Coach Football department changes going forward

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None of us know a good assistant coach from a bad one but I will say. It is a little funny that every time Lade leaves a team, the following year or two they become really good sides.
 
None of us know a good assistant coach from a bad one but I will say. It is a little funny that every time Lade leaves a team, the following year or two they become really good sides.
Maybe he had already completed great coaching tactics and now he could move on from that club :). For fks sake he is a premiership player and has spent 12 years as a assistant Coach who will be replacing Marcus Webb the only experience coaching he previously had was coaching Benalla thirds team


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So as the new senior assistant, are we expecting this Beveridge-to-Lade transition to be a backroom Kirribilli pact/Malthouse-Buckley scenario, or a more transparent Sheedy-Cameron/Roos-Goodwin handover?
 
Maybe he had already completed great coaching tactics and now he could move on from that club :). For fks sake he is a premiership player and has spent 12 years as a assistant Coach who will be replacing Marcus Webb the only experience coaching he previously had was coaching Benalla thirds team


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Is it known he's replacing Webb? Also Webb has experience at Fremantle, and coached Claremont to a flag in the WAFL. I've tried researching Spangher's credentials but honestly come up blank
 
Is it known he's replacing Webb? Also Webb has experience at Fremantle, and coached Claremont to a flag in the WAFL. I've tried researching Spangher's credentials but honestly come up blank

Lade had Mark Williams as his head coach whilst playing for Port , was assistant coach under Hardwick for six years with the Tigers and 5 years under Ken Hinkley as assistant coach. Not a bad resume I think


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Ross Lyon
Brett Montgomery
Rodney Eade
Peter Sumich
Leigh Tudor
Dean Cox
Dean Solomon
When starting out, Tudor had a ridiculous record - coaching his own team to a VFL flag, then something like 7 out of 7 prelim finishes as a midfield coach, across three different clubs/coaches. Assistant to two premiership coaches (Thompson and Longmire), and assistant to another who was a couple of kicks away from a couple of flags (Lyon). Also had played at some point under both Pagan and Blight.

His record/standing has obviously fallen to sh1t in his time with North and he would be on the older side for assistants, but I still reckon he'd be a rock solid B/B+, which at the moment, given our options, I'd take any day of the week.
 
I was listening to a bit of Big Ideas (RN) in the car today and the interviewee was Mick Warner who wrote “The Boy’s Club” … which I just happen to be reading ATM.

They covered a range of the usual topics (drugs, tanking, coverups etc) but Warner’s view on the Essendon PED scandal was that, while not totally free of blame, Hird was the AFL’s main fall guy so they could protect mates and corporate assets (including players and Essendon’s licence).

I haven’t got to that part of the book yet but it should make good reading when I do.

So, after serving nearly a 10 year sentence maybe he now deserves another chance?
I see that side of it, but…

My issue with Hird is that he fought against sanctions all the way. He never really admitted fault or showed much empathy for his players. Had he held his hands up and accepted they did the wrong thing and showed concern for the players who didn’t know what they had been injected with, I might be more sympathetic to him. What he did however, was react like a spoiled child who has never had anything go against him in his life, and still behaves like an arrogant git who thinks he’s gods gift to footy. I don’t feel he has learned any lessons from the whole saga or absorbed any humility into his character.
 
When starting out, Tudor had a ridiculous record - coaching his own team to a VFL flag, then something like 7 out of 7 prelim finishes as a midfield coach, across three different clubs/coaches. Assistant to two premiership coaches (Thompson and Longmire), and assistant to another who was a couple of kicks away from a couple of flags (Lyon). Also had played at some point under both Pagan and Blight.

His record/standing has obviously fallen to sh1t in his time with North and he would be on the older side for assistants, but I still reckon he'd be a rock solid B/B+, which at the moment, given our options, I'd take any day of the week.

I would be very very happy with Tudor. He would be a senior assistant.
With North, I liked his tactics against us but when you don’t have the cattle, it’s hard to be seen as successful.
 
I was listening to a bit of Big Ideas (RN) in the car today and the interviewee was Mick Warner who wrote “The Boy’s Club” … which I just happen to be reading ATM.

They covered a range of the usual topics (drugs, tanking, coverups etc) but Warner’s view on the Essendon PED scandal was that, while not totally free of blame, Hird was the AFL’s main fall guy so they could protect mates and corporate assets (including players and Essendon’s licence).

I haven’t got to that part of the book yet but it should make good reading when I do.

