Universal Love Harry Taylor calls time on his career

[Seeds]

Well done Harry. Enjoy your retirement mate. The most seamless transition since Brian took over from Bon!

Who?

 

[cats_09]

Didn't realise that Harry played 4 games of VFL

 

[James1970]

Didn't realise that Harry played 4 games of VFL

Remember catching him on TV running around a couple of years back, after his injury.

Actually, running might exaggerating a tad.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Who?

Acca Dacca!! Bon Scott died. Brian Johnson took over in an astonishingly seamless transition considering the two singers were like chalk and cheese.

Not a fan? Fair enough.

 

[Seeds]

Acca Dacca!! Bon Scott died. Brian Johnson took over in an astonishingly seamless transition considering the two singers were like chalk and cheese.

Not a fan? Fair enough.

Sorry they were before my time

 

[Down at K Park]

Sorry they were before my time

Are you from the future?

 

[MacStradbroke]

Sorry they were before my time

They’re still going, what on earth are you on?

 

[Seeds]

Are you from the future?

Sometimes it feels that way

 

[Frappe]

Well done Harry. Gentleman.

 

[dazbroncos]

HT, the Q9.. the man with the ham and the long post win runs has decided to hang up the boots.

After 280 games one of our most resolute defenders has called time on the game.

Thanks Harry for the mark in the last 1/4 of the 09 GF.

Thanks Harry for being there for 13 years.

Thanks for not having me have to cope with the floating 9 iron cm perfect kicks out of the back 50 anymore.

Thanks for being the embodiment of everything the GFC is...

And thanks for being there.

You, like Domsy, will be missed and appreciated more than you are gone now.

All the best for the next phase and whatever comes on your future.

Thanks for carrying on the legend of the #7.

GO Catters

 

[Ratcat]

What a great player and person.

 

[thecatattack]

 

[someday-somehow]

I'm not sure I've seen anyone get more from their body than Harry Taylor. He looks top-heavy, shuffles rather than runs and just doesn't seem to have a footballers physique and yet here we are after 13 years and 280 games saluting him as one of the great defenders.

Says a lot for his commitment to getting the most out of himself, his reknowned IQ on footy and otherwise and his meticulous attention to detail. He was also loyal to the cats after coming over from Perth - I loved the bloke.

I also can't think of any other player in the comp who is not more universally liked by all who follow the AFL than Harry.

 

[cats_09]

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

HT, the Q9.. the man with the ham and the long post win runs has decided to hang up the boots.

It seems the thread to finally get this explained - what's with Q9?

 

[fugsy]

I haven't been here for a very long time, but had to call in to pay tribute to the great man.

Congratulations on an outstanding career.

Not sure if any of the old crew are still here, but for those who remember...

Long Live the Q9.

 

[fugsy]

It seems the thread to finally get this explained - what's with Q9?

Haha, what a time for me to come back.

The Q9 was born from myself and another user here one day on our way to the footy, many years ago.

Not sure if Ninty is still around, but he can vouch.

Awesome to see it still referenced.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Haha, what a time for me to come back.

The Q9 was born from myself and another user here one day on our way to the footy, many years ago.

Not sure if Ninty is still around, but he can vouch.

Awesome to see it still referenced.

Welcome back fugsy!!! What IS it though, the Q9? Or is the story not safe for the childrens?

 

[fugsy]

Welcome back fugsy!!! What IS it though, the Q9? Or is the story not safe for the childrens?

Honestly, it's not even that brilliant.

Since the great man has retired, I guess I may as well tell it.

Can't remember which year or round or who we played, but it was at the MCG.

Ninty had picked me up and we were on our way to the game. His GPS at one stage told us we were 9 minutes away from the ground. Cool bananas.

However, for some reason, no matter how close we got to the ground, it kept telling us we were 9 minutes away. Even as we pulled up and parked. So up that point, it was a running joke.

Now walking up to the gates, there was an announcer on a megaphone talking about available general admission tickets. It went something like...

"There are still tickets available for purchase on level Q (top level). That's level Q for Cuba..."

Obviously old mate had a moment, but was hilarious to me at the time. Somehow whole the 9 minutes thing was fresh in our minds, we put the two together and came up with Q9.

I think we said that it sounds like a secret agent codename. Then, we linked to the fact that Harry Taylor is a strange enough cat (pun intended) that he probably moonlights as a secret agent.

Hence, from that day forward, he was known as The Q9. And it latched on to the regulars on here from there.

Sorry it's not that glamorous, but it's awesome that it stuck around on here the whole time.

 

[MaxHunt]

What a gun. Terrific career. Really smart footballer, always played to his strengths. Would have a lot to offer post playing I expect.

 

[AM]

Didn't take Harry long to get back to WA.

 

[cats_09]

Raising a glass to Harry
Harry Taylor set the benchmark on what it was to be a professional footballer

It’s late September 2009, and the Cats have just won their second premiership in two years.

The team were back in Geelong after the 45-minute drive down the highway, and players and officials had descended on Kardinia Park for a wild night of celebrations.

The triumph of 2007 was followed by the heartbreak of 2008, and the Cats, having reclaimed their throne after defeating St.Kilda by 12 points early that day, were ready to let loose.

Harry Taylor, however, was missing.

Having virtually shut down Saints legend Nick Riewoldt, and took a game clinching marking in the dying seconds of the Grand Final a couple of hours earlier, he had every right to raise a glass of his favoured cognac in celebration.

