Speaker 1: He rang and I don't reckon he could talk about
Speaker 1: thirty seconds when yeah, he was absolutely devastated, completely nutterly devastated.
Speaker 1: So as a parent, yeah, it's not a you know,
Speaker 1: it's not a death or anything. I'm unfortunate, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he was just I thought he'd misdied me. That's how
Speaker 1: I was talking to him to talk.
Speaker 2: I'm John Ralph and I'm Glenn McFarlane.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Sacked, a podcast that explores what really happens
Speaker 3: when the ax falls in the AFL world. Will take
Speaker 3: you behind the scenes with some of the biggest names
Speaker 3: in football and find out how they found out their
Speaker 3: time was up and who pulled the trigger. Sacked AFL
Speaker 3: is made possible with the support of subscribers to The
Speaker 3: Herald Sun. To find out more, go to Herald Sun
Speaker 3: dot com that are you or download the Herald Sun
Speaker 3: app at your app store today.
Speaker 2: No regrets that David Nobles story.
Speaker 4: Nothing came easy for the short blonde kid who spent
Speaker 4: his teenage years emptying the vending machine in his old
Speaker 4: man's pub in Hobart, finally getting the chance at Fitzroy
Speaker 4: with a home ground North Hobart, to be at the
Speaker 4: age of twenty one, Noble's league career pete it out
Speaker 4: at exactly two games in one season. He worked hard
Speaker 4: to become a coach, despite some big hurdles along the way,
Speaker 4: but found his calling in recruiting and administration with the
Speaker 4: Crows and Brisbane. And yet when the chance to be
Speaker 4: the man at his own club appeared, Noble jumped at
Speaker 4: the opportunity, despite the monumental challenge that leading North Melbourne posed.
Speaker 2: David Noble, Welcome to sacked, mate.
Speaker 4: You've had an incredible career in sport avenue player, assistant coach,
Speaker 4: list boss, development, footy boss and now you're the see
Speaker 4: of motor racing team and you've got a some who
Speaker 4: players AFL.
Speaker 2: Have you squeezed this into fifty seven years? Mate?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, Glenn. Here you going, John? Yeah. Look
Speaker 1: when you sort of I guess the will just keeps turning,
Speaker 1: sort of keep moving forward, you move on to the
Speaker 1: next task, and it's not sort of until you get
Speaker 1: to chat with guys like yourself in reflection that you
Speaker 1: sort of look back and go, holy moly, there's been
Speaker 1: a fever of groundcver there.
Speaker 3: You're a lively skillful rover When you began your senior
Speaker 3: footy career at North Hobart. How did it you know,
Speaker 3: how did you get into North Hobart and how did
Speaker 3: your sporting and footy career start.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my dad played at North Alfi John Noble and
Speaker 1: then dad was a commentator back in a a publican.
Speaker 1: I'm and Dad had pubs through Tazzy and so we're
Speaker 1: hotelier is through there and my dad was president of
Speaker 1: the aoh was national president at one point in time,
Speaker 1: and I ended up sort of working in the pub.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the child.
Speaker 5: Labor is the right way you could get away with it?
Speaker 1: Then well you could. Yeah, the intercom went, I had
Speaker 1: to go down and they count the twenty cent pieces
Speaker 1: out of the bingo machine and refeel the tills. So yeah,
Speaker 1: Dad played through there, played with junior footy for a
Speaker 1: cuples with North Hovard under a Danes with a guy
Speaker 1: called Wayne Upton, and then probably came straight out of school.
Speaker 1: Darryl Sutton came down from North and Sydney and started
Speaker 1: coaching North. I had a pre season through there as
Speaker 1: a really young buck. As a seventeen year old. I
Speaker 1: was uck enough they let me train and yeah, I
Speaker 1: got my debut through through Darryl and yeah, I started from.
Speaker 4: There and from there some really good success. You became
Speaker 4: a vice captain of the club, You won two premierships.
Speaker 4: There was the call to Victoria coming because I think
Speaker 4: there was at the Melbourne Footy Club. There was an
Speaker 4: interest there from Melbourne at one stage in eighty seven
Speaker 4: or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think so. Gary Davidson came on board
Speaker 1: and was probably ahead of his time. I mean David
Speaker 1: I'd come back from Richmond. He was a teacher by trade.
Speaker 1: You know. He loved the work that Parker had done
Speaker 1: in investing in in you know, his people and giving
Speaker 1: them a say so from that side of things, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was great. He pushed us to a new level
Speaker 1: of fitness, He challenges to a new level of engagement
Speaker 1: and taking responsibility that sort of collaboration. Yeah. I'd seen
Speaker 1: a couple of guys, you know, I played against Maddy
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Lynchy and a few of those guys and
Speaker 1: they went early and I'm thinking, ship, surely I'll get
Speaker 1: a chance, But yeah, it wasn't until I was twenty
Speaker 1: one that I got the chance. And back then, you know,
Speaker 1: I distinctly. Remember that if you didn't get drafted in
Speaker 1: your early couple of years like he were toached, you
Speaker 1: were just about, you know, not there. And you know,
Speaker 1: Arthur Wilson came down and spoke to me, and you know,
Speaker 1: God love him, and he's no longer with us, and
Speaker 1: I reconnected when I went back to Brisbane. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: recruited me.
Speaker 3: And obviously James Podziadley was the marquee man for recruits
Speaker 3: ladder in their twenties. But was that something you said
Speaker 3: to John when he was battling away in the essay
Speaker 3: and Phil you know, take time. I was a late bloomer,
Speaker 3: because it's amazing to think that history repeated.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. Was the was both the twins actually,
Speaker 1: I mean Mark didn't unfortunately get drafted, but it was
Speaker 1: it was just chip away, you know, continue to just
Speaker 1: you know, search for improvement, you know, continually look to
Speaker 1: improve and hone your game. And I've always had the
Speaker 1: philosophy roughly that I think, you know, recruiters will find you.
Speaker 1: If you're good enough, they'll find you. There's enough of
Speaker 1: them around as we know, and if you're good enough,
Speaker 1: you'll get found.
Speaker 5: They found you. But you had to wait.
Speaker 3: So Chris Grant was pick one five in the nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty eight National Draft. You were one hundred and eleven
Speaker 3: in the eighty nine National Draft as a twenty two
Speaker 3: year I think you missed it irrelevant. If you're the
Speaker 3: last pick of the NFL draft, you must have been
Speaker 3: pretty close to the last pick in that draft.
Speaker 2: There was about four or five others.
Speaker 4: I checked it up last night, David including it makes
Speaker 4: me feel there's a couple of good ones in there
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well back then it was Look I think now,
Speaker 1: well I don't know about now, but when I was
Speaker 1: in the list, management did something. It got overseas and
Speaker 1: went to a few teams and looked at how they
Speaker 1: sort of did things in the NFL, and look, the
Speaker 1: lad of the draft, the stronger the character. That's what
Speaker 1: they ended up doing. And so I'm going to stand
Speaker 1: by that because one hundred and eleven means I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of character.
