WEBVTT - Damian Drum - Barass the man who couldn't lie 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.240 Some of the stories about Barras are the best stories 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.280 of all time because he had no he had this 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:18.840 no bullshit field that was just incredibly raw. So he 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.720 would rather He'd rather have an argument than tell a lie. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.840 And he gets to Mark Bayze, now the most loved 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.320 player in the team, the La Chronics and a half back. 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:31.560 He said, bays Base, if this team was any good, 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:32.680 you wouldn't be getting a game. 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:35.840 I'm John Ralph and I'm Glenn McFarlane. 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.120 Welcome to Sacked, a podcast that explores what really happens 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.639 when the ax falls in the AFL world. Will take 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:43.360 you behind the scenes with some of the biggest names 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.840 in football and find out how they found out their 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.600 time was up and who pulled the trigger. Sacked AFL 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.040 is made possible with the support of subscribers to The 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.480 Herald Sun. To find out more, go to Herald Sun 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.760 dot com, dot are you or download the Herald Sun 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:56.360 app at. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:57.920 Your app store today. 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.400 Coaching with Barras The Who Couldn't Lie the first part 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.120 of our chat with Damien Drum. Damien Drum was a 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.280 late bloomer when he was plucked out of Bush Footy 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.160 by Geelong at the age of twenty and spent eight 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:14.560 frustrating seasons battling to sixty three games, and yet it 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.560 was only another injury sustained in the nineteen eighty nine 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.520 preliminary Final that denied him the notorious role on Dermot 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.560 Breton eventually performed by Mark Yates in the opening moments 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.959 of that famous nineteen eighty nine Grand Final. Drum would 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.199 eventually become famous as the last one to know he'd 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.240 been sacked as Freemantle coach. But that journey got its 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.399 start at the Sydney Swans as the right hand of 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:40.760 the man who couldn't lie, Ron BARRASSI. 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:43.640 What kind of play was Damien Drumm. 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:48.240 Well, mainly probably an inside contested player. Now I talk 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.760 in today's language, you know, I played sixty odd games, 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.600 largely off the bench, just in the team most of 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.480 the time about one hundreckns. So you know, as a 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:02.480 players probably always felt it was a bit too good 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.520 for the seconds and not quite good enough to be 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.639 a genuine player in the seniors. But you know, some 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.079 years you'd play three or four or five games. Other 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.160 other times you'd play one, played twenty two and your 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:16.520 one year played all of them. 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.480 Yeah, and John Devine and Devin's first year. 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.880 Yeah, and then Malcolm turned up and blind turned up 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.240 at the end of my career towards the end, and 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:27.639 he picked me two or three times through the year, 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.160 and I kept breaking down because I had. 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.280 So many injuries. That's the thing. You would just get 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.600 a start and then you'd suffer it. Tell us about 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.440 them and what held you back? Was it a because 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.360 you trained hard? Speaking to a few people about it 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:42.720 as well, but I. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.120 Think everybody trained hard in those days, and training was 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.440 also quite physical, so it was there was no it 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.520 wasn't out of the ordinary to do fully contested training 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.040 where the coach just kicked the ball away and two 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.240 guys would chase each other try and bring it back, 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.960 so I think. But I had a lot of soft 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.160 tissue injuries, so I again always felt like I was 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.560 pushing myself. Yeah, so you do an occasional calf, or 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.600 you do an occasional hammy, you strain something that you 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.960 just knew was a groin would just you know, slow 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:17.919 you down. So you just had to put your hand 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:22.040 up and say I can't play knees. And the occasional 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.760 you know, the occasional fracture here and fracture there, but 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.320 mainly it was a soft tissue stuff. 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:29.880 So in February eleven I found a story Februy eleven, 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.560 nineteen eighty one. You get an invite it's from Geelong 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:34.840 sent I think your mum actually had part of it. 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.720 And you get asked to take part in a practice match. 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:39.960 You get a hotel room in Gelong. You must be 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:41.680 thinking you're pretty good here, and you get a thirty 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:43.360 five dollars traveling allowance. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.320 Not bad there. You must think I'm going to make 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:45.800 this now. