I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
I get absolutely that the recruiting part of his job wasn’t given the attention it needed in the early days but again this is another reason why I think its time we moved him on. We need a person in his role who doesn’t leave us with players on the list who are virtually unplayable (like Jetta last year & Pears this year). We need a guy who can get trades done to fill holes in the list & not get bent over into accepting unders as we have done the last 2 years. We can’t afford to have a midfield gun training with us only to have him go to Freo in the rookie draft all while our midfield has been poor for over a decade. I just think his role is way too important to leave to somebody who has simply been around for a long time.
You can’t make any judgements on the recruiting dept in general, let alone Dod’s based on players retained that should not have been, or older players picked up over the last 3 years.
The fact that in a horrible situation draft & recruiting wise, we picked up Zerrett, Lav & Lang, you’d have to say, is a big tick in anyones language.
I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
I get absolutely that the recruiting part of his job wasn’t given the attention it needed in the early days but again this is another reason why I think its time we moved him on. We need a person in his role who doesn’t leave us with players on the list who are virtually unplayable (like Jetta last year & Pears this year). We need a guy who can get trades done to fill holes in the list & not get bent over into accepting unders as we have done the last 2 years. We can’t afford to have a midfield gun training with us only to have him go to Freo in the rookie draft all while our midfield has been poor for over a decade. I just think his role is way too important to leave to somebody who has simply been around for a long time.
I can recall around the time Sheedy ended his coaching Peter Jackson stating it was in Sheedy’s contract to have final say on draft picks…or words to that effect.
You can't make any judgements on the recruiting dept in general, let alone Dod's based on players retained that should not have been, or older players picked up over the last 3 years.
The fact that in a horrible situation draft & recruiting wise, we picked up Zerrett, Lav & Lang, you’d have to say, is a big tick in anyones language.
Yeah & I remember the backslapping when we scooped the 2006 draft as well. Laverde has not even played a game yet FFS & all the players you mentioned have a lot of developing to do before we can say they will be stars or not. I have no problem with the optimism & I agree the signs at this point are positive but my judgements of Dodoro are based on 15 years of recruiting & list management not just on the hopes of the future. Decisions like the contracts for Jetta & Pears I don’t think can in any way be attributed to the saga. Having players on the list too long is something the club has been plagued with for a decade.
Didn’t Pears get his last contract extension in 2013? A season in which he played 11 games and looked like he could get back to his best if he had a decent run with injury from that point.
Surely they can’t be bagged for giving him a 2 year contract at that point?
Didn't Pears get his last contract extension in 2013? A season in which he played 11 games and looked like he could get back to his best if he had a decent run with injury from that point.
Surely they can't be bagged for giving him a 2 year contract at that point?
I’m not buying the “looked like he could get back to his best” part. He looked ok in a few & ordinary in a few more games & the reality is that he hadn’t been at his best since 2009. A 1 year contract with the option of a second year based on say playing 10+ games would have been prudent & the type of deal most other clubs would have offered. As a comparison, Gwilt played 17 games for Stkilda last year & wasn’t offered a contract. List management isn’t meant to be easy but we don’t seem to have made the right choices too often.
Didn't Pears get his last contract extension in 2013? A season in which he played 11 games and looked like he could get back to his best if he had a decent run with injury from that point.
Surely they can't be bagged for giving him a 2 year contract at that point?
I’m not buying the “looked like he could get back to his best” part. He looked ok in a few & ordinary in a few more games & the reality is that he hadn’t been at his best since 2009. A 1 year contract with the option of a second year based on say playing 10+ games would have been prudent & the type of deal most other clubs would have offered. As a comparison, Gwilt played 17 games for Stkilda last year & wasn’t offered a contract. List management isn’t meant to be easy but we don’t seem to have made the right choices too often.
I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
Not all picks, probably not even most.
But certainly some picks were Sheedy specials.
Davies was one, Reynolds was one, you’d better believe McAlister was one of his too. No idea whether Sheedy was involved in some of the recruiting successes too, quite possible.
The point being (to steal a STG phrase) we brought a butter knife to a gun fight.
You can choose to believe that the former clipboard guy had ultimate sway over Kevin Sheedy if you want. I’m sure their salaries accurately represented that…
I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
Not all picks, probably not even most.
