Jade the Blade – the Next Geisch or Paul Roos Mark II?

Posted on July 30, 2009 | Category: Discussions

Jade the Blade

Caretaker coach. It’s got to be a difficult job. Inevitably you want to keep the job you’re currently doing, but it’s pretty rare to have any kind of assurance that you can keep it. There is however, a growing trend of caretaker coaches taking the job long term: with mixed results. Brett Ratten took the job after being brought in as caretaker in the most recent example, though he did appear to have greater backing for the job full time.

But etched deep into the psyche of all Tiger supporters is the last caretaker coach who was “unleashed”. The Geisch. What a miserable few years that turned out to be. As if having Robert Walls as coach hadn’t been enough punishment.

So as we consider the performance and prospective employment of Jade Rawlings (in light of the removal of Buckley and Malthouse from the available talent pool), we are left with the question. Would Jade be the next Geisch, or is there instead a Paul Roos deep inside him just waiting to restore Richmond to premiership glory and making the world a better place? Let’s consider the evidence:

Argument for Jade Rawlings as the next Jeff Geischen

• Not an amazing football career – Jade was quite acceptable as a forward at Hawthorn, but miserable when he moved to the Bulldogs and Roos.
• Not an amazing set of results at Coburg – We’ve been acceptable in the magoos but hardly set the world on fire.
• Like Geischen, when appointed as coach nobody thought he would get the job full time. The emotion of a mid-season sacking (sorry, resignation *snicker*) can make for an unreliable measurement.
• There must be a question of inexperience.

Argument for Jade Rawlings as the next Paul Roos

• The man just makes sense when he talks – which would be new for a Richmond coach.
• Rawlings does seem to have captured the attention of the playing group: players like Deledio, Riewoldt and Tambling all appear to have responded to a different coaching style
• He’s shown very little hesitation to drop players who would normally continue to get a game when their efforts haven’t been good enough: thus “Jade the Blade”
• We beat Essendon.
• He has already indicated that he won’t let Richo’s exuberance get in the way of where Richmond are headed as a team.

In conclusion: I have no idea. Jade has shown a willingness to address some long running problems (players like Tuck, Deledio, etc just expecting to get a game each week) but it’s very hard to imagine that he’s definitely going to be a better coach than candidates like Brad Scott and Damien Hardwick.

Either way, I say screw draft picks: I just want to see Tigers winning games for the rest of the year!

» Filed Under Discussions

Tags:

• Brett Ratten
• Jade Rawlings
• Jeff Geischen
• Paul Roos

4 Responses to “Jade the Blade – the Next Geisch or Paul Roos Mark II?”

1. Matt Says:
   July 30th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

   surely there’s a way of tracking progress on such things via mutually agreed KPIs? Can we sign him up for 2 years instead of 5?

2. Andrew Says:
   July 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

   Factual error – Bailey joined Melbourne at season end 2007.

   On Jade – I like how he plays horses for courses. He brings Patto in and drops Graham against Ryder – because Ryders weakness is physcial stuff – he’ll out athlete Graham every day of the week. Likewise, the “speed” selections against Essendon.

   I would disregard VFL results – because the VFL isn’t about winning games for an AFL club – it’s all about development.

   The big question I have on Rawlings is his resilience when it get’s tough. If he drops 3-4-5-6 matches ina row – it’s tough and somehow you need to get through that. Experienced coaches know this, inexpereicned coaches are more liekly to go silly.

3. Geoff Matheson Says:
   July 30th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Andrew, thanks for the correction: to be honest I wasn’t certain of that one, but laziness won out over actually checking. Fair call on the VFL results question, although I’d suggest that “development” hasn’t exactly been a poster-child of Richmond success in the past few years either, though I guess it’s not really possible to judge that for another few yet.

   With Malthouse out of the question, the problem becomes that there aren’t experienced coaches available: though guys like Hardwick, Scott and Cameron have all got slightly more experience as an assistant than Jade.

4. Kick2kick Says:
   July 31st, 2009 at 5:08 pm

   like your new avatar!

   When was the last “senior/ experienced” coach recruited to a club successful and brought in a premiership cup? My guess would be Mathews in 2001-03, Blight 97-98, then Parkin in 95 & before that Malthouse in 92 & 94.

   Since then its all been young and up and coming coaches like Worsfold, Williams, Roos & Thompson.

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