Matthew Knights is a smart bloke and surely knew well enough to know not to have watched TV on Monday night, unless he wanted to learn the intricacies of the eight-layer vanilla cake that was the feature on Masterchef.

On The Couch, One Week at a Time and Footy Classified all gave Knights and his position as coach of the Bombers a good working over. The reviews were mixed and the consensus appeared to be that Knights needs a few wins over the remaining six weeks to guarantee he has a job next year.

But if we could be so bold as to offer some advice to Knights, it would be to follow the lead of his predecessor, Kevin Sheedy. It is time to deflect and distract.

When the Bombers were under the pump while Sheedy was in charge, the coach was at his finest. He'd talk about the martians, he'd praise Edna Daniher, he'd bait the AFL or even buy into the political issue of the day.

Sheedy was the master of deflection and distraction. Sheedy would simply walk into a media conference, say his piece before taking any questions and the media would take the bait every time. The spotlight would be shone elsewhere and the players and the club would be off the hook.

The Bombers of 2010 need to blaze a similar trail. Knights needs to find an issue somewhere in the game, but not to do with the Bombers, and take ownership of it. He's a third-year coach now, a key stakeholder in the game and the football world would pay attention.

Granted, there will be some who would see right through such a move by Knights as dodging the real issue - the poor form of his side. It will take balls to try it. But it is a tactic that worked time and time again for Sheedy.

As for Sheedy, he has been put back into his box by everyone - the Bombers, rival AFL coaches and even his new employer at GWS, which has determined that not all publicity os good publicity.

The big question is whether he is yet a tenured AFL coach. Yes, he is head coach of GWS, but the club's first proper game is 18 months away. As we have explained, Sheedy couldn't keep his mouth shut when he was coach of an active team at Essendon.

It's hard to imagine him playing a straight bat to the affairs of the footy world as long as News Limited is throwing him as much coin as they are.