Warwick Irwin (Careful what you wish for)

[Countrypie]

When I was a kid Fitztroy were my 2nd team. I followed them pretty closely and they had two gun small men Garry Wilson and Warwick Irwin.
Irwin was a gun at Fitzroy playimg as a ruck rover, rover, centerman and occasional winger.
Towards the end of his career Irwin was recruited to Collingwood in one of their top up for a flag exercises that yielded other a lot of good players but no polish.
He was traded for a very good footballer in Leigh Carlson.
The recruitment of Irwin excited me. Here was the polish we needed.
It never happened. Irwin was average at best and went back to Fitzroy after another Grand Final loss.
I just never have understood how someone who was brilliant at one club never clicked with us .

Was it culture?
Was it coaching?
Was he played out of position?
Did he ever feel comfortable?

 

[Jose Cuervo]

He absolutely hated Collingwood and never really wanted to join. Said he lost interest in footy a bit when he joined the club, that might have a bit to do with it I'd imagine.

 

[vjknight]

Remember those days ..... With sadness.

Leigh Carlson was one of my favs. Probably the best night player in the game....tho at the time only that Tuesday night comp played at night.
Des Herbert also went to Fitzroy in the trade.

 

[Kirby]

He absolutely hated Collingwood and never really wanted to join. Said he lost interest in footy a bit when he joined the club, that might have a bit to do with it I'd imagine.

He may have ended up hating the place but he was never reluctant to join. He was paid near record money to transfer over and was very happy with the coin.

Source - my old man was his lawyer and handled the transfer (this was in the days where lawyers handled these things and there were no player managers).

 

[Kirby]

We weren't real smart with our money.
I watched a couple of replays recently where he was playing and he wasn't the same player that played for Fitzroy. Through that period we kept buying players on the basis of who they had been rather than what they could be. he wasn't the worst. Think Teasdale and Butch Edwards gave lesser return, but it was disappointing.

No he was never the same player that's for sure. I think he felt the weight of expectation with the deal and he could not live up to it. He also had some issues that developed in his private life after he came across ( nothing sinister).

 

[Mick39]

We had the chance to recruit his best mate at Fitzroy and he agreed to joining Collingwood. Probably cost us two GF wins.

 

[Magpie Monopoly]

The name Irwin is forever tainted by that Crocodile idiot and his spawn.

Pretty harsh

 

[Obese Arachnid]

We weren't real smart with our money.
I watched a couple of replays recently where he was playing and he wasn't the same player that played for Fitzroy. Through that period we kept buying players on the basis of who they had been rather than what they could be. he wasn't the worst. Think Teasdale and Butch Edwards gave lesser return, but it was disappointing.

Also Bill Valli, we tried to coax him out of West Perth for years. By the time he got to us he was spent & the step up to VFL at that age was beyond him.

 

[mocamagic]

Irwin was an excellent player but the simple explanation is that he was washed up at 28

 

[jjsmitty8]

* IT, BRING HIM BACK TOO.

 

[South of the Yarra]

Remember those days ..... With sadness.

Leigh Carlson was one of my favs. Probably the best night player in the game....tho at the time only that Tuesday night comp played at night.
Des Herbert also went to Fitzroy in the trade.

The Night Owl as they called him.

 

[South of the Yarra]

Remember those days ..... With sadness.

Leigh Carlson was one of my favs. Probably the best night player in the game....tho at the time only that Tuesday night comp played at night.
Des Herbert also went to Fitzroy in the trade.

Leigh taught me. Number 29 I believe.

 

[rand corp]

