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- Apr 28, 2001
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- Essendon
just how much do you love him?
just how fcked are we going to be when he hangs up the boots?
just how much are you looking forward to continuing the fletcher family tradition? (I only wish dustin had started having kids at the age of 11)
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In the zone
(Age, August 19)
IN SOME ways, Dustin Fletcher is a throwback to the '70s. He's not a Footy Show-type of person, or a man about town.
He goes about his business in a humble and understated way, and he's more likely to be found at home with his family than out on the town (his two sons, Mason and Max, sometimes hoof a ball around with James Hird's two boys in the Essendon rooms after a game, indicating that some future administration at Windy Hill will have a father-son selection to savour).
Yet as a footballer, Fletcher is decidedly new age. He has played at full-back for Essendon for 14 seasons, yet if you watch closely, it's evident that sometimes he is playing an area rather than an opponent.
It's become known as zoning off and clubs like to get specific players — those with good offensive skills — to do it. Coach Kevin Sheedy and the Bombers' brains trust reasoned long ago that if, say, Matthew Richardson goes out to the wing to collect the football, then Fletcher might just as well stay back and mark Richardson's kick.
It is part of the reason why Fletcher is not always matched up against the go-to forward for the opposition — a fact that maddens certain Essendon supporters, given his status as an all-time great of the club.
The best example came a fortnight ago, when Sheedy and his defensive coach Gary Ayres employed Dean Solomon as a marker for Barry Hall against Sydney, and Hall tore Solomon apart, while Fletcher was marking Michael O'Loughlin.
It caused a deal of comment but it is a matter of weighing up the costs and benefits. Fletcher is so lethal with his right boot that it might well be worth sacrificing another player on the best forward so that he can find a bit of the football with the freedom he is afforded.
Yet against Collingwood last week, he had a career-high 28 disposals while shutting down Anthony Rocca, fulfilling both parts of the bargain.
Fletcher himself finds the debate amusing, for he was watching Melbourne play Sydney at the MCG last week and he noted that Nathan Carroll, the Demons' full-back, did not stand Hall either. Ben Holland had that job.
"At times, you can attack a bit more and I suppose use my kicking skills," he said yesterday. "It's funny how people talk about me. I see games where there are different reasons for different things.
"But I take what Gary Ayres or Sheeds says, and I'm not going to argue about who I'm playing on. You look at O'Loughlin, and he's not a battler. He's got the score on the board. You just get out there and do your bit."
Fletcher has had a brilliant season, holding the fort as it were in a team that is statistically the worst defence in the competition, conceding 106 points a game. Only Carlton allows the ball inside the 50-metre arc more than Essendon's 55 times a game, which means only one thing for Fletcher down back: hard work.
"It's been one of the toughest (years), personally," he said. "The ball's been there a fair bit. I suppose in the past it hasn't been in there so much and there hasn't been so much work. It's been steady down there."
Fletcher is one of a handful of strong candidates for the full-back spot in the All-Australian team, having conceded only 33 goals to opponents. While the likes of Adelaide's Brett Rutten has gone for fewer (22), Sheedy has pointed out that Fletcher has not had the luxury of Adelaide's eight-man defence and its flooding to help him out.
At 31, his importance to Essendon has not diminished. While this week's great debate has been about Hird's future, history tells us that Fletcher may actually be more important to Essendon than Hird. The Bombers win 64 per cent of the games he plays and only 43 per cent of those when he is sidelined.
It has not made him a barnstorming leader, for when Matthew Lloyd went down early this season and Sheedy went looking for a stand-in captain, Fletcher declined. He believed that they needed someone younger — someone who could lead for a few years, and he was happy to leave it to David Hille.
"I thought it (choosing Hille) was a good decision. Hilly's someone the young guys can look to at 25 or 26. He's perfect for the job.
"I still speak to a lot of the back-line guys anyway. It was a good time for the younger guys to look up to David Hille and Matthew Lloyd before that. That's where I was coming from."
When Fletcher played his 250th game, against Adelaide in the harsh environment of AAMI Stadium, Sheedy said he regarded his full-back as the best in the competition because he had flourished for more than a decade in that tough slot, where every mistake is magnified a thousand times.
The dreaded Full-Back's Syndrome has never afflicted the famously laid-back Fletcher, although he sometimes wonders himself. "At times, maybe every year, you go through that: 'I wouldn't mind going somewhere else'," he said.
"It's more mental than physical. But it might have been after a bad game, and then the next week, you get yourself up for it. I'm happy there. It does take its toll. But you have to relax and think about next week when you can redeem yourself if you've had a bad game."
Fletcher has two more years on his contract. One by one, his teammates from the 1993 premiership, the second coming of the Baby Bombers, have dropped off. He and Hird are the last of them, and Fletcher was glad to hear Hird would play another year. "There's no doubt he can sit in a forward pocket or half-forward and play a role. Maybe he plays 14 or 15 quality games."
As for Fletcher, he will complete his career at the club he watched as a tacker, following his father, Ken. "Physically, I'm pretty good. The mental part will be the big one once you get to 31 or 32. You feel like you know how to play. It's a matter of getting the mind right and making sure you want to do it."
