Who is the coach you most admired as a FFC supporter

[tassielions]

For me I always rated Robert Walls as 1983 was a fantastic year even though we got stiched up in the Qualifying final and then roughed up by the bombers in the first semi. Then in 1984 sitting 2-9 and getting up to make the finals by winning in the last round was a great effort.

My Top 3 Robert Walls
David Parkin (for 1986 season)
Robert Shaw got the best out of a list that was developing could have gone down as one of the greats if our team wasn't poached 1993 10wins 10 losses 1994 could have been even better if we had of kept our players. Damn AFL

 

[Mobbs]

I didn't know many of the Roys coaches, but - while we used to bag him a lot - Shaw was more cunning than he was ever given credit for.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Bill Stephen and Robert Walls were my two favourites from the late seventies and early eighties. I know 1980 was a terrible year, but I can still remember the joy I felt when Fitzroy made the finals the year before in 1979 and for that I will always rate Stephen as one of my favourites.

Robert Shaw was doing some relieving teaching at my school a couple of years ago and I had a really good chance to chat about his time at Fitzroy. He was really generous with his time and he discussed players and matches. It was kind of funny though because occasionally as I was discussing a game he would interject with,"did we win that one?" Of all the players we discussed, he reserved some of his highest praise for Stephen Paxman.

Long story short, Shaw might not be our best coach, but he is a good bloke and it was clear he cared about Fitzroy.

 

[Mobbs]

Remember when we were using Paxman in the ruck? Pretty sure that was a Shawism, and, it really empowered our midfield heaps as he was much more active than the basic "dinosaur" style that was the usual ruckman of the time.

 

[Roylion]

Robert Shaw.

He got the most out the list he had, with fewer resources. In fact I thought our 1992 list was starting to develop into a real beauty.

Imagine if we'd kept most if not all of our players from 1992-96 (barring retirements and voluntary trades made by Shaw)

Our 1996 list (with Shaw as coach) could have been thus.

B: M. Zanotti, S. Paxman, M.Dent
HB: R. Lyon, P. Roos, M. Gale,
C: D. Kappler, S. Atkins, M. Armstrong
HF: M. Pike, R. Osborne, B. McCormack
F: J. McCarthy, A. Lynch, D. Whieldon
R: M. Primus, P. Broderick, B. Boyd
I: J. Wynd, C. Johnson, J. Molloy, J. Barker
Em/Rotations: M. Dundas, P. Caven, J. Elliott, M. Seecamp, S. Hawking, A. Mellington, D. Morton.

Others on our list (I would have kept):
S. Bamford, N.Carter, R.Warfe, J.Rombotis, B.Chandler, B.Cassidy.

Retirements (due to age): M.Rendell, B. Stephens, P. Abbott, J.Manson,

 

[Last of the Roys]

Robert Shaw.

He got the most out the list he had, with fewer resources. In fact I thought our 1992 list was starting to develop into a real beauty.

Imagine if we'd kept most if not all of our players from 1992-96 (barring retirements and voluntary trades made by Shaw)

Our 1996 list (with Shaw as coach) could have been thus.

B: M. Zanotti, S. Paxman, M.Dent
HB: R. Lyon, P. Roos, M. Gale,
C: D. Kappler, S. Atkins, M. Armstrong
HF: M. Pike, R. Osborne, B. McCormack
F: J. McCarthy, A. Lynch, D. Whieldon
R: M. Primus, P. Broderick, B. Boyd
I: J. Wynd, C. Johnson, J. Molloy, J. Barker
Em/Rotations: M. Dundas, P. Caven, J. Elliott, M. Seecamp, S. Hawking, A. Mellington, D. Morton.

Others on our list (I would have kept):
S. Bamford, N.Carter, R.Warfe, J.Rombotis, B.Chandler, B.Cassidy.

Retirements (due to age): M.Rendell, B. Stephens, P. Abbott, J.Manson,

I liked Robert Shaw too given I really started to take a very strong interest in football when I was 13 in 1992. He brought a ferocious spirit to the team.

Roylion's possible team is amazing. It would had to have been a finals team IMHO.

But I guess my favourite Fitzroy coach is still Robert Walls. I grew up with my Dad raving about him, and given our ability to get to the finals under his leadership he must have been pretty good.

He also built a huge foundation for the Brisbane Bears, which transferred to the Brisbane Lions, and significantly contributed to the Lions three-peat. (Along with the benefits of the merger [particularly Chris Johnson, Jonathon Brown and traded players such as Mal Michael for Molly - poor Molly I loved him!] and that the club fortuitously fell apart in 1998 [giving us Leigh Matthews, Simon Black and Luke Power]).

 

[LIONHART]

the coach i most admire (looking back in hindsight) is bill stephen. he was a fair-dinkum fitzroy man, he coached the team at a time when no-one else wanted to, and brought the best out of a group of young kids.

he prooved how good he was in developing young lists when he did the same thing at essendon (pre kevin sheedy) some years later, he had the first group of players who were given the title 'baby bombers'

 

[Tim the Toolman]

One of the Shawisms I remembered fondly in a match as a supporter was - I think - the Carlton game where we got absolutely murdered by the umps in the 2nd or third quarter but we were 5-goals down at 3/4 time and Shawy got the huddle over in front of the supporters who used to sit by the fence on the southern side of Princes Park. We got up by one goal!

As a supporter he was terrific, one day my Mum dropped in to the old offices at around Brunswick to get some stuff and he popped his head out of the office and offered whatever he could to her e.g. autographs, photos etc...; just out of goodwill.

As a staff member he was absolutely terrifying! One day he was nice, the next he was psycho. Didn't know which Shawy would turn up from one day to the next? It made working there pretty dramatic.

 

[Mobbs]

He needs to be interviewed