I seem to recall that injuries had caught up to Irwin by the time he got to us late in his career. We had a string of similar transfers: Teasdale's knees were completely stuffed when we signed him, Sam Kekovich was built like a keg, Laurie Sandilands should have retired but used us as a pension plan, Ronnie Andrews. We got good value out of Wee Georgie Bisset from the Dogs, got a decent year out of Dermie. We also drafted Gerard Healy and Fraser Murphy in 1991 for no games between them. We got Murray Wrensted from the Eagles for 10 games, we got 2 wonderful games from Brad Hardie, we took Ian McMullin for a second time back from Essendon and got 4 marvelous games out of him. We got nine games out of Bradley Plain ex Essendon, a year later, Somehow we only got 4 games out of Adelaide's Sanderson before he went and made a name for himself at Geelong. We got 1 game out of North's Jason Staritski and somehow managed to get 16 of the most promising games you will ever see from a one legged man in West Coast's Lee Walker. For reasons still to be explained we drafted Adrian McAdam after he had already walked out on North and retired, he never fronted. North's Robert Pyman did though, he played just 5 games. We got Mark Pitura with pick 9 in the pre-season draft, not sure why, duck egg there. We also took fan favourite Marty Warry from the Lions, zero games, we did a lot better with his teamate Brad Cassidy 2 games. We took the promising John Barnett from North as well 8 games. Richard Osborne from the Roys gave us 16 games, Jono Ross pissed his career away pre-season after arriving from the Crows sacked immediately no games. 97 was a big year for trying to recycle hacks:Clinton King Sydney 22 games, Brad Smith Richmond 1 game, Shannon Gibson Hawthorn 3 games, Stuart Mangin Sydney 3 games, Jamie Tape Richmond 16 games. Matthew Manfield form the Tiges gave us zip. Ricky O from the Dons was a legendary trade 5 games saw out his career. Tyson Lane form the Dogs gave us decent value with 42 games. Licca came from Sydney as a heavily reconstructed murderer of the ball and finished a champion. Andrew Ukovic from the Dons gave us 17 games whilst Mark Kinnear from Sydney gave us none at all. The Cunning Stunt that was Steve McKee from the Tiges gave us 64 games Glen Freeborn from the Roos gave us 83. We got Shane O'Bree form Brisbane 246 games, same year we got Steven Hawking form Sydney 0 games. in fact in 2000 we traded heavily for:Shane Wakelin St Kilda 158 games,James Clement Fremantle 146 games, Brodie Holland Fremantle 118 games, Jarrod Molloy Brisbane 49 games, Carl Steinfort Geelong 27 games, Andrew Dimattina Essendon 28 games, Steven Rode Hawthorn 0 games.
Chad Rintoul gave us 14 games before retiring with concussion issues. We got a massive 5 games out of Scott Cummings from Port / West Coat, Andrew Williams from the Eagles gave us 32 and Woey gave us 62. Chad Morrison a Champion at West Coast was toast by the time he gave us 21 mostly forgettable games. Blake Caracella gave us good service for 27 games before a neck injury ended his career. Medhurst gave us a very exciting 69 games till his achilles ended it for him tantalizingly close to a flag. Big Chris Bryan from Cartlon never quite delivered with 30 teasers of games. Soon Luke Ball, Darren Jolly, Leigh Walker would arrive to help us win a flag.


As an aside, we really were crap at the drafting caper early on, in the 1990 draft for example we drafted total of 15 players across the national, pre season and mid year drafts, only 3 would play senior football and none of those would play 50 games, (McCarthy 38, Paul Sharky 24 and Stephen Anderson 4). Two years later we would draft 20 players, only 4 ever played a game, thankfully a late pick was Scott Burns.

 

[Countrypie]

I seem to recall that injuries had caught up to Irwin by the time he got to us late in his career. We had a string of similar transfers: Teasdale's knees were completely stuffed when we signed him, Sam Kekovich was built like a keg, Laurie Sandilands should have retired but used us as a pension plan, Ronnie Andrews. We got good value out of Wee Georgie Bisset from the Dogs, got a decent year out of Dermie. We also drafted Gerard Healy and Fraser Murphy in 1991 for no games between them. We got Murray Wrensted from the Eagles for 10 games, we got 2 wonderful games from Brad Hardie, we took Ian McMullin for a second time back from Essendon and got 4 marvelous games out of him. We got nine games out of Bradley Plain ex Essendon, a year later, Somehow we only got 4 games out of Adelaide's Sanderson before he went and made a name for himself at Geelong. We got 1 game out of North's Jason Staritski and somehow managed to get 16 of the most promising games you will ever see from a one legged man in West Coast's Lee Walker. For reasons still to be explained we drafted Adrian McAdam after he had already walked out on North and retired, he never fronted. North's Robert Pyman did though, he played just 5 games. We got Mark Pitura with pick 9 in the pre-season draft, not sure why, duck egg there. We also took fan favourite Marty Warry from the Lions, zero games, we did a lot better with his teamate Brad Cassidy 2 games. We took the promising John Barnett from North as well 8 games. Richard Osborne from the Roys gave us 16 games, Jono Ross pissed his career away pre-season after arriving from the Crows sacked immediately no games. 97 was a big year for trying to recycle hacks:Clinton King Sydney 22 games, Brad Smith Richmond 1 game, Shannon Gibson Hawthorn 3 games, Stuart Mangin Sydney 3 games, Jamie Tape Richmond 16 games. Matthew Manfield form the Tiges gave us zip. Ricky O from the Dons was a legendary trade 5 games saw out his career. Tyson Lane form the Dogs gave us decent value with 42 games. Licca came from Sydney as a heavily reconstructed murderer of the ball and finished a champion. Andrew Ukovic from the Dons gave us 17 games whilst Mark Kinnear from Sydney gave us none at all. The Cunning Stunt that was Steve McKee from the Tiges gave us 64 games Glen Freeborn from the Roos gave us 83. We got Shane O'Bree form Brisbane 246 games, same year we got Steven Hawking form Sydney 0 games. in fact in 2000 we traded heavily for:Shane Wakelin St Kilda 158 games,James Clement Fremantle 146 games, Brodie Holland Fremantle 118 games, Jarrod Molloy Brisbane 49 games, Carl Steinfort Geelong 27 games, Andrew Dimattina Essendon 28 games, Steven Rode Hawthorn 0 games.
Chad Rintoul gave us 14 games before retiring with concussion issues. We got a massive 5 games out of Scott Cummings from Port / West Coat, Andrew Williams from the Eagles gave us 32 and Woey gave us 62. Chad Morrison a Champion at West Coast was toast by the time he gave us 21 mostly forgettable games. Blake Caracella gave us good service for 27 games before a neck injury ended his career. Medhurst gave us a very exciting 69 games till his achilles ended it for him tantalizingly close to a flag. Big Chris Bryan from Cartlon never quite delivered with 30 teasers of games. Soon Luke Ball, Darren Jolly, Leigh Walker would arrive to help us win a flag.


