Shinboner Dinner part 3 Mark Perkins

[roogirl96]

The other guest speaker on the night was Mark Perkins. Mark was Team Manager mid 90's and is nominating for a seat on the board.

Mark told us how back in 93 at a practice game at Waverley, the bootstudder ( i think he said his name was Gary) said I've seen you around a lot, would you like to help out and took him to Greg Miller for a chat.

Mark started helping around the club a couple of nights a week.
It was 2 years later when he became Team manager. He said it was thanks to Rodney Eade.

Mark was Team manger for only 3 weeks and North went on to win the night premiership.

Mark was asked what being Team Manager actually involved. He said it is a lot different today. He said it was mainly organising everything. He said Dennis was very very strict and liked things to be on time. Everything had to run to a schedule.

Mark had to organise the players on match day, they might need to meet the physio, or go to the video room, then to organise them back for the team meeting, then for their warm ups, or special strapping . The players had to be in the right place at the right time.

He would then go and sit on the bench. He would then take all the messages so that Dennis Pagan could go through them later in the week. He also helped with match ups on opposition players.
He also worked on the interchange bench. He needed to calculate how much time each player was on the ground.

He said the scary part of his job was at the breaks as he had to make sure the players were back on the ground and had to interrupt Dennis and tell him that the sirens had gone and players had to be back on ground.

He said he tried to wait for Dennis to take a breath as Dennis did not like to be interrupted when he was given his address to the players. Mark said that sometimes Dennis didn't take a breath. He didn't know whether to let Dennis talk and cop a fine or interrupt him. Said he copped a few sprays from Dennis. Said 96 was a really exciting time at club. He was thankful he was part of it.

Left because he was getting married and the job didn't pay that well , great for a single guy but not enough for a family man. Now is the right time for him to return to the club. Happy to put his hat in the ring. He is very good friends with John Dugdale and they always talk footy and toss around ideas what is right and what can be done to improve club. It was John that nominated Mark.

Said the election would go ahead in February and there would be 3 weeks notice.

Mark was more than happy to have a chat with everyone last night and he certainly impressed us with his honest and straight forward approach.

We wish him well with his nomination.

 

[The Other Dean]

We wish him well with his nomination.

Yes, we do. I think we're on a winner there.

Thanks again for the report(s).

 

[RoyalBlue]

Important we get Perkins on the Board.

 

[Limerick]

Good report roogirl96. If the NMFC has made a decision to hold the next election in Feb with three weeks notice why hasn't this been announced to the members now? If the three weeks includes the submission of nominations then its another rush job - WHY?

 

[rooboy_88]

Important we get Perkins on the Board.

Agreed it is a must.

 

[Limerick]

It's the clubs aim to have the election tied in with the AGM in February John, subject to clearing up the B-Class share issues. Its not set in stone yet, thats why there's been no announcement.

There is a requirement of a minimum 3 three weeks notice for the meeting. The club gets back on 15th of January. AGM will be around mid February, which gives about 4 weeks.

Thanks. Are you aware as to any progress being made between the two groups?

I hope that the NMFC allow the candidates more opportunity (time, words i.e. more than 150) to convey their thoughts and ideas to the membership. I would also like the "shareholder candidates" to be required, or given the opportunity, to make their position public. I have written to the NMFC making this request.

 

[rooboy_88]

It would be nice if the candidates for the board could form like there own supporters group where each person can convey there ideas and then have them presented to the board.

I dont know how it would work but having 9 brains come together would surely have some gr8 ideas for the club.

 

[Event Horizon]

Mark,

On a slightly different topic, given your experiences around Dennis and the players in the 90s, you'd have fascinating insight on things that most of us would dream about knowing.

As we would watch a close game from the stands, and wonder what the hell is Dennis talking about at three quarter time while the game is about to start, you were actually there listening.

Would be great if you could share any interesting stories about what took place in the huddle.
I would certainly really appreciate a thread on that, rather than Gold Coast crap that is unfortunately dominating our thoughts at present.

 

[Yianni]

It was certainly a great experience Vlad. Sitting in on match committee meetings, team meetings, team selection, on the bench, in the huddle etc gives you the opportunity to observe some of the greats.