ESSENDON WITH FLETCHERPLAYED 256
1993-2006
WON 163
LOST 90
DRAWN 3
WINNING % 63.7
ESSENDON WITHOUT FLETCHERPLAYED 71
1993-2006
WON 28
LOST 40
DRAWN 3
WINNING % 39.4
just how fcked are we going to be when he hangs up the boots?
just how much are you looking forward to continuing the fletcher family tradition? (I only wish dustin had started having kids at the age of 11)
-----------------------------------------------------------
In the zone
(Age, August 19)
IN SOME ways, Dustin Fletcher is a throwback to the '70s. He's not a Footy Show-type of person, or a man about town.
He goes about his business in a humble and understated way, and he's more likely to be found at home with his family than out on the town (his two sons, Mason and Max, sometimes hoof a ball around with James Hird's two boys in the Essendon rooms after a game, indicating that some future administration at Windy Hill will have a father-son selection to savour).
Yet as a footballer, Fletcher is decidedly new age. He has played at full-back for Essendon for 14 seasons, yet if you watch closely, it's evident that sometimes he is playing an area rather than an opponent.
It's become known as zoning off and clubs like to get specific players — those with good offensive skills — to do it. Coach Kevin Sheedy and the Bombers' brains trust reasoned long ago that if, say, Matthew Richardson goes out to the wing to collect the football, then Fletcher might just as well stay back and mark Richardson's kick.
It is part of the reason why Fletcher is not always matched up against the go-to forward for the opposition — a fact that maddens certain Essendon supporters, given his status as an all-time great of the club.
The best example came a fortnight ago, when Sheedy and his defensive coach Gary Ayres employed Dean Solomon as a marker for Barry Hall against Sydney, and Hall tore Solomon apart, while Fletcher was marking Michael O'Loughlin.
It caused a deal of comment but it is a matter of weighing up the costs and benefits. Fletcher is so lethal with his right boot that it might well be worth sacrificing another player on the best forward so that he can find a bit of the football with the freedom he is afforded.
Yet against Collingwood last week, he had a career-high 28 disposals while shutting down Anthony Rocca, fulfilling both parts of the bargain.
Fletcher himself finds the debate amusing, for he was watching Melbourne play Sydney at the MCG last week and he noted that Nathan Carroll, the Demons' full-back, did not stand Hall either. Ben Holland had that job.
"At times, you can attack a bit more and I suppose use my kicking skills," he said yesterday. "It's funny how people talk about me. I see games where there are different reasons for different things.
"But I take what Gary Ayres or Sheeds says, and I'm not going to argue about who I'm playing on. You look at O'Loughlin, and he's not a battler. He's got the score on the board. You just get out there and do your bit."
Fletcher has had a brilliant season, holding the fort as it were in a team that is statistically the worst defence in the competition, conceding 106 points a game. Only Carlton allows the ball inside the 50-metre arc more than Essendon's 55 times a game, which means only one thing for Fletcher down back: hard work.
"It's been one of the toughest (years), personally," he said. "The ball's been there a fair bit. I suppose in the past it hasn't been in there so much and there hasn't been so much work. It's been steady down there."
Fletcher is one of a handful of strong candidates for the full-back spot in the All-Australian team, having conceded only 33 goals to opponents. While the likes of Adelaide's Brett Rutten has gone for fewer (22), Sheedy has pointed out that Fletcher has not had the luxury of Adelaide's eight-man defence and its flooding to help him out.
At 31, his importance to Essendon has not diminished. While this week's great debate has been about Hird's future, history tells us that Fletcher may actually be more important to Essendon than Hird. The Bombers win 64 per cent of the games he plays and only 43 per cent of those when he is sidelined.
It has not made him a barnstorming leader, for when Matthew Lloyd went down early this season and Sheedy went looking for a stand-in captain, Fletcher declined. He believed that they needed someone younger — someone who could lead for a few years, and he was happy to leave it to David Hille.
"I thought it (choosing Hille) was a good decision. Hilly's someone the young guys can look to at 25 or 26. He's perfect for the job.
"I still speak to a lot of the back-line guys anyway. It was a good time for the younger guys to look up to David Hille and Matthew Lloyd before that. That's where I was coming from."
When Fletcher played his 250th game, against Adelaide in the harsh environment of AAMI Stadium, Sheedy said he regarded his full-back as the best in the competition because he had flourished for more than a decade in that tough slot, where every mistake is magnified a thousand times.
The dreaded Full-Back's Syndrome has never afflicted the famously laid-back Fletcher, although he sometimes wonders himself. "At times, maybe every year, you go through that: 'I wouldn't mind going somewhere else'," he said.
"It's more mental than physical. But it might have been after a bad game, and then the next week, you get yourself up for it. I'm happy there. It does take its toll. But you have to relax and think about next week when you can redeem yourself if you've had a bad game."
Fletcher has two more years on his contract. One by one, his teammates from the 1993 premiership, the second coming of the Baby Bombers, have dropped off. He and Hird are the last of them, and Fletcher was glad to hear Hird would play another year. "There's no doubt he can sit in a forward pocket or half-forward and play a role. Maybe he plays 14 or 15 quality games."
As for Fletcher, he will complete his career at the club he watched as a tacker, following his father, Ken. "Physically, I'm pretty good. The mental part will be the big one once you get to 31 or 32. You feel like you know how to play. It's a matter of getting the mind right and making sure you want to do it."
ESSENDON WITH FLETCHERPLAYED 256
1993-2006
WON 163
LOST 90
DRAWN 3
WINNING % 63.7
ESSENDON WITHOUT FLETCHERPLAYED 71
1993-2006
WON 28
LOST 40
DRAWN 3
WINNING % 39.4
...he is a champ. 