Gerard Neesham

[Mr. Bass]

The one the only original Dockers Coach.

Whaddya reckon guys???

What sort of job did he do?????

 

[dasler]

Absolute moronic tool. Him and his Claremont crappies were the DEFINING reason why i didn't become a foundation member.

The club was coming from behind from day one with d|ickhead as coach.

 

[Freo Hitman]

I give Gareard Neesham credit & stick.
His game plan was ahead of his time & probably made some of his bizarre squad /team selections look better than they actually were. The stick I'll give him was basically his pontential of identifying talent , he was definately turned on by a Claremont jumper but some of the selections in his original squad opting for hacks instead of undoubted talents really got to me . Critics marvelled at our success in the 1st season winning 8 games but that came at a cost. The cost was stocking up Claremont players who knew his system rather than do a few very hard years with young kids such as McLeod Farmer . There are many sides to this argument but IMO Drum did the club more good than Neesham

 

[Rob]

Seemed to be a good enough match day coach, just surrounded himself with out and out idiots that traded away any decent talent and stocked up on ordinary claremont hacks.

Can consider himself a bit unlucky with injuries, we should have made the finals in 97 and in 98 1/3rd of the squad was out injured for pretty much most of the year. 1 more win in 97 probably would have got him at least a 2 year extension, possibly a 3 year extension instead of the 1 year deal he got.

 

[GoEagles]

Great coach and great bloke. Dominated the early 90s with Claremont in the WAFL and is now doing some good things with Clontaff.

Given the poor foundation list and lack of support staff a senior coach would have these days he was fairly unlucky. He nearly guided Fremantle to the finals and one ponders what 'could have been' to Neesham if he saw September action.

 

[aesop]

I'm sure he's a good bloke, but a part of me will never forgive him for overlooking Andrew McLeod.

 

[Ripper]

It is easy to be wise in hindsight but the biggest problem he faced when setting up an AFL team from nothing was the lack of KPP's. AS he said at the time "there are plenty of flanker types in the WAFL but not any quality talls". They tried really hard to lure Stewie Lowe and a couple of others.

So we got Orielly & Peter Mann and the rest were kids fighting out of their division.

It has been a problem that has only recently being solved.

He was very inovative as Go weavels said. Not to many new coaches have the interptiation of the rules changed becouse of them.

The biggest problem was that the Dockers were "Too successfull" in their first year .

 

[TimN]

I would separate the role of an AFL coach role into three categories:
1. Match plan and game day tactics
2. Player development
3. List management

I would give Neesham an A on match planning, a C to C+ on player development and an F on list management. I suspect that his weakness in list management comes from having spent too long in the WAFL and lower leagues, where the player list is often determined more by external pressures than by what the coach wants.

For comparison, I'd give Drummie an F on match planning, a C+ on player development and a B on list management. Between them Neesham and Drum could have made a reasonably good coach.

Connolly gets B's in all categories from me.

 

[masai]

He got the points on the board with his coaching at WAFL level and he tried to translate his ideas to the AFL.

He has admitted in hindsight that too many people were trying to tell him how to set up a team, thus Gerard being the person he is, ended up blocking his ears and trying it his way. In reality he needed some experienced respected people to help guide him.

His game plan that was critisised by commentators, now seems to be common place.

It's easy in retrospect but he didn't do to bad with the squad of players he had, but he admits to the recruiting errors, unfortunately the team could not attract many experienced AFL players. eg. Robert Harvey, Lowe, Mansfield, Tingay, Winmar etc.

 

[Undertaker]

Originally posted by dasler
Absolute moronic tool. Him and his Claremont crappies were the DEFINING reason why i didn't become a foundation member.

The club was coming from behind from day one with d|ickhead as coach.

I'm with you Dasler I was all set to become a Harbour Master and pulled out when they appointed that moron, joined up as a Foundation member instead. He picked all the Claremont guys for reasons other than ability. $$$$$$
Set Freo back 5 years not to mention damage to our reputation.

 

[dasler]

Good to see like minded people out in the world undertaker!

 

[huddo]

He was on a hiding to nothing. Huge expectations and pressure aka Eagles startup.
His main aim was to win at least a handful of games in Year 1 . He had a system that was very hard to learn if you weren't used to it, so he had to choose guys who could play to it.
They had the element of surprise when it worked - and made the game look easy at times.
As mentioned the BIG ask was could the recruiters step up to the ask of competing against the other AFL teams - instead of guys lining up to play at Claremont in WAFL.
Only now have Freo learned how lure bigger name Vics/SA's over here to stay. And we had to have Victorian experience in the deal-making to do it. Identifying talent is not the hard part - its getting them to stay here

 

[YAKUZA]

"Absolute moronic tool. Him and his Claremont crappies were the DEFINING reason why i didn't become a foundation member.

The club was coming from behind from day one with d|ickhead as coach."

Well at least we're at one on this one dasler, I agree 100%

"He has admitted in hindsight that too many people were trying to tell him how to set up a team, thus Gerard being the person he is, ended up blocking his ears and trying it his way."

