Rumour Future of the club (Bevo, board, assistant coaches, football department)

[Unorth]

We have been leaking like a sieve for years, despite Bevs freakouts. The club just has to get its shit together, and fair bet some of these leaks are provided with an agenda in mind. Get it under control and ideally (in a best for the club sense) we on BF hear nothing. Until then we may as well hear it.

 

[dish licker]

If Bont went straight to the Pres then he avoided Grant and Bains, the sacking of Smith could be the cause of the fracturing of the playing group not Bev.

 

[Mofra]

We have been leaking like a sieve for years, despite Bevs freakouts. The club just has to get its s**t together, and fair bet some of these leaks are provided with an agenda in mind. Get it under control and ideally (in a best for the club sense) we on BF hear nothing. Until then we may as well hear it.

Since Sam Power took over, our trade leaks and draft interest has been much harder to find out.
If anything, we're getting less information than we did a few years ago.

 

[Mojorisin]

Since Sam Power took over, our trade leaks and draft interest has been much harder to find out.
If anything, we're getting less information than we did a few years ago.

Power doesn't get as much love as he deserves in my opinion.

 

[BulldogMuscle]

Do people on here support the club or BF?
In any organisation people are going to know inside information, either first hand or second. You are supposed to keep it quiet until the organisation announces such things, not go blabbering for your own personal gratification.
Yet here we are, people are thanking, and saying we must respect treachery, because we are members of a forum, and seem unable to wait a couple of days/weeks so things can be done properly.

Man, it's AFL not nation building in war time, every club on here has it's leakers. I try to put out shit that I can verify by several different sources (hence my lack of updates on Fronk's posting) - I'll get some shit wrong, that's what happens when your getting fed 2nd and 3rd hand information on an internet forum, you might not like it but it's how it is.

I love the club, have lived through the darkest days over the last 40 years and I want to see the best for it. Do I have an agenda? Ofcourse, I make no light of the fact I'm not a fan of Bevo and I think his wasting this list, but me throwing some shit up on bigfooty ain't gonna change anything at the club, so I'll keep at it until the mods or the dogs knock on my door and tell me to cut it out.

You might not like it, and that's fine, the beautiful thing about internet forums is the clashing of opposing opinions.

 

[Dogs54]

We have been leaking like a sieve for years, despite Bevs freakouts. The club just has to get its s**t together, and fair bet some of these leaks are provided with an agenda in mind. Get it under control and ideally (in a best for the club sense) we on BF hear nothing. Until then we may as well hear it.

How do we know the leaks are from the club. Bevo will have a manager, legal agreements would have been discussed with lawyers and Bevo himself may have discussed this family and friends. The club has stated its position to Bevo which he has rejected, Bevo I would think would not want to stay on so will hang out for the best deal possible. Let's wait and see how this plays out but I highly doubt Bevo would want to stay.

 

[Mofra]

How do we know the leaks are from the club. Bevo will have a manager, legal agreements would have been discussed with lawyers and Bevo himself may have discussed this family and friends. The club has stated its position to Bevo which he has rejected, Bevo I would think would not want to stay on so will hang out for the best deal possible. Let's wait and see how this plays out but I highly doubt Bevo would want to stay.

..or, he feels he owes the club and wants to do everything he can to improve?

He's got a contract and AFL players - current and former - are competitive beasts. Some of the narrative on here is almost like the coaching staff & players don't want to win which is ludicrous.

Regardless of what I or anyone on here thinks of the current situation, the most likely scenario appears to be Bevo coaching next year (with reduced responsibility a la Ken Hinkley) and a massive change of personnel around him.

 

[synchrodogcal]

If Bont went straight to the Pres then he avoided Grant and Bains, the sacking of Smith could be the cause of the fracturing of the playing group not Bev.

perhaps grant and bains were offered severance packages and rejected them...

2 + 2 = 10 after all

 

[dogwatch]

Power doesn't get as much love as he deserves in my opinion.

He gets a fair bit here actually. Especially over October and November.

