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Adios Brian Royal


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Nice.

Let's not be too uncharitable. It's hard to assess how much blame should be apportioned to Royal when one considers the cattle he had to work with.

He was unable to do much with the stock he had at Footscray, Richmond or St Kilda either.

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When Ratten was at MFC our midfield looked to be improving.

Even when Scott West was midfield coach there were signs of life and improvement.

During Royal's second stint there have been diminishing skills, lack of grunt, and being killed at stoppages. I am so glad he is gone.

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Agreed...I liken Royal's task in coaching our midfield to that wonderful line from the film Christine - "you cant polish a turd".

Roos was always going to bring his own people in. Does Roos know how good BR is or isnt in the two days he has been with us ? I suspect he has asked people with knowledge prior to his in the club if there are any coaches that are really worth keeping hence it looks like Rawlings is the only one who is staying.

If anyone outside the inner sanctum would like to judge our assistants coaches - every one of them including Rawling should go and Viney as well for the complete lack of development. Lets get rid of the new recruiter as well because Toumpas hasnt done as well as Wines. Misson certainly has to go. Glad Craig is goingto after our last two seasons.

I find it amusing that we stick the boots into Royal but we give respect to Craig as he comes across as a good bloke - but the main reason Craig was brought in was to mentor, council and and help mould the first time coach in Neeld - how did he do with that task ? From an outsiders perspective Craig was as epic a fail as Royal was.

I think we have little insight to these things and if Roos wants them to stay thats good and if he wants them gone thats also good - but I won't slag off any of the departing.

Actually you can. I watched it done on 'Mythbusters'.

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I am rejoicing though as we finally have some genuine football people running the club who know what it takes to compete at AFL level. Roos in particular. Didn't win a GF by identifying and employing 2nd or 3rd bananas in critical roles throughout the Swans' FD.

It's finally happening and if I was 20 years younger I'd be attempting cartwheels right now!!

I'm as happy as anyone that we have Roos, but we heard this when Bailey and Neeld were hired.

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Royal was a very, very good midfielder in a time when he was called a rover and rested in the forward pocket. He had a distinctive kicking action, wasn't a long kick but was a very good kick. Often playing on muddy grounds he could go all day, and seemed to run across the mud easily. He was a bit yappy - we might call him a sledger .

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What was Royal like as a player back in the day?

A bloody good one. Rover.....back when such things existed

Some pretty graceless comments on here. He's tries to run a midfield with only one midfielder up to scratch & predictably got poor results. I doubt he was trying to fail and I'm sure he gave his best efforts for the MFC ! For some hero on here to describe him as a disease is a [censored] disgrace.

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Shame but it had to happen. The players he has currently are pretty average but it was his responsibility to make them better than they currently are.

Good luck in the future Brian. You have had 6 years at the club so you will always be welcome back.

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Brian Royal and Dale Weightman were unstoppable as rovers, changing in a pocket, for Victoria in the mid 80's.

Very good player. Spectacular mullet too.

Would I be overreaching suggesting similar to Marc Murphy ?

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Brian Royal and Dale Weightman were unstoppable as rovers, changing in a pocket, for Victoria in the mid 80's.

Very good player. Spectacular mullet too.

Dale Weightman was a great rover and also a vindictive fellow - didnt matter how big you were, he would hit you ( behind play)

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A bloody good one. Rover.....back when such things existed

Some pretty graceless comments on here. He's tries to run a midfield with only one midfielder up to scratch & predictably got poor results. I doubt he was trying to fail and I'm sure he gave his best efforts for the MFC ! For some hero on here to describe him as a disease is a [censored] disgrace.

Agreed. A change is what was needed, clearly, but some of the comments are well out of line.

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When Ratten was at MFC our midfield looked to be improving.

Even when Scott West was midfield coach there were signs of life and improvement.

During Royal's second stint there have been diminishing skills, lack of grunt, and being killed at stoppages. I am so glad he is gone.

Ratten had Thompson in the midfield and good outside mids around Thommo. He also had Jeff White in AA form. It's a lot easier when you have the cattle.

Scott West was moved on as I recall and he too was blighted by the lack of class and quality in the midfield. Great player but his results are marginal at best.

And in respect to Royal the criticisms labelled at him could be labelled at the whole side. In the past 2 years there has been a definite reason why MFC went backwards...and they have left the building.

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Me too RR

The guy had a miserable lot to work with.

Not sure JC could have done much more with this lot.

I don't know to what extent the failure of the MFC and the midfield is the fault of Royal. There are so many factors at play in that assessment that the average supporter is not aware of.

From where I sit at the games (like most others), I can't possibly determine whether assistant coaches are or are not doing their jobs well.

But what I am sure is that the assistant coach critics certainly can't tell either.

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I don't know to what extent the failure of the MFC and the midfield is the fault of Royal. There are so many factors at play in that assessment that the average supporter is not aware of.

From where I sit at the games (like most others), I can't possibly determine whether assistant coaches are or are not doing their jobs well.

But what I am sure is that the assistant coach critics certainly can't tell either.

Me too

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Genuine gun. One of the best rovers of his era. Regular state player for Victoria. Won a B&F. Made AA.

I agree with that assessment and I think it's fair to say that he was a better footballer than a midfield coach.

In his early days as an assistant coach, he was often in the running for a senior coach's gig but he never quite made it.

His capacity to show that he was a capable assistant coach would not have been helped by the fact that had not much cattle to work with and he was an assistant to Bailey and Neeld.

We'll forever be asking ourselves whether it was the chicken or the egg but I reckon we got scrambled in the end.

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