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.520 Well, the very first invitation I got was inviting me 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.640 to come down and train with the end of nineties, right, yeah, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:55.960 So I'm thinking Gelong really haven't done their homework here 0:03:55.960 --> 0:04:01.880 because I'm already twenty. So I rang them up and said, listen, 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.520 I'm not able to play train with them an because 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.240 I'm already twenty and said, oh, we've just come down 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.640 and train with the seconds or the seniors. So but yeah, 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.280 when it finally came about, I was still doing an 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.359 apprenticeship for that first when Geelong were interested, and I 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.880 went down and trained over Christmas while I was having 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.360 my holidays, which all builders back in those days would 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.560 always take January off. So I was training with Geel Long. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.520 So your carpenter Joiner, Yeah, and I'm in my last year, 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.080 so we make an agreement that well, you can play 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.599 the practice matches and then we'll see how we go 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:39.119 from there. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.800 So, as it turned out, I would travel down on 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:45.960 the weekends for the first half of the year and 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.160 just played in the seconds. And then I finished my 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.960 apprenticeship halfway through the year and the club said, right 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.559 now you can move down. So but for the first 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.000 half of the year I was completing my apprenticeship in 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.159 Sheperdon and then would travel down on a Friday night 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:04.840 and stayinge along and then jump on the bus or 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.159 go to Coney Park wherever we were playing. 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.760 See your taboo in ninett eighty two against Cartner Princess Park. 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.080 What a rude initiation and nine games in your first year. 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.440 What's your memories of that first contest? 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.919 Very first contest, I reckon. I tackled Bruce dool and 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.520 it's one of those ones where I could have just 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.280 made the tackle standing up and the umpire was just 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:28.800 ready to blow. The whistler was at our buggert and 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:29.520 dumped him as. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:30.320 Hard as I could. 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.240 And he's got legit. As the wind goes out of 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.640 his out of his lungs and he rolls over A 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:38.719 good tackle son. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.880 Probably the only words he said. He didn't say it really. 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:43.800 Was going to hit me, and he said, good tackle son. 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.280 So I had a new respect for brucetool, not that 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.800 it needed to, not that it was ever any different. 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:52.680 So Gary a Butt, the Great Gary Ablet as he 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.400 would become, arrives in eighty four. Take us through your 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.440 your greatest Gary Ablet stories, your recollections. You probably didn't 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.719 know your name, didn't know the name of too many others. 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.000 What was it like playing under the Great Gary Senior? 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:09.040 Well, he was possibly the most explosive, most dynamic player ever. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.839 He what he could do the average punter couldn't do, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.440 the average player couldn't do. It was quite phenomenal. It 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:21.159 wasn't as consistent as he should have been. You know, 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.880 had some issues off field that were that was sort 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.640 of you know, only a superstar could ever get away 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.640 with some of those, and in an era where he 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:34.240 probably got away with a bit too so. But oh, 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.520 there were just some of those games where that he 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.400 you know that he's more or less one of his 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:44.080 own boot and he was quite a phenomenal player. And 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:50.919 you know, there's a there is a real there's a 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.159 real case to be made that I made him the 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.320 player that he was. Like this, So if you think 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.680 about the Geelong teams of the day, you know, Bestow 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.159 would run around the back of the pack calling for 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.640 a handball. He'd get the handball, he'd look up from 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:08.640 the forward line, take two or three bounce as Ablett 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.920 would lead. Best would put the ball beautifully out in 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:12.880 front of him. Ablett would come out and take the mark, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.560 go back and kick a goal. It's okay, Cauchy, you 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:23.320 know the best. He would always head off on his 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.200 right and then he woul shooting back on his left, 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.160 always leaving the opposition for dead. As soon as he 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.760 went back onto his left, Ablet would lead catcher, would 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.680 wait the ball perfectly out in front of him, so 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.480 that when Ablett took the ball out of the air, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.160 it was just there was no no effort nowhere, just 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.120 beautifully weighted kicks from Paul Couch. Ablett would there take 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.800 this easy mark, go back and kick a goal. Gary 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:45.760 howk in the four time Best and Ferres, he would 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.480 just he would go into a pack, head down, pick 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.680 up the ball, shrug the opposition off him, charge forward. 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.840 Ablett would lead straight out him, but it would drill 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.520 it down his throat. Ablett again would come out. 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:58.480 And take an average. 