I have a lot of time for him but I'm concerned about the number of 26+yo list cloggers we have. Is that Sam's fault or Bevo's? It's easy to blame Bevo since he's very much in the gun right now, but surely Sam has to be accountable too?

 

[Dogs54]

..or, he feels he owes the club and wants to do everything he can to improve?

He's got a contract and AFL players - current and former - are competitive beasts. Some of the narrative on here is almost like the coaching staff & players don't want to win which is ludicrous.

Regardless of what I or anyone on here thinks of the current situation, the most likely scenario appears to be Bevo coaching next year (with reduced responsibility a la Ken Hinkley) and a massive change of personnel around him.

Maybe, but if the playing group have lost confidence in Bevo its a hard and difficult road to regain confidence and would require a massive change in hoe Bevo functions. The Board should discussed the options before putting their preferred option to Bevo and they opted to terminate his contract all that follows is the compensation negotiations. Very difficult for the Board to change thier mind, not impossibe given our Board but IMO unlikely.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Yeah I've been thinking along those lines too. I'm not saying the inside word is wrong at all. Just that something's not quite connecting ... yet.

I don't buy that journos will want to check their facts before going to print. We're talking about an AFL media race to the bottom, not Masters and McKenzie publishing revelations about Ben Roberts-Smith. When has not being apprised of all the facts been an impediment to the AFL media pack?

I did see a report this morning where Cornes was quoted as saying (my emphasis):

“If the culture, if the relationship between players and the coach - which is starting to come out publicly - is an issue, Bob Murphy is the perfect person to solve that."​

Now that might merely be Cornes reading BF (Hi Kane! ) and throwing out a line to see if he'll get a bite. But I was waiting to see if anyone here would comment on it. I don't think anyone did.

I still think there's some big news that'll be made public in the coming days. Not quite sure when and what it will consist of but there's been ever increasing amounts of smoke ...

As somebody firmly in the IDK as opposed to the ITK camp. It's difficult to know whether Im letting confirmation bias and this boards prevailing narrative that Beveridge must go, cloud my opinion on how this is all playing out. It's my nature to remain skeptical about rumours that sprout up in here from people purporting to have inside information regardless of their standing on this board. However, the clubs bone headed narrative in the past few days where they say that Beveridge will remain coach and then release his funereal post game address that all but conceded the season and felt like his parting words to the group. Followed by his attendance at Bruces farewell has done nothing but muddy the waters of the rumours that they would have to be fully aware of.

Thats without even considering whether the payout discussions are indeed true and their public utterances are all just an elaborate ruse.

I guess we'll know for certain soon after the curtain comes down on what has been a pretty tortuous season.

That may be as soon as this Monday or as late as Monday 4th of September.

Either way. I'll be here crapping on and trying to get my ameba like brain make sense of it all.

As for Kanes thoughts, such as they are. As per usual with him. He says things that are on the face of it inflammatory, but he lets "if" do all of the heavy lifting to give himself a degree of plausible deniability. For a guy who has built his media persona on being a tough guy willing to say the hard things. "If" you actually look at his his writings he's quite cowardly.

 

[Unorth]

He gets a fair bit here actually. Especially over October and November.

I have a lot of time for him but I'm concerned about the number of 26+yo list cloggers we have. Is that Sam's fault or Bevo's? It's easy to blame Bevo since he's very much in the gun right now, but surely Sam has to be accountable too?

We have been hamstrung by a lack of draft picks + Bevo’s fetish for vfl plodders. There’s value to a dependable foot solider, but there’s probably more value to sheer talent. i don’t like the recent deals given to Gardner, Scott and Baker (probably the most facepalm worthy, announcing the deal then him falling out of favour that very week) though they wouldn’t be straining the cap. We also severely underestimated the importance of wingers, or overestimated Bailey Williams and co.

But now we have a chance to make some deep cuts to the more inadequate parts of the list, unfortunately for Bruce and Hannan that decision has been made for them by injury. I hope Power shows a bit of ruthlessness and starts a proper clean out and replenishment.

