What the heck? Melbourne draftee Interviews

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clipboardbinocs said:
It's not just Melbourne.

It's used to assess the ability of a potential draftee to handle criticism and how they react under pressure.

It's an elite environment, no point presenting it as anything else but cut throat.
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So barking back is good, but continually brushing it off and acting like it doesn't matter isn't good? It's pretty narrow to think there's one way of coping with criticism. Some good footballers are so mentally soft that I don't think there's too much credence put in it. Some guys are still nervous and feel embarrassed when kids at training want photos. Are you going to dismiss him because he didn't tell you to piss off?

Some people will adulate football clubs and their admin to the high heavens. The draft's a load of s**t anyway, and Melbourne's take on it is especially.


telsor said:
Point is, often it's not the questions but the reaction to them that matters.
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Uhhh... isn't that the case with every single question ever?
 
Silent Alarm said:
So barking back is good, but continually brushing it off and acting like it doesn't matter isn't good? It's pretty narrow to think there's one way of coping with criticism. Some good footballers are so mentally soft that I don't think there's too much credence put in it. Some guys are still nervous and feel embarrassed when kids at training want photos. Are you going to dismiss him because he didn't tell you to piss off?

Some people will adulate football clubs and their admin to the high heavens. The draft's a load of s**t anyway, and Melbourne's take on it is especially.
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I don't mind people reading between the lines, but you just seem to draw your own conclusions and run off on bullshit tangents.

Good luck to you.
 

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Hellgood said:
Hahahahahahahahaha. Going to quote that again for hilarity.
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We did bloody well last year. But with two compo picks courtesy of Mr Scully it was hard not to.

That said, any off season where you can add Viney, Hogan and Toumpas is a good one. All those kids seem to have the mental attitude of winners. Throw in Dom Barry, Dawes, Kent and Clisby - it was a bloody great off season.

Its just the Pederson and Gillies signings take a bit of shine off it (Byrnes was ok for us, but the problem was he cost us getting compo for Rivers as well).

But yeah, it's just a tactic to see how they respond - kids with the confidence, such as Brodie Grundy will have a direct crack back, others will crack the sads. Would imagine you'd learna heck of a lot more from an interview like that putting someone out of their comfort zone than the stock standard "yeah, nah" stuff.
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Glad you kind of agree with the approach anyway. I imagine Jesse Hogan when confronted might have grabbed the interviewer by the throat and smashed him through a wall. "Puny god" style from Avengers.

Todd Viney is heavily involved in this stuff from my understanding. He's got an impecable record at Adelaide and Hawthorn in various roles, and as a player he was one of the most no nonsense blokes I've ever seen and easily one of the toughest players to play the game. So if true, I'm 100% ok with this rumour, as prior to last year we were picking up mentally fragile types like Cook, Gysberts and Morton with our number one picks.
 
GAS PANIC said:
My brother attended the draft camp a couple of years ago and told me that neeld and Melbourne asked a kid to call a horse race as part of his interview.
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Ok now this is just equal parts hilarious and awesome.

What other crazy s**t do you reckon Neeld got up to? What a loose unit.
 
Hellgood said:
Choco Williams had a big reputation for this kind of stuff:

- Got Tom Rockliff to take off his shirt in an interview to prove he wasn't fat
- Gave Matt Lobbe a grilling over why he might be percieved to be a "mummy's boy" - proceeded to draft him anyway and it seems it's worked out bloody well for us now, but for the few years it took for him to come on it seemed a bit of an odd call.
- Pat Veszpremi was a bit naive and put down his hotmail email address in his contact detail section... apparently Choco spent more than a few minutes enquiring why Veszpremi referred to himself as a horny_devil

Didn't just reserve this kind of stuff for prospective draftees, there was an interview in Matt Broadbent's first or second year where he was a bit miffed that Choco's policy was to only include those who he deemed to be in his "top 30" to be allowed to sit in on tactics meetings.