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.440 He's a good player. He's a good Player's kicking a 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.400 few goals. But when I got the opportunity to go forward, 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.440 Ablet would lead. I get the ball twenty meters over 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.280 his head fifty meters to the right, had to stop 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:09.960 on a six month to go back into the fly 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.560 to play jump at the oncoming pack, sometimes taking mark 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.880 of the year. If a ball spilled the ground, he 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.040 would pounce on it like a like a cougar, picking 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:20.840 the ball up with two or three blokes hanging off 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.560 his jumper, snapping over his shoulder for goal of the year. Now, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.720 all these incredible things of Gary Ablett, we're at the 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.400 behest of my shit skills, and you know, I get 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.960 no credit for it. Whereas he picks up cars and 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.240 he picks up holidays around the world, and the people 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.120 that really make it all happen just say along the listed. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.960 As Bert leaves the ground, applet prod and take the mark. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.000 Oh he's a light Gary ablet look at this. 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.240 There is the moticil at work. He shoots towards goal. 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:51.160 What more can you say? 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:53.319 And he didn't look after you in that sense. You 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.240 didn't get any free trips off with him as well. 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:56.559 We are talking about Gary apl. 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.080 Correct exactly what would he be like in the morning 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.480 are because I think about Clayton Oliver and he's had 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.319 his issues and so there's lots of players with issues 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.160 in the modern era. But would Gary have been more 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.000 consistent because he'd have better support around you, or would 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.280 he have left forty because he didn't want the constrainits 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:12.960 of modern day professionalism. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.760 It's a really good question, and you would imagine that 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.960 Gary in today's era would have been picked up as 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.800 a stunning fifteen year old and a lot of the 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.000 issues I'm sure with our young guys coming through sort 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.959 of out well a long time before they ever get drafted. 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.680 You know, Gary more or less was plucked out of 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.319 the drune area, taken to Hawthorne, didn't sort of work. 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.160 Then he has that year at Murderford. You know, luckily 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.840 the murder Food Football Club banned together and kept him 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.040 on a straight and narrow and then he gets his 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.240 second opportunity of Geelong, and whilst he didn't do anything 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.920 wrong Geelong, he was just he was just slack in 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.880 relation to you know, when you turn up. He was 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.680 just a bit slack and could just he could simply 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.320 rely on his absolute brilliance to people would sort of 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:01.559 you turn a blind. 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.280 I was to say, they certainly did turn to buy 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:05.360 blind eye to a lot of stuff in that time 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.040 because he was that good, wasn't he was? 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.160 He was more than that, Yeah, he was. He was 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.960 just stunningly good. And you know, his body shape was 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.120 just full of six foot one but just could jump 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.040 over any pack. He could kick the ball a mile, 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.680 He was incredibly skillful. He didn't fumble, so it's really 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.200 you know, his what he could do on the field 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:28.680 was very very special. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:29.640 Yeah, sure was. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.120 And obviously Tommy Hafees there for a period of time. 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:34.640 Did you get on well with tom and. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:36.440 He was there for yeah, so I got on really 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.040 well with all my coaches. So Billy Gogan was just 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.760 so hard and tough, a fierce and some of the 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.040 dressing downs we got after a game were you know, 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:50.000 tear skin off you didn't wear. So Billy Gogan, by 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.640 the way he goes preliminary final, preliminary. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.440 Final, close games too. 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.280 Yeah, and then he might have finished sixth when the 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.760 final five was the five finals and then sacked. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:03.120 It's cruel, isn't it. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:08.800 Well, in today's age, it is just ridiculous. So then 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:15.040 incomes Tommy Hafey, and Tommy was again all about one 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:20.440 hundred percent effort. But he also liked the runners, and 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.240 you know, we were competitive under Tommy. We probably just 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:29.080 didn't have didn't have the cattle to support him. And 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.480 but you know, he was just he had these first 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.319 thing that Tommy would do when he went to any 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:38.000 club was ensure that the players were with him. So 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.959 he had the players all the time. And some of 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:46.280 the older boys might have rebeled against Tommy, but the vast, 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.960 vast majority of the team were just full devotees and 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.040 when he asked you for effort, you were prepared to 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:52.400 give it. