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View Full Version : Port Adelaide to do a review ala Bulldogs and Geelong



BulldogBelle
25-06-2008, 10:07 PM
Even though this is not a Bulldog related article...I though it interesting that Peter Rhode yes yes that's the one - our ex coach is to spearhead a Port Adelaide review of their football operations department.

The article is written by Adelaide's much loved journalist Michelangelo Rucci...

Port's good, hard look (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23917848-5016212,00.html)
June 25, 2008

PORT Adelaide is following the hugely successful lead of Geelong and the Western Bulldogs by ordering a full review of its football operations.

Power chief executive John James has empowered football operations manager Peter Rohde to lead the most extensive analysis at Alberton since 2000. And, as the review process at Geelong in 2006 irritated Cats coach Mark Thompson, it has appeared to annoy Williams - as it did in 2000.

Most challenging for Williams is how the review will engage outside consultants - and is not to be rushed to a deadline.

While Williams is to spend the next nine weeks of Port's disappointing home-and-away season reviewing his 40-man list, James wants Rohde to deliver a blueprint on how the Power can re-establish itself as a long-standing AFL force.

The review will identify exactly what Port needs and is lacking in its current football division.

By referring to outside consultants - as the Power board ordered in 2000 - the review is designed to ensure the blueprint for Port's future is not based on a blinkered internal vision.

From the outside, four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy - a mentor to Williams - has endorsed the review process made most famous by Geelong chief executive Brian Cook.

His lengthy review - which was never designed to undermine Thompson, just as Port's process is not to derail Williams - ultimately fulfilled Thompson's program to end the 44-year premiership drought at Kardinia Park.

Sheedy notes: "It's funny how a review can spark a turnaround. Geelong did it and boom - they won a flag the next season.

"Now the Western Bulldogs have a great chance to follow suit.

"Everything was laid out on the table after last season and the edict to (coach Rodney) Eade was the same as it was to Mark Thompson - just go out and coach."

Williams is to make his regular mid-season review to the Power board on Monday when the informal agenda also was to include the offer to extend his contract which expires at the end of next season.

The context of this meeting has significantly changed.

Williams' review will tell the board where he thinks Port is at. But more meaningful - in telling where the Power must go - will be Rohde's review which might not be completed until September.

Williams, in his strained press conference at Alberton on Monday, seemed far from comfortable with this change of dynamics.

Asked for his thoughts of the recent reviews at Geelong and the Western Bulldogs and how they helped Thompson and Eade, Williams responded: "What specifically? I don't understand it."

Asked if Port needed to have the same type of review, Williams said: "Ever since I have been here, mid-season we have an extensive review and at the end of the season we do the same. Every year we find something for the second half of the year that we try to improve on before the year is finished.

"Whether it is in our premiership year (2004) or a poor year. We will find some things. We will spend some time talking to . . . whether it is the stats experts, the fitness experts, the coaching experts. We will spend time with all of those and the leadership experts as well and try to get a good mix of what we might be able to do and what we might be able to change.

"We will certainly bat down the path that is best for our club."

Asked who should lead the review, Williams - with his facial expression telling more than his words - said: "It will be . . . it is always led by the football manager . . . with basically outside consultants we look to."

Port already has made one decision on its future by extending the contract of 20-year-old defender Paul Stewart until the end of 2010. Drafted by the Power as a second-round pick (No. 23) in 2006, Stewart has after seven games emerged as a promising running defender.

The Power also has added Broken Hill teenager Simon O'Brien as a NSW scholarship holder.

LostDoggy
26-06-2008, 08:35 AM
Interesting article, BB. Thanks for posting it.

---

It's silly, the Dogs and Cats reviews were barely related, had different causes and vastly different outcomes, and were internally driven. The only thing 'related' about them is the name 'review', which can mean any gamut of things. The Cats winning a premiership and the Dogs going well has suddenly given credence to the concept, and like all seemingly related things, is suddenly fashionable.

Trust Rhodey to jump on the flavour of the month -- I can understand Williams's frustration: as he said, Port already do TWO internal reviews a year anyway, it's just a case of beating it up and fashionable bandwagon jumping on by the administration of Port to be seen to be somehow 'progressive'.

I'll tell you who will be next up -- the Saints.

Go_Dogs
26-06-2008, 08:54 AM
Yes, I laughed when I noted that their football manager will (and always does) conduct their reviews. Mind you, I think we're being a bit hard of Peter. I honestly don't think he is as bad as we all make him out to be.

