Review 2019 Leadership Group - Changes for next year?

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Jan 10, 2015
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I'm not fussed on Merrett as a leader. Just seems a pretty meh communicator. Prefer Shiel and Saad.

Devon Smith leads by example but not sure if he is much of a connector of people. You need leaders who will bring the youngsters along.

But of course I'm basing this on what we see... inside the club, who knows?
Bring the youngsters along by setting elite standards on the training track, hating when Dons lose, respected and not being a Prima Donna. This is not necessarily the best players.
 

fairbump_playon

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Bring the youngsters along by setting elite standards on the training track, hating when Dons lose, respected and not being a Prima Donna. This is not necessarily the best players.
agree that leaders don't need to be the best players
but they should be good communicators as well as displaying competitive attributes.

millenials won't blossom if their captain doesn't speak to them :)
 

blitzer

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If I was picking a leadership group my order of priority would be something like:

Heppell, Zerrett, Hurley, Smith, McGrath, Tippa, Hooker, Shiel

Depending on how many we want in the leadership group - I'd like to see the 5 bolded. No, Stringer would not be a part of any leadership group I'd be choosing. Stringer's an exciting player but I don't believe he's a leader of men.
 
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TW: Can he [Joe Daniher] still be on the leadership group after what's taken place?

No doubt he can yeah, all you need to be is all be aligned and on the same page with what we're trying to achieve in the next 12 months.

I can go way back, there was stuff around when Chris Judd took over the captaincy at West Coast and there were some questions about he didn't jump at it straight away and I had a gut feel that it was because he felt that it was likely he'd go back to Melbourne and he didn't want to leave the club as captain.

We didn't speak directly about it but in a subtle way, you can work out how subtle this is, I said "Juddy, you're the right person to lead this club right now, it's what we need, you'll do a great job and no one will look at you any differently if you don't see out your career at West Coast as captain" and he took it on and he did a wonderful job.

So in a way that was knowing someone wasn't going to be there for a long period of time but he was the right person to lead us through a couple of seasons.

GL: Who will make that decision with your leadership group? How does that come about at Essendon? I think all clubs are different but how do you nominate your leadership or how do you come to your leadership group?

We ask the players to give every teammate in the squad feedback on leadership criteria that they develop. There's six criteria, which are around how well they perform on game day but also how well they live the team values and how well what their professionalism is like. They rate each other as a feedback system we have, it's not a voting system.

Every player on the list gets feedback on areas of strength and areas in terms of improvement in terms of those leadership criteria. So they're specific to the Essendon Football Club, specific to what the players develop. And then that gives us as coaching staff really strong feedback on which players are seen as the strongest leaders in those criteria.

We use that to help shape our thoughts on who the leaders are going to be and it's not necessarily the highest vote getters across all six but it might be someone who is really high in showing that real care and empathy for each other but might not be high in some other areas. But we want someone like that with that skill set on the leadership group. So we generally as coaches then have a round discussion about what that looks like and then we make a recommendation.

GL: So last year Hooker and Hurley out, is that more from a player perspective or a coaching perspective?

That was around, there were some reports written that they went out and were replaced by other guys but Daniher and Fantasia were already in the leadership group in 2018 with Hooker and Hurley.

We decided that we wanted to bring that group back from 7 to a smaller group. That was in consultation with Dyson as captain, he had some specific ideas around how he wanted that group to work together. So we were looking at bringing that group back so we had to have two less people on the leadership group than the previous year.

So in discussions with those guys, those guys who we know are naturally strong leaders but were getting to the twilight of their career, the discussion and the feeling was that they can really concentrate on their footy, can still bring their own leadership but don't have to front up to the various leadership program that Dyson was keen to run and put extra expectations on those older players. So that was...

GL: Michael Hurley is not that old is he?

No, no well he would say he's young, yeah. So it's all around...

GL: It's strange, maybe it's just me from the outside looking in, I'm looking at him as someone who you know come out of the trenches and love to come out with, so I see him as a stand out natural leader and I don't know Orazio that well and I don't want to cast aspersions over him but when I looked at that and then that announcement was made straight away I went geez that's unusual. And it seemed to play out that way.