Speaker 4: You did, and you came to a footy club that
Speaker 4: was you know, I had a lot of ta as
Speaker 4: you said before, a lot of tazzy guys that ended up.
Speaker 2: At Fitzroy, didn't they in that sense? And coach by
Speaker 2: Curly Austin.
Speaker 4: You had some injuries in that first year, but I
Speaker 4: hate to take you back to your first game. You
Speaker 4: did play it at home, but it was a pretty
Speaker 4: tough day though, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: I'll get the cheers of the crowd because he comes
Speaker 1: from North ho but this is his home ground.
Speaker 2: I'd get a touch here too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Debuted on my home ground and got thrashed by
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty six points. And I played on
Speaker 1: garriers and at one stage, wow, I thought, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got him covered and then I reckon. Within three
Speaker 1: seconds he was having a shot on goal.
Speaker 3: What was it like to play with airs? You know
Speaker 3: that smooth mover, great mover through traffic.
Speaker 5: What was he like? Easy?
Speaker 1: Was?
Speaker 5: He was Canane, the Barbarian.
Speaker 1: He was apart from his size, is the the biggest
Speaker 1: cups I've ever seen in a life until I worked
Speaker 1: with Neil Craig. But he just didn't stop. Ralphie Like
Speaker 1: for me, it was just like holy crap, Like it
Speaker 1: is non stop the whole time. They don't rest, they anticipate,
Speaker 1: they predict where the ball went. And it was a
Speaker 1: great lesson like for me as a twenty one twenty
Speaker 1: two year old. It's like, you know, I've got so
Speaker 1: much still to learn in the caper. So yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It was a pretty big lesson well stats, whyse though,
Speaker 4: you've still had eighteen touches in a team that's been
Speaker 4: absolutely flowed, two tackles and one hit out David, Do
Speaker 4: you remember the hit out one.
Speaker 2: Hit out there as well?
Speaker 4: But that was Passy's first game in you know, first AFL,
Speaker 4: know AFL game at the time, in thirty nine years
Speaker 4: to be played there, did it mean something special to
Speaker 4: play it there?
Speaker 2: And oh your family would have been there?
Speaker 1: It was it was extremely you know, a proud moment
Speaker 1: to have family there playing my old home ground. Funny
Speaker 1: story though, because back then we got billeted out. We
Speaker 1: didn't start a hotel really, no, we had, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of Terry Moore, his mum and dad had
Speaker 1: people start at their place. I started up a brother's place. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We And I think I think if the truth known,
Speaker 1: Ralphie and I know you had Rouzy on a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, I think a couple of them went
Speaker 1: and checked into a hotel somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, And back
Speaker 1: then it was like, you know, that was the way
Speaker 1: that we had to do it. I mean we had
Speaker 1: no money. A few always hadually have to pay for
Speaker 1: our own bags and boots and bits and pieces. It
Speaker 1: wasn't you know, the the improved or the glamorous environment
Speaker 1: that is at the moment.
Speaker 5: So you had no money, but it was a pretty
Speaker 5: powerful side.
Speaker 3: So you played again the next week and then not
Speaker 3: after How you know how many what ifs and how
Speaker 3: many close run things where they're involved in your career, Fitzroy.
Speaker 1: A lot, I think unfortunately. You know, I did go
Speaker 1: and speak to to Sure at the end of the
Speaker 1: year and yeah, I said I was going to go
Speaker 1: and do an improvement program. I'd gone to get a
Speaker 1: speed coach and bits and pieces, and he pretty much
Speaker 1: said he didn'tink to make any difference. Gary Buchener at
Speaker 1: the time then got a pointed to Sydney and he
Speaker 1: rang me and said, look, they'd be keen to have
Speaker 1: me in Sydney. And unfortunately I didn't have a manager
Speaker 1: back then and didn't know that I had to renominate
Speaker 1: for the draft.
Speaker 3: And then you get to the Western Bulldogs in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety eight for like a captivating period there under Terry Wallace.
Speaker 1: Player rang me and said, looking looking for a coach
Speaker 1: for the for the reserves as it was back then,
Speaker 1: come on board. We still ran our own structure from
Speaker 1: a reserve ran on the smell of an early rag.
Speaker 5: There was financial powerhouses early on there were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like taking on those challengers and yeah, won
Speaker 1: a flag. It was was unbelievable, you know, to play
Speaker 1: the coach on the MCG and when a flag was
Speaker 1: is a very cherished.
Speaker 3: Memory and how how much did they celebrate that given
Speaker 3: that you know flags are in short supply until twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a it was a bit of sweet
Speaker 1: because we got we got bold over the seniors got
Speaker 1: bold over in the premium again and we sort of
Speaker 1: were to sort of push through and win the flag.
Speaker 1: So it was it was it was an awkward b
Speaker 1: and F. You know, there's a few of us having
Speaker 1: a few drinks and there was like sort of a
Speaker 1: somber mode on the other side. So but yeah, any
Speaker 1: cis test success at that point in time, you know,
Speaker 1: for the Doggies was well.
Speaker 2: Cherished and that was Plow in his prime. Really wasn't
Speaker 2: it As a coach?
Speaker 4: Yeah, what did you take from from him in your
Speaker 4: coach coaching pathway there date.
Speaker 1: He is the coach that I would go to for
Speaker 1: to make a move to win a game. Like he
Speaker 1: just had an unbelievable skill to be able to assess
Speaker 1: who needs to be where at what particular point in time.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you could talk to someone like
Speaker 1: John O. John A would play six spots in one day,
Speaker 1: but the right time to have him or Brownie go
Speaker 1: forward or go back, or go in the center bounce
Speaker 1: like Plower just had an unbelievable understanding of the game.
Speaker 1: And so I think for me, his detail of knowing
Speaker 1: what to do when to do was It's a bit innate,
Speaker 1: but he had a phenomenal ability to assess the game
Speaker 1: quickly and make quick decisions. I think back then to Glenn,
Speaker 1: you're able, you probably had more matchups than what you
Speaker 1: do now. You could legitimately have matchups. And his ability
Speaker 1: to maneuver and manipulate the team to get an outcome
Speaker 1: with their first class.
Speaker 3: It's a great combination too, because he's got the tactical act.
Speaker 3: Remember then, he's got the themes, you know, signed the
Speaker 3: match balls. Yeah, absolutely as well. And talking about the
Speaker 3: flood game, but that's a pretty powerful union of both
Speaker 3: of those characteristics.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, the flood game is an interesting one. We
Speaker 1: went down to Wriby, we marked out the field, the
Speaker 1: coaches all came in in trench coats into the meeting.
Speaker 1: This we were going in cognito to ambush this game.
Speaker 1: We went out, we had all the ground marked up
Speaker 1: in squares, and he nailed the execution, like to a t.
Speaker 1: We bowled them over comfortably in the end. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it was, it was a it was It was a
Speaker 1: master stroke game.
Speaker 3: And so how long did you spend plotting out or
Speaker 3: you know, the blokes standing in those positions is for.
Speaker 5: Those that you know this is the uber flood.