Absolute bull****, he was never ever going to do it any other way.

"Seemed to be a good enough match day coach, just surrounded himself with out and out idiots that traded away any decent talent and stocked up on ordinary claremont hacks."

He hand picked most of the so called idiots and had a hand in everything they did, in fact in most cases he was the prime mover.

"Set Freo back 5 years not to mention damage to our reputation."

Spot on!

 

[anchor man]

I think he had to be given the job because of his success at Claremont,but I don't believe he did us any favours in the years he was there.He was very autocratic in his approach and it cost us dearly.He turned away players who were interested in coming to us.McLeod,Lowe just for starters.It had to be his way or no way.
My view not many out of ten.

 

[dasler]

I'm glad we can agree on something yakuza!

 

[Monocle]

Originally posted by dasler
I'm glad we can agree on something yakuza!

dasler : I do respect your opinion ( even though you do have a slight South Fremantle bias) but the first coach of a new franchised team will always hang his arse out into the wind. Sure he made some **** ups. The FFC board should have sepperated the division between coach and recruitment officer. It as has always fasinated me that you guys bag Neesham. Given the circumstances, Who do you Fremantle guys believe, should hve got the job?

And dont tell me Mal Brown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ImperialPurple]

Originally posted by Monocle
dasler : I do respect your opinion ( even though you do have a slight South Fremantle bias) but the first coach of a new franchised team will always hang his arse out into the wind. Sure he made some **** ups. The FFC board should have sepperated the division between coach and recruitment officer. It as has always fasinated me that you guys bag Neesham. Given the circumstances, Who do you Fremantle guys believe, should hve got the job?

And dont tell me Mal Brown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dasler supports the Eagles.

 

[Monocle]

Originally posted by ImperialPurple
Dasler supports the Eagles.

I know that but ask dasler himself if he isnt a SOUTH FREMANTLE supporter???

dasler you must make a comment!!!

 

[ImperialPurple]

Originally posted by Monocle
I know that but ask dasler himself if he isnt a SOUTH FREMANTLE supporter???

dasler you must make a comment!!!

Fair enough - you just said "you guys" and "Freo people" (or something similar) and I thought that you mistakenly thought that on an AFL level, Dasler was "one of us"... when he's actually "one of them"...

WAFL is different, cos then he's "one of us"... unless of course you're not a Bulldogs person, at which point he would be, to you, "one of them"... which I'm not. I'm an "us" with dasler as WAFL level, but he's a "them" at AFL level...

Orright....

 

[Monocle]

Originally posted by ImperialPurple
Fair enough - you just said "you guys" and "Freo people" (or something similar) and I thought that you mistakenly thought that on an AFL level, Dasler was "one of us"... when he's actually "one of them"...

WAFL is different, cos then he's "one of us"... unless of course you're not a Bulldogs person, at which point he would be, to you, "one of them"... which I'm not. I'm an "us" with dasler as WAFL level, but he's a "them" at AFL level...

Orright....

Imperial Puple ` What the heck is the point of this commment, i am not having a go at you but i have missed the point. dasler are you out there. mork calling mindy

 

[ImperialPurple]

Originally posted by Monocle
Imperial Puple ` What the heck is the point of this commment, i am not having a go at you but i have missed the point. dasler are you out there. mork calling mindy

There was absolutely no point... a slow night on the boards... just trying to amuse myself with my slightly warped SOH. I know you weren't having a go... neither was I.

 

[Monocle]

Originally posted by ImperialPurple
There was absolutely no point... a slow night on the boards... just trying to amuse myself with my slightly warped SOH. I know you weren't having a go... neither was I.

Thanks mate I appreciate the humor.

 

[masai]

Originally posted by Monocle
dasler : I do respect your opinion ( even though you do have a slight South Fremantle bias) but the first coach of a new franchised team will always hang his arse out into the wind. Sure he made some **** ups. The FFC board should have sepperated the division between coach and recruitment officer. It as has always fasinated me that you guys bag Neesham. Given the circumstances, Who do you Fremantle guys believe, should hve got the job?

And dont tell me Mal Brown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I remember it, the only candidates from W.A. were Neesham and Judge. Can't really recall if any ex VFL / AFL coaches were ever mentioned.

At that time Neesham's coaching record was far superior to Judge.

Could anyone have done better?, it's easy to look at things in retrospect.

 

[Rob]

Originally posted by masai
As I remember it, the only candidates from W.A. were Neesham and Judge. Can't really recall if any ex VFL / AFL coaches were ever mentioned.

At that time Neesham's coaching record was far superior to Judge.

Could anyone have done better?, it's easy to look at things in retrospect.

Yeah, it was always going to be Neesham, he had the record and was by far the most qualified and experienced of any name tossed up at the time.

 

[The Mission Man]

Don't quote me on this but I once read that six out of the top ten taken in one draft came from one of Neesham's Claremont sides. A lot of them (Norrish, McGovern spring to mind) came back to be with Neesham when he got the Dockers gig.

I think hindsight is making some decisions here - Neesham definitely had the runs on the board when he got the job. What happened afterward is a whole other story.