These posts are excellent. At last some earnest discussion about what has REALLY been holding us back for 20+ years.
I have been saying for years now that one of the biggest problems we have at Richmond is our hopeless recruiting – and Greg Beckwit has just got to be held accountable. However, in saying that, I believe that our poor recruiting is not mutually exclusive of other problems we have at Richmond. An explanation:
For so long now we have had extraordinarily poor quality Boards in terms of pure football acumen. Refer Tony ‘Colonel Sanders’ Jewell and Peter “Woosie” Welsh as our current contributors.
Geez. The Colonel is the Football Director at the club. What a joke ! His performance on the Footy Show last year where he incited Carlton before the game was typical of the Colonel. I don’t give a rats whether he is our last Premiership coach or not. As a Football Director he’s an absolute fool who has been involved for way, way too long. You wonder why we can’t ever get truly high level coaches like Malthouse and Sheedy to join us ? Board quality, specifically as it relates to pure football matters, is one of your prime reasons. It was the very reason why we couldn’t even land someone like Bomber Thompson and we ended up having to take “I would have thought” Frawley as a 5th option.
And the result of having such a poor quality board in terms of football nous, means that ultimately, we as supporters end up enduring poor decisions, or appointments, to the Football Department. This means coaches (e.g. “Geisha Gal” Geischen and “I would have thought” Frawley), Recruiting Managers (e.g. Beckwit) and Football Managers (e.g. Trevor Poolside). This is the calibre of personnel that end up filling the crucial roles within our club.
So, what we end up having is the recruiting of poor players to play under poor coaches, who as a result of poor performances ultimately end up getting sacked but replaced with people who are just as bad because we have an inadequate Board that’s making the replacement decisions.....and then around and around we go…. year after year…. It’s a vicious circle that we have been unable to get out of for over 20 years.
Perhaps the bright side is that President Nut Casey may realise this – hence his appointment of Harry M. Miller. I’m told that he made that appointment without any consultation with the Board what so ever (which incidentally infuriated the Colonel who almost choked on a breast fillet).
You can write off our immediate future unless we take the following steps at the end of this year:
1. Time to get the likes of the Andrew Ireland's of this world on our board, and the Brian Cook's as our CEO, so the right decisions such as those in respect of points 2 and 3 below can be made.
2. Sack Big Kev and co. Via Harry M., the new board should establish for the first time since Hafey, a %$@$ half decent coach who is prepared to make the tough decisions and deal with points 4, 5, and 6 below. What I’m saying here, is a coach like Malthouse who at Scumwood had the smarts and guts to realise he would go nowhere unless he cleaned out all the crap that had been there for so long. My God, when will this ever happen at RFC ? When ? When ?!!!!
3. Sack Beckwit. Via Harry M., the new board should establish for the first time in 10 years, a &^%$ half decent Recruiting Manager who will not deliver ridiculously poor recruits - young and old year after year. Fair dinkum, this year’s recruiting was an insult to members.
4. Where contracts permit, sack or de-list the following players: Dog Rogers, Burger King, Dudiscombe, Kayne Petrified, Andrew Millstone, Royce Hardly, Cameron Diaz, D. Chumpaway, Houladud etc.
5. Negotiate, where possible, the best deals we can get for: Joelette Bowden, Squibendale, Sh.t Truck Holland, Ty Wood Duck , Aaron Fiona. If it has the guts, include Brad Softtens in this category also.
6. Basically, the whole club and its supporters to accept the fact it may take 3-4 years to re-build from the ^*smile* gross level of ineptitude that we currently reside at.
As far as points 4 and 5 go, people are going to have their opinions on some of these players - and some due to contractual reasons we may be stuck with. But that’s not the point. Regardless, we just must have a big clean out of our players and capture as many of the overrated duds through the process as we possibly can. Enough is enough.
To right this massive, but constantly listing ship, we need some quality personnel at the helm who can make some astute appointments within the engine room, such that paying passengers like ourselves can all enjoy (eventually) some fair weather sailing for once on the good ol' S.S. Richmond. I don't know about you guys, but I can't take much more of this rough weather and the resulting sea sickness these "unchartered waters" are presenting.
Bon Voyage.
I think a very big reason why we are not a champion team is because of our recruiting people. This is where it all starts. I mean in the end, who you recruit and who you have out on the field win matches. Coaches, etc... can only do so much. It's the quality & skill of the players under pressure, in a match, that win games. You can look good on the training track, where no quick decisions are needed to be made, not under game pressure and look to have fantastic skills. In the end you can't teach footy brains, and evasiveness, etc...
I think that recruiting will be his undoing.