Speaker 3: There was before the flood, before you know, Rodney sort
Speaker 3: of instituted it. And you know what was it that
Speaker 3: session like and did the players buy into it or
Speaker 3: do they have to be challenged to think?
Speaker 1: We coun't be essident they had to be challenged. It's
Speaker 1: like it's got to be shipped me like we do
Speaker 1: on this. Really, it took us a couple of days
Speaker 1: to convince the guys. It was like, okay, you've got
Speaker 1: to fall back to this spot to really heavily inundate
Speaker 1: that area to not get through, and then we sort
Speaker 1: of stepped them through it, and then we went out
Speaker 1: and we trained it, and eventually the benefit was the
Speaker 1: player got them all united. We've got them all on
Speaker 1: the same page, which I think is the trade of
Speaker 1: any game plan. If you are a strong leader, and
Speaker 1: you can have the worst game plan in the world,
Speaker 1: but if you're all united, it's the strongest game plan
Speaker 1: in the world. And that's what we had.
Speaker 4: Absolutely and Plow you stood in for Plower in a
Speaker 4: in a pre season game.
Speaker 2: Did you down in Tazzy? Was that one of the ideas? Yeah,
Speaker 2: what happened there and.
Speaker 4: That must have been a you know, you must have
Speaker 4: been thinking at that stage, at some stage, I want
Speaker 4: to coach at this level.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, it's a great opportunity. I think player had
Speaker 1: a great sentiment, you know, in understanding that and us
Speaker 1: going back to Tazzy and he said, look a lot
Speaker 1: of the coach for the for the game down there
Speaker 1: back at my old home ground. It's a bit of
Speaker 1: a blur sort of, I think, Glenn, looking back on
Speaker 1: it now, there was just so much excitement, I think
Speaker 1: from my side of things to just probably not muck
Speaker 1: anything up, you know, so just knowing that you're sort
Speaker 1: of going to hand the baby back at a point
Speaker 1: in time. So yeah, look at it was. It was
Speaker 1: great to be able to just take charge for a
Speaker 1: day and see the I guess the level that you
Speaker 1: sort of have to go to to get that next opportunity.
Speaker 4: That was an incredible side that period there for the
Speaker 4: Bulldog not to win an AFL senior flag. Do you
Speaker 4: look back at that now and think some of these
Speaker 4: guys really deserve it? They put everything into it. How
Speaker 4: stiff were they, do you think nine in that sort
Speaker 4: of bracket?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was watching, I knew I was going there
Speaker 1: again of ninety seven and I'm cheering like crazy.
Speaker 4: I still think it was a goal at the end
Speaker 4: of the day.
Speaker 1: Clips time.
Speaker 3: So right a point, what.
Speaker 1: Do they do when they go yeah, yeah, Brett Montgomery
Speaker 1: does so he was standing wrong. Yeah, I think to
Speaker 1: see the guys like you know, Tonal Libritory that have
Speaker 1: worked so hard he had a need come back in
Speaker 1: the shortest amount of time to get himself back and going.
Speaker 1: You know, Maddie Croft, those guys, it's gotta wine that
Speaker 1: had sort of been through, you know, through that period, Grandy.
Speaker 1: I mean there's some there's some fabulous players that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's always an interesting one is that they do you
Speaker 1: deserve to sort of get that, you know, metal. But
Speaker 1: here we were. We were a group that had the
Speaker 1: bones of our backside out. We were cap in hand
Speaker 1: to the AFL all the time, and we we battered
Speaker 1: above our weight, you know, for those two or three
Speaker 1: years strongly. It was. It was a phenomenal effort, was
Speaker 1: well led organization. David Smrgan did a great job to
Speaker 1: keep a ship afloat and we played some exciting footage
Speaker 1: through that period time. So we were a bit stiff.
Speaker 5: Terry Wallace, we understand how to contracted Sydney.
Speaker 3: He moves on, He's denied the farewell game betrayed, according
Speaker 3: to David Morgan, who later city regretted that, what's your
Speaker 3: memories of that crazy few weeks as you something's happening here,
Speaker 3: but I don't really know why Terry's leaving.
Speaker 5: Then it obviously became clear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty clear in my mind because I got.
Speaker 2: The at the end that you did that. Yeah, So they.
Speaker 1: Put RhoD In Wrodeer coach the team for the rest
Speaker 1: of the year. He got the gig and look at
Speaker 1: me was I didn't gree but he had the respect
Speaker 1: to call me with me eyeboll and say, budgets maan cup,
Speaker 1: I haven't got a spot for her. We just bought
Speaker 1: a house. We're in debt up to our eyeballs, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we pretty much lost everything. You had to put the
Speaker 1: family in the trailer and drove to Adelaide for a job.
Speaker 5: Well, so what do you have to sell your house?
Speaker 5: You know, it's it's as visceral as that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had it. We bought a new house and invested.
Speaker 1: I mean back then, if you remember he went with
Speaker 1: that tween in a two thousand and two, you could
Speaker 1: borrow as much as you possibly could get from so
Speaker 1: we did, and yeah, it just it just didn't work
Speaker 1: out for us from a financial perspective. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: had we had to Wadelaide and basically had to reset
Speaker 1: our whole life.
Speaker 5: Yeah, tell you what, I'm about to say the same thing. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I still let you borrow a heck of a lot.
Speaker 5: To tell you what, but how do you how do
Speaker 5: you break that to your life?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Not very not very pleasantly. It's you know, you're
Speaker 1: the number one read winner, and there's a range of
Speaker 1: embarrassment and difficulty that's got to come with that conversation.
Speaker 1: And yeah, look, I just all though of a career.
Speaker 1: I think like she's the rock behind our family. I
Speaker 1: just can't thank her enough. She's just supported me and
Speaker 1: we're everywhere I've asked to go, she's gone. But yeah,
Speaker 1: to sit there and say, look, we have to find
Speaker 1: a job. We probably have to put the house on
Speaker 1: the market. They called an election at that point in time,
Speaker 1: back into Victoria. Back then the market traditionally in those
Speaker 1: periods which I found out, you know, sort of during
Speaker 1: that since the market, real estate market flattens, you know,
Speaker 1: closing rates go down, and we had to sort of
Speaker 1: firesale the property to get ourselves out of debt. Well
Speaker 1: we didn't get out of there, but yeah, we just
Speaker 1: had to pick ourselves up and choof off with three kids.
Speaker 3: You proud are your resilience throughout all that time. But
Speaker 3: everyone has stepbacks. But you know, they hit you.
Speaker 1: Pretty hard, they do. Yeah, they they question you a lot.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that life presents a lot of challenges
Speaker 1: for us. We've been been through some enormous challenges and
Speaker 1: just getting Our family started with all our kids in
Speaker 1: the IVF, and that presented its own challenges, you know,
Speaker 1: to establish a family. And that's why we were so
Speaker 1: down close. It's just because of the hard work and
Speaker 1: the effort that goes into establishing a family unit. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we think we're pretty resilient.
Speaker 5: Punch Glenn and I she had to be here in
Speaker 5: Glenelger gather around this.