I've followed North Melbourne and watched footy all my life, but I learnt more about it in those three years as team manager than all the other years put together. We had some pretty good people to watch and learn from; Denis Pagan, Rodney Eade, Greg Miller, Geoff Walsh etc. By just doing your job you learnt to look for different things during the game that you hadn't before.

With regard to the huddle, there were a few good ones. But I want to say from the beginning that Denis Pagan was absolutely terrific to me throughout my whole time at North Melbourne. So if any stories appear to show him in the wrong light, its only in humour and certainly not an intention to show him any disrespect.

One of my jobs at the huddle was to keep the media away from listening in to his addresses. Let's just say that Denis was very particular about this.

There was always this problem with how close is too close- on one hand we had to be co-operative with the media, but on the other we couldn't have the boundary riders broadcasting our 3/4 time strategies around Australia before the bounce of the last quarter. And they were pretty shifty too- they'd stay back until the address started and then start crabbing up when you were unable to speak as you would interupt the coach.

It got to the stage where Bill and Max, who were holding the sponsor banner would keep a look out for me from the back and sides. When you have 22 blokes gather in front of you at the huddle, some of the size of Carey, McKernan etc, there was no hope of seeing over or around them to see who was sneaking up. But that wouldn't stop you from copping the spray.

I remember one particular time at the MCG. I was on high alert due to the "recap of my responsibilities" that I'd received a week or two earlier from Denis at the Western Oval, that the stats people had heard from the top of the grandstand.

I've looked around, I've thought everything was right, the press seemed a fair way back, Bill and Max gave me a reassuring nod so I concentrated on keeping an eye on the stopwatch to prepare to give Denis his prompts to wind it up.

When the huddle breaks, to my abolute horror, I see the shadow of a bloke in a trench coat standing not 5 metres away from the huddle. He's come up from the back where I couldn't see him and I'm thinking that Max and Bill have just condemned me to having my ears burnt off for the second time in 3 weeks. I look over towards Max and Bill with a "what have you done to me" look on my face, but they just seem completely at ease with themselves.

Denis spots the foreign shadow behind the group and turns straight towards me as we are walking off the ground towards the members. I thought this will be great, a public humiliation and probably a bit of crowd heckling to top it off as I head to the boundary line.

Denis's face is turning a reddy/blue and his eyes are struggling to remain in his head. I cant remember what his first sentence was, but I took a last look over see who it was who had infultrated enemy lines. If I was going down I at least wanted to know who sent me there.

It was then I felt a complete calmness come over me. As Denis began sentence two I interupted him with "Denis, its a F***ing Policeman!

In a split second Denis's expression went from an inferno to a warm, humerous smile. Which probably unsettled me more than anything that had happened previously. So it was business as usual, back to the bench to begin the last quarter.

Hahahaha, nice one. Thanks a lot Mark.

These stories are great, are there any you're willing to share involving players and the coach? Particularly favourites like Carey, Corey, Arch, Stevo...

Most of them are retired so I'm sure they wouldn't mind, and this is the sort of stuff that supporters just gorge on.

 

[Arden]

Gold story Mark

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck just thinking about the spray you were going to cop!

What a great time to be around the club

 

[RoyalBlue]

It was certainly a great experience Vlad. Sitting in on match committee meetings, team meetings, team selection, on the bench, in the huddle etc gives you the opportunity to observe some of the greats.

I'm looking forward to more fireside chats when Perko is on the board.

 

[mighty mick]

It's the clubs aim to have the election tied in with the AGM in February John, subject to clearing up the B-Class share issues. Its not set in stone yet, thats why there's been no announcement.

There is a requirement of a minimum 3 three weeks notice for the meeting. The club gets back on 15th of January. AGM will be around mid February, which gives about 4 weeks.

hey mark thanks for clearing up the reasons behind the failure of the previously scheduled election. it was great to speak to someone who was speaking of fact and not hearsay, or rumour pulled out of the media.

good to see you on line fielding some Q& A s

your most welcome at the dinners anytime, and your ideas for the club were not only positive but very progressive, it must of been an amazing and blessed life you led, the way you came about getting involved and working with the club.

good luck at the elections, cheers mighty mick,