Definitely a polarising figure - it seemed that zaniness and "initiation" techniques worked pretty well for a while, but once they went stale the culture of the footy club turned bad very quickly.
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Same thing happened with Daniher at Melbourne. Darren Jolly reckons Neale never once spoke to him one on one. He was there for like 5 years.

Basicaly only spoke to Neitz, Schwarz (at times), Johnstone, Yze, White, Green, McDonald and Bruce. Neale reckons it was up to the assistants to handle the rest.

I can actually see the merit in it, the head coach is the CEO of the playing group. I'm an office shitkicker like most people and might speak to my 'big boss' maybe once a year.
 
nottenthagain said:
Brodie Grundy... well played.

If someone had tried the Williams line to me I would have asked if he was serious, if he'd said yes, I'd have shook everyone else's hand in the room thanked them, wished them luck and walked out. If the other officials are happy with a representative of their club acting in that way then who'd want to be a part of that organisation?
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AS a 30 year old that would have been my response too.

As a 17 or 18 year old I probably would have cried and thrown a tanty and stormed out like a bitch.
 
The stupid thing about this approach is that when you're interviewing all these kids, its your chance as a club to be marketable.

You can only draft one or two good kids each year generally. But if you come across as a professional, supportive and player-focused club during the interview period, the kids will remember that s**t when they're out of contract next.
 
Hot Pocket said:
Same thing happened with Daniher at Melbourne. Darren Jolly reckons Neale never once spoke to him one on one. He was there for like 5 years.
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Heard that Hirdy rarely if ever talks one on one with the players on the clubs rookie list
 
Hot Pocket said:
It actually makes sense imo.
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Nah

If you get in the best, you should have at least a 5 minute conversation with the head coach about it

i think the bare minimum

"saw/heard your weekends game, loved /great to hear about your (enter thing coach loves here) but it looks/but i hear your (weakness here) still needs work

then gives 1 minute coaching about that weakness

thats only what 20 or so minutes a week
 

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The CEO doesnt do that for the mail room guy. There are many levels of management in between and a rookie should be focused on what his assistant/line coach thinks, not the head coach.

Its hierarchy.
 
Hot Pocket said:
AS a 30 year old that would have been my response too.

As a 17 or 18 year old I probably would have cried and thrown a tanty and stormed out like a bitch.
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True. As a 17 year old I would have sat there and stewed... but done absolutely nothing about it
 
Hot Pocket said:
The CEO doesnt do that for the mail room guy. There are many levels of management in between and a rookie should be focused on what his assistant/line coach thinks, not the head coach.

Its hierarchy.
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Football and how an office works are two different things, its silly to compare them

yes a rookies main coach should be a line coach/development coach but i think its bad coaching if the head coach doesn't lay any feeback one on one (except until he tells them they're delisted)
ie what I heard Hirdy (pun non intentional) has done
 
Hardly surprising stuff from Grundy, considering how smart and switched on he is. Any club should know that an intellectually gifted kid who is a first round talent will know they're going to be drafted (In no cocky way usually, but they're just being realistic and know the worst case scenario is being a late first/second round pick if they just keep doing what they're doing). The way clubs like Melbourne, etc interview draftees just makes them completely unappealing to anyone with half a brain. So of course someone like Grundy is just going to tear the interviewer to shreds considering the ability on and off field he has.
 
I'd be really surprised if the head coach spent much time with rookies at any club.

Development coaches work with first, second year and rookies.

Head coaches are paid to win games of football and tend to focus in on their best 25-30.

By the time they get into that bracket they should be ready.
 
Hot Pocket said:
Same thing happened with Daniher at Melbourne. Darren Jolly reckons Neale never once spoke to him one on one. He was there for like 5 years.

Basicaly only spoke to Neitz, Schwarz (at times), Johnstone, Yze, White, Green, McDonald and Bruce. Neale reckons it was up to the assistants to handle the rest.

I can actually see the merit in it, the head coach is the CEO of the playing group. I'm an office shitkicker like most people and might speak to my 'big boss' maybe once a year.
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Hard to argue with his results. One GF and another Prelim? and a couple of semi finals. Interesting methodology. Certainly those players listed played for him.
 
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