Yeah so there's criteria that you're making your assessment on around what ...

GL: Yeah I'm looking at it from afar, from afar

... looking at what Hurls brings. Like Hurls is an outstanding leader make no mistake about that. We've got other outstanding leaders on our list, Devon Smith, Dylan Shiel, that aren't on our leadership group so you can't... We could have expanded it and said all these guys are, you can't split them. They all have different types of personalities bring different leadership traits. But to me they're all outstanding leaders. Guys like Andy McGrath and Marty Gleeson really well respected, David Zaharakis. Strong leadership within our group. They all got highly rated in that feedback system.

But we decided we wanted a group of five and there were criteria around that, and that's the five we went for. So the discussion with Hurls and Hooksey was that you guys naturally are strong leaders, and we want you to continue to be yourselves around the club, which brings leadership.

You don't have to have say you're going to sit in a little group on a Monday morning to bring your leadership. So yeah that's always open for debate, we've debated strongly within the club, it was a tough decision to make. But we decided to go with a five man leadership group and that means you can only have five on it.

 
Apr 23, 2016
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TW: Can he [Joe Daniher] still be on the leadership group after what's taken place?

No doubt he can yeah, all you need to be is all be aligned and on the same page with what we're trying to achieve in the next 12 months.

I can go way back, there was stuff around when Chris Judd took over the captaincy at West Coast and there were some questions about he didn't jump at it straight away and I had a gut feel that it was because he felt that it was likely he'd go back to Melbourne and he didn't want to leave the club as captain.

We didn't speak directly about it but in a subtle way, you can work out how subtle this is, I said "Juddy, you're the right person to lead this club right now, it's what we need, you'll do a great job and no one will look at you any differently if you don't see out your career at West Coast as captain" and he took it on and he did a wonderful job.

So in a way that was knowing someone wasn't going to be there for a long period of time but he was the right person to lead us through a couple of seasons.

GL: Who will make that decision with your leadership group? How does that come about at Essendon? I think all clubs are different but how do you nominate your leadership or how do you come to your leadership group?

We ask the players to give every teammate in the squad feedback on leadership criteria that they develop. There's six criteria, which are around how well they perform on game day but also how well they live the team values and how well what their professionalism is like. They rate each other as a feedback system we have, it's not a voting system.

Every player on the list gets feedback on areas of strength and areas in terms of improvement in terms of those leadership criteria. So they're specific to the Essendon Football Club, specific to what the players develop. And then that gives us as coaching staff really strong feedback on which players are seen as the strongest leaders in those criteria.

We use that to help shape our thoughts on who the leaders are going to be and it's not necessarily the highest vote getters across all six but it might be someone who is really high in showing that real care and empathy for each other but might not be high in some other areas. But we want someone like that with that skill set on the leadership group. So we generally as coaches then have a round discussion about what that looks like and then we make a recommendation.

GL: So last year Hooker and Hurley out, is that more from a player perspective or a coaching perspective?

That was around, there were some reports written that they went out and were replaced by other guys but Daniher and Fantasia were already in the leadership group in 2018 with Hooker and Hurley.

We decided that we wanted to bring that group back from 7 to a smaller group. That was in consultation with Dyson as captain, he had some specific ideas around how he wanted that group to work together. So we were looking at bringing that group back so we had to have two less people on the leadership group than the previous year.

So in discussions with those guys, those guys who we know are naturally strong leaders but were getting to the twilight of their career, the discussion and the feeling was that they can really concentrate on their footy, can still bring their own leadership but don't have to front up to the various leadership program that Dyson was keen to run and put extra expectations on those older players. So that was...

GL: Michael Hurley is not that old is he?

No, no well he would say he's young, yeah. So it's all around...

GL: It's strange, maybe it's just me from the outside looking in, I'm looking at him as someone who you know come out of the trenches and love to come out with, so I see him as a stand out natural leader and I don't know Orazio that well and I don't want to cast aspersions over him but when I looked at that and then that announcement was made straight away I went geez that's unusual. And it seemed to play out that way.

Yeah so there's criteria that you're making your assessment on around what ...

