Talked first about Nathan Foley’s nomination. All credit to him after coming off rookie list. Had a great year with Geelong Falcons where he won B&F and TAC team of the year, but missed out on getting picked up. Has worked his way up and played the last part of last season and every game this year. Been great. Kev asked him if him being short and stumpy stopped us from picking up. Greg said, he won the hard ball in tight and fed it out but he wasn’t a natural run and spread type of player. People considered he might be slow, which he’s not, because he’s a sub 3 second 20 metre runner. Gradually developing confidence to spread as well as win the hard ball.
Re recruiting – should we widen vision and not overlook players such as Nathan Foley. Greg said, last year’s Brownlow Medal with Cousins and Kerr, with Kerr being 176 cm. When the national draft’s finished, get a group of kids down to the club and have a look at them first hand.
Will Thursfield – another rookie – has also played senior footy, and except for the injuries, he’d probably be playing every game as well. They looked at him during the 2 weeks b/w national draft and rookie draft and you can pick up bargains there.
Cam Howat – another rookie – had a great season with Coburg and his first two games outstanding.
Sheeds’ comments on another interstate side will probably win the premiership. Apart from the advantages of home ground etc, they have great recruiting departments.
Collingwood spent $600,000 on recruiting, Port Adelaide, just under $400k, Brisbane 400k and we spent $83,000 on recruiting.
Greg said we had a lean year financially the year before and all areas of the club suffered. We didn’t have a full time recruiting officer and some clubs had three and four. If we had the resources to have people in Perth, Qld, and so on, gives you an advantage in the rookie draft or even in the later choices in the draft. To be on location and know what’s going on in the town is an advantage. Resources make a difference. Most interstate clubs have full time recruiters in Melbourne and their own state. We get information but mainly on the better players – after third round players, you’ve got a home town advantage of knowing what the rest of the kids are like. We’ll get better and spend more money, but will always be disadvantaged against some of the interstate clubs because of the stadia deals and income they have.
Richer Melbourne clubs Essendon and Collingwood – hope to one day emulate them. Talked about some apprenticeship scheme Collingwood have got in NSW, a big network around Australia. Essendon will probably follow suit and spend more money in these areas.
We’re also short in general staff area compared to other clubs.
Kev asked how Greg could have missed a guy like Sandilands who was 7 ft tall lol
Television rights and stuff might be able to help us in recruiting. Talked about some stadia deal which will assist us (not sure what he’s talking about). Greg talked about the great arrangement between state government, AFL and local councils on assisting in getting facilities for Victorian based teams – an area we’ve fallen right behind.
Kev asks how many people do we need in a recruiting set up? Greg says we had some good people interstate and lost them because we couldn’t pay them. So relying on past players and friends etc. Greg says that works for a year and as soon as you need to ask for more effort and more time, the friendship becomes a bit stretched and they get opportunities from other clubs at better deals. We put Francis Jackson on this year and he’s gradually developing a team interstate. But we also recognize we have to start paying those people for their time.
Kev asks who’s the most important person at the club. Greg says it’s a combination of things: President, strength of your board are keys, but then recruiting, developing and coaching on match day, they’re all equally important. You’ve got to recruit the right types and then you’ve got to have the right coaches and a billion resources around the club to develop them. Senior coach steers the ship in the direction you’re going and matchday coaching. Combination of all those things.
But more money in recruiting most clubs have recognised this is the way to go. Can’t go out and buy players so we have to get better at recruiting.
