34 minutes ago, biggestred said:

once again news about our club in the media before our club announces anything.
we need to find the leaks and plug them tigher than a drum, because its a disgrace.

Perhaps the leak was Chocco himself to Cornes, in exchange for Cornes public endorsement and recommendation for Tassie etc.

Those calling for Richardson to be sacked have no idea what he does on a day to day basis.

But let's throw the baby out with the bathwater.

5 minutes ago, speed demon said:

Perhaps the leak was Chocco himself to Cornes, in exchange for Cornes public endorsement and recommendation for Tassie etc.

The Cornes article was 100% a call for a new job for his former Port Coach

Mark is 67 years old, Richo is 60, coaching days have passed.

If a department is a mess you bring in a trouble shooter, a fresh set of eyes, to clean it up.

Don’t tell the departmental chief to start boning all his mates, that he hired in the first place.

You need to have a basic understanding of business structures.

Edited yesterday at 01:261 day by bluey
Change of thought

And rightly so. Jesus, head of development! And didnt he have that football that was supposed to teach players how to kick? That worked

Edited yesterday at 02:471 day by ijustwannaseeaflag

New coach is already starting to pick his team

1 hour ago, bluey said:

Mark is 67 years old, Richo is 60, coaching days have passed.

If a department is a mess you bring in a trouble shooter, a fresh set of eyes, to clean it up.

Don’t tell the departmental chief to start boning all his mates, that he hired in the first place.

You need to have a basic understanding of business structures.

They can’t sack Richo now anyway. He’s contracted till 26 I believe and surely we can’t afford 2 unfilled salaries in the soft cap next season

4 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Those calling for Richardson to be sacked have no idea what he does on a day to day basis.

But let's throw the baby out with the bathwater.

As the GM of AFL football performance, I gather that he is responsible for ensuring our FD is kicking goals figuratively. We haven’t for a while now and are going backwards. Hes equally culpable for allowing the environment to slip to the level it is at now. Gotta go.

Like Goodwin, surprised at the timing of the axing.

I'd have liked the new coach to be sorted and see if they had use for Chocco. Feels like a Richardson call and it feels like he's here to stay.

3 minutes ago, layzie said:

Like Goodwin, surprised at the timing of the axing.

I'd have liked the new coach to be sorted and see if they had use for Chocco. Feels like a Richardson call and it feels like he's here to stay.

He was out of contract and you have to tell coaching staff if they are getting renewed or not at this point.

I don't really understand any of the confusion about the timing of these decisions. It's the end of the season. Pretty much the time all these decisions get made.

10 minutes ago, KozzyCan said:

He was out of contract and you have to tell coaching staff if they are getting renewed or not at this point.

I don't really understand any of the confusion about the timing of these decisions. It's the end of the season. Pretty much the time all these decisions get made.

No that's fair enough and thanks for explaining.

However it doesn't make perfect sense and the confusion isn't totally unjustified, they aren't contractors.

I'm sure decisions like these are made all the time when there's a coach in place for the following season but it would make sense for the new coach to look at the coaching staff and see who they would like to retain. Doesn't work that way it seems.

6 hours ago, Roger Mellie said:

Not sure you'll find too many posters satisfied with the midfield. Not sure why you even asked.

My point or question is this:

Why is Jones the target for all the midfield blame? We know that Radford was appointed first and Jones later and for other reasons as well. It's therefore reasonable to assume the seemingly anonymous Radford has seniority over the less experienced Jones.

In my mind the problems with the midfield are one of cattle, strategy and skill level

A - The cattle

1 - three bulls as starting mids (one shell-shocked, one un-fit, one wrecking ball)

2 - At least two of them are serial bombers without adequate endurance

3 - The game has gone past using bulls exclusively

B - The strategy

The fact that until recently we have persisted with this set-up (apart from utilising Kozzie plus others sparingly - Langdon etc) to me suggests it was a directive from Goodwin rather than the mid coaches - but that's a guess. In my mind, there's only so much you can do with that same set-up. Now we seem to be seeing and trialling a lot more players in the midfield thank [censored]!

C - The skill level

Clearly, a team-wide issue and looks to have seen Choco out the door

We'll see how the midfield coaches fare when the new coach takes over but I think it's safe to say one or both will go. I just don't get why Radford escapes the scrutiny in the blame game.

Good post. I also think the overall fitness of our midfield remains an issue.

You also raise a good point on having two midfield coaches. It seems very odd. Surely it leads to confusion and undermines accountability in having two coaches. Indeed, it suggests this was always an improvised solution that would not survive 2025.

2 minutes ago, layzie said:

No that's fair enough and thanks for explaining.

However it doesn't make perfect sense and the confusion isn't totally unjustified, they aren't contractors.

I'm sure decisions like these are made all the time when there's a coach in place for the following season but it would make sense for the new coach to look at the coaching staff and see who they would like to retain. Doesn't work that way it seems.

New coaches are rarely appointed prior to the end of the home and away season. Recent examples would be McQualter who was appointed in late september, McRae who was appointed early september, Adam Kingsley was appointed the day after the home and away season ended, Yze was appointed after we were knocked out of finals that year.

