Fraser Throws His Hat In: Now The Real Work Starts

So Josh Fraser’s put his name in the hat officially now, presented to the powers-that-be up at Ikon Park like a bloke fronting a selection committee back when selection committees actually meant something. About time too, because this coaching search has dragged on longer than a Thursday twilight game that goes to extra time.

I’ll be honest, I’ve watched this process unfold with the sort of patience I don’t normally have, which for those who know me is saying something. We’ve had names come and go, leaks to every football journo with a laptop, and enough speculation to fill a Herald Sun liftout for a month. Now Fraser’s fronted up properly, given his pitch, and by all accounts done it with some conviction. Good. Because if you’re going to coach this footy club you’d better be able to sell yourself in a room, not just talk a good game to a microphone.

Why Fraser, and why now

Fraser’s mid-year turnaround is the bit everyone’s talking about, and fair enough too. There was a stretch not too long ago where you’d have got long odds on him even being mentioned in the same breath as this job, and now here he is presenting formally. That sort of shift doesn’t happen by accident. Either the football department’s seen something in how he’s operating, or he’s gone away and sharpened his pitch, or a bit of both. In my day you earned your stripes over years, not months, but I’ll grudgingly admit the game’s quicker than it was and reputations can turn on a dime if the work’s actually there behind it.

What I like about it, and I say this cautiously because I’ve been burned before by candidates who talk beautifully in a boardroom and fall in a heap once the media pack’s camped on their doorstep after round four, is that Fraser’s clearly not just going through the motions. You don’t request extra time with the panel, you don’t refine your presentation mid-process, unless you actually want the gig for the right reasons. There’s blokes in this caper who apply for every vacant chair going, hedging their bets, and there’s blokes who want Carlton specifically. I’m hoping he’s the latter.

The process itself — call me old-fashioned

Now here’s where I get a bit grumpy, because I always do eventually. This whole coaching search has had more stages than the old finals system did before they mucked around with that too. Presentations, panels, second interviews, background checks that’d make ASIO blush. Back in my day — and yes I know I sound like my old man saying it — a president rang a bloke up, had a beer with him, and that was that. Percy Jones got the job at training one Tuesday and was picking the side by Thursday. I’m not saying that was better exactly, mind you plenty of those appointments went pear-shaped inside two seasons, but there was a simplicity to it that this current carry-on lacks entirely.

These days it’s all governance and stakeholder engagement and I don’t know what else, consultants probably charging the club by the hour to tell them what any bloke down the Carlton Bowls Club could’ve told them for the price of a middy. Fraser’s had to jump through every one of these hoops, and to his credit he’s still standing at the end of it, which says something about his temperament if nothing else.

What the club actually needs

Let’s not kid ourselves about where this club sits. We need someone who can organise a defence that doesn’t leak like the family car’s radiator did in 1987, someone who can get genuine accountability out of a playing group that’s shown flashes of brilliance and long stretches of absolute nothing, and someone who understands that Carlton supporters aren’t after excuses, we’re after results and a bit of ticker while we’re waiting for them.

Whether Fraser’s that man I genuinely don’t know yet, and anyone who tells you they know for certain at this stage is having you on. What I do know is that entering the race formally, presenting properly, putting himself under real scrutiny rather than just floating his name through a mate at a footy department, that’s the right way to go about chasing this job. It shows respect for the process, even if I think the process itself has become a bit of a monster.

The board’s job now

So the ball’s in Carlton’s court, as it should be. They need to weigh Fraser up against whoever else is left standing, and they need to do it without getting seduced by a flashy resume or a name that sounds good on Fox Footy of an evening. I’ve seen this club chase reputation over substance before and we all know how some of those experiments panned out. What we want is someone who can actually coach, who can handle a locker room of modern players who are, let’s be fair, a very different breed to the blokes who used to front up hungover and still kick six.

I’d also say this to the board, and I doubt they’re reading FootyTalk but you never know: don’t drag this out any further than you have to. Every week this thing lingers is another week of uncertainty hanging over the playing list, another week where rival clubs are quietly circling any assistant coaches we might fancy, another week where the fans start losing patience with the whole saga. Fraser’s put himself forward, others presumably have too, so make the cal and make it with some backbone.

A cautious tick of approval

I’m not getting carried away here, I’ve learned that lesson the hard way over plenty of coaching cycles at this football club. But there’s something to like about a bloke who’s turned his form around, put in the hard yards, and then fronted the room when it mattered rather than waiting for the job to fall in his lap. That’s the sort of application I want from anyone wearing navy blue, coach or player.

Whether he gets it or not, Fraser’s handled this the right way. Now it’s on Carlton to make the right call, and for once, just once, get a coaching appointment that doesn’t have us all shaking our heads three seasons down the track wondering what on earth we were thinking.