Stephen Jurica on SEN

[one-eyed]

Stephen Jurica was on SEN this arvo with Andy Maher and Bob Murphy:

AUDIO: https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=760699


* Played 13 games in 1995 with 5 multiple goal games under Northey. Best game was kicking 5 goals in our round 15 draw with Essendon. He remembers Rex Hunt nicknaming him "Jurassic".

* A naive kid in those days. Didn't know names. After kicking 4 goals on Steven Silvagni, Jurica shook his hand and said,  "Thanks for the game, Serge" lol.

* Change of coach stalled his career. Walls didn't rate him and wouldn't play him in the seniors.

* He also had injuries post-1995. "If I was a horse they would've put me down".

* Ended up being a bit of a flash in the pan.

* North Ballarat his favourite time as a footballer. No pressure on him at VFL level.

* Now in Law.

Stats: https://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/S/Stephen_Jurica.html

[mightytiges]

Jurica came into the side after Richo did his ACL. We were hoping one of Jurica or Stuart Edwards would become 2nd banana alongside Richo in our forward line but neither did  . Whether it was Walls or just our poor development of players in that era, a few of those who played well or at least showed promise in 1995 under Northey struggled and disappeared shortly afterwards.

[one-eyed]

“I DIDN’T EVEN REALISE”: FORMER RICHMOND FORWARD’S ACCIDENTAL SOS SLEDGE

By Andrew Slevison
SEN
24 November 2020

Stephen Jurica burst onto the scene for the Richmond Football Club as a teenager back in 1995.

With his hulking frame, Jurica helped himself to bags of four and five goals in his fourth and fifth games respectively, the first of those coming in a loss to Carlton in Round 14.

Following that effort against the Blues, the former Tiger admitted his naivety towards the situation having failed to obey coach John Northey’s orders.

He also managed to manhandle Stephen Silvagni, before misidentifying the Full-Back of the Century.

“I remember ‘Swooper’ (Northey) telling me, ‘Don’t go body on body with SOS. He’s too big, too strong’,” Jurica told SEN’s Bob and Andy.

“I thought, ‘Ah yeah, I’ll have a go at this’. I couldn’t believe I kicked four on him.

“I was a pretty naive young kid not knowing too much about who’s who and I remember shaking his hand after the game and saying, ‘Thanks for the game, Serge’.

“And he just looked at me like who in the hell are you?

“So, it was very embarrassing.”

Andy Maher suggested perhaps it was a hidden sledge towards the Carlton champion.

“He might have thought that you were sledging him. He might have thought that was a deliberate attempt to get under his skin,” Maher said.

But Jurica was adamant that he simply made a mistake.

“Oh well, I was too clever. I didn’t even realise,” he laughed.

The promising full-forward was the talk of the town after his early-career exploits.

Bruce McAvaney, who described him as a “big, strapping colt”, also exclaimed “when you’re talking footy, you’re going to be talking Jurica”.

It was some sort of welcome to the footy world.

“It was pretty special,” he added.

“Kicking five in a drawn night game (against the Bombers) was pretty good. The week before I kicked four on SOS.

“Lots of people were getting excited. Rex Hunt was calling me ‘Jurassic’. Bruce McAvaney of course, you’re talking footy, you’re talking Jurica.

“It was pretty special.”

The South Fremantle product, who these days is a successful barrister, explained why his career did not reach full flight after the initial take-off.

He was seen as the perfect foil for favourite son Matthew Richardson, who had been struck down by a knee injury earlier in 1995, but it did not quite go to plan.

“I was playing really well under John ‘Swooper’ Northey. We had a change of coach (Robert Walls) and unfortunately he didn’t see me playing much footy in the seniors,” he said further.

“I had a few injuries as well. If I was a horse, you’d pretty much shoot me, I was no good.

“A mixture of things kind of happened but surprisingly I didn’t kick on from there for the few reasons I just mentioned.

“I was a bit of a flash in the pan. There was a lot of hype and excitement but unfortunately I wasn’t able to take it to the next level and play decent footy for a while.”

Jurica booted 21 goals in 13 games in his debut season of ‘95 before finishing his AFL career in 1997 with 18 games and 25 goals to his name.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2020/11/24/i-didnt-even-realise-former-richmond-forwards-accidental-sos-sledge/

[tdy]

Walls was a disaster. Took a good performing team and stuffed it right up.

[mightytiges]

Walls was a disaster. Took a good performing team and stuffed it right up.

Walls thought we were "too predictable" under Northey and tried to make us play a possession game that didn't suit our players who were more suited to Northey's route 1A philosophy. Add to that in those days having someone from the archenemy like Walls as our coach was seen as sacrilege to some. They were glad to see him fail. Problem with that mentality was that meant we failed as a team too.

We did a 'Melbourne' in 1996 and lost a number of close games including the one out at Waverley where Swan fullback Andrew Dunkley took a dive in the goalsquare as what would've been the winning goal sailed through metres above his head. The ump fell for it and paid a free against Richo which cost us that game. Should have made the finals easily given we missed by 1/2 a game. Once we didn't make the finals the bottom fell out.

Our development and recruiting post-95 was a disgrace as well. Trading top 10 picks for fringe players from other clubs on big $$$ which ultimately decimated our list of young quality talent by Frawley's later years and required a rebuild from scratch that took a decade to fix. Thank gawd those horrid years are long gone.