Tom Hafey all over again.

[Wokko]

I'm too young (or is that just not quite old enough) to remember the Hafey years but from what I hear this is essentially history repeating itself. A coach who enjoyed enormous success/popularity but unable to bring the big prize being run out of town. The criticisms of both men (Malthouse and Hafey) are even scarily similar. Tactically inept, gruff and stubborn, mistraining the players (Hafey overtraining, Mick not training strength/skills enough).

Maybe someone from the era could better make a comparison but if we lose 9 straight I reckon Mick will head the same way. If he's replaced by an ex SANFL player from Port Adelaide then things are getting really weird.

[BHPIE]

Not even close,Tom was sacked mainly by the actions of a sooky player named Peter Moore,..then the dog went to Melb anyway,..some ppl forget ,I dont, and no one should.
I would take TOM over MM any day of the week.

[HAL]

What would make you tack TOM over MM any day of the week?

[bwphantom]

Tom was a great Coach. As said in a post he was basically forced out. The similarities to MM lies in the ability to draw out the best of his playing group.

The whole period when the Club went throught the turmoil was a tragic part of our History. Tom like MM was/is unlucky not to have a Cup or 2 under his name as Coach of the CFC.

[On the March]

i posted this before..the similarities are there but i'm not talking coaching style. it could well end in tears

[skaman]

Ex SANFL player for Port Adelaide? ... Yeah, you forgot to mention that he wore the Collingwood jumper with pride and actually Captained our great footy club. You were talking about Chocco, right?

As for the comparisons with T-Shirt Tommy and MM. Well ,I have to tell you, as much as Mick has done for the club, I would have had Tommy at his peak in a heartbeat. Im fairly sure his winning/ coaching stats would fair much better than Micks.

[sq3]

Bux played for Port as a very young player - Flag, Foss Williams and Magarey medals all in the same year.

[WITTY 35 DAICOS MAGIC]

[pietillidie]

[optimax]

so mick will go to richmond and win flags and we struggle for another decade

Oh yay

[RudeBoy]

Tommy Hafey was an absolute fantastic coach, after all, you don't get a team into 4 grand finals in 5 years otherwise. However, the fact is, after those herculean efforts, both he and the playing group were exhausted and in need of separation from each other. Sometimes shit happens I'm afraid.

As for MM, I don't believe there is any significant disharmony within the playing group, nor a loss of faith in the coach. Nevertheless, I think MM has done all he can with the team, that his coaching has stagnated and there is sameness and staleness about our game plan and coaching philosophy. It's simply time for a change, and that should be capable of being accepted without the need to denigrate MM, who has been a very good coach.

[neil]

Tommy was screwed by an administration that would not recruit/buy players.
It was the old play for the jumper mentality that cost Collingwood; players GF victories and huge pain for their supporters.
He showed loyalty to his players by leaving them in positions when they were getting beaten and refusing to drop players. In return many of them lifted in response to the loyalty.

MM shows loyalty and is criticised for not taking them off/dropping them.
At least Eddie will recruit/trade players.

[Dr Pie]

When Tommy was sacked he was replaced by former Collingwood and Richmond player Mick Erwin who was caretaker coach for the rest of the season. The ex-SANFL player who became coach that Wokko is referring to was John Cahill who was appointed by the New Magpies in 1983.

Several lessons here. Despite what Neil says the Hickey administration did buy players for Tommy, but some of the players e.g. Alan Davis at the end of his career or Richmond rejects Gerald Betts and Stephen Roach were not good buys. The Hickey administration did not spend as much as some other clubs at the time (Carlton) and were replaced by the New Magpies, Ranald Macdonald's team of businessmen who knew nothing about football and footballers who knew nothing about business. They proceeded to bring the club into massive debt, poor onfield performance and in-fighting. Their only significant acheivement was to poach David Cloke from Richmond and we didn't really benefit from that until we recruited Travis under the Father-Son Rules more than twenty years later.

Lesson - when you kick out the committee make sure that you don't vote in a worse one!

Tommy was a fantastic coach. He got the 1977 team into the Grand Final, when they were probably only the third best team in the comp, could probably have won the flag if Carman had controlled himself in the Second Semi and not been suspended. As it was we drew the Grand Final and lost the replay.

You all know why we lost in '79 (blind boundary umpire), we finished 1980 in 5th position and only got into the GF on courage and detirmination because injuries should have put us out by the First Semi,
and in 1981 at least part of the reason for our GF loss was interference by committee members. (read Tony Shaw's biography). Then in 1982 Hafey lost the players, particularly Peter Moore.

Lesson 2. If you appoint a top coach you have to give him 100% support and ensure that the players do likewise.

Lesson 3. Most Collingwood coaches since McHale have had more than their fair share of bad luck.

I don't think the club gained a thing by putting in Mick Erwin as caretaker coach. They still lost games and Mooore defected to Melbourne for megabucks as he would have done no matter who was coach.

Lesson 4 If you are going to sasck the coach (MM) do it at the end of the season and in the meantime give him and the players some support!!!

[pietillidie]

[gobbles21]

Hafey was replaced by a recently retired untried coach. A true champion of the game, one of the greatest players ever and he coached us to a flag.

Anyone know where we could find one of those?