 

[Mojorisin]

He gets a fair bit here actually. Especially over October and November.

I have a lot of time for him but I'm concerned about the number of 26+yo list cloggers we have. Is that Sam's fault or Bevo's? It's easy to blame Bevo since he's very much in the gun right now, but surely Sam has to be accountable too?

Agree with this and the blame has to be shared. Personally I think we need a quality recruiter focusing solely on players already in the AFL system.

 

[bullish23]

Power doesn't get as much love as he deserves in my opinion.

Could he be the guy to replace Grant as Head of Football?

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Maybe, but if the playing group have lost confidence in Bevo its a hard and difficult road to regain confidence and would require a massive change in hoe Bevo functions. The Board should discussed the options before putting their preferred option to Bevo and they opted to terminate his contract all that follows is the compensation negotiations. Very difficult for the Board to change thier mind, not impossibe given our Board but IMO unlikely.

It's a little counter intuitive that Beveridge would attend what in essence was a team building exercise and send off for a much loved teammate for Beveridge to be in attendance. If stories of him losing the playing group were indeed true.

 

[StringyDog]

He gets a fair bit here actually. Especially over October and November.

I have a lot of time for him but I'm concerned about the number of 26+yo list cloggers we have. Is that Sam's fault or Bevo's? It's easy to blame Bevo since he's very much in the gun right now, but surely Sam has to be accountable too?

The longer term contracts aren't looking that great either, Gardner 3 year extension on top of the year he had and before he even starts that contract has been overtaken by a 10 gamer and is backup. Daniel, Dale, Macrae long term deals not looking great either, not saying these guys won't turn form around but thats why I hate contracts over 3 years unless your a superstar. Supposedly offered contracts to completely cooked players in OBrien Duryea Hannan. He does a lot of things right but has also got a lot wrong. Next 12-18 months will really show his colours if can manage the important deals that need to get done and regenerate the bottom end of list.

 

[dogwatch]

We have been hamstrung by a lack of draft picks + Bevo’s fetish for vfl plodders. There’s value to a dependable foot solider, but there’s probably more value to sheer talent. i don’t like the recent deals given to Gardner, Scott and Baker (probably the most facepalm worthy, announcing the deal then him falling out of favour that very week) though they wouldn’t be straining the cap. We also severely underestimated the importance of wingers, or overestimated Bailey Williams and co.

But now we have a chance to make some deep cuts to the more inadequate parts of the list, unfortunately for Bruce and Hannan that decision has been made for them by injury. I hope Power shows a bit of ruthlessness and starts a proper clean out and replenishment.

So is the consensus view still that Bevo insisted on drafting those "VFL plodders"? It has been a frequent assumption here but never proven.

If so, what does that say about Sam Power's role and his influence over list management decisions? If we accept Simon Dalrymple's claims, he left the club because of that sort of behaviour.

I hope Power is making his own assessments and making the final call. Not Bevo.

 

[Mojorisin]

So is the consensus view still that Bevo insisted on drafting those "VFL plodders"? It has been a frequent assumption here but never proven.

If so, what does that say about Sam Power's role and his influence over list management decisions? If we accept Simon Dalrymple's claims, he left the club because of that sort of behaviour.

I hope Power is making his own assessments and making the final call. Not Bevo.

Power has final call however all Senior coaches have a say in what players get brought in and Beveridge is one of the more hands on of the current coaches.
Clarkson, hardwick and Mitchell are also up there with how much pull they have in recruiting.

 

[Unorth]

So is the consensus view still that Bevo insisted on drafting those "VFL plodders"? It has been a frequent assumption here but never proven.

If so, what does that say about Sam Power's role and his influence over list management decisions? If we accept Simon Dalrymple's claims, he left the club because of that sort of behaviour.

I hope Power is making his own assessments and making the final call. Not Bevo.

What we know is that Bevo overruled Dalrymple on Gowers, and that he’s obsessed with playing these guys once drafted - until he’s hit by the same realisation everyone else had long ago (they’re terrible).