Speaker 3: She did beautiful place, a magnificent place there with Jade
Speaker 3: Rowlings the coach. Now how did you find yourself a
Speaker 3: coach there? And what did you learn about it in
Speaker 3: that second chapter, third chapter of your life?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought about going in the after I finished
Speaker 1: the reserves won the flag. We then ended up I
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember back then, you guys, we
Speaker 1: sort of dispersed players back out to the VFL. So
Speaker 1: we had some where we had some of Williams down
Speaker 1: Clark are actually coached whereby at that point in time.
Speaker 1: And then I sort of had that period I thought
Speaker 1: maybe I need to go back and coach. I didn't
Speaker 1: think my footy profile was going to be enough to
Speaker 1: compete with like Rouzi coming out at three hundred games,
Speaker 1: and back then it was sort of more bad transition
Speaker 1: of players going into coaching. So glenelg advertised I had
Speaker 1: an uncle in Adelaide that sort of flipped me in
Speaker 1: text and said, I look, galdeolgo for a coach. I
Speaker 1: missed out on the North Battle job, and I missed
Speaker 1: out on a job at Hawthorne Park. I think was
Speaker 1: still involved sort of through there and anyway, so I
Speaker 1: got the job of corne Elgen. Yeah, jumped in the
Speaker 1: car and we sort of drove over and settled in Adelaide,
Speaker 1: And yeah, I love thenfl a I love the cultural
Speaker 1: environment and the growth of club land. I think roughly
Speaker 1: like eighteen sixteen to eighteens, reserves, seniors. They operated on zones.
Speaker 1: We had the Southeast, which was a phenomenal Boody renowned environment,
Speaker 1: put up and set up a footy academy there, which
Speaker 1: I think is still going today to really capture and
Speaker 1: grow those squad players as they came through, and really
Speaker 1: enjoyed the time through there. We didn't have necessarily great results,
Speaker 1: We've had a five year plan, but yeah, I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed the time there. Some great people.
Speaker 3: Those five years at Adelaide as assistant coach. Before you
Speaker 3: move into list management, footy operations. Some of their great years,
Speaker 3: they're building years. There's some almost there's again for deep
Speaker 3: into finals.
Speaker 1: Should have won at least one of them.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and six was that the one.
Speaker 1: I think it might have been five. We Craigie had
Speaker 1: a march over the whole competition, our preparation through that year,
Speaker 1: the way we trained, the way we used GPS. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole sports science, the methodology of how we played.
Speaker 1: It was a very clear method to what we and
Speaker 1: I think we kept. I think we just ran out
Speaker 1: of path at the end of five. We probably trained
Speaker 1: too hard towards the end.
Speaker 3: Had a year in which Ru got Michael Schuter got
Speaker 3: pav virus. You had some you know, and people were
Speaker 3: questioning the methods, but they were methods that have got
Speaker 3: you to the brink of a Grand five premiership.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So look, we tweaked a bit and maybe you're
Speaker 1: rightly maybe six is one.
Speaker 2: Maybe got away finals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they were to finals and the one in for memory,
Speaker 4: the one in six was at six home, wasn't it.
Speaker 2: It was at home?
Speaker 4: It didn't get West Coast the eventual premiere as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, incredible, there's how close.
Speaker 1: But there's there's a there's a funny storing there, but
Speaker 1: it's not for unfortunate, but it was it was a difficult, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It's a difficult pill to swallow that one.
Speaker 1: We thought we had a cousins got out of control
Speaker 1: in the second half and dominated the game and we
Speaker 1: weren't able to put them away early enough, And yeah,
Speaker 1: we had to look at our wounds, and yeah, it
Speaker 1: was probably probably that one. Being at home was probably
Speaker 1: the one that really stung the most.
Speaker 3: You were there as the list boss and you know,
Speaker 3: predating your time as a list boss as well, the
Speaker 3: Curt Tippet scenario. We're basically they know you might explain
Speaker 3: it to us better, but basically had provisions in his
Speaker 3: in his contract there that he could escape for you,
Speaker 3: what was it the second or third round pick?
Speaker 5: And obviously that was exposed.
Speaker 3: Later on and Stephen Trigue was well, the club was
Speaker 3: panealized with, as you say, a couple of first round picks.
Speaker 3: How did that break? What did you know of it?
Speaker 3: Obviously very little? And how did it play out?
Speaker 1: I didn't know about the deal behind the scenes, but
Speaker 1: I was in the conversations with Phil Harper and myself
Speaker 1: in the conversation with Sydney, and yeah, it was like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, this is this is rather serious.
Speaker 6: The Kurt Tippets saga has taken a sinister twist, with
Speaker 6: the Adelaide Crows facing a hefty fine and a loss
Speaker 6: of draft picks. The club has admitted having a hidden
Speaker 6: clause in Tippett's last contract, agreeing to exchange him to
Speaker 6: the club of his choice for a second round draft pick.
Speaker 1: Look at it got escalated to Rob Chapman and from there,
Speaker 1: you know, we opened the doors to an investigation, and yeah,
Speaker 1: weended up coppying some unfortunate some stuff got suspended and
Speaker 1: we copped some Yeah, I missed out some picks and
Speaker 1: we had to sort of pigreess I was up and
Speaker 1: keep going. So it was it was an awkward, difficult time.
Speaker 1: And the silly thing was that there was room in
Speaker 1: the cap if we wanted to, I think for a
Speaker 1: memory of what we were trying to pay Kurt, there
Speaker 1: was actually room in the to do it. Like it
Speaker 1: wasn't like we were capped out, but.
Speaker 4: Incredibly awkward time at the club. Were so many things
Speaker 4: going on, and and Dean Nayli's there for a period
Speaker 4: of time and and Dean unfortunately has that penalty and
Speaker 4: then passes away. How awkward was that and how difficult
Speaker 4: was that for the club at that time?
Speaker 1: It was bloody awful, Glenn, to see a guy who
Speaker 1: I'd known for a long period of time be castigated
Speaker 1: in the way that I think he did. I'm not suggesting,
Speaker 1: I mean the truth always somewhere in the middle with
Speaker 1: all of these these ways. But I spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with Baos behind the scenes. He helped me
Speaker 1: put a lot of things together in less management. His
Speaker 1: counsel was. It was just so clear he was great
Speaker 1: Forcindo and it was it was just such a sad
Speaker 1: period of time to see him and I have I
Speaker 1: have personally have no doubt that the stress caused his
Speaker 1: illness one hundred percent. You know, he would never necessarily
Speaker 1: reflect on it for too long, but you could tell
Speaker 1: it absolutely burned him to the core. It as to
Speaker 1: how he was he was treated.
Speaker 5: It can break someone. And again we all feel like
Speaker 5: at times clubs.
Speaker 3: Did things to maximize their draft picks, but issue was
Speaker 3: not that was issues that the AFIL never pulled it up,
Speaker 3: and so it became encouraged and it became almost.
Speaker 5: Normalized as well.