GL: Yeah I'm looking at it from afar, from afar

... looking at what Hurls brings. Like Hurls is an outstanding leader make no mistake about that. We've got other outstanding leaders on our list, Devon Smith, Dylan Shiel, that aren't on our leadership group so you can't... We could have expanded it and said all these guys are, you can't split them. They all have different types of personalities bring different leadership traits. But to me they're all outstanding leaders. Guys like Andy McGrath and Marty Gleeson really well respected, David Zaharakis. Strong leadership within our group. They all got highly rated in that feedback system.

But we decided we wanted a group of five and there were criteria around that, and that's the five we went for. So the discussion with Hurls and Hooksey was that you guys naturally are strong leaders, and we want you to continue to be yourselves around the club, which brings leadership.

You don't have to have say you're going to sit in a little group on a Monday morning to bring your leadership. So yeah that's always open for debate, we've debated strongly within the club, it was a tough decision to make. But we decided to go with a five man leadership group and that means you can only have five on it.


That's a lot of tap dancing around admitting they f'ed it up.
 
Jul 20, 2019
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At best I get mildly displeased with Woosha, but that has me downright exasperated. That he can sit there and legitimately try and defend the leadership appointments is beyond me. The issue people had wasn't that the group went from seven to five, it was who the five consists of.
 

Jager bombers

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Our best player literally wanted to leave. His fellow 'leader' isn’t quite sure as well. Our coach knows he is out the door in 12 months and our CEO is looking for a job at the AFL.
So many are looking out for themselves and don't care about the club or their fans.
All of our players love to celebrate a win, but how many of our players feel gutted after a loss? Name them…

Everybody (including myself) loves our Captain, but we are lacking a winning mentality and a ruthless edge. Whatever our leadership group looks like in 2020, I hope Dyson can galvanise the group and instil a winning culture on the group. The club leaders need to LEAD by showing a ruthless passion to win and love for the club
 

blitzer

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I never really liked that Hurley wasn't in the leadership group. It just didn't sit right with me. Its so obvious he's the one who organises our backline.

I do reckon Dyson is a better leader than he gets credit for and in our losing elimination finals he has been one of our best players in every one of them. If we had a few more players that lifted their level in finals maybe we will actually break the hoodoo.
 

vass44

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Sep 17, 2016
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I think it should be 7 blokes;-

Heppell: captain
Merrett: vice
Hurley and Hooker - deputies
Saad, Stringer and Redman leadership group

If Joe is in the leadership group I’ll be shocked- let’s just hope he settles back in and plays some games and improves his poor goal average so he has more currency when he heads to Sydney in 2021

On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
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Mikevk123

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I’m gonna go with an eight man leadership group. Instill Co-Captains.

Dyson Heppell Co-Captain
Michael Hurley Co-Captain
Dylan Shiel VC
Zach Merrett VC
Devon Smith
Adam Saad
Patrick Ambrose
Darcy Parish
 
Sep 22, 2011
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TW: Can he [Joe Daniher] still be on the leadership group after what's taken place?

No doubt he can yeah, all you need to be is all be aligned and on the same page with what we're trying to achieve in the next 12 months.

I can go way back, there was stuff around when Chris Judd took over the captaincy at West Coast and there were some questions about he didn't jump at it straight away and I had a gut feel that it was because he felt that it was likely he'd go back to Melbourne and he didn't want to leave the club as captain.

We didn't speak directly about it but in a subtle way, you can work out how subtle this is, I said "Juddy, you're the right person to lead this club right now, it's what we need, you'll do a great job and no one will look at you any differently if you don't see out your career at West Coast as captain" and he took it on and he did a wonderful job.

So in a way that was knowing someone wasn't going to be there for a long period of time but he was the right person to lead us through a couple of seasons.

GL: Who will make that decision with your leadership group? How does that come about at Essendon? I think all clubs are different but how do you nominate your leadership or how do you come to your leadership group?

We ask the players to give every teammate in the squad feedback on leadership criteria that they develop. There's six criteria, which are around how well they perform on game day but also how well they live the team values and how well what their professionalism is like. They rate each other as a feedback system we have, it's not a voting system.

