Dogs in no rush on Eade's contract & still no sponsor
Dogs in no rush on Rodney Eade's contract
Jon Ralph | December 09, 2008 12:00am
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24771751-19742,00.html
WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade will not win an automatic contract extension this off-season, despite lifting his side to within five goals of a Grand Final berth. The Bulldogs hierarchy was thrilled with Eade's coaching this year, but is in no rush to extend his deal.
Instead, he will join several coaches coming out of contract at the end of next season.
When Eade lifted the Dogs into the finals in his second year in 2006, he was rewarded with a two-year extension.
But this year the Dogs are more intent on finding a major sponsor, improving their stadium deal and cutting through red tape that is delaying their Whitten Oval redevelopment.
Eade will join Dean Laidley, Terry Wallace, Mark Williams and John Worsfold as coaches whose terms expire after next year.
Geelong is working on a contract extension for Mark Thompson, while Collingwood has given Mick Malthouse overlapping one-year extensions to douse speculation over his tenure.
Bulldogs president David Smorgon said yesterday the club was more likely to consider Eade's contract as the season progressed.
"No doubt at some point it will be discussed, but we have a lot of other priorities to deal with. It is not on the agenda at the moment," Smorgon said.
"No doubt at some point (next year) it will be, but there are other things that are at the top of our mind. Everyone is happy. We are looking forward to improving again on this year.
"There was a substantially improved performance - from 13th to third."
The Bulldogs continue to work hard on securing a major sponsor to replace LeasePlan and have attracted several suitors in recent weeks.
But Smorgon was at pains to douse any speculation the club was close to signing a new major partner.
"People get carried away when they hear we have had one or two meetings, and they think it's a done deal," he said.
"We have got a couple of irons in fire at the moment we are working on, but it's very early days. Unfortunately, it looks like Christmas will intervene, so we won't be able to do anything for a couple of weeks, so that will take us to the middle of January.
"At least we have some polite interest, as compared to a few weeks ago where we couldn't get any interest at all."
At the height of their financial crisis, the Dogs sold their jumper sponsorship by the week. Smorgon said the Bulldogs would never repeat that experience.
"I am confident by Round 1, one way or another, we will have a sponsor. But we won't be discounting our properties to get a name on the jumper," he said.
"We know the value of our brand. We have learnt in the past if you do that, you come unstuck from a financial point of view and even a morale point of view.
"We know the value of our assets and we know where we rank among the clubs.
"A lot of people love watching the Bulldogs play footy on TV.
"The challenge for us is to find a sponsor who can relate to us and not one who wants to get in at the cheapest and lowest level so they get a brand on a jumper, and we get a few dollars and not much else."