Retired #47: James Kelly - Retirement announced - 16/8 - Essendon Performance Coach - 19/9

[bombre-boy]

Nah, Kelly even with only 2 seasons is better than Olarenshaw.

 

[Lord Nicholson]

Nah, Kelly even with only 2 seasons is better than Olarenshaw.

requires more flag

 

[Stopher]

I'm not having any Ricky O hate, thanks!

 

[MAAAATTDAAAAMON]

And Gwilt?

I'd probably go Gwilt> Chappy > Cooney.

Gwilt was solid.

 

[Bombermania]

Kelly is a star and a massive team man who volunteered to change his role at Geelong because it was best for the team. He was considered far more than a role player there by those players.

Very true, just as he has done at Esendon, he was very important in setting up many of their forward runs from across half back and the middle and his composure under pressure & tackling has always been a feature of his game, Geelong has missed him for those reason and we missed him whenever he was out so it will be interesting to see who fills his shoes next year, most likely McGrath.

 

[yaco55]

Worsfold must be loving these retirements as it takes the place of his mandatory weekly presser - Who is planned for next week ? Having Kelly at the team for two years, gives us a chance to reflect on what a good player he was at the peak of his powers.

 

[Mootsy]

Look at him here, he just has the ball on a string!

 

[Bombermania]

Is Kelly considered a better Essendon mature target than Chapman?

Yes, Chappy was good but Kelly's contribution has been massive, to see this you only need to see the Melbourne match that he missed and it showed, wheres Chappy despite playing some good footy didn't seem to have as big a impact on field as Kelly has, also Kelly has helped to mold the likes of McGrath so his impact will be felt well beyond this season.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Hoping the club finds a role for him our coaching panel could do with a freshen up and he's perfect.

 

[White Dogg]

Personally I'd go Kelly >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Chapman > Cooney

And Gwilt?

What about Stokes?

 

[Killer_Mike]

What about Stokes?

He was a top-up. Don't think he counts

 

[White Dogg]

He was a top-up. Don't think he counts

Kelly was a top up too wasn't he?

 

[Killer_Mike]

Kelly was a top up too wasn't he?

Yes, but then he was retained on his own merit.

 

[DERO]

Will hopefully be brought into fold in a development/ coaching role. I suspect he is fielding offers.

 

[Capt Hindsight]

Will hopefully be brought into fold in a development/ coaching role. I suspect he is fielding offers.

I think he'll be courted by GCS or Collingwood due to both looking like having massive clean-outs in terms of assistant coaches and also in Gold Coast's case development staff.

 

[eth-dog]

Whilst I'd like him to be an assistant coach here I'd honestly prefer McVeigh if we're going to bring anyone in. McVeigh was taught by a different kind of coach in Roos and I've always thought we've been a bit lax in never recruiting one of his assistants down here.

 

[DERO]

Whilst I'd like him to be an assistant coach here I'd honestly prefer McVeigh if we're going to bring anyone in. McVeigh was taught by a different kind of coach in Roos and I've always thought we've been a bit lax in never recruiting one of his assistants down here.

Both would have pros and cons but could be good. I reckon it is always good to have someone not too long out of the game who can relate better to the players. Woosha, Harvs, Bluey would all fit into the old-school category.

 

[eth-dog]

Both would have pros and cons but could be good. I reckon it is always good to have someone not too long out of the game who can relate better to the players. Woosha, Harvs, Bluey would all fit into the old-school category.

Yep, agree.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kelly end up coaching at Collingwood.

 

[Baudolino]

Sad to see Pops retire. Just an outright gun who brought a ridiculous level of consistency and class to the field for over a decade. It took a long time for the general public and the media to wise up to this, mainly due to Geelong's midfield group during 2007-2010 being cartoon-superteam-level ridiculous (we had: the best player in the comp (Ablett Jnr), a Brownlow medalist and top five midfielder (Bartel), one of the most prolific ball-winners in the comp (Corey), the best young player in the comp (Selwood) and the best tagger in the comp (Ling). That group was all kinds of absurd; no wonder Kel flew under the radar for everyone except Geelong fans for so long. It's great that acknowledgement of his awesomeness is more or less universal these days, because as Geelong fans it felt like we were banging this drum for an years; it wasn't until 2011 when recognition of how good he was became more widespread.

 

[Doss]

Solid as a house again against GC I thought.

I wish he wasn't retiring.

 

[Kakkle]

Not even remotely surprised he denied being chaired off. All class.


Great to hear the club is currently working out something for next year, hopefully it comes to fruition.

 

[Old Campaigner]

What's Fletcher doing? I thought he might be in line for a coaching gig although I am a bit wary of the whole favourite son thing

 

[BrunoV]

What's Fletcher doing? I thought he might be in line for a coaching gig although I am a bit wary of the whole favourite son thing

I'm pretty sure that we don't have scumbags and criminals in our strength and conditioning department so I don't see what the problem is.

Of course if anything were to go wrong it would be useful to have a favourite son at the club to be the fall-guy.

 

[Phone]

well the problem would be not picking the person on merit, but just because he played 400 games for us, which is irrelevant when picking coaches

 

[katana]

well the problem would be not picking the person on merit, but just because he played 400 games for us, which is irrelevant when picking coaches

because 400 games for a football club ought not to contribute to one's 'merit'.