But certainly some picks were Sheedy specials.
Davies was one, Reynolds was one, you’d better believe McAlister was one of his too. No idea whether Sheedy was involved in some of the recruiting successes too, quite possible.
The point being (to steal a STG phrase) we brought a butter knife to a gun fight.
You can choose to believe that the former clipboard guy had ultimate sway over Kevin Sheedy if you want. I’m sure their salaries accurately represented that…
As I’ve said here before, the coach absolutely needs to be an important part of the recruiting process. There’s no point having a recruiting guy picking best available every pick when the coach wants more inside grunt for example BUT, I will never ever believe that Sheedy was going against all advice to the contrary & picking blokes at random or simply based on some romantic notions. I just can’t buy that Dodoro or anyone else involved were saying “Davies is a long shot that would be on nobody else’s radar, we can get him with one of the 2 PSD picks we have or we can rookie him” to then have Sheeds reply “What a great idea, a kid who’s not even in the system - lets use a 1st round pick on him”. I’m far more inclined to believe that Davies was a player Dodoro had seen & the idea of pulling a swiftie appealed to Sheeds. I’m also far more inclined to believe that while McAllister was most likely Sheeds’ call, it would have been based on some form of advice from the recruiters on his abilities. Again, I’m just not buying that Dodoro or Judkins (he was still there I think) was reporting “McAllister is no good, rookie at best” yet Sheeds was completely dismissing all advice & saying “But he’s from New Zealand - we must use pick 5”.
Same story with a bloke like Reynolds, I have no issue with believing Sheeds was attracted to the family name & the opportunity to have that legacy live on but its not like Reynolds was completely devoid of talent & as it turned out he was a better choice than Simon O’Keefe 3 picks later who I believe never even played a game for us. There just seems to be this attraction to grasping onto any possible reason for the poor recruiting other than actual poor recruiting advice.
I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
Not all picks, probably not even most.
But certainly some picks were Sheedy specials.
Davies was one, Reynolds was one, you’d better believe McAlister was one of his too. No idea whether Sheedy was involved in some of the recruiting successes too, quite possible.
The point being (to steal a STG phrase) we brought a butter knife to a gun fight.
You can choose to believe that the former clipboard guy had ultimate sway over Kevin Sheedy if you want. I’m sure their salaries accurately represented that…
As I’ve said here before, the coach absolutely needs to be an important part of the recruiting process. There’s no point having a recruiting guy picking best available every pick when the coach wants more inside grunt for example BUT, I will never ever believe that Sheedy was going against all advice to the contrary & picking blokes at random or simply based on some romantic notions. I just can’t buy that Dodoro or anyone else involved were saying “Davies is a long shot that would be on nobody else’s radar, we can get him with one of the 2 PSD picks we have or we can rookie him” to then have Sheeds reply “What a great idea, a kid who’s not even in the system - lets use a 1st round pick on him”. I’m far more inclined to believe that Davies was a player Dodoro had seen & the idea of pulling a swiftie appealed to Sheeds. I’m also far more inclined to believe that while McAllister was most likely Sheeds’ call, it would have been based on some form of advice from the recruiters on his abilities. Again, I’m just not buying that Dodoro or Judkins (he was still there I think) was reporting “McAllister is no good, rookie at best” yet Sheeds was completely dismissing all advice & saying “But he’s from New Zealand - we must use pick 5”.
Same story with a bloke like Reynolds, I have no issue with believing Sheeds was attracted to the family name & the opportunity to have that legacy live on but its not like Reynolds was completely devoid of talent & as it turned out he was a better choice than Simon O’Keefe 3 picks later who I believe never even played a game for us. There just seems to be this attraction to grasping onto any possible reason for the poor recruiting other than actual poor recruiting advice.
Well I'm sorry but that's exactly how the story goes, someone's gone on record with it (not sure whose book - Tim Watson's Jigsaw Man?).
The scouts thought McAlister was worth a crack in the 40s/50s, Sheedy wanted to make a song & dance of it. Similar story with those few others. Without being a fly on the wall, I've no idea of the truth of the matter, but if you think Dodoro or Judkins had the balance of power in that relationship you're dreaming.
