John Crow Batty

Hindsight may show that perversely Schwab was the CEO we had to have. Something had to happen to drag this club kicking and screaming to play 21st Century football. Bringing the club to the brink has woken everyone up. The ingrained smugness and wallowing in past glories was never going to go away on its own accord.

Anyone know whatever happened to the war chest?

His other new job according to his AGE article signature is Director of Lambeau advising CEO's. I hope all the other club CEO's are clients of his.

If he is the only big player loss from the disaster of 2013 then I think i can sleep reasonably well. After 10 years it was a too long unrequited relationship. He still has more to offer. Lyon will extract it no doubt. Shame we will never see a season under Roos from him.

rings true.

Noticed CS has written a few pieces for The Age recently. I wonder what CW thinks all this? And what do all the Demonlander ex CS supporters who engaged in a struggle sessions to expunge The Age from humanity think of this? I have been a big critic of him whilst he was running our club but he writes well. Good luck to him in his new career I say. Who would have thought of this 12 months ago let alone that Paul Roos will now be our next coach. Next bizarre out of this world happening, ...could it us be genuine premiership contender soon. Any takers?

Could be, but it is still a risk for an inexperienced coach coming into a shaky club to take on someone like Martin. He could be setting himself up for a huge mistake like Voss and Neeld did with their player management and movements.

I see it a different way. I wish we had this genuine in your face attitude and arrogance. They had a long time wallowing in [censored] and good luck to them. We have had even longer [censored] time. I kind of see more hope for us if they succeed. Perhaps you are confusing their now with their past Schwab/Connolly days.

You sound like a latent WC supporter. Do you have the same feelings for WC? A team that has routinely humilated us for over 2 decades. I smell a class traitor.

The unusual lattitude afforded to him by the club for the alledged machette incident did not go unnoticed by the playing group.

And that is a tired old forum cliche.

I cant believe people are still hopeful about this guy. He is tired old news.

I'll go for Freo. I predict they will start off the game like they did with Collingwood at Subiaco earlier in the year. A tsunami like surge in the first quarter and then keep the Hawks at arms length the rest of the game.

It has now has been reported that new Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch is interested in getting Martin. He knows him well from his stint at Richmond. Why would he want to bring more trouble to a club that is now showing signs of being somewhat dysfunctional and clearly needs stability? Have they not learned from the Fevola debacle? Does not bode well for them.

It was the same kind of lunacy that saw Schwab re-appointed for 3 years just before sacking him is it not?

I hope they have inherited the living on past glory syndrome that has kepy us drunk for the past five decades.

I just hope this does not mean another three years of the same same. I could not stand it. Please Roos, turn this former silk purse turned sows ear back to silk purse again.

To be more clear, I have refreshed my memory to clear up what I have said previously and quote more or less what they told me. This is not a rumour I head at the pub. The mother and sister of the boy told me this story many years after the accident. I have no reason to doubt their honesty. The accident happened in a Collingwood side st running off Smith St outside the boys home. Both gave me similar but conflicting stories to who the player may be. The mother said it was the captain of .......... who was the drunk driver and is one of the biggest legends in the game. He was uninjured but completely legless and could not stand up after the accident according to her. Pieces of the boys brain and skull were stuck to the car headlights. At a later date the sister gave me the name of a star player of the same team who she claimed was captain but fact checking showed that he was not the captain. However the real captain and named player were both B&F winners, team of the century members and high Brownlow voting players during the 60's. The club was also very strong in the early 60's but is not us. Their story was emotional and confused by time and I did not get the full picture whether one or both players were involved in the accident. Both were adamant that the player or players got off and were never charged. There was only a cursory investigation and no mentiion in the media. I get the impression that they may have received some form of unofficial compensation from the club.Drunk driving was at plague levels then, the road death toll was very high and road injuries were minor statiistics in the big picture no matter how serious. Easy to sweep under the carpet.

Not revisionism. Just an honest mistake muddied by the turbulence of our recent past. He really meant Schwab. Bailey was just a puppet on a string. Thats why he is in consideration for the Bombers caretaker. A good foil for new puppet master Hird.

I am sick of of all this whining victim and begging bowl stuff. We got some cash in the bank, been handed Roo's on a silver platter and now time to roll the sleeves up and do some hard work. Most of the ugliness is now in the past. i don't really care about having the honour of nurturing through another potential future prima donna. Get back the respect and play some decent footy is what we need ASAP.

I believe bringing back Miller and the attempt to get Junior back has also something to do with the healing process. Roos is clever enough to see that harmony and team elan has been a missing essential ingredient from our club. A lot of current players felt badly burned by the recent past and as long as Miller has the right basic credentials to coach it is a smart move.

And this was still happening until only recently like the Milne rape issue and allegations of police interference to sabotage the case. IMO for Martin to cop so much heat in these more open times, there must be a lot worse about him out there than what is generally known.

Because it is not in the public domain. I did mention this a few years ago also. If I did name names they will have to be deleted on an internet forum. The family is still very hurt about all this. They were new poor migrants who could not speak English and had no way to seek answers or justice. They were hoodwinked and misled by powerful forces who wanted to bury the issue. I can assure you it was not someone from our club.

Hopefully it will come out one day. But basically it was the Schwab way or the highway for any player that disagreed in the way he was running the club. History suggests that the malcontents were perhaps right

And Brad Miller was one of the leadership group that dared to challenge Schwab.