That may seem harsh and I am sorry for all the Kevin Sheedy & Richmond fans out there but lets look at the facts.
I have discussed old coaches and the current trend of younger men taking up the job previously in “Do old coaches have a place in the AFL?“. In the last 5 years, the coaches who have lead a team into a premiership none of the coaches were older than 46.
- 2008 – Alistar Clarkson aged: 40
- 2007 – Mark Thompson aged: 44
- 2006 – John Worsfold aged: 38
- 2005 – Paul Roos aged: 42
- 2004 – Mark Williams aged: 46
Kevin Sheedy is 61 years old and has not coached a serious Grand Final contender team for 8 years and 8 years is a long time in football years.
- Williams started building his team in 1999 at age 41
- Paul Roos started building a team that Rodney Eade failed building in 2002 at age 39
- John Worsfold built his premiership team in 2002 at age 33.
- Mark Thompson took longer but battled debt and Culture issues and started at 2000 aged 37.
- And Alistar Clarkson took four years to get a premiership after building a team from scratch and started at age 36.
History is against Kevin Sheedy as it would take him at least 3-4 years to build a serious premiership team and he failed to do that in his last 5 years of coaching Essendon and Wallace and Frawley also failed in their five years.
While Sheedy is not the answer as the main head coach, how much of a benefit would he be for a new rookie coach like Rawlings, Hardwick, Hinkley etc if he acted as a football manager or a similar role where he help guides and take the pressure of him. This imo is where Kevin Sheedy should be at Richmond next year.
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July 7th, 2009 at 10:13 am
First let me say that I’m not sure that Sheedy is the right man for Richmond. But I don’t think that age is the most relevant reason.
The problem with analysing AFL for trends with coaches is that it is such a tiny pool. The question that I heard Gerard Wateley use on the radio a few weeks ago was “How is it possible that AFL has it right, and the rest of the sporting world has it wrong”. Because there is no other sport in the world that doesn’t consider coaches of similar age and experience to be absolutely worth their weight in gold.
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July 7th, 2009 at 10:54 am
True! I hear what your saying Geoff but the difference between AFL & the other sports like Soccer, American Football etc imo is that AFL (way its been played/ tactics etc) is changing ever so quickly where the others do not as much.
5-6 years ago it was 2+ kicks to every handball but now due to West Coast, Adelaide in the 2005-6 years and now currently Geelong you have almost more handballs than kicks. This means that total disposals over 300 almost happens every day.
Also would you not say that Essendon looks more dangerous of playing finals under coach Knights now than what Sheedy’s team ever did since 2002??
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July 7th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I disagree with your comment about the tactics changing so quickly. I think that a young coach is much more likely to automatically copy-cat what he sees the best team/teams in the league doing, rather than creating a game-plan that suits the team of players that you have. The reason Geelong’s game-plan works is because it suits the players that it has at the moment. Unfortunately Terry Wallace just tried to copy the same plan, which doesn’t work for the players Richmond has on the park. So what you need is a coach who has the experience to look at the players you have; analyse them carefull, and create a game-plan that takes into account.
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July 7th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I would have thought it was obvious that tactics change quickly, I agree that you cannot go around copying everyone elses strategy as that just puts you behind the 8 ball.
A good example of coaches copying apart from Wallace (who I never rated as a coach anyway) is the Hawks rolling zone. I cannot remember how many times teams tried the 18 man zone on the weekend and almost every time they where exposed and a loose player in the attacking 50m had time to stroll in and score.
It happened against the Eagles at least 3 times and happened in the Cats/ Saints game a few times as well.
In regards to your young coaches copy tactics comment. I would have thought it would be the other way around with the old coaches copying, ie your Wallace comment, Thompson copying Craig & Worsfold possession game. The new coaches in Clarkson and Knights have all brought new game plans and tactics.
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July 7th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I remember the certainty of youth. It’s so comforting to have all the answers. As you grow toward “a certain age”, you realise that, not only do you not have all the answers, you don’t even know many of the questions!
Jermayn, age is about the LAST criterion clubs should use.
Years of continuous service in what has become an increasingly high-pressure job might well be an issue. I think Sheedy was tired of Essendon and Essendon was tired of Sheedy at the end. I was at the Glory & Fame celebration of the back to back flags of ’84 and ’85 on Saturday night and Sheedy got as big an ovation as anyone else. Essendon still loves Sheedy and part of him still loves Essendon.
With 18 months away from the pressure, perhaps Sheedy IS ready to take it all on again, with new surroundings, a brand new player group, new challenges.
Why does his age say he cannot be innovative again, blended with the experience of 27 years — a potentially powerful combination.
The truth is, just like fashion, there’s very little in football that’s genuinely new. “New” often means a slightly different take on “old”.
I’m also not sure Sheedy is right for Richmond, but he does have form (resurrecting an Essendon that was a veritable basket case in 1980) and plenty of support from the terraces. There are plenty of positives that can be expected.
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July 7th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I am not saying that youth has the answers, I’m old enough to realise that
Nor am I saying that “age” is a criteria as your right, coaching ability should be first…
However what youth does bring is the ability to think outside the box, they are not worried about their “reputation” and they also have this recklessness attitude that is not afraid of doing something strange and stupid.
While Sheedy sure did that in the early 80s (I was babe in arms them, so going on history) he was unable or unwilling to do that in the last 5-6 years he coached at Essendon and it showed by their lack of results.