Speaker 3: And yeah, horrible, horrible time, Patty Dangerfield. So I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: you lost a free agent, or he didn't lose him
Speaker 3: as a free agent, or you know, you didn't officially
Speaker 3: match the deal. Obviously that that became a trade. It
Speaker 3: was at nine to eight nine, twenty eighteen, Gore, what
Speaker 3: was that period? Like, you know how long before that
Speaker 3: was just obvious that Paddy was going to go home.
Speaker 3: So you couldn't really do much to stop it.
Speaker 1: He and I had a deal Ralphie that he would
Speaker 1: tell me before I'd tell anyone else. He's good made
Speaker 1: of mine. We had a great relationship. He came two
Speaker 1: weeks before he told Paul Paul he probably does now,
Speaker 1: but and I just said, just just give me a
Speaker 1: bit of a heads up. I said, I just probably
Speaker 1: need to get my head around how to plan that
Speaker 1: for us internally. Bits and pieces. We went over to
Speaker 1: a little Italian restaurant over in West Lakes and he
Speaker 1: sat down and I said, you're leaving. Yeah, yeah, he says,
Speaker 1: time for me to go home. I said, you can
Speaker 1: give you one more ye, because said I think we're
Speaker 1: really close. He said no, I can't, he said, Marty's
Speaker 1: needs to go, and which was fine. So then what
Speaker 1: we did through that list management period, what I did
Speaker 1: was I looked at what we were losing, not in
Speaker 1: regards to Paddy days, for I looked at the skill
Speaker 1: set we were losing. It was like, what are we losing.
Speaker 1: We're losing stop each strength, we're losing running up, we're
Speaker 1: losing areel, we're losing goal keeping power. And we went
Speaker 1: to work on pulling some of those components together through
Speaker 1: a different mechanism. We were never going to be able
Speaker 1: to pull one person through that. We had to go
Speaker 1: about it a different way, and we started to replace
Speaker 1: some of those parts over the next year or two
Speaker 1: so that we didn't feel like we were completely diminished
Speaker 1: in any one particular era. So we tried to reconstruct
Speaker 1: it in a different way. That was sort of a
Speaker 1: methodology I think of list management.
Speaker 3: And it feels like you got the absolute top dollar
Speaker 3: for him in terms of a trade, because I assume
Speaker 3: that first round compensation pick you're a reasonable side. It
Speaker 3: might have been I don't know, ten, twelve, fifteen.
Speaker 5: As a single.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well he was great. He rang and he said,
Speaker 1: look once that couple of weeks sort of played out.
Speaker 1: He said, let's sit down and get our heads together.
Speaker 1: We went to the AFL on quite a few options.
Speaker 1: Back then they were prepared to give us their first
Speaker 1: round if the AFL would also give the compensation. I
Speaker 1: think that was fair. I went to Andrew Dyllon and said,
Speaker 1: can we take points and add that points into to
Speaker 1: a pick to sort of move our picks up so
Speaker 1: that we don't I guess I suppose you do going,
Speaker 1: but don't add any more picks into the draft. Back
Speaker 1: then they didn't want to sort of do that. We
Speaker 1: came up with a range of different things and Wellsy
Speaker 1: and myself, I think red he was sort of with
Speaker 1: us at that stage. We calibrated a deal and I
Speaker 1: went to the board and I said, well, look it
Speaker 1: sort of on a point scale. It's sort of a
Speaker 1: quest of this and I had to convince the board
Speaker 1: a little bit to accept it, and we moved on.
Speaker 4: We had Brenton Sanderson sit in the very chair David,
Speaker 4: and he obviously was replaced, and you had a big
Speaker 4: say and a big involvement in the appointment of Phil Welsh.
Speaker 4: Can you take us behind the scenes in regard to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, while she was while she was a guy that
Speaker 1: was never going to apply really Yeah, yeah, he said,
Speaker 1: if my record's not not good enough and you can't
Speaker 1: work it out, well I'm probably not for you.
Speaker 2: He was.
Speaker 1: He was a unique character so much like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and when we first got him in there, he nailed
Speaker 1: everything that we possibly do. Alan Stewart obviously worked with
Speaker 1: Phil back through Portland while she went to West Coast
Speaker 1: and then came back. And yeah, he in the exercise
Speaker 1: that we did in the interview. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is sort of being mentioned too much, but we run
Speaker 1: a scenario and I still do that with interviews now.
Speaker 1: We ran a scenario. We had a five minute segment
Speaker 1: of tape that we hope that they hadn't sort of watched.
Speaker 1: We played it live and they had to Basically we
Speaker 1: were the coaches in the box and he had to
Speaker 1: coach for that five minutes. He was phenomenal. He just
Speaker 1: like making moves and what he would want and the data,
Speaker 1: the want he had the whole picture. He just placed
Speaker 1: himself in that spot that Yeah, it was a no
Speaker 1: brainer at the end of the day, like he's nearly
Speaker 1: offering a job on the spot that was sort of
Speaker 1: how good it was.
Speaker 4: And obviously we know the story there and he has
Speaker 4: the twelve. What sort of change did he make initially
Speaker 4: in there?
Speaker 2: Was?
Speaker 4: It?
Speaker 2: Was it a phenomenal start. You know that he had.
Speaker 4: There's some really good performances in that. We know that
Speaker 4: we saw a film.
Speaker 1: As a coach, he saw he saw things I think
Speaker 1: leaning in people that they probably didn't see them in themselves.
Speaker 1: Like he was the first on with texts leadership buyers,
Speaker 1: not the first, but the first to provide that opportunity
Speaker 1: and really challenge him in that space. You couldn't have
Speaker 1: had a more positive coach at training like I'd never experienced.
Speaker 1: It was just there was no negativity. It was like
Speaker 1: the also bits got left and he just reinforced the
Speaker 1: positiveness all the time. He got every coach on the
Speaker 1: training ground miked up, and he would send messages through
Speaker 1: the coaching group to pass on to someone up the
Speaker 1: other end. Rather than yelling, he would make sure that
Speaker 1: we were following that positive He was sort of right
Speaker 1: in that positive growth mindset, very clear on the methodology
Speaker 1: of how we wanted to play. There was no guess work,
Speaker 1: but there was still freedom to do what we wanted
Speaker 1: to do. He was very big on the the defense
Speaker 1: needs to be structured, the offense needs to be freedom.
Speaker 1: And yeah, coming out of from Neil de Sando into
Speaker 1: Walshe it just gelled. It jelled straight away.
Speaker 3: How do you forecast what he could have been? Like
Speaker 3: you talked about sliding doors moments. You can't say you
Speaker 3: would have been a coaching great, but I mean it's just, yeah,
Speaker 3: what could he have done over maybe ten years at Adelaide?
Speaker 1: He would have won at least one I reckon would
Speaker 1: have won at least one flag. I reckon if not too.
Speaker 1: I just think he's not only his methodology but his
Speaker 1: ability to stay ahead of the game. You know, I
Speaker 1: think Ralphie he would work from four am in the
Speaker 1: morning and he being better at seven you'd just be exhausted.
Speaker 1: But he would be in yeah, way before anybody else would.
