

Yes FrediK with the benefit of hindsight what you say has an undeniable logic, but at the time the decision was not solely based on dollars. The players were strongly behind Rhode and as he had coached with considerable success in SA he appeared a good bet.

Rather than just stand back and pointing to a problem I like to try and identify what went wrong so that we can be alert to it happenning again.

I think that the club learnt a lot from that appointment as evidenced by the process that was used to replace him.

I'd be interested to know where you thought the process of Rhodes' appointment was faulty.

[The Coon Dog]

I'd be interested to know where you thought the process of Rhodes' appointment was faulty.

About that time a number of senior players came out publicly endorsing Peter Rohde. That may or may not of had a bearing on whether the board thought he was the best man for the job, but I'm sure it didn't hurt him.

[alwaysadog]

About that time a number of senior players came out publicly endorsing Peter Rohde. That may or may not of had a bearing on whether the board thought he was the best man for the job, but I'm sure it didn't hurt him.

That I think is the nub of where the appointment process went wrong. There was an assumption made that basically we had got things pretty right and all that was needed was to keep things ticking over and to win back the players.

So IMHO the wrong questions were being posed and the wrong issues were being explored. Mind you the idea that we just needed to bolster the team with a few mature recruits till the kids came through should have been more carefully examined in the light of the Jakovich et al recruitment of only a few years previously but it was still a widely held belief that you could top up and be successful.

Then the senior players were keen in encouraging Rohde who initially at least appeared somewhat reluctant to apply. All this meant that we didn't explore the full range of situations and pressures that a coach faces, nor the issues of the different skill sets that an assistant needs compared to the main coach.

[ledge]

Was it a nasty split with Rhode and do any hold grudges or was it mutual and all tied up in the opposite manner of Terry Wallet?

[azabob]

Was it a nasty split with Rhode and do any hold grudges or was it mutual and all tied up in the opposite manner of Terry Wallet?

I guess it depends who you are. Bottom line Rhode was sacked in the middle of a contract. Terminating the contract was the right decision. You can't really compare it to the Wallace situation due to the fact Rhode hadn't coached the club to Finals and there wasn't too much history between the two parties. If anything the club went backwards.

I would assume Rhode would've been disapointed with the decision.