From what I read in "The Age" a while ago one of the Icke's jobs was to groom a new young coach. The artilce went further to say that the club considered Mitchell "long-term"at the club , given the excellent job he'd done, and Pagan "short-term" so Mitchell was never going to get sacked. I also read the "dispute" was from one side. Mitchell was willing to talk to Pagan but Pagan refused to talk to Mitchell. If Denis doesn't want to talk then pay him out and p!ss him off. He's been terrible here anyway. The sh!t list excuse is now gone. That excuse pretty well went last year, which made 3 wins very disappointing. Lucky for Denis we had no money at the time.

Mark Robinson mentioned on SEN last week that there were still underlying tensions at the club and was "worried" that our recent performances and positives news was simply just painting over the cracks. Interesting to see if he is right.

.IIRC Jim, 2 of the interviewers were Malouf and Sticks. One's gone and the other's influence is questionable. Sticks may well become as influential in Carlton decision-making as Halle Berry was at Revlon (?) when she was the face of that company. He's a great frontman, though, and I hope he stays from that point of view.

This whole saga is like a messy divorce, and the players are the kids stuck in the middle of it. We will not win to many games this year if there id no unity in the coaching ranks especially when we are short of on field leaders who would fill the role of big brothers for the younger kids in the club. The problem is that the time to sack Pagan is after round 12 not now, no prospective coach would apply for the job so early in the season and they would like to see some stability in the board before accepting a job with us.

It was an artlicle written at the time Icke came to the club (think it may have been about Icke actually IIRC) and included most of my first paragraph. It's a few weeks ago now so I was trying to go off memory. Hopefully my memory is holding up.

FREMANTLE football manager Steven Icke looks certain to be appointed to the football operations position at Carlton following the withdrawal of a number of candidates reluctant to deal with the dysfunctional relationship between Denis Pagan and Barry Mitchell.

And the AFL jobs merry-go-round has continued to revolve, with Peter Schwab — another frontrunner for the Blues' position — set to resign as chairman of the AFL's match review panel to take the top job at AFL Victoria.

The Age believes that Icke, 50, the former Kangaroos and Melbourne defender, along with Schwab and former Richmond coach Danny Frawley, were the last three in the running for the Carlton position, an expanded role following Grant Williams' departure earlier this year.

That trio, along with several others approached, all voiced concerns about the seemingly unworkable relationship between Pagan and Northern Bullants coach Mitchell, who applied unsuccessfully for the senior coaching position last September and barely has spoken to Pagan since.

Banished to the other side of Princes Park, Mitchell is continuing to develop the Blues' younger players in an operation virtually everyone in football regards as untenable. Carlton's refusal to rectify the situation has given the impression that it does not regard Pagan as anything but a short-term prospect, a fact not lost during this current interviewing process.

Candidates were also given the impression that Pagan was no certainty to survive beyond the 2007 season, although his contract runs until the end of 2008. The contenders were told that part of the position could be to nurture and mentor a younger senior coach as well as keep the club's promising young list together.

You're referring to an article by Carolyn Wilson which said in part:



Another report the previous day stated that Sticks and Malouf were the interviewers.

I don't believe there was anything about Mitchell in the article (which doesn't seem to be on the net now). The common belief at the time of the article was that the younger coach being referred to was Ratten. But given the history, maybe it was Mitchell.

My point is that Malouf is gone now and Sticks' influence appears to be waning. Were they pushing their own barrow from the Smorgon days or did they have the backing of Pratt? For all we know, Pratt carpeted them when he read the article. Has power transferred to Swann and Icke? If so, what are their views? Interesting questions and I suppose we'll see as the season unfolds.

For what it is worth, I heard that by the end of the week there will be a closure to the Barry Mitchell - Dennis Pagan saga. The source said that that either Mitchell or Pagan will be gone. I say the former will get his marching orders rather than the latter. The source seem to say that even Pagan could be shown the door. I find that hard to believe.

For what it is worth, I heard that by the end of the week there will be a closure to the Barry Mitchell - Dennis Pagan saga. The source said that that either Mitchell or Pagan will be gone. I say the former will get his marching orders rather than the latter. The source seem to say that even Pagan could be shown the door. I find that hard to believe.

piss off you red and black scumbag troll!!!!

Hey Budzy, I take offence to your comments towards me! I am a blues supporter through and through. No need to get so precious!! Take a chill pill.

Though it is off-topic CC, can I just say that Geelong had us under the hammer in the midfield and I'd say that the pressure affected our decision-making. A case of the opposition not allowing us to play as we wanted.

CC the opposition dont play lose man in defence in preseason games its more one on one and traditional set ups thats why we look good. Pagan is all about quick movement to the forward fifty - Coaches who think drop one or two back and we are rooted as we just keep charging forward and kicking to 2 & 3 on 1 situations . Pagan doesn't have a plan to counter act this and he is now saying that Fev need to move to CHF ala Carey where it is a lot harder to effectively play a lose man in the hole . In stead of controlling the ball creating the pace and waiting for the option to present ala Sydney