DAVE: Alright boys we had some wet weather over Easter, nice footy weather at Phillip Island, it was a half hour drive into the ground because of holiday traffic. One of the things that have happened in this week’s paper is we have put a lot of work into footy previews…
JONTY: An unprecedented amount of work?
DAVE: I would say you would deserve that pat on the back you’ve just given yourself, yes, Jonty.
JONTY: Us. Our, hard work.
INTERESTING COACH TIDBITS
DAVE: (Laughs). One of the things we’re very lucky to do, the three of us, is talk to coaches and get some insight into their football clubs. With all the chats you’ve had with these clubs in the last couple of weeks, I want to know the most interesting thing you’ve found out about one of the clubs you cover. I’ll start with you, Jonty.
JONTY: I’m really curious with how Doveton use their rucks this season. They’ve got the best ruck in Division Two, the highly regarded Dylan Chapman, a physical sort of player, but they’ve brought in Matt Waldon from ROC and he’s been going well in preseason, as has the young Matt Merrilees. Last year Chapman played as a solo ruckman and Max Sheppard gave him a bit of a chop-out. Jimmy Pattinson is capable of doing a similar thing this year but Chapman played forward in some practice matches and looked really dangerous up there. I’m really curious to see what dynamic they go with up there and whether they are comfortable going in with two rucks. The sort of ruck that Chapman is, if you can limit the amount of time he spends in the ruck, you’ll make him more effective because of the type of player he is. It’ll be an interesting watch for the first month of the season.
DAVE: That’s the number-one take-away from your chats?
JONTY: Yep.
MARCUS: One thing that stood out to me is that outside of two retirements, Shayne Allan and Ziggy Alwyn, they’re going to have every player who played in last year’s premiership back for 2023. I think that’s rare to see in any sport, there’s the stat going around in AFL circles that a premiership team has never played together again and that won’t quite be the case for Noble Park, but it’s a testament to the culture. There are players who could be paid handsomely if they left but they’ve chosen to stick around and see if they can win another one which I think is impressive.
JONTY: For reference, 14 of Cranbourne’s 22 premiership players were in for Cranbourne on the weekend. That’s more typical.
DAVE: I think you’re in for a real treat when you get to Pat Wright Oval, Marcus – Jackson Sketcher, Kyle Martin and Shane McDonald is the dream midfield. They’re going to be tough to beat and look stronger than ever. The things I noticed, Tooradin were dominant last year but when I started doing all the stats, they only played 31 players last year so they had a really good run with injury. When I had a chat to runner-up coach Cam Pedersen, they had a lot of injuries last year Phillip Island. When I asked about the key ins; he reeled off four very good players that were injured last year and didn’t play. You get those players back and it might not be the one-horse race that people expect, if Phillip Island gets a clean run and Tooradin get injuries. The other thing I noticed is the personal connection it takes to get people to a club. Casey Demons have got Trent Burgoyne who was looking for a local club. The son-in-law of the manager at Casey plays for Nar Nar Goon, so you get on the phone and say ‘this bloke is looking for a club’. All of a sudden, there is a skilful half forward at Nar Nar Goon just through connections. So many times it’s through a mate of a mate.
JONTY: That’s how local footy works. Everyone does it, you just haven’t heard it much recently because of Covid-19 I think.
BUILD A TEAM
DAVE: Yeah, you’re right. Alright boys, onto the next topic. If you were a coach and I was offering you the best country footballer in Victoria, for a particular position, which position would you pick? You can start, Marcus.
JONTY: He’s already got the best footballer in Victoria: Kyle Martin.
DAVE: Yeah, he probably has. I will give you a champion player from any position on the field Marcus…what position is you taking?
MARCUS: I am taking an intercepting half-back.
JONTY: Controversial. Wow.
DAVE: Like it.
MARCUS: I think they’re the modern day defender is a real evolution from your previous era’s stoppers. I want someone who can watch play unfold from in front and set up behind the ball, and then has the best view of the field to attack from defence or repel. Players like a Darcy Moore or Steven May have transformed their teams. If you’re turning it over around half back, you’re catching the opponent where they’re not set up themselves.
DAVE: It’s interesting because the best interceptor I’ve seen at local footy is Michael Riseley at Berwick, when they were in their prime, and you’re 100 per cent right. He was the best intercept mark and Berwick built a fair chunk of its game plan on Riseley taking marks. The ball would come in one side, and when Riseley got the ball, the whole team would know to get going out the other side because that’s where it was going. Go the fat side. They had all these fleet-footed runners. They won two flags doing it. What about you, Jonty.