Every player on the list gets feedback on areas of strength and areas in terms of improvement in terms of those leadership criteria. So they're specific to the Essendon Football Club, specific to what the players develop. And then that gives us as coaching staff really strong feedback on which players are seen as the strongest leaders in those criteria.

We use that to help shape our thoughts on who the leaders are going to be and it's not necessarily the highest vote getters across all six but it might be someone who is really high in showing that real care and empathy for each other but might not be high in some other areas. But we want someone like that with that skill set on the leadership group. So we generally as coaches then have a round discussion about what that looks like and then we make a recommendation.

GL: So last year Hooker and Hurley out, is that more from a player perspective or a coaching perspective?

That was around, there were some reports written that they went out and were replaced by other guys but Daniher and Fantasia were already in the leadership group in 2018 with Hooker and Hurley.

We decided that we wanted to bring that group back from 7 to a smaller group. That was in consultation with Dyson as captain, he had some specific ideas around how he wanted that group to work together. So we were looking at bringing that group back so we had to have two less people on the leadership group than the previous year.

So in discussions with those guys, those guys who we know are naturally strong leaders but were getting to the twilight of their career, the discussion and the feeling was that they can really concentrate on their footy, can still bring their own leadership but don't have to front up to the various leadership program that Dyson was keen to run and put extra expectations on those older players. So that was...

GL: Michael Hurley is not that old is he?

No, no well he would say he's young, yeah. So it's all around...

GL: It's strange, maybe it's just me from the outside looking in, I'm looking at him as someone who you know come out of the trenches and love to come out with, so I see him as a stand out natural leader and I don't know Orazio that well and I don't want to cast aspersions over him but when I looked at that and then that announcement was made straight away I went geez that's unusual. And it seemed to play out that way.

Yeah so there's criteria that you're making your assessment on around what ...

GL: Yeah I'm looking at it from afar, from afar

... looking at what Hurls brings. Like Hurls is an outstanding leader make no mistake about that. We've got other outstanding leaders on our list, Devon Smith, Dylan Shiel, that aren't on our leadership group so you can't... We could have expanded it and said all these guys are, you can't split them. They all have different types of personalities bring different leadership traits. But to me they're all outstanding leaders. Guys like Andy McGrath and Marty Gleeson really well respected, David Zaharakis. Strong leadership within our group. They all got highly rated in that feedback system.

But we decided we wanted a group of five and there were criteria around that, and that's the five we went for. So the discussion with Hurls and Hooksey was that you guys naturally are strong leaders, and we want you to continue to be yourselves around the club, which brings leadership.

You don't have to have say you're going to sit in a little group on a Monday morning to bring your leadership. So yeah that's always open for debate, we've debated strongly within the club, it was a tough decision to make. But we decided to go with a five man leadership group and that means you can only have five on it.


What a garbled load of s**t that only confirms the obvious.

The whole leadership group thing was a *up in 2019. Obviously you wouldn’t say it in those words but just say it ffs.
 
May 6, 2007
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Our best player literally wanted to leave. His fellow 'leader' isn’t quite sure as well. Our coach knows he is out the door in 12 months and our CEO is looking for a job at the AFL.
So many are looking out for themselves and don't care about the club or their fans.
All of our players love to celebrate a win, but how many of our players feel gutted after a loss? Name them…

Everybody (including myself) loves our Captain, but we are lacking a winning mentality and a ruthless edge. Whatever our leadership group looks like in 2020, I hope Dyson can galvanise the group and instil a winning culture on the group. The club leaders need to LEAD by showing a ruthless passion to win and love for the club

I hate this train of thought. Pretending like these professionals won't turn up and give 100% is ridiculous. They are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and they are going to save themselves? spare me. All most would turn up and be competitive, it's what got them to where they are. A coach, a player, staff member etc.
 
May 6, 2007
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What a garbled load of s**t that only confirms the obvious.

The whole leadership group thing was a fu**up in 2019. Obviously you wouldn’t say it in those words but just say it ffs.

The sentiments will continue to come from me that the AFL industry needs to grow up. If we gave honest answers people would be up in arms. Media would write negatively for days and the people in question would possibly be a little reserved. Australian society is built on this negativity which stems from the media drivel (both sport & non sport).

