Keeping up with the Smiths

By ASHLEY BROWNE

Injury-riddled former North Melbourne defender Jesse Smith has started training at Hawthorn, as part of the exodus from Arden Street to Waverley Park that this summer alone has seen Josh Gibson and Adam Simpson change their blue-and-white stripes to those of the brown and gold.

Of course, Gibson will be assuming a key role in the Hawk backline, while Simpson, the former North skipper, has started to cut his coaching teeth as an assistant under Alastair Clarkson.

But the Smith situation is intriguing. His split with the Kangaroos was less than amicable and seemed to centre around his belief that North lacked the medical infrastructure to repair his fragile hamstrings and ankles, which so far have restricted him to just 27 games in five years.

If the Hawks can get him right, North fans will be apoplectic, because he has shown glimpses – between injuries – of being a star. Never more so than his near best-on-ground performance against Hawthorn in the 2007 first semi-final, an upset win to the Kangaroos. It is on the basis of that one match that Hawthorn fans are hoping Smith can return to full fitness.

But that’s only part of the story. The other is that his father Ross is Hawthorn’s backline coach. It is a good arrangement for now, with Ross able to keep a close eye on his son’s progress and presumably able to confer regularly with the club’s medical staff as they oversee his Jesse’s return to match fitness.

But should Smith officially join the Hawks at one of the drafts later this year, that relationship becomes more complicated. It is one thing for fathers to coach their sons at Auskick or in underage footy. It is another thing at AFL level.

Ask Denis Pagan what it was like to coach his son Ryan at North Melbourne. Ryan’s draft selection alone caused a massive fallout between Pagan and his chairman of selectors and close friend Mark Dawson and Pagan has admitted since that coaching his son was one of the more stressful experiences of his time at the helm of the Kangaroos.

Perhaps all the Hawks are doing is allowing Jesse Smith to use their resources to give him the best chance of having another crack at league footy. But if they are considering taking it that one step further and drafting Smith for next season, you wonder whether someone at Waverley will be giving Denis Pagan a call – Clarkson played under Pagan at North – to check whether it really would be the best outcome for all parties.

Pagan caught up in the Richmond hysteria

By CHARLES HAPPELL

Denis Pagan has been pilloried for daring to say he’d like a job back in senior AFL coaching. Yet he’s expressed the same sentiment for many months, ever since he took over the Northern Knights TAC Cup team last year. He even said it during his radio gig on 3AW last week when he was asked if the Fremantle position – another coaching post that may soon be up for grabs – held any appeal to him. Appeal? Pagan said he’d be on the first plane to Perth if he was offered the job.

That comment caused barely a ripple of angst, either in Melbourne or Perth. Yet in repeating his long-held desire to coach to Channel Seven on Monday night, Pagan has been lambasted as an opportunist and a vulture. Tigers coach Terry Wallace was said to be particularly incensed by the remarks.

But why? Sure, Pagan’s timing may have been out. He could have responded with a mealy-mouthed no comment. But why should he? He wants to coach again and has publicly expressed that desire numerous times. So, get real Tezza, this coaching caper is a tough gig; if you don’t want to be the subject of all this speculation and ridiculous Herald-Sun headlines, start winning a few games. How’s that for gratuitous advice?

At the risk of going over ground already covered by my esteemed blog-colleague, the point is Wallace has now coached 240 AFL games at the Western Bulldogs and Richmond without getting either team to a grand final. He is in second-place on the list of coaches who’ve gone grand final-less through their career. Bill Stephen, the former Essendon and Fitzroy coach in the 1970s and 80s, leads the way on 258 games. If Wallace was to survive the 22-match home-and-away season, he would finish on level terms with Stephen in this category that no coach wants to feature.

So, sorry, no sympathy for El Tel from this quarter.

The real question is whether Pagan will get another gig in the AFL. Given that he was not even considered worthy of mention in today’s Age, as the paper canvassed the top 10 or so contenders for Wallace’s job, it’s probably fair to say he’s a long shot. At Punt Rd anyway. But at Fremantle, the underachieving, underperforming rabble that makes Richmond look like Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers, the purple powers-that-be would be mad not to consider recruiting the springy-haired spruiker to at least put a bit of backbone into their jellyfish of a team.