Speaker 1: He had a clear methodology as to how he played
Speaker 1: his feet feedback for everyone. So he'd write a list
Speaker 1: of two key points for every player and he'd hand
Speaker 1: that to every coach on Monday morning and they were
Speaker 1: the enforcement points for everyone that we so so there
Speaker 1: was no mixed messages. He didn't want a scenario where
Speaker 1: there was mixed messages at all straight you knew where
Speaker 1: you stood wearing with him. There was no Yeah, there
Speaker 1: was there was no, but it wasn't in a nasty
Speaker 1: dictatorial way. It was just an honest this is where
Speaker 1: I see you. And the players loved it. They love
Speaker 1: that feedback. I don't know when he would have been, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he would have been a phenomenal senior coach
Speaker 1: over a period of time.
Speaker 4: And the morning of we know what happened obviously, the
Speaker 4: morning of, can you take us through how you first
Speaker 4: heard that that that feel was gone.
Speaker 1: I got a call from the CEO about three in
Speaker 1: the morning, thinking it was beside the bed. I didn't again.
Speaker 3: A players drunk or you know something, something.
Speaker 1: One of those ones. I thought you might be a
Speaker 1: pocket doll or something. Anyway, phase rang again, and I
Speaker 1: picked up the phone and I sort of walked out
Speaker 1: of the bedroom and he said, our coach has been murdered.
Speaker 1: And I remember distinctly, I had the phone in my
Speaker 1: left hand to my ear. I didn't have I didn't
Speaker 1: have a stitch on, and I had my hand over
Speaker 1: my mouth. And my wife walked out and she said,
Speaker 1: what's happened, and I reckon, I just stood there for
Speaker 1: about ten seconds and Fake said of you there, and
Speaker 1: I went, yeah, I just it was just like I
Speaker 1: just rose. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Speaker 1: It was like I was in a dream.
Speaker 3: Is that as challenging though, as a morning as you've
Speaker 3: had to have to inform people to bring the players together,
Speaker 3: had of that morning unfolded?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's just I don't know how scary as
Speaker 1: that I were, but it's it's as awful as it gets.
Speaker 1: It just no one can prepare you for it, just
Speaker 1: as Yeah, it's as horrendous as it gets to be
Speaker 1: able to. Let's say I was in the carriage I
Speaker 1: passed through or four o'clock, was driving into Adelaide. We
Speaker 1: sort of there was myself, Chappy Phase and Emma bar
Speaker 1: There was a Forusma was the PDM at the time,
Speaker 1: and so we met and we we said and we
Speaker 1: tried to I don't know to strategizes the right word,
Speaker 1: but we were just trying to work out what do
Speaker 1: we do, like, you know, how do we handle from
Speaker 1: this who's who's here? We had won a Coach Heith Union,
Speaker 1: which who I talked to took the north with me.
Speaker 1: Was a great friend of mine. He was overseas and
Speaker 1: he was really close to Walsh's like colleague crab. We've
Speaker 1: got a whole lot of host of things to do.
Speaker 1: Who do we support, who do we contact? What do
Speaker 1: we do? Yeah, and we just tried to work through
Speaker 1: I don't know a logical process. I think to see
Speaker 1: try to help everybody that we knew we were going
Speaker 1: to have to help throughout the day. Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was Buddy to was awful.
Speaker 5: And that week so the game's canceled.
Speaker 3: Eventually playing the next game, you know, emotional organic tribute,
Speaker 3: you know, which is cathartic, but you know, I still
Speaker 3: the grief.
Speaker 5: He's there. It was a it was extraordinary period for
Speaker 5: the IFL and for Adelaide.
Speaker 1: It was Campo, you know, coached the team. He was
Speaker 1: he was the senior assistant. We went to Perth. We
Speaker 1: put all the parents and partners or whoever wanted to
Speaker 1: come to Perth as and support makers, and we charted
Speaker 1: another plane. We fow all of all of our family
Speaker 1: and friends in as well. We played the game as
Speaker 1: best as we could West Coast. We was so respectful.
Speaker 1: I remember the game finishing Ralphie was a game. It
Speaker 1: was one of those sort of really chilling, chilling in
Speaker 1: respectful times all of the one we came out of
Speaker 1: the box and the crowd had sort of started to
Speaker 1: clap for West Coast, you know, because they'd won the game,
Speaker 1: and then it just stopped, you know, as a sign
Speaker 1: of respect of it. Just it just completely stopped, knowing
Speaker 1: we had guys you know, on the ground in tears
Speaker 1: and you know, just trying to deal with that, that
Speaker 1: emotional sense that our coach wasn't there anymore, and it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a pretty poignant moment.
Speaker 4: And within a couple of years, this footy club's at
Speaker 4: a Grand final. You're not there, but the players what
Speaker 4: they're able to do. You look back now and you
Speaker 4: think some of those guys went through hell, you know,
Speaker 4: only two years earlier. Pretty remarkable effort and resilient effort
Speaker 4: from the group, really with a different coach at the helm,
Speaker 4: but pretty remarkable effort, isn't it when you think about
Speaker 4: it now?
Speaker 1: It is you know, I think Pike inherited a really robust,
Speaker 1: resilient group as you see plant. It's yeah, it's something
Speaker 1: that you ever want to experience, you know, the the adversity,
Speaker 1: the emotion, the you know, the disappointment, the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so when when Pikey came on board that
Speaker 1: they've been through to get themselves back into a Grand
Speaker 1: final was great. And when I was up and brazy
Speaker 1: at that point, I was dueing like crazy and hoping
Speaker 1: that you know, they were going to finally get number
Speaker 1: three on the board.
Speaker 3: In septem twenty sixteen. It's just a little not a regret.
Speaker 3: But do you think you've got a good bullshit right?
Speaker 3: Aren't you think what those guys went through with the
Speaker 3: Adelaide camp and the crowbars and the salut and all
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff, so you know the powerstance, you
Speaker 3: think you would have looked at these blokes and said, no,
Speaker 3: not for us. I know they were searching for different things,
Speaker 3: but is that something you think to yourself?
Speaker 5: If I'd been there, I would have just said no.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I spoke to those guys they wanted to do
Speaker 1: some work in Brizzie and I said no. You could
Speaker 1: sense it, So that's yeah, yeah I did, And that's
Speaker 1: just not for me. Look, that's diping what easy if
Speaker 1: you make to say now I suppose at the time,
Speaker 1: but my experience when they came and approached us at Brisbane,
Speaker 1: I said no, So that's why I think I would
Speaker 1: be in that bucket.
Speaker 5: Hindsight, it was a decision you made.
