Elwood, is Smorgon not a footy person, as in doesn't know a lot about it? If so why on earth would he get involved to the level he has with a dud club like ours?

Bit of a wank there by Mr Ron. Yes Smorgs is a commercial businessman but Carlton is a commercial venture, is it not? And if Smorgs' Production Mgr is not producing the goods due poor hiring, inadequate strategies or whatever, then that Manager should not escape the end of season appraisal nor its consequences. The Carlton Commercial Venture hired a supposedly top production manager to put its $7 million worth of equipment in order and to increase production and over the last four years this has not happened. Resonsibility means being held responsible.

I haven't heard Ron come out and say anything about Pagan blaming the list virtually every week. I find this much more odious than the club president coming out and saying there will be a review of the football department after four years on the bottom. As a supporter, I would expect this.

It seems though that the battle lines are being drawn within the club. Its highly likely that Ron would have discussed this media outburst with Pagan and gotten his OK. I suspect also that Fev suddenly throwing his hat into the captaincy ring a few days after Kouta came out and endorsed Lance and Stevo, is part of this internal battle. So unfortunately for the club, this schism is going to be played out in the media. Stay tuned.

The bottom line is that the club, as represented by the president and the board, cannot and must not lose this battle. We cannot have the coach, an employee of the club whatever his reputation, overruling the Carlton Football Club. We need to put all the problems that have haunted the club since Black Friday to bed once and for all and set the direction for the coming years. Hopefully, the club has a plan for the future and will act decisively and quickly to put such plans in place.

As a parting shot perhaps Ron would have been happier if Smorgan had come out with a glowing endorsement of Pagan. In football parlance that usually means the guillotine is being sharpened.

As a media performer, he makes a good businessman.
To state Pagan has a 2 year contract makes me cringe. Surely a club president should know the terms of the coaches contract.

However, if he has the balls to take Pagan on and make the hard decisions, he'll do me for the present.

As to the central issue of whether the Club should appoint the assistants, or whether Pagan should, I think it would be the worst of both worlds if Pagan were left with assistants who he didn't trust or respect.

It might be that it might force Pagan to resign or go elsewhere, and if that is the aim it might have some chance of success. But if Pagan decides to dig his heels in, that would be a disaster for the club. Pagan would not delegate as many tasks as he should to the new assistants, and would not confide in them and seek their advice. Forcing him into circling the wagons will end up with a poorer coaching team, as in modern footy the Coach has to delegate important tasks to assistants. The internal conflict will also encourage some players to play one side off against the other to give themselves more latitude. Or it might encourage some players to "tank" at the start of next year in the hope of forcing the Club to sack the Coach. That would be a disastrous move at the beginning of a season. All of that internal conflict and destabilisation would be poison to potential sponsors and to members who are deciding whether to sign up again or not.

It is hardly unusual in management for the leader to pick his right-hand men or women.

The choice is then a stark one: accept the coaching panel that Pagan puts forwards or sack them and replace them with a new panel headed by another coach. Mucking about behind the scenes to destabilise the coach is a dangerous strategy which might cause harm to the club and merely defer the need for the club to sack the coach anyway.

Of course, the Board's strategy might be to bluff Pagan into accepting some changes to the panel that he could live with. If that is the case, then it will be interesting to see how the negotiations unfold. You'd have to hope that they are concluded quickly after the end of the season to make sure the dust settles well before trade time.

I think everyones highly critical of Smorgo because he isnt a Fitzy or a Fahour who so many people on here were salivating over
- his job after about 5 months at the helm has been very solid so far (despite the one major slip up on The Footy Show.)
- I think he is the steady leader we need for the moment until someone better credentialed comes along, but so far we cannot really fault his performance.

Also, I dont think we can question the boards willingness to listen to the supporter base-
they know we want to see results, and htey are working their asses off in trying to deliver them.

While I agree he's not a superstar performer for the media, and the interview was supposedly very bland, I think taking that 2 year contract comment for a ride is a bit much.

So, what did you think of the interview when you heard it Jimbob?

BV - Why do you think Dave Allison is hated so much? We don't just accept him at all, he is the lowest of the low.



Ockham, didn't you hear Cook say that they couldn't take Acka becuase they have a poor leadership group at Geelong? That doesn't sound positive to me.

oh no, pick 18 is going? How will we ever move forward without pick #18, oh my god, I don't think I can go on anymore.



Pretty high perch? Not sure what you are trying to say there, Cook did make those statements and most people detest Allison

yep, nice solid argument that one.

How is this relevant to our coaches' manager bagging our club?


Hello, Dennis, are you there? I can't here you distancing yourself from Rotten Ronnies claims.

Give the man a chance first kk, although he probably won't.