It was Tim Watson’s book.
Sheedy was great, but from 1999 onwards, he really looked to create stories. Whether it was McAllister, Courtney Johns or other.
I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
Not all picks, probably not even most.
But certainly some picks were Sheedy specials.
Davies was one, Reynolds was one, you’d better believe McAlister was one of his too. No idea whether Sheedy was involved in some of the recruiting successes too, quite possible.
The point being (to steal a STG phrase) we brought a butter knife to a gun fight.
You can choose to believe that the former clipboard guy had ultimate sway over Kevin Sheedy if you want. I’m sure their salaries accurately represented that…
As I’ve said here before, the coach absolutely needs to be an important part of the recruiting process. There’s no point having a recruiting guy picking best available every pick when the coach wants more inside grunt for example BUT, I will never ever believe that Sheedy was going against all advice to the contrary & picking blokes at random or simply based on some romantic notions. I just can’t buy that Dodoro or anyone else involved were saying “Davies is a long shot that would be on nobody else’s radar, we can get him with one of the 2 PSD picks we have or we can rookie him” to then have Sheeds reply “What a great idea, a kid who’s not even in the system - lets use a 1st round pick on him”. I’m far more inclined to believe that Davies was a player Dodoro had seen & the idea of pulling a swiftie appealed to Sheeds. I’m also far more inclined to believe that while McAllister was most likely Sheeds’ call, it would have been based on some form of advice from the recruiters on his abilities. Again, I’m just not buying that Dodoro or Judkins (he was still there I think) was reporting “McAllister is no good, rookie at best” yet Sheeds was completely dismissing all advice & saying “But he’s from New Zealand - we must use pick 5”.
Same story with a bloke like Reynolds, I have no issue with believing Sheeds was attracted to the family name & the opportunity to have that legacy live on but its not like Reynolds was completely devoid of talent & as it turned out he was a better choice than Simon O’Keefe 3 picks later who I believe never even played a game for us. There just seems to be this attraction to grasping onto any possible reason for the poor recruiting other than actual poor recruiting advice.
Well I'm sorry but that's exactly how the story goes, someone's gone on record with it (not sure whose book - Tim Watson's Jigsaw Man?).
The scouts thought McAlister was worth a crack in the 40s/50s, Sheedy wanted to make a song & dance of it. Similar story with those few others. Without being a fly on the wall, I've no idea of the truth of the matter, but if you think Dodoro or Judkins had the balance of power in that relationship you're dreaming.
I’ve read the Jigsaw man & I don’t remember that being said only that Sheedy was keen to coach what he thought was the 1st Mouri. Again, why do you struggle to comprehend what was actually said? I didn’t say Dodoro or Judkins had “balance of power”, I said I’m not buying the myth that Sheedy controlled every recruiting decision - he didn’t. It was a process Sheedy was rightfully heavily involved in but I don’t buy Judkins & then Dodoro were simply window dressing. Do you believe Sheedy just happened to get a hell of a lot worse at recruiting after Judkins left? If Dodoro was making the right calls & Sheedy was ignoring him them why did we have him, why would he stay? I believe its pretty clear that the quality of recruiting fell sharply once Judkins left & Dodoro was not up to replacing him.
I reckon it's been par (or slightly better) since we got serious & took Sheedy out of recruiting, and put Disco on full-time (2006?) and got Keane alongside (2007).
I don’t think it says much about him personally either way. A single person, working part time around his match day duties, with a cantankerous old boss constantly over-ruling him wasn’t able to keep up departments who had multiple guys full-time. Other than illustrate how far behind the 8 ball we were.
Richmond were the same, Miller was footy manager/recruiter.
15 years ago was soon after Judkins left IIRC. We were winning so we started with crap picks, the cap was stuffed meaning we had to chase deals on old blokes at the last minute, & we lost draft picks due to those cap infringements. He got passed a hand grenade.
And Disco was holding the clipboard at matches & then watching tapes during the week. The hand grenade went off.
Sheedy had his mitts all over the 01 draft (I know Reynolds was all Sheedy, obviously McAlister was, suspect Salmon, not sure about S Harvey) was a massive catastrophe. No exaggeration to say that GF sides were built at that draft.