Speaker 1: But with another club, yeah, yeah, but they came and
Speaker 1: spoke to me about similar sort of things about you know,
Speaker 1: how we could sort of work through some goal setting
Speaker 1: and different ways of tracking brain waves and bits and pieces,
Speaker 1: and it just just it wasn't scientifically available to be
Speaker 1: able to do that. I had a guy who was
Speaker 1: working with me who was a doctor, and I said,
Speaker 1: and he helped me run my a moneyball model of Brisbane.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, can we do this? And he went
Speaker 1: no into bukshit and I went, that's what I'm that's
Speaker 1: what I'm sensing. So yeah, yeah, look, I don't know
Speaker 1: at that point in time. You know who knows. It's
Speaker 1: it's probably too easy for me to say no. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have done it, but only on the sense that
Speaker 1: I had that experience with a couple of conversations with
Speaker 1: those guys and I said no. Up there, I said
Speaker 1: that I didn't have any money so the program, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I said no, I.
Speaker 2: Said, how were you last year Grand final.
Speaker 4: You know, you're the man who's had a bit to
Speaker 4: do with getting the coaching and you had something to
Speaker 4: to do with those players to miss out the way
Speaker 4: they did last year. You and mixed emotions obviously with
Speaker 4: John as well missing out as well. That was a
Speaker 4: difficult Grand Final for you last year.
Speaker 1: It was a crappy day that one. Yeah, it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was for me. It was a really sad day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. Yeah, in the end, I was for Brisbane.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, unfortunately he got the the end
Speaker 1: of the stick. I felt through it all, and it
Speaker 1: was it was a really sad day for a guy
Speaker 1: that had done absolutely everything within his power from a
Speaker 1: mid season pick to play a certain number of games
Speaker 1: in a row and just he's totally committed to not
Speaker 1: get that spot and I thought was extremely disappointing. But
Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately the seasons are made and you move on.
Speaker 1: But yeah, from from the other side, mate, yeah, there
Speaker 1: was a there was a huge element of me that
Speaker 1: was cheering for Brisbane, not not because John to get picked,
Speaker 1: but the sense of the work that you put in
Speaker 1: and you've seen it all come to night and you
Speaker 1: know it's my old team, so I played for you know,
Speaker 1: it was nice to go back there and reflect. There's
Speaker 1: so many people that were still there at Brisban that
Speaker 1: remembered me run around in the twos wear number thirty eight.
Speaker 1: It was. Yeah, it was awesome get to I've got
Speaker 1: to spend some time without the Worsen before he passed away.
Speaker 1: So there was all that side of things that you've
Speaker 1: been able to sort of pull something together. And yeah,
Speaker 1: unfortunately they just I thought when they hit the front,
Speaker 1: I thought they were away. I did when Charlie kicked
Speaker 1: the goal, they were just about over the line. But anyway, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it was, it was. It was a shitty day
Speaker 1: being a color supporter. I was sitting next to John Ralphie.
Speaker 1: He was giving it to me at that stage. How
Speaker 1: did John tell you that's a difficult thing to tell
Speaker 1: your dad that I'm not playing, and it'd be the
Speaker 1: first what I said. I my son deserved to be dropped,
Speaker 1: and yet in this case we're all shocked because his
Speaker 1: former ben sacled through the season. Yeah, I'm a realist,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm probably as firm on him as
Speaker 1: any mentor as gots like if you don't deserve to
Speaker 1: be and to tell you about he rang and I
Speaker 1: don't reckon he could talk about thirty seconds when yeah,
Speaker 1: he was absolutely devastated, completely natally devastated. So as a parent, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's not a you know, it's not a
Speaker 1: death or anything. I'm unfortunate, but yeah, he was just
Speaker 1: I thought he'd misdied me.
Speaker 4: That's how I was to talk really, and how he's
Speaker 4: held himself out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the pride at which you know, you won't get
Speaker 3: the flag bap, but you'll have the respect of the
Speaker 3: football world for the way he's kept himself and has
Speaker 3: found a way back in this year.
Speaker 2: Definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, extremely, Like all our family is scremely proud
Speaker 1: of how he's held himself and what he's done. And
Speaker 1: he was there to support the guys whatever needs to
Speaker 1: be done. He was you know, he's a team player
Speaker 1: first and he had to go away and reflect on
Speaker 1: that and just try and make himself better. It's a
Speaker 1: bloody credit to him and he's played some ripping footing
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 3: We didn't get you wanted to talk about North Melbourne,
Speaker 3: but I mean, I think some of the most captivating
Speaker 3: parts of this podcast have been people like Breton Sanderson
Speaker 3: and brend McCartney, you know, talking about what they did
Speaker 3: right but also wrong at a foota club. I think
Speaker 3: you talked about, you know, when you were appointed. You know,
Speaker 3: I should have done more research into the environment I
Speaker 3: was walking into. How do you reflect I suppose on
Speaker 3: the year and a half of the roots and what
Speaker 3: you did right and you know probably how it unfolded,
Speaker 3: which was not the way you wanted it to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what they do right. I think I sort of
Speaker 1: taught players, you know, sort of with the levels of
Speaker 1: standards and expectation and continue to sort of push yourself
Speaker 1: and being comfortable to be uncomfortable. You know, I've always
Speaker 1: probably prided myself, you go through the career sort of
Speaker 1: vited with those sorts of I suppose examples. I've never
Speaker 1: been trying to take on a challenge that it's going
Speaker 1: to make you uncomfortable or force you into an environment
Speaker 1: of learning more about yourself, which I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I tried to. I look on the back on the
Speaker 1: fact and I think I took everything I possibly had
Speaker 1: into it. You know, I don't feel like I left
Speaker 1: not working hard enough or not trying to motivate or
Speaker 1: challenge or improve. Yeah, I might have got a bit
Speaker 1: pointy at different times, but you know what, creating the
Speaker 1: high performance standards difficult and sometimes you know, challenging, and
Speaker 1: maybe some people misinterpret that challenge has been too aggressive.
Speaker 1: I don't know's that's probably for others to judge. But look,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the time there. I had a few challenges.
Speaker 1: The general manager moved, we had a change in chairman.
Speaker 1: I suddenly came in. Ben sort of moved, we were
Speaker 1: sort of I landed into a period of COVID. So
Speaker 1: at the end of that first year, Bennie Cunnington unfortunately
Speaker 1: had had cancel lost the best player. Yeah, but they're
Speaker 1: just their cards that you dealt with. And in reflection, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe I should have just looked a little bit further
Speaker 1: and deeper into it. Unlike face, I hadn't been at
Speaker 1: the cold face of vision and you know, sort of
Speaker 1: being into that point. But you know, I backed myself
Speaker 1: in and I had a crack and it didn't work out,
Speaker 1: But that's life.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I don't regret taking it on. You don't regret
Speaker 2: taking that on at all.
Speaker 1: I don't think I have regret. But yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: don't think I've got agree. I mean, I'm proud of
Speaker 1: achieving something that I aspired too early on. It took
Speaker 1: me a lot longer than I probably thought. But and look,
Speaker 1: I've probably ended up in a spot where I would
Speaker 1: have been anyway, you know where I am now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it was bloody hard. It was really hard.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, it's difficult. I probably didn't I didn't
Speaker 1: expect the ferocity I probably got from media. I don't
Speaker 1: have to say no disrespect rather than sit. Actually we
Speaker 1: wrote a few articles, but I didn't probably expect the ferocity.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm a big boy. That's what happens. You've
Speaker 1: got to take the good with the bad. And I
Speaker 1: take responsibility that I couldn't do enough to get the
Speaker 1: club into a position where it was, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I'm responsible for that. But I
Speaker 1: don't think that responsibility is just all on my shoulders.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that's the thing, isn't that when
Speaker 3: things are going par shaped, or when you come to
Speaker 3: a club.
