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View Full Version : “How Demons killed the coach they loved, but saved a CEO” or “Why Caro is a hack”



LostDoggy
02-08-2011, 01:46 PM
I just had to point this article out. It is classic Wilson. Full of long-drawn conclusions and gossip. Not one important source named or even alluded to that I can see.

The bolded, italic parts are my comments.


THIS is a story of two sackings. Um, actually Caroline, there's only been one sacking. You've started on the first bloody sentence. Of a coach who met his downfall swiftly thanks to a 31-goal defeat. And of his chief executive, as good as sacked on Friday, Um, according to who? but who gained a last-minute reprieve courtesy of the loss. Yep, they said, “31 goals, well done ol' chum! Here's another year…”
It is also the story of a group of footballers who played with off-field politics and got burnt.
I'll buy that one. Barely.

As they awoke early yesterday from their weekend nightmare, at least three Melbourne players broke down over the telephone in conversations with various assistants of the sacked Dean Bailey. At least three? So was it three? Or 16? How do you know this? Were you tapping their telephones?
One reportedly asked, devastated: ''What has happened to our football club?''
Another appropriate question might have been: ''What have we done?''
Perhaps Bailey's demise would have come in a month anyway. But, after the team's performance at Geelong, certainly one of Bailey and chief executive Cameron Schwab had to go.
The club has denied all season that Schwab and his football lieutenant Chris Connolly were at odds with the coach. But Bailey made it more than clear yesterday that he did not believe he had enjoyed their support. More than clear eh? He preferred to emphasise again how strongly the players had supported him.
Melbourne hosted two separate gruelling and heavily symbolic press conferences amid the fallout from the crisis.
First came a clearly shattered president Jim Stynes with his second-in-charge Don McLardy. Stynes, whose eyesight is failing as one hideous side-effect from his cancer treatment, read from a statement punctuated with heavy pauses. Probably because he's having trouble reading. He admitted liability in the current turmoil: ''I haven't been well. I haven't been able to carry the load I should be carrying.''
McLardy could not say the club was unified and last night could not deny that Schwab was finished at Melbourne before the Geelong humiliation. Code: He didn't want to say squat to Caroline Wilson or any other journo, for that matter. Doesn't mean he's “not denying it”.
As they stood to leave, Bailey, who was standing outside, excused himself to go to the bathroom. This allowed the two men - and Schwab, who had been sitting at the back of the room - to leave without passing the sacked coach. Very well orchestrated, wasn't it? Jim Stynes, though he may look weak and frail at the moment, managed to conspire with Dean Bailey's bladder for the exact timing they needed. Connolly was nowhere to be seen, It's a Monday after a record loss, he's most likely working his arse off while the senior players sat mournfully in the back rows.
The club removed all sponsorship signage from the backdrop when Bailey sat down. Will buy this one too He had been sacked after close to four seasons and a win-loss ratio of less than 30 per cent.
Bailey was asked whether club hero and media commentator Garry Lyon had undermined him after being part of the committee that recommended him in the first place. ''Ask him,'' was the response. This is Caroline saying, “Oh yes, wink wink, I get it, I don't need facts, thanks Dean!”
Lyon denied he had played any role in saving Schwab's job probably because he didn't, but he does seem headed back to the club to oversee a clean-up of what has become a dysfunctional football department. Again, where does she draw this conclusion?
That Lyon will return to help his friend Stynes at a time when Schwab and Connolly have - at least in the short term - kept their jobs and another good friend in Todd Viney is stepping in as caretaker coach, leads to the inescapable ???:eek: conclusion that the old boys' club is back. Another conclusion drawn from her previous one.
But there is plenty more water to flow under this bridge with key directors clearly at odds over who should and should not have been sacked. Sources, Caro? You know, “sources”:

source   
[sawrs, sohrs]
noun, verb, sourced, sourcing.
–noun
1. any thing or place from which something comes, arises, or is obtained; origin: Which foods are sources of calcium?
2. the beginning or place of origin of a stream or river.
3. a book, statement, person, etc., supplying information.