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:54.880 Did he evolve in he's cotching obviously the tigers down 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:56.319 the guts, you know, as straight as quick as you 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.599 can bombit long. Was there an evolution at all or 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:00.680 still a Tommy? 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.400 I don't think so. I think generally speaking, it was 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.880 one on one, you know, we're going to be a 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.080 little bit stronger and tougher and hard at it. And 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.080 the contest is always about the contest. And you get hit, 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.080 you get up, knock you down again, you get up again, 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.439 and you know, I just keep running hard and chasing 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.720 and kicking and all those all those he just dropped 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.240 the g off everything tackling, kicking. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.120 And that stood up in a lot of finals for 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:27.680 a lot of teams. 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:32.560 And yeah, and I just say he could easily have 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.240 had seven or eight Premierships in his name if it 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.960 had a little bit like a Collingwood anyway, he I 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.760 think he just had a fantastic way with people and 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.240 was able to was able to embed himself in the players, 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.800 and you know, didn't drink, so he sort of it 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:51.440 wasn't as though he did it over the over the 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.000 bar players. You know, he just had that way of 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.720 he could sit in the spa and he talked to 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.920 the shirt off and talk pretty ripped. He's talking about 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.400 your family, he'd be talking about your girlfriends. He'd be 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.720 talking all this stuff, and all that stuff was just 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.560 building relationship. So he was a beauty. 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.400 The hot gospeler Johnny Devine, Well, you played some good 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:14.680 foot under Johnny. You had that year of when you 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:16.560 had the twenty two games and he was a beauty. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:21.880 Again, we weren't good enough to carry it out and 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.280 john was back. He was probably back to the fire 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.920 and brimstone. Yeah, so there was a lot of you know, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.720 told us, possibly his first meeting with us, we are 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.560 not going to lose a game at Cadennia Park. I'm 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:42.520 telling you now, we're going to make this a fortress. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:41.640 Early because it did happen. 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:42.679 It did. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.160 Yeah, but we I think we lost the first four games. Yea, 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:47.080 three of them are at home. 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.280 It's hard to go back after that, isn't it? 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.120 That he was again he was one that just appreciated 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:59.920 effort and again the whole coaching caper back through the eighties, 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.280 there wasn't a lot of nous and in fact, you know, 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.760 we get to the next one. Malcolm Blyth I think 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.240 was the very first of the teaching of the teaching 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.839 type of coaches. So another great mate of ours, a 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.760 guy called David Whedon who came and he got his 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.480 he got his opportunity in AFL football or VFL football 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.520 with Tommy Hagen. So Tommy appoints David Weed as our 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.240 reserves coach and for the first time I've got someone 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.160 who played a handful of games at Collingwood but predominantly 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.480 wasn't a great footballer now making his way as a coach. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.920 And David Wheden would go on to coach at four 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.080 or five club, six ge probably and he's currently still coaching. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.760 He was stills practitioner and the art of the drop part. 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.560 And so whilst you learn a lot from all these 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.560 great coaches with big names, David Whedon probably taught me 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:52.000 more about coaching anyway. 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:52.840 It's incredible. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.040 Yeah, And you know a guy called Bernie Shay who 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.040 I had one year with at Werribee. Again just teach 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.360 you so much about footy. The these guys that have 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.320 been in the coach in Caper all their lives just 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.280 might have great AFL careers to stand by. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:11.280 But so Malcolm Blyde arrives and is this a new dawn? 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.400 Like immediately you think to yourself, this is something different. 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.840 Totally totally different, you know. And one of David Whedon's 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:23.920 great sayings is coaches can now through that nineties started 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.520 to teach you how to win, whereas it always teach 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.200 you why you should win and so we hate these bastards. 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.960 Yeah we owe them. 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.080 We'll stick it up and you know, and they'll give 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:35.920 you all these reasons why you've got to win on 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.400 the weekend. Whereas Malcolm Blyde, I think was one of 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.680 the first coaches that said, listen, this blokes a cent 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.280 a half back. He's always a left hander. He will 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:45.200 always punch from the left. The balls always going to 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.600 go to the right. As you're coming in, expect the 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.360 ball to be there. The bloke you're playing on as 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.480 a left footer and he cannot kick on his right, 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.960 so box him in. So they're all these little all 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.600 the little tweaks to our game where blind he was 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.960 actually teaching us how we can be a little bit 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.040 and I think it was the first time and it 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.240 wasn't just our club. I think every club was going 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.840 through that transformation that in the nineties and it's now 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.480 got to the stage where the coaching is they're all teachers. 