LostDoggy
26-06-2008, 02:33 PM
I can see the recommendations now:

1. Let's get a broken down player who doesn't want to play with us by diddling the draft and giving away our first round pick
2. Let's change our game plan so that defence, as a tactic, is written out of the plan
3. Let's get a coach who talks fast and says nothing
4. Let's not, under any circumastances, play any new blokes who can kick the ball to a target, irrespective of the target's distance from the kicker.

Twodogs
26-06-2008, 02:37 PM
I can see the recommendations now:

1. Let's get a broken down player who doesn't want to play with us by diddling the draft and giving away our first round pick
2. Let's change our game plan so that defence, as a tactic, is written out of the plan
3. Let's get a coach who talks fast and says nothing
4. Let's not, under any circumastances, play any new blokes who can kick the ball to a target, irrespective of the target's distance from the kicker.


And they'll have to get him to say it three or four times before anyone understands what he's talking about.


BTW Is he the only football person to move back to Adelaide in the last few years?

Sedat
26-06-2008, 02:43 PM
I can see the recommendations now:

1. Let's get a broken down player who doesn't want to play with us by diddling the draft and giving away our first round pick
2. Let's change our game plan so that defence, as a tactic, is written out of the plan
3. Let's get a coach who talks fast and says nothing
4. Let's not, under any circumastances, play any new blokes who can kick the ball to a target, irrespective of the target's distance from the kicker.
5. Under no circumstances is Mark Williams to be referred to as 'Choco' any more. He will only be referred to as 'Mark' by the playing group in the future.

LostDoggy
26-06-2008, 02:49 PM
And they'll have to get him to say it three or four times before anyone understands what he's talking about.


BTW Is he the only football person to move back to Adelaide in the last few years?

Turn it up

You've forgotten Patrick Wiggins FFS

Some people have short memories:D

LostDoggy
26-06-2008, 02:51 PM
And no handstands.

Twodogs
26-06-2008, 03:49 PM
Turn it up

You've forgotten Patrick Wiggins FFS

Some people have short memories:D



He moved to Adelaide. Hadnt lived there before-Malcolm Blight is the last one I can think off that actually returned.


I've only ever been there once, but I went with Sockeye who'd lived there for years. He told me all sort's of wild stories that were 100% true. It's a strange, strange place!

The Pie Man
26-06-2008, 04:23 PM
I can see the recommendations now:

1. Let's get a broken down player who doesn't want to play with us by diddling the draft and giving away our first round pick
2. Let's change our game plan so that defence, as a tactic, is written out of the plan
3. Let's get a coach who talks fast and says nothing
4. Let's not, under any circumastances, play any new blokes who can kick the ball to a target, irrespective of the target's distance from the kicker.

My brother went to a sportsmen night and Lyndsay Gilbee was a guest, and while of course this is nowhere near word for word, he relayed to the group a conversation 'the exciting' (as the ABC used to dub him when languishing at Werribee under Rhode) Lyndsay Gilbee had with Rhode.

Rhode : Lyndsay, you need to play more like me, like when I played off half back
Best kick in the league : Peter, I can't remember you as a player
Rhode : What? Are you serious? You can't remember me?
BKITL: No, I can't, I barracked for (I can't remember, but not Carlton or Melbourne where that moron did ply his trade)
Rhode : I can't believe that....you'll be playing for Werribee for a while yet

Didn't know whether to laugh or cry hearing it....how close were we to losing him at the time.....

GetDimmaBack
30-06-2008, 09:56 AM
5. Under no circumstances is Mark Williams to be referred to as 'Choco' any more. He will only be referred to as 'Mark' by the playing group in the future.

And we'll get SA Police in to help you understand that directive...

LostDoggy
30-06-2008, 11:01 AM
[QUOTE=Twodogs;44765]He moved to Adelaide. Hadnt lived there before-Malcolm Blight is the last one I can think off that actually returned.
QUOTE]

How far do you want to go back?

What about a bloke called Jarman?

Primus, Rendell. Paul Hamilton, Peter Jonas

Twodogs
30-06-2008, 02:00 PM
[QUOTE=Twodogs;44765]He moved to Adelaide. Hadnt lived there before-Malcolm Blight is the last one I can think off that actually returned.
QUOTE]

How far do you want to go back?

What about a bloke called Jarman?

Primus, Rendell. Paul Hamilton, Peter Jonas


We'll make Tony MacGuiness the cutoff point I reckon.