I also think that when bringing in an established coach you expect ‘results’ sooner but when you pick up a junior coach, you also buy your club an extra few years.
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July 7th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
What Carolyn Wilson had to say may bear merit. She said the players had grown tired of not knowing who they were playing on up until the day of the match, and the disorganised (or at least it appears that way) nature of Sheedy.
I really hope that for Richmonds sake they stick to their plan and dont allow themselves to be swayed by public opinion. I think they handled reasonably well the whole Wallace sacking. (Apart from the meeting with the captain being leaked)
Lets hope for their sake they can handle the appointment of their new coach with as much sensibility.
Mark E´s last blog ..Offering time…..
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July 7th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Lateral thinking is not, never has been, and never will be the exclusive domain of youth.
I would suggest the young coach is less likely to be revolutionary, more concerned with shoring up their position and building a winning reputation, building a career.
I don’t think Sheedy’s last couple of years at Essendon were cruelled by lack of innovation or lateral thinking. Coach and playing group tired of each other perhaps. Key injuries at crucial times and some risky drafting decisions that didn’t pay off also played a part.
@ Mark E: the key word in Wilson’s description is “grown”, and after 27 years, it’s hardly surprising. For the Richmond blokes, a few years of Sheedy would be a blessed release after the high-pitched whine of Plough and the neanderthal murmurings of Frawley for nearly a decade.
aussierulesblog´s last blog ..The season is ‘alive’ again
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July 7th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Actually, that’s exactly what you’re saying. Look at the piece you posted. Age is the central theme of it.
aussierulesblog´s last blog ..The season is ‘alive’ again
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July 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Ok first of all, thanks for the continuation of comments AussieRules & Mark E!
@AussieRules – Yes I did make mention of age in my original post but my aim was not creating a “criteria” that the clubs must follow, but rather just stating the facts that clubs today in the AFL go for younger coaches instead of the older coaches like Sheedy. The recent premiership coaches are all 15+ years younger than Sheedy is at the moment.
You would think so but which current “new trends/ game plan” like the Cluster zone, handball crazy and the rotation of the bench etc has been started by an older established coach like Sheedy?
In looking at the last 10-15 years, it is the younger coaches who bring new ideas and game plans:
- Eade & Wallace (late 90s) with their flooding,
- Malthouse in the 90s with the Eagles big bodies,
- Pagans Paddock in the 90s,
- Roos with his American Football ideas,
- Neil Craig with his defensive strategies,
- Clarksons rolling zone in the last few years and
- Worsfold, Craig & Thompson high disposal count game plan.
If you look at some of the names in the above list like Pagan, Eade, Wallace & Malthouse none of them have created anything new recently.
Malthouse has re-invented himself by copying the Interchange crazy strategy and it has imo helped him stay in the game as a coach. But others like Pagan who refused to try something different, is no longer coaching & Wallace as mentioned by Geoff tried to copy a game plan to a team it did not suit and he is also no longer coaching…
Make of it as you wish but where I am sitting, it is these young coaches that tend to bring something new to the game rather than the older guys. btw I am glad we do not always agree, makes these discussions interesting
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July 8th, 2009 at 9:34 am
First of all I don’t think age should be a factor, in the end it always comes down to ability to coach. Personally I think it’s past Sheeds.
Am I the only one who thinks the whole ‘Sheedy wants to coach again’ thing ridiculous? From the moment I saw it on the Herald Sun website I thought to myself that this is just a publicity stunt.
In my opinion Sheedy knows and always knew that he wasn’t a chance to coach Richmond next year.
For this to come out in the herald sun, with pictures attached to the article says to me that this is just a stunt pulled by the Herald Sun & Sheedy. You only have to look at the stuff he’s done to promote their supercoach competition to see how he’s sold himself out there.
I’m not buying in to it at all.
AFL Betting Blog´s last blog ..Highest placed interstate team
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July 9th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I agree its all a media ploy BUT I think Richmond is almost dumb enough to think Sheedy could be the answer…
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July 12th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
My call on the thing being nothing more than a publicity stunt seems to have been proved.
I hope the Herald Sun sold lots of papers from it
AFL Betting Blog´s last blog ..Preview: West Coast vs St Kilda
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July 13th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Yeh as soon as I saw the newspaper on the Sunday Football Show I remembered your tip. Looks like you where right but I think most people did think it was only a publicity stunt..
As if you would not have known about the original interview from Richmond coach March, what a cop out! You can tell he is not in the channel 9 payroll
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November 13th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Jermayn
You are pretty dumb and typical of of most media writers. You make a call on what the AFL is trying to do in NSW by being critical or sensational. Are you subscribing to the cheap trick of being sensational in order to get attention to this issue? Or are you a lackey of Rugby?
It might be more effective if you acknowledge that you are in fact an outsider who has never displayed any importance in AFL or proven qualification to speak with authority through you efforts and that your opinion is simply one of 21 million voices in the Australian wilderness.
Provide objective analysis or get a life.
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November 16th, 2009 at 9:36 am
1) Thanks for your comment
2) I live in Perth and am not a rugby lackey.
3) If you read my posts (and not just this one ie: Sheedy to GWS), you will read (if you can understand it) that I think Sheedy going to GWS is a GREAT MOVE.
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