JONTY: No point having a good intercept marker if it’s coming in so often and you’re intercept markers can’t get to work. I think there’s a reason coaches always say “it’s won and lost in the contest” so I’m getting a big inside midfielder who’s able to drive out the front of clearance and get it going forward and is going to win you territory. I’m going the more orthodox.
DAVE: You’re going the dime-a-dozen position – the midfielders are probably going to smash me when they see me at the footy – but there are heaps of midfielders. You want one of them?
JONTY: Yep, I want the best.
DAVE: Who’s the AFL equivalent?
JONTY: A Paddy Cripps or a Marcus Bontempelli, Christian Petracca, someone who has got that power and all of those guys can float forward and be damaging inside 50.
DAVE: Yeah, true, they’re not dime-a dozen, they’re all six foot three, six foot four now…but mine would be a ruck. A dominant ruck would be mine because Beaconsfield had the most unique footballer I’ve seen in local footy in Scotty Myer. He was six foot five, could leap like anything, do the ruck work, compete with anyone in the air but when it hit the ground, he was a midfielder. He could pick up the ball and lace a pass from 45….he was amazing and I saw first-hand how much he transformed Beacy.
JONTY: So an athletic ruck…not a lumbering type.
DAVE: Yep. A bloke from your club Marcus that I’d be talking about is Simon Madden. I don’t know if you remember Simon Madden from the ‘80s and ‘70s.
MARCUS: I’m not that old.
DAVE: (Laughs) Smartarse, he kicked 600 odd goals as a ruck, and was an incredible tap ruckman.
MARCUS: Are rucks like that a little bit of a luxury? Toby Nankervis is your old-school lumbering ruck. He’s good at a contest, positions himself well, and takes marks and tackles. I think that’s all you need in a ruck. Then you see situations like Brodie Grundy where he was taking up too much salary.
DAVE: I think the most relevant AFL ruck to this conversation would be Dean Cox. That’s what Myer was. I don’t just want any ruck; I want a unique ruck that can get it, run and bounce, hit targets and kick goals.
JONTY: You don’t want much do you!
CRICKET CAPTAINS OR FOOTY COACHES
DAVE: Leadership. The main sports we cover are cricket and footy and the captains and coaches are so different in the roles they have. Jonty, tell us the differences between captains and coaches in cricket and footy.
JONTY: I go through the cricket clubs I covered, the captains are across things on game-day a lot more than the coaches are, certainly from a game-day perspective, whereas in footy, it’s the coaches. It’s a much bigger role. Footy coaches have more strings to pull than a cricket captain does on the field. And cricket captains can only control what goes on, on the field, and cricket is often a luck-oriented game and a captain can’t so much control that side of things with 10 other batters. A footy coach I think has more control over his players – they’re put on the pine if they don’t comply with game plan so they’re going to comply. More impactful? I’d say a coach on AFL game day than a captain on cricket game day.
MARCUS: I’m a bit surprised by that answer. They’re pretty similar but I would have thought that in cricket you have more of an advantage because you’re on the field. This is no disrespect to cricket coaches but, when I hear this question, I think of the Shane Warne quote that coaches are something you ride to the ground in. He didn’t have much of a relationship with John Buchanan. It’s interesting given if a team is going badly in footy, the coach cops it, but not so much in cricket. We are, though, in a time where cricket coaches are as prominent as they have ever been. You look at the advent of ‘Bazball’, the Justin Langer-Andrew McDonald saga here off the back of Darren Lehmann and sandpaper-gate.
DAVE: Isn’t it interesting that out of those four positions, the cricket coach is the only one who doesn’t have a lot of say on game day. It’s during the week when a coach does his stuff. Is that how you see it? Working on technique at training and things like that.
MARCUS: Setting standards, building culture.
DAVE: Yeah. The reason I bring it up is Pakenham have just appointed Dale Tormey as captain and Rob Elston as coach. From what I hear, Rob is such a magnificent figure at that club, he works with juniors and lower grades players to improve them. It just got me thinking – who is more impactful? The bloke who sets it up behind the scenes or the best player in the comp. It’s a good topic of conversation. Boys, another good week of LTS and I can’t wait to be back at the footy this week!