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:16.240 They're pretty fantastic. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.200 He was also a motivator as well as a technician 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.000 and a tactical freak. What were some of the motivations 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.040 or some of the crazy bloody stories, And there's been 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:26.280 a lot of them over the years, but some that 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:27.040 you experienced. 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:33.920 He was uncompromising and so he would on one particular 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:38.200 start to the year he said, listen, Gary hasn't turned 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.120 up again, as you would all know, and this is 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.720 our third or fourth training session in January. If he's 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.560 not here on Friday, he's not playing this year, this. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.200 Year, the whole year. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:50.600 He's going to get rid of him. 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:50.800 Wow. 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:56.560 So here's Malcolm Blair telling all the players that turn 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.320 up for pre season. Is that important that it's the 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.920 best player the club doesn't turn up on the weekend 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:06.040 or doesn't up on Friday, that's it for him. So, 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.120 you know, and quietly Malcolm would say, don't ever make 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:11.480 close statements. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:14.880 You know, you know, but he did. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.159 He made his unbelievably closed statement. Obviously Gary turned up 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.119 on Friday and the threat was never had to be 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:26.160 followed through, but it is. He was an incredible He 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.800 was fierce, you know, he was he was very fierce. 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.240 But he had he had this real way of being 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:40.840 able to communicate with the players, and again, to a 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.879 little bit of luck, the time was right. So all 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.560 of a sudden, you know, Barry Stoneham is becoming a 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.440 sensational player, Gary how a sensational player Paul Couches come 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.520 through now and ends up winning a Brown Low in 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.280 that year. So mar Besto comes to the club a 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.400 couple of years earlier, so he's finally actually which nothing 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:01.280 to do with Malcolm Blake. 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.080 The group's sort of come together and the. 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.399 Maturity of the group was right to go. And Malcolm 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.520 Blight was just at the right place in the right time. 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.040 But he was also the most stunning coach, you know, 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:11.760 so he was very, very good. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.560 So Hawthorne's surging that the powerhouse team gelongs getting better. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.600 Geelong's got a star studded team. Where the hell is 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.080 Damien drum for the entire home and away series? 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.200 You're yeah, well again. Malcolm put me in the team 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.879 about three times throughout the course of the year. And 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.960 there were twice that I simply was carrying a either 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.119 a bad corky or a knock on the knee, or 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.359 I was carrying something. I thought i'd come through on 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:41.400 a Thursday, but I just knew I had to put 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.000 my hand up because I just wasn't coming up. And 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:48.600 then there was a third time that he says you're in. 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.000 I said, you beauty, I'm right to go. And I 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.480 actually tweaked a hamstring on Thursday night, so that was 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.919 the third time throughout the course of the year. And 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.600 then I came back from that hammy and played two 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.199 games in the reserves and played quite well, and he 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.960 picked me for my first game in the first final. 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.320 In the qualifying final against Essendon, which is a selection 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:11.480 shock in that sense. 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.120 Were you surprised or you knew that he had. 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.919 He factored you in into that sort of bracket a 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:18.400 bit of both. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.280 I sort of knew that if I was right in contention, 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:24.680 and he'd been talking to me, he said, if you're 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:26.720 going to be you know, the two games you played 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:32.600 show that you. So anyway, I get the opportunity. And 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.240 it was an amazing that the game. I think, I'm 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.000 pretty sure that's the game that No, it wasn't, because 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:38.679 Essenon beat. 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.919 Us Speature in the first one and then you smash 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:43.320 them in a few weeks time. You get to play 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.800 those three finals. You lose the first week, you play 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.000 reasonably well and you keep your spot the following week 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.200 against Melbourne and then beat Essendon in the preliminary final. 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.800