The recent exceptions I can think of is Clarkson who was appointed North's coach the day before their final game of the season, and Hardwick, but that whole appointment was a bit of a farce. He was going to the Suns before he'd even wrapped up at Richmond.

There's also the case of succession plans but that's a completely different situation.

I think moving Williams on makes sense. He's reportedly on pretty decent coin and we will want to offer the new coach some cap room to play with so they can bring in a few of their own people. Of the people who have contracts the coach will get to see if they gel with them over the next 12 months. Potentially moving them to different roles etc.

2 minutes ago, KozzyCan said:

New coaches are rarely appointed prior to the end of the home and away season. Recent examples would be McQualter who was appointed in late september, McRae who was appointed early september, Adam Kingsley was appointed the day after the home and away season ended, Yze was appointed after we were knocked out of finals that year.

The recent exceptions I can think of is Clarkson who was appointed North's coach the day before their final game of the season, and Hardwick, but that whole appointment was a bit of a farce. He was going to the Suns before he'd even wrapped up at Richmond.

There's also the case of succession plans but that's a completely different situation.

I think moving Williams on makes sense. He's reportedly on pretty decent coin and we will want to offer the new coach some cap room to play with so they can bring in a few of their own people. Of the people who have contracts the coach will get to see if they gel with them over the next 12 months. Potentially moving them to different roles etc.

I take your points.

Seems a bit brutal though, what if the new coach wanted the person that was axed? Is it just bad luck?

9 minutes ago, layzie said:

I take your points.

Seems a bit brutal though, what if the new coach wanted the person that was axed? Is it just bad luck?

Assuming that the position is not already well and truly Buckley's and he hasn't given us his input on that exact question. Yes.

3 hours ago, Roost it far said:

They can’t sack Richo now anyway. He’s contracted till 26 I believe and surely we can’t afford 2 unfilled salaries in the soft cap next season

They can promote him ...a la Peter Principle !!

They're certainly unlikely to 'let him go' .. ( not this year ..... )

Probably reconfigure his role 😉

45 minutes ago, layzie said:

I take your points.

Seems a bit brutal though, what if the new coach wanted the person that was axed? Is it just bad luck?

New coaches want to bring their own people with them in 99% of cases.

We have a number of FD employees who are out of contract, and this would have been communicated to all potential candidates.

Wherever possible I think we would avoid tearing up contracts, but where contracts are expiring, it makes sense to part ways and give any new coach the ability to bring along their own people. Remembering that FD contracts expire at the end of August, so you need to let people know if they are keeping their job or not. It's the decent thing to do.

Anyone vying for the top job would be presenting a list of assistants and FD people they would like to bring with them / replace. It's part of the job interview process. Buckley and other candidates would be speaking with people in the industry that they would like to bring along with them to the club should they get the job. I have no doubt that Buckley especially would have a list of people he would be speaking with, given his long standing experience in the game.

Williams certainly added to our coaching stocks over the journey, particularly with his own brand of guidance and experience.

All the best to him for the future.

Choco was one of THE great appointments of this club imv that helped catapult us to our first flag since 64 and broke the massive drought.

I'll never forget how thrilled i was with the announcement that he was coming on board and have been grateful ever since.

Ok so things dropped away in the last few seasons from a skills perspective but in general we went off the boil. New blood is inevitable in all clubs and sporting teams and no diff here, with old father time eventually catching up as it always does.

To say Choco had a big influence on many of the boys is stating the obvious and well known around the traps.

But this wasn't just at senior level. He really went the extra mile and made sure he was a constant voice and presence on game day at the majority of Casey games, egging on all the boys and providing his little pearls of wisdom along the way to many of the rookies plus support to any of the usual seniors who found themselves spending time there for whatever reason.

Obviously at training also yelling out his very clear and basic instructions in his loud gruff tones. There was no mistaking who that was even without looking.

Some things that people bring to a club cannot be easily measured. And for as long as it remained effective, i felt his spirit and voice around the boys was invaluable.

A big thank you for everything mate and all the best in any future footy / other related endeavours.

Edited yesterday at 09:001 day by Demon Dynasty

Finally a Club announcement/thanks, and from it:

"Williams will continue in his role until the conclusion of the Casey Demons’ VFL Finals campaign."

Hardly 'AXED'!

🤨

Hmm - PG making good decisions - perhaps a new role for choco

3 minutes ago, Sideshow Bob said:

Hmm - PG making good decisions - perhaps a new role for choco

Why in gods name would you give a bloke the flick and then come out the next day saying oh but we wouldn't mind having them in some other capacity? Wouldn't you work that out behind closed doors and just announce it as a new role rather than whatever the [censored] this is?

Mark "Choco" Williams has been fantastic for the Melbourne Demons.

If we can keep him in some possible capacity, as mentioned by new CEO Paul Guerra, then that's fantastic.

If not, I want to say a massive THANK YOU to Mark "Choco" Williams and wish him all the very best!

2 hours ago, gs77 said:

Why in gods name would you give a bloke the flick and then come out the next day saying oh but we wouldn't mind having them in some other capacity? Wouldn't you work that out behind closed doors and just announce it as a new role rather than whatever the [censored] this is?

We're not taking the learnings for '64/65.