So, after serving nearly a 10 year sentence maybe he now deserves another chance?
Nope.
 

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Sorry dogwatch, but I am with Sharpiesadog and immortalmike on the Hird issue. At the very least, I don't want him anywhere near our club. If he gets a gig at Essendon, that's on them. He may well have been the fall guy as you say, but has shown no remorse, or accepted he was where the buck stopped. He may well have his own mental health challenges now, but it's a bit like Gary Lyon - playing the mental health card AFTER you've been exposed for what may not be an actual crime, but is viewed as culturally amoral.
 
Are any of our existing assistant coaches “senior assistants” and am I reading too much into him joining as “a senior assistant” rather than “the senior assistant”? Is there another to come.
Spangher, Smith and Webb were all just assistant coaches rather than 'senior' assistants. Steven King however was a senior assistant up until the end of 2021, so I don't think you can call it a complete restructure of how things are organised.
 
Is it known he's replacing Webb? Also Webb has experience at Fremantle, and coached Claremont to a flag in the WAFL. I've tried researching Spangher's credentials but honestly come up blank
Spangher spent a year at Collingwood before us as AFL Engagement and VFL Operations Manager. Before that he was at Netball Australia and other non-AFL related businesses. Not exactly coaching experience.
 
10+ years in the system in assistant coaching roles across 3 clubs. Lade’s a good get and will be the most experienced assistant we’ve seen at the club since Bevo took over. He’ll bring a fresh voice and new ideas, which is what we desperately need.

I just hope he’s not the only inclusion. Two Lade types would be ideal. Doesn’t have to be an ex AFL coach, just someone that brings decent experience.
 
Sorry dogwatch, but I am with Sharpiesadog and immortalmike on the Hird issue. At the very least, I don't want him anywhere near our club. If he gets a gig at Essendon, that's on them. He may well have been the fall guy as you say, but has shown no remorse, or accepted he was where the buck stopped. He may well have his own mental health challenges now, but it's a bit like Gary Lyon - playing the mental health card AFTER you've been exposed for what may not be an actual crime, but is viewed as culturally amoral.
Yes I agree I don’t want him at the WB.

My point is has he done the time and paid his debt? Maybe over 10 years he has had time to reflect and has a different and humbler view now (however unlikely that may seem).

Do we - the footy public, not the WB in particular - give him a chance to rehabilitate himself?

If he was indeed the AFLs sacrificial offering to close the Essengate saga it would seem reasonable now to say ok you’re on probation to see how you go. Even our nation’s criminal code is more forgiving than that … and I don’t think he was ever convicted of a criminal offence.

Or would it be better if he was banned from all AFL coaching for life?
 
Yes I agree I don’t want him at the WB.

My point is has he done the time and paid his debt? Maybe over 10 years he has had time to reflect and has a different and humbler view now (however unlikely that may seem).

Do we - the footy public, not the WB in particular - give him a chance to rehabilitate himself?

If he was indeed the AFLs sacrificial offering to close the Essengate saga it would seem reasonable now to say ok you’re on probation to see how you go. Even our nation’s criminal code is more forgiving than that … and I don’t think he was ever convicted of a criminal offence.

Or would it be better if he was banned from all AFL coaching for life?
Yeah, fair points. I don't think a lifetime ban is applicable. But at the same time, doesn't rehabilitation go hand in hand with an expression of a degree of responsibility and remorse? As Sharpiesadog posted, I can't recall he has ever expressed any acceptance of his ban being a reflection of, at a minimum his involvement as the senior football person, in a wholesale injection program that even at initial glance would be seen as stepping over the line of acceptable activity.

I suspect the footy public, other than the rusted-on Hird apologists at Tullamarine/Windy Hill, would be more forgiving and open to rehabilitation/probation/etc if there was some self-acknowledgment of his culpability (regardless of degree) in the whole saga. "I'm shocked to be sitting here" doesn't quite cut it IMO.

So I certainly don't think we're at polar opposites here. He may believe, and may well be right as you say, that he was a sacrificial fall guy. But he's also not an innocent bystander in what happened.
 
Yes I’m only taking one authors word for it that he was the fall guy. And that author has an axe to grind with the AFL (perhaps with good cause though).

So I’m open to different versions of who had what levels of culpability. I’m definitely no Hird fan or apologist. He definitely had to take some of the blame.

Meanwhile most of the Essendon board carries on … without any meaningful penalty. 🤔
 

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