As an aside, we really were crap at the drafting caper early on, in the 1990 draft for example we drafted total of 15 players across the national, pre season and mid year drafts, only 3 would play senior football and none of those would play 50 games, (McCarthy 38, Paul Sharky 24 and Stephen Anderson 4). Two years later we would draft 20 players, only 4 ever played a game, thankfully a late pick was Scott Burns.

This: We had a kamikaze recruiting plan late 70s and through to the nineties. Irwin sticks in my mind because I followed him closely at Fitzroy. Teasdale was a shocker. Didn't we have a medical department?

 

[Deathray]

These sort of random threads are what makes Bigfooty great. I now await some in depth analysis of Glenn Mcleans recruitment (presuming its hasn't already been done)

 

[Countrypie]

These sort of random threads are what makes Bigfooty great. I now await some in depth analysis of Glenn Mcleans recruitment (presuming its hasn't already been done)

Forgot about him. Who was responsible for THAT?

 

[Vampire013]

I remember getting all excited when we got Irwin as well.
He was a gun player at Fitzroy but I think he came to us with injuries.

 

[Fruit]

The name Irwin is forever tainted by that Crocodile idiot and his spawn.

Pretty ordinary and unnecessary comment.

 

[12kilos]

We made some silly calls back then Irwin was one example.
Gubby Allan who came at the same time was more servicable played some good games for us.
Carlson at the same time was hot and cold wasnt a huge loss.
Under Hafey's rain he had more hits then misses Hits Ray Byrne , Craig Stewart ,Craig Davis to mention a few.
Misses Graham Teasdale mainly due to age and injuries.
After that i remember the " the new magpies" picked up Gary Shaw from W.A for $300.000!
Was a big flop.and we soon went broke.
Later we got in the Magpie vs Richmond wars Raines and Cloke .Raines was not worth it but was a gun when we got hom.
Cloke senior was very good and servicable.
Richmond got the late phillip Walsh of us ,at the time he won best first year recruit , was servicable for the tigers but didnt kill it.
They also took Gary peart and Domburg could have the spelling of his name wrong lol they were crap.

 

[wicksy]

The name Irwin is forever tainted by that Crocodile idiot and his spawn.

Guarantee he was twice the human you'll ever be....and his "spawn" are still just children. You sir, are a jerkoff.

 

[MarkT2]

He was better than Teasdale.

 

[Vampire013]

Don't know why the bagging of Teasdale.
He played some very good games for us and got a few Brownlow votes.
Unfortunately his knees were gone.
He also always gets bagged as the worst Brownlow Medallist.
I didn't mind his that much.

 

[raymond35]

Rand Corp - best post ever. Well done.
Teasdale was unbelievably good his brown low year, so was not the worst ever. He was a star.
I heard Irwin interviewed on radio about 10 years ago and didn't detect any dislike of the pies. Just did it for the money I think.
Sharkey........fair dinkum.

 

[MarkT2]

Not bagging Teasedale as such and I realise he had injuries but he didn't play much good footy for us at all. 'Bout as much as Barry Mitchel I suppose. More than that McLeane bloke that played better in Manson's band than he did for Collingwood. Probably more than David Young. I could go on but it's too painful...

 

[Countrypie]

Not bagging Teasedale as such and I realise he had injuries but he didn't play much good footy for us at all. 'Bout as much as Barry Mitchel I suppose. More than that McLeane bloke that played better in Manson's band than he did for Collingwood. Probably more than David Young. I could go on but it's too painful...

David Young. spare me the memory.

If teh current regime made as many blunders as we did back then they would last about 6 weeks