McLardy had called members of the leadership group together last week to clear the air after a build-up of tension had prompted captain Brad Green to make some less than convincing comments in an interview regarding club unity.
Key players in that meeting included Green, Jared Rivers and Nathan Jones. All appeared in complete alliance with their coach, whose relationship with Schwab and Connolly had moved towards untenable. Again, no sources, no facts, no “Says XXXXX”Their grievances, as outlined again to Stynes and McLardy last week, largely boiled down to a lack of trust and faith in that pair.
Over the past year those grievances have included:
■The manner in which several senior players, notably former captain James McDonald, were unloaded last season.
■Ongoing uncertainty among the senior line-up that they too will fall victim to the Schwab-Connolly ''premiership model'' of list management.
■The long and expensive post-season trip to China during which Tom Scully chose to return home early.
■Schwab's inconsistent comments regarding Scully, most recently that the Demons could match the annual $1 million Greater Western Sydney terms.
■Delays in the re-signing of talented young players.
■The lack of consistent structure in the football department and lack of clarity over development resources, headed up earlier this year by Viney.
Where does this list come from?
Several players and coaches and other staff have become increasingly disenchanted after being interviewed by consultant Ray Andrews, whom the Demons' board paid $80,000 to review the club's entire operation. Having opened up, most believed their constructive criticism had been ignored. Further, they felt the report had been buried for political expediency. Source?
Schwab has repeatedly denied that any major reform was required as a result of the report and also rejected criticisms that he had interfered in football matters and of Connolly's performance.
The overwhelming majority of players and coaches reportedly Who's reporting? favoured Bailey as senior coach. By the time they met Stynes last week, several players had reached boiling point. Source? By Friday, when the team travelled with the coaching staff to Geelong, the coaches and the senior players believed that Schwab was about to be sacked. Source?
By Saturday, mentally shattered from the week's off-field distractions, the senior players barely fired a shot. Green had one touch in the first half.
It will remain one of the great ironies in the history of the Melbourne Football Club that a group of players - in backing their coach and attempting to save him - brought about his immediate undoing, while the chief executive was handed a one-year contract extension.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-demons-killed-the-coach-they-loved-but-saved-a-ceo-20110801-1i8az.html#ixzz1Tq0yiCAW

What a ******* hack.

bornadog
02-08-2011, 01:49 PM
I just had to point this article out. It is classic Wilson. Full of long-drawn conclusions and gossip. Not one important source named or even alluded to that I can see.

The bolded, italic parts are my comments.



What a ******* hack.

I would say she was spot on. The same was said ON the Couch, by Gerard Healy and Sheahan.

Desipura
02-08-2011, 01:49 PM
2 weeks ago she stated there was most likely only going to be one coach replaced at the end of the season.

LostDoggy
02-08-2011, 01:50 PM
I would say she was spot on. The same was said ON the Couch, by Gerard Healy and Sheahan.

I'm not arguing whether she was right or not, she's probably spot on the money, but there is very little fact in that article. It's all gossip and back-room whispers. That's fine for us, but she's a journalist, supposed to be reporting the facts.

LostDoggy
02-08-2011, 01:53 PM
The way you've edited your own parts in has made the article unreadable to me

1eyedog
02-08-2011, 01:59 PM
Huh?

If journos referenced the relevant sources there would no longer be any sources.

LostDoggy
02-08-2011, 02:03 PM
Huh?

If journos referenced the relevant sources there would no longer be any sources.

She doesn't even say “Someone close to the club”.

Sedat
02-08-2011, 02:18 PM
A good mate of mine works at the Melbourne Storm, and Caro had to ask him for directions to the Melbourne press conference because she got lost inside AAMI Park. That is how often the chief football writer for The Age attends football related press conferences :rolleyes:

ledge
02-08-2011, 05:15 PM
2 weeks ago she stated there was most likely only going to be one coach replaced at the end of the season.

She could be right, she did say at the end of the season , no mention of how many during the season though.:D

Desipura
03-08-2011, 06:03 AM
She could be right, she did say at the end of the season , no mention of how many during the season though.:D

And that's is the kind of response she would give to defend herself.

Ghost Dog
03-08-2011, 07:04 AM
Former Demon Adem Yze, who was dropped during the period in contention despite a storied career, weighed into the issue on Twitter when commenting on Dean Bailey’s demise.

"Tanking creates a losing culture! The people behind that decision are the ones that should be sacked!!!"

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-admits-tanking-concern-20110802-1i96m.html#ixzz1TuKH13DP

ledge
03-08-2011, 09:54 AM
So Adam as a player at that time is admitting tanking was done, AFL has kept noticably quiet on this subject.