It’s all conjecture of course but I think it reads as Bev pushing for these kinds of moves.

 

[geoffjennings79]

Look I blame everyone at this stage.
Beveridge, Grant, Bains, KWW, Bontempelli, Spangher, McComb, the three Smith brothers, the ITKs (likely the same people as some I've already listed! ), all the supporters, posters on BF, politicians, public servants, other clubs.

But the dumbest palooka is the idiot on here that keeps shooting his mouth off when he obviously knows SFA about anything...

So geoffjennings79 - just STFU already!

 

[Doggy Dan]

Western Bulldogs

 

[Planet Dogs]

Could he be the guy to replace Grant as Head of Football?

I reckon he could. He knows the joint. He has good negotiating skills. Seems intelligent, organized, and level-headed.

 

[Golden_6]

I reckon he could. He knows the joint. He has good negotiating skills. Seems intelligent, organized, and level-headed.

That's an extremely important role that seems to be a massive weakness. No chance I'm promoting someone within the club with no experience in a similar role. Power seems like a good operator but his communication skills seem to leave a little to be desired.

I'd be 100% looking outside the four walls of the club to fill that position.

 

[doggies ftw]

So many people still going with the “oh we’ll just cut everyone around him and it’ll be all good”

Ah are you forgetting we’ve literally done that? The whole coaching panel outside of Smith is new? Lade, Webb, Spangher, Varcoe, Martin - all new, what’s changed?

Why would it be any different this time around, good assistants don’t want to work with Beveridge, and nothing changes no matter who is an assistant, probably because they have zero input.

 

[Whitejumper]

Not really. I'm fishing for what's missing as well - assuming that Fronk's post is correct. Bont goes to the President to inform her the coach has lost the players, coach and players have a seemingly amicable lunch together the next day while Bevo is offered a severance package, the media isn't all over it and no club announcement has been made.

Either

1. Fronk's info isn't any good (i.e. Bevo is safe and Bont didn't go to the president informing her that Bevo has lost the playing group) or
2. it's the best kept secret ever or
3. it is true but something else is going on in parallel that's preventing the club from making any announcement at this stage
4. it isn't true but something else is going on

If it was just a matter of the club negotiating the terms of the severance, someone in the media would be on to it ... you'd think....which would make one of
1) Fronk's info isn't any good or
2) it's the best kept secret ever
True

If neither of those are true then it's something else

What I don't think I could get my head around is if it's true that Bont went to the president saying Bevo has lost the players, it's true that Bevo was offered a severance package which he rejected, and then, after all that, Bevo will stay on as coach but the assistants will change and Bevo and the players will all live happily ever after. That combination is not believable ..... is it?

Long term lurker here - don’t often have anything useful to add… but I agree something not adding up….. for what it is worth, this is my take on all the swirling information with a big dollop of optimism!

What if the coach hasn’t lost the players but the players are concerned about the coach who has tried to do too much, is burnt out and is unable to do his job to the best of his ability?
Captain goes to president/CEO about the coach’s current wellbeing and workload that is impacting his capacity to coach (player management/relationships and game day strategy and leadership). Captain is clear something has to change- more support and help for coach or coach has to go? CEO/ board also see a burnt out coach and give option for the coach to walk with severance. Coach says nope- I got this and am still committed to the job. Hopefully coach also says yes I do try and do too much and want to hold too much control and this has burnt me out.
So coach and players relationship is jeopardised- team on field is a shambles- but players also know this is a coach that can win premierships and has supported them for years- they want the Bevo they have known and trusted back or if that is not possible want him replaced?

I am basing this on:
Bevo at the Bruce lunch
Bevo distress in press conference when discussing Bubba leaving- who was also at Pub lunch and clearly loved and respected by players
Bont press conference this week where he says it is a shared responsibility and Bev ‘supports playing group and players wherever he can and we have to do that for him’.

I also don’t think there is a coach available who can match Bev at his best- so hope we can have a set up that supports this to happen. Bevo recognising he needs strong people who he listens to around him and the board committing money to pay skilled people would all need to happen.