Soccer: Dugdale quits Kingz over travel horror

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Football Kingz coach Ken Dugdale has quit.

Slamming travel arrangements for tomorrow night's away game with South Melbourne as "unacceptable," Dugdale handed in his resignation yesterday afternoon.

He did not coach the team at training last night and will not be on the early-morning flight tomorrow.

Assistant coach Tommy Mason and youth development coach Tony Jasper will take an under-strength team to Melbourne.

"I resigned and gave them three months notice from December 1 which would have taken me through to our last game of the season," Dugdale said. "They accepted that and I'm going to work out my notice in another capacity with the club."

Dugdale's frustrations boiled over when it was confirmed the team would have to assemble at 3.15am tomorrow for a 6am flight.

"We would have been in Melbourne by 7am [local time] but with no accommodation booked for the players," he said. "They would have had to sit around all day for a 6pm game against the side second in the league."

The return arrangements added to Dugdale's frustrations.

"We weren't booked to return home until Tuesday night. This meant at least two players, Mauro Donoso and Ross Nicholson, could not, because of work commitments, make the trip. Other players were also in doubt."

Dugdale, in a sometimes heated discussion with club chairman Chris Turner on Thursday night, demanded answers.

He wanted to know why the team were being told to travel at that time when he had asked to travel today.

"I was told the club could not get more acceptable bookings and that Melbourne, because of the Davis Cup and other events, was full."

He asked why, when the draw had been known three months ago, something better had not been arranged.

"It is unfair to put the players and me in that position. All of a sudden we are back to travelling at times like this. The players have had to put up with a lot. We had to go part-time [this season], there were budget cuts, but none of these restraints were made public.

"The players have had to do the best they can in appalling conditions."

Dugdale is taking what he terms "gardener's leave," which means he will stay on at the club and do "inside tasks" like "match analysis" - something he has been doing and attributes to being one of the reasons behind the "reasonable success we have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks."

"I feel sorry for the players," he said. "They and the coaching staff have worked their butts off.

"What has happened is not acceptable for a so-called professional club.

"Someone had to make a stand," Dugdale said as he prepared to confront the players at training last night so "they will get the real truth."

Confronted with the latest crisis at a club he recently stepped into as general manager, Peter Cox was putting on his bravest face.

In confirming Dugdale's decision, Cox said: "He is stepping back. We wish this situation could have been avoided."

Cox agreed the travel arrangements for this weekend's game were "not ideal."

"They have come about not through anyone's negligence," Cox said. "Obviously they will have some effect on the team. It is an added challenge.

"I can see where he [Dugdale] is coming from. He will still have a strong role in the club for the next three months. We are proud of what he has achieved. I'm sad we are losing Ken as our head coach."

While Mason and Jasper are to take over the coaching reins this weekend, Cox said the club had taken no position on the coaching role for the rest of the season.