Speaker 5: That just was so deep in a rebuild, there's always
Speaker 5: people to.
Speaker 3: Who were looking for a scapegut, and sometimes the coach
Speaker 3: and then the whispering campaign starts, and look, I wrote
Speaker 3: that story about you know, we did it on the
Speaker 3: couch about you know you were pretty I think you
Speaker 3: said pretty pointed with the players in that Brisbane at
Speaker 3: the meeting after the Brisbane lost.
Speaker 5: So what happens there?
Speaker 3: You just you know, you're fiery, You're you're angry, You're
Speaker 3: keen to get the blokes to realize that they're not
Speaker 3: putting in as much as they need to.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and probably the level of competing this probably
Speaker 1: gets a bit gets the better of me. You know,
Speaker 1: That's why I probably reflected. I mean, Sonya and Ben
Speaker 1: were standing outside the door and still to this day
Speaker 1: they never came and said you need to apologize. It
Speaker 1: was like I was playing my old team. We've been
Speaker 1: not too bad in the first three quarters, and the
Speaker 1: family there there was a there was just a whole
Speaker 1: host of me going, oh, ship like this thought we'd
Speaker 1: be better than this. And I was really I was
Speaker 1: actually really good in the box that day. I was
Speaker 1: even he sort of said about you said your box
Speaker 1: stuff was really good. I was pretty calm, and then
Speaker 1: I just came down and went, it's just yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just unfortunately and I should have spoken to them. I
Speaker 1: should have just walked away and just left it. But
Speaker 1: I didn't good learning. I mean, I had a good coach.
Speaker 1: I had a life coach that I was working with
Speaker 1: at the time, and that was one of the sort
Speaker 1: of periods that we reflected on and pulled that apart
Speaker 1: as to how to sort of continue to move forward.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it just got better off.
Speaker 3: And the hardest thing is, too, I think about these
Speaker 3: things to reflect because you know, the club said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, he apologized, and that was fine, But then
Speaker 3: that feels a narrative that you had to apologize rather
Speaker 3: than saying, you know what I did what coaches coaches do,
Speaker 3: which is I read the right act.
Speaker 5: And you know, we move on from there. So that's
Speaker 5: you know, and then and then it's snowballs.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and yeah, one thing these to another and
Speaker 1: someone to something else, and you know, that's that's what happens.
Speaker 3: Not to lab the point Jason Harnt Francis, how challenging
Speaker 3: was that to deal with the player who everyone knew
Speaker 3: was the number one pick, who I think would acknowledge
Speaker 3: himself had a heap of growing up to do that
Speaker 3: to do you know, you knew you had two years
Speaker 3: to try and get the best out of him, but
Speaker 3: you also know that he knew he could bugger off,
Speaker 3: which is in fact what happened, you know, in his
Speaker 3: after the end of his fare year.
Speaker 5: You of course had moved on by then.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, one of the most talented players I dealt with.
Speaker 1: He just had unsore things in games that you just
Speaker 1: you couldn't teach, you know. Is just he reminded me
Speaker 1: a bit in that sense, like a he's probably gonna
Speaker 1: say Bernie. Vince had great awareness, like he could take
Speaker 1: a photo and he knew where everybody was. I remember
Speaker 1: reading an article about Cavendish and as you know, he's
Speaker 1: one of his thirty fifth spread in the in the
Speaker 1: tour over the last week. He has an ability that
Speaker 1: as he comes into the last one hundred meters he
Speaker 1: takes it, he can take a photo and he knows
Speaker 1: where everybody is. That he's got a beat that in
Speaker 1: that stript it's called recall and which.
Speaker 5: That feeling, and yeah, what would he have to do
Speaker 5: to beat him?
Speaker 1: Correct?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Rare and Jace had that. Jase had unbelievable
Speaker 1: recall and understanding and he was so frustrated as a
Speaker 1: as a young guy wanting to play his trade, wanting
Speaker 1: us to be good. That it just it just bought over.
Speaker 1: And so there was that element of balance of high
Speaker 1: end talent and he just wasn't, you know, mature at
Speaker 1: that point in time. That was just he was away
Speaker 1: from home. There was some difficulties of homesickness and frustration
Speaker 1: with not playing well, and that's not playing well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it was a challenge, but you know, he's
Speaker 1: a good person. He pop. I don't think any of
Speaker 1: it was deliberate, but he just he just wanted to
Speaker 1: be successful.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing he did right. I'm in the club
Speaker 3: had to pick him. You've got the likes of Boomer Harvey,
Speaker 3: the AFL games record, hold of the mentor um. Some
Speaker 3: of the things just don't work out.
Speaker 1: No, no, and some enviornuses don't suit and it's just
Speaker 1: you got to move on. Mind you. I think you
Speaker 1: said that it was either he or I, but we
Speaker 1: both ended up leaving.
Speaker 5: What happened?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know when they when they perform a
Speaker 3: review that you could be in trouble.
Speaker 5: So how last couple of weeks you're rooted.
Speaker 3: Let's place it and then you know, I don't know
Speaker 3: was it a relief had you know, these the gory details.
Speaker 5: But how did you get tell you're sacked?
Speaker 1: No, I say it rang and we chatted on the phone.
Speaker 1: You want to catch up and I just said, look, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. What do you want to do? How
Speaker 1: do you want to sort of handle it? We chatted
Speaker 1: a few times over that night. Yeah, we were at
Speaker 1: a point where they needed to feel like they made it,
Speaker 1: needed to make a decision to the board, needed to
Speaker 1: make those decisions. I sent an email to son there
Speaker 1: that bite to pass on to the board, just to
Speaker 1: thank them, you know, for the opportunity. And yeah, we
Speaker 1: got on with what you need to do in the
Speaker 1: next sort of twenty four hour spoke to the players
Speaker 1: the next day, had the presser. I think the players
Speaker 1: caught up for dinner. I sort of popped in to
Speaker 1: sort of say goodbye to sort of a few and
Speaker 1: then yeah, then started to work out get home and
Speaker 1: what I was going to do for the next to
Speaker 1: go and have a break.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But just HARKing back on your career and speaking about
Speaker 4: it now, you must be immensely proud of what you've
Speaker 4: been able to achieve in the game and what you're
Speaker 4: doing now, you know, to be chief executive officer of
Speaker 4: a racing team as well.
Speaker 2: There's so much more to get to give, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Would you like to get back into footy one day?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. It's probably it feels a bit sad,
Speaker 1: but I don't. I don't think so. I think the
Speaker 1: aspect of tipping as much as I did in there,
Speaker 1: I think sort of led me to sort of moving
Speaker 1: into a different journey and a different adventure. I don't
Speaker 1: think I'll flick that into forty one night.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Sacked.
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