Not that any of this is necessarily saying that he’s the perfect right bloke going forward but the context is everything.
Since 08 I think we’re looking OK given the picks we (haven’t) had. Kav like everyone who went around him a failure, Shotgun was a bad call, we didn’t completely strike out with Melks but could’ve done better, Cooney looks a bad call, etc etc. Little issues here and there - but I think his hit rate is not too shabby.
Wouldn’t mind us upgrading to Lloyd from Freo.
But ultimately we need to get back into the draft. I just want to see us dig into the list & use 6+ picks, don’t really care who calls them out.
Why has there been this assumption that Sheedy was overruling all of Dodoro’s recommendations? Sheedy often talked about how he wanted Pike but we got Hunt instead. How is that possible if Sheedy was controlling everything? I’m just not buying a situation where Dodoro was saying Kerr but Sheedy overrules with a kid not even playing TAC much to Dodoro’s protestation. Why would he have even stayed if he was being ignored? Did Judkins get a say because I never credited Sheedy with recruiting the 2000 list?
Not all picks, probably not even most.
But certainly some picks were Sheedy specials.
Davies was one, Reynolds was one, you’d better believe McAlister was one of his too. No idea whether Sheedy was involved in some of the recruiting successes too, quite possible.
The point being (to steal a STG phrase) we brought a butter knife to a gun fight.
You can choose to believe that the former clipboard guy had ultimate sway over Kevin Sheedy if you want. I’m sure their salaries accurately represented that…
As I’ve said here before, the coach absolutely needs to be an important part of the recruiting process. There’s no point having a recruiting guy picking best available every pick when the coach wants more inside grunt for example BUT, I will never ever believe that Sheedy was going against all advice to the contrary & picking blokes at random or simply based on some romantic notions. I just can’t buy that Dodoro or anyone else involved were saying “Davies is a long shot that would be on nobody else’s radar, we can get him with one of the 2 PSD picks we have or we can rookie him” to then have Sheeds reply “What a great idea, a kid who’s not even in the system - lets use a 1st round pick on him”. I’m far more inclined to believe that Davies was a player Dodoro had seen & the idea of pulling a swiftie appealed to Sheeds. I’m also far more inclined to believe that while McAllister was most likely Sheeds’ call, it would have been based on some form of advice from the recruiters on his abilities. Again, I’m just not buying that Dodoro or Judkins (he was still there I think) was reporting “McAllister is no good, rookie at best” yet Sheeds was completely dismissing all advice & saying “But he’s from New Zealand - we must use pick 5”.
Same story with a bloke like Reynolds, I have no issue with believing Sheeds was attracted to the family name & the opportunity to have that legacy live on but its not like Reynolds was completely devoid of talent & as it turned out he was a better choice than Simon O’Keefe 3 picks later who I believe never even played a game for us. There just seems to be this attraction to grasping onto any possible reason for the poor recruiting other than actual poor recruiting advice.
Well I'm sorry but that's exactly how the story goes, someone's gone on record with it (not sure whose book - Tim Watson's Jigsaw Man?).
The scouts thought McAlister was worth a crack in the 40s/50s, Sheedy wanted to make a song & dance of it. Similar story with those few others. Without being a fly on the wall, I've no idea of the truth of the matter, but if you think Dodoro or Judkins had the balance of power in that relationship you're dreaming.
I’ve read the Jigsaw man & I don’t remember that being said only that Sheedy was keen to coach what he thought was the 1st Mouri. Again, why do you struggle to comprehend what was actually said? I didn’t say Dodoro or Judkins had “balance of power”, I said I’m not buying the myth that Sheedy controlled every recruiting decision - he didn’t. It was a process Sheedy was rightfully heavily involved in but I don’t buy Judkins & then Dodoro were simply window dressing. Do you believe Sheedy just happened to get a hell of a lot worse at recruiting after Judkins left? If Dodoro was making the right calls & Sheedy was ignoring him them why did we have him, why would he stay? I believe its pretty clear that the quality of recruiting fell sharply once Judkins left & Dodoro was not up to replacing him.
If you read what's written you might have some idea what people want to say.