We will continue to get these straight bat answered questions when everyone can see straight through them
 
May 6, 2007
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I never really liked that Hurley wasn't in the leadership group. It just didn't sit right with me. Its so obvious he's the one who organises our backline.

I do reckon Dyson is a better leader than he gets credit for and in our losing elimination finals he has been one of our best players in every one of them. If we had a few more players that lifted their level in finals maybe we will actually break the hoodoo.

And furthermore, Hooker is a true club heart beat player. In saying that, he's always struck me as a guy whom doesn't need the title to be a 'leader'amongst men so I would be fine him not having/needing that title.
 

ghostdog

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Our best player literally wanted to leave. His fellow 'leader' isn’t quite sure as well. Our coach knows he is out the door in 12 months and our CEO is looking for a job at the AFL.
So many are looking out for themselves and don't care about the club or their fans.
All of our players love to celebrate a win, but how many of our players feel gutted after a loss? Name them…

Everybody (including myself) loves our Captain, but we are lacking a winning mentality and a ruthless edge. Whatever our leadership group looks like in 2020, I hope Dyson can galvanise the group and instil a winning culture on the group. The club leaders need to LEAD by showing a ruthless passion to win and love for the club
Michael Hurley and Cale Hooker. Both feel gutted if they even lose a marking contest. Both should be in.
 
Sep 28, 2007
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Get more player input. Losing Hooker and Hurls from the group didn't sound like it was a popular choice. Wouldn't mind seeing one or both of them back. Also wouldn't mind us having a change of captain. Heppell/Woosha both seem to be softer supporting leaders. I want someone to be a little harder on the group and set high standards. Hooker is the one i would think fits it best but i want him to concentrate on form first and foremost.
 

Jager bombers

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I hate this train of thought. Pretending like these professionals won't turn up and give 100% is ridiculous. They are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and they are going to save themselves? spare me. All most would turn up and be competitive, it's what got them to where they are. A coach, a player, staff member etc.
You hate this train of thought? I'm not sure if you read my post.
I'm not saying they don't try. I'm saying that their competitiveness stems from their own interests. At best, the interests of their mates at the club.
And I don't blame them for caring about those interest either. But what I'm saying is they don't impress to me a care for the jumper or the fans.

Examples of why i think like this are Daniher, Fantasia and Xavier Campbell. These are the people who are meant to be leading our club but seem to have personal interest ahead of the club. That is all well and good, but how can you expect them to lead if their heart is in it for themselves.

I hope I'm wrong.
Or if I'm right, I hope it changes.
I'd love to see a team hellbent on winning. For themselves, their mates, their club and their fans.
It's why we go to watch.
 
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Jager bombers

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You hate this train of thought? I'm not sure if you read my post.
I'm not saying they don't try. I'm saying that their competitiveness stems from their own interests. At best, the interests of their mates at the club.
And I don't blame them for caring about those interest either. But what I'm saying is they don't impress to me a care for the jumper or the fans.

Examples of why i think like this are Daniher, Fantasia and Xavier Campbell. These are the people who are meant to be leading our club but seem to have personal interest ahead of the club. That is all well and good, but how can you expect them to lead if their heart is in it for themselves.

I hope I'm wrong.
Or if I'm right, I hope it changes.
I'd love to see a team hellbent on winning. For themselves, their mates, their club and their fans.
It's why we go to watch.

Seems that xavier is staying. Hopefully raz and joe sign on during 2020 too.
 

staaation

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The club leaders need to LEAD by showing a ruthless passion to win and love for the club
Heppell would run backwards in front of a speeding freight train to create a contest, and I'd argue his cool-headedness under pressure is one of his biggest strengths. Agree that we could use some more aggressive, heart on the sleeve types in the VC roles/wider group though.
 
Heppell would run backwards in front of a speeding freight train to create a contest, and I'd argue his cool-headedness under pressure is one of his biggest strengths. Agree that we could use some more aggressive, heart on the sleeve types in the VC roles/wider group though.

I hope Caracella has some influence over who's in the leadership group. You'd think he'd choose the type of player that's both aggressive and team first.
 
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