BulldogBelle
25-06-2008, 11:07 PM
Even though this is not a Bulldog related article...I though it interesting that Peter Rhode yes yes that's the one - our ex coach is to spearhead a Port Adelaide review of their football operations department.
The article is written by Adelaide's much loved journalist Michelangelo Rucci...
Port's good, hard look (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23917848-5016212,00.html)
June 25, 2008
PORT Adelaide is following the hugely successful lead of Geelong and the Western Bulldogs by ordering a full review of its football operations.
Power chief executive John James has empowered football operations manager Peter Rohde to lead the most extensive analysis at Alberton since 2000. And, as the review process at Geelong in 2006 irritated Cats coach Mark Thompson, it has appeared to annoy Williams - as it did in 2000.
Most challenging for Williams is how the review will engage outside consultants - and is not to be rushed to a deadline.
While Williams is to spend the next nine weeks of Port's disappointing home-and-away season reviewing his 40-man list, James wants Rohde to deliver a blueprint on how the Power can re-establish itself as a long-standing AFL force.
The review will identify exactly what Port needs and is lacking in its current football division.
By referring to outside consultants - as the Power board ordered in 2000 - the review is designed to ensure the blueprint for Port's future is not based on a blinkered internal vision.
From the outside, four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy - a mentor to Williams - has endorsed the review process made most famous by Geelong chief executive Brian Cook.
His lengthy review - which was never designed to undermine Thompson, just as Port's process is not to derail Williams - ultimately fulfilled Thompson's program to end the 44-year premiership drought at Kardinia Park.
Sheedy notes: "It's funny how a review can spark a turnaround. Geelong did it and boom - they won a flag the next season.
"Now the Western Bulldogs have a great chance to follow suit.
"Everything was laid out on the table after last season and the edict to (coach Rodney) Eade was the same as it was to Mark Thompson - just go out and coach."
Williams is to make his regular mid-season review to the Power board on Monday when the informal agenda also was to include the offer to extend his contract which expires at the end of next season.
The context of this meeting has significantly changed.
Williams' review will tell the board where he thinks Port is at. But more meaningful - in telling where the Power must go - will be Rohde's review which might not be completed until September.
Williams, in his strained press conference at Alberton on Monday, seemed far from comfortable with this change of dynamics.
Asked for his thoughts of the recent reviews at Geelong and the Western Bulldogs and how they helped Thompson and Eade, Williams responded: "What specifically? I don't understand it."
Asked if Port needed to have the same type of review, Williams said: "Ever since I have been here, mid-season we have an extensive review and at the end of the season we do the same. Every year we find something for the second half of the year that we try to improve on before the year is finished.
"Whether it is in our premiership year (2004) or a poor year. We will find some things. We will spend some time talking to . . . whether it is the stats experts, the fitness experts, the coaching experts. We will spend time with all of those and the leadership experts as well and try to get a good mix of what we might be able to do and what we might be able to change.
"We will certainly bat down the path that is best for our club."
Asked who should lead the review, Williams - with his facial expression telling more than his words - said: "It will be . . . it is always led by the football manager . . . with basically outside consultants we look to."
Port already has made one decision on its future by extending the contract of 20-year-old defender Paul Stewart until the end of 2010. Drafted by the Power as a second-round pick (No. 23) in 2006, Stewart has after seven games emerged as a promising running defender.
The Power also has added Broken Hill teenager Simon O'Brien as a NSW scholarship holder.
The article is written by Adelaide's much loved journalist Michelangelo Rucci...
Port's good, hard look (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23917848-5016212,00.html)
June 25, 2008
PORT Adelaide is following the hugely successful lead of Geelong and the Western Bulldogs by ordering a full review of its football operations.
Power chief executive John James has empowered football operations manager Peter Rohde to lead the most extensive analysis at Alberton since 2000. And, as the review process at Geelong in 2006 irritated Cats coach Mark Thompson, it has appeared to annoy Williams - as it did in 2000.
Most challenging for Williams is how the review will engage outside consultants - and is not to be rushed to a deadline.
While Williams is to spend the next nine weeks of Port's disappointing home-and-away season reviewing his 40-man list, James wants Rohde to deliver a blueprint on how the Power can re-establish itself as a long-standing AFL force.
The review will identify exactly what Port needs and is lacking in its current football division.
By referring to outside consultants - as the Power board ordered in 2000 - the review is designed to ensure the blueprint for Port's future is not based on a blinkered internal vision.
From the outside, four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy - a mentor to Williams - has endorsed the review process made most famous by Geelong chief executive Brian Cook.
His lengthy review - which was never designed to undermine Thompson, just as Port's process is not to derail Williams - ultimately fulfilled Thompson's program to end the 44-year premiership drought at Kardinia Park.
Sheedy notes: "It's funny how a review can spark a turnaround. Geelong did it and boom - they won a flag the next season.
"Now the Western Bulldogs have a great chance to follow suit.
"Everything was laid out on the table after last season and the edict to (coach Rodney) Eade was the same as it was to Mark Thompson - just go out and coach."
Williams is to make his regular mid-season review to the Power board on Monday when the informal agenda also was to include the offer to extend his contract which expires at the end of next season.
The context of this meeting has significantly changed.
Williams' review will tell the board where he thinks Port is at. But more meaningful - in telling where the Power must go - will be Rohde's review which might not be completed until September.
Williams, in his strained press conference at Alberton on Monday, seemed far from comfortable with this change of dynamics.
Asked for his thoughts of the recent reviews at Geelong and the Western Bulldogs and how they helped Thompson and Eade, Williams responded: "What specifically? I don't understand it."
Asked if Port needed to have the same type of review, Williams said: "Ever since I have been here, mid-season we have an extensive review and at the end of the season we do the same. Every year we find something for the second half of the year that we try to improve on before the year is finished.
"Whether it is in our premiership year (2004) or a poor year. We will find some things. We will spend some time talking to . . . whether it is the stats experts, the fitness experts, the coaching experts. We will spend time with all of those and the leadership experts as well and try to get a good mix of what we might be able to do and what we might be able to change.
"We will certainly bat down the path that is best for our club."
Asked who should lead the review, Williams - with his facial expression telling more than his words - said: "It will be . . . it is always led by the football manager . . . with basically outside consultants we look to."
Port already has made one decision on its future by extending the contract of 20-year-old defender Paul Stewart until the end of 2010. Drafted by the Power as a second-round pick (No. 23) in 2006, Stewart has after seven games emerged as a promising running defender.
The Power also has added Broken Hill teenager Simon O'Brien as a NSW scholarship holder.