Instead, Taylor was found downstairs in an ice bath, going about his usual recovery routine.

No fanfare, all business. It’s everything you need to know about Harry Taylor the footballer in one story.

Taylor retired last week after 13 seasons and 280 games for his beloved Cats; a run that included two premierships and two All-Australian guernseys.

But a career like Taylor’s can’t be neatly wrapped up in a list of accolades. What he leaves behind is a legacy that is as much a kind of spirit, rather than anything that’s written on an honour board.

Make no mistake, Taylor was a very good footballer.

It’s sometimes happens that to those players who become almost symbols of what their clubs are about; it’s easy to overlook how good they were.

Indeed, in Taylor’s case, you can make the argument that his intercept marking revolutionised his position.

But that number 7 guernsey now carries with it a weight. It’s a weight of legacy, but it’s instructive as well. No player prepared better for a game of football than Harry Taylor. No player better prepared for his individual matchups like Harry Taylor. Nobody.

It’s a well-known story that he kept dossiers on his opponents, something that he’d been doing since the beginning of his career. It’s said football is a game of inches. Maybe. It’s also a game of minutes, seconds.

Every extra moment spent preparing can give you an edge.

Taylor’s dossiers were his way of staying ahead of the game. Ahead of his opponent.

But his way has become the Geelong way.

Preparation, determination, greatness. Not because of him necessarily, but that’s what that number 7 will always symbolise down at Kardinia Park now, for this generation and the next.

For Harry was never about Harry. He was about his club, and especially his teammates. He was always trying to make the people around him better.

He was a winner.

Sure, Taylor had more talented teammates; indeed he bows out a week after Gary Ablett Jr, arguably the greatest player to lace them up, but the boy from Northhampton has left a legacy of his own, and a significant one at that, and it won’t be forgotten any time soon.

Just like his game-saving mark against the Saints in that 2009 decider. It’s somehow gotten a bit lost to history, but it’s every bit as era-defining as Leo Barry

Leo Barry

Age

48

Ht

184cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

5.6

4star

M

5.0

5star

T

1.6

4star

No current season stats available

D

4.4

1star

K

2.6

1star

HB

1.8

2star

M

0.8

1star

T

1.2

3star

’s 2005 grab against the Eagles. If not for that mark, history may very well have been different.

Taylor bought a bottle of Cognac after the 2011 premiership, vowing to open it once the Cats broke through for another flag. 2020 almost delivered but it wasn’t to be.

Here’s hoping he’s seen it fit to enjoy a glass in the past couple of days in reflection of a mighty career.

Have one on us, Harry

Raising a glass to Harry

Harry Taylor set the benchmark on what it was to be a professional footballer

www.geelongcats.com.au

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Honestly, it's not even that brilliant.

Since the great man has retired, I guess I may as well tell it.

Can't remember which year or round or who we played, but it was at the MCG.

Ninty had picked me up and we were on our way to the game. His GPS at one stage told us we were 9 minutes away from the ground. Cool bananas.

However, for some reason, no matter how close we got to the ground, it kept telling us we were 9 minutes away. Even as we pulled up and parked. So up that point, it was a running joke.

Now walking up to the gates, there was an announcer on a megaphone talking about available general admission tickets. It went something like...

"There are still tickets available for purchase on level Q (top level). That's level Q for Cuba..."

Obviously old mate had a moment, but was hilarious to me at the time. Somehow whole the 9 minutes thing was fresh in our minds, we put the two together and came up with Q9.

I think we said that it sounds like a secret agent codename. Then, we linked to the fact that Harry Taylor is a strange enough cat (pun intended) that he probably moonlights as a secret agent.

Hence, from that day forward, he was known as The Q9. And it latched on to the regulars on here from there.

Sorry it's not that glamorous, but it's awesome that it stuck around on here the whole time.

Haha! As good an origin story as anything Fleming could have come up with - I love it! Q for Cuba indeed...

 

[Kwality]

Didn't take Harry long to get back to WA.

H will have to play at home, he's on a deal with Josh Kennedy to play together again.

 

[goyoucatters]

Even if you gloss over the 12 amazing seasons he played before this one, Harry's 2020 tells you just about everything you need to know about this man.

Just went out week after week, conceding years, pace and athleticism to many opponents, and basically beat them all. Given the limitations he was playing with in making it all the way through this year (I had him pegged for a very understandable exit at the end of '19), he played an incredible role for the team throughout 2020.

Which culminated in a finals series where his notional opponents managed a total of eight marks and three goals across all four matches. Phenomenal performance from a player who never gave an opponent an easy win, and poured his all out for the GFC and his teammates on and off the field.

His 2020 was a staggering end to the storied career of a man who gave the illusion of staggering through quite a number of his games in recent seasons. And yet was so rarely beaten across any of the matches making up his epic 280-game career.

A precious memory for me will be my 13-year-old standing at the ground with tears in his eyes after the final siren of the GF, looking towards the players. When I asked him whether he wanted to get out of the ground before the Tiger celebrations began, he said, 'No, Dad, we have to stay for Gaz and for Harry.'

I was so proud that he could see we weren't just saying goodbye to perhaps the greatest player of all time. We were also saying farewell to a gentleman footballer, who might just be the greatest clubman in the history of the GFC.

So long, H. Words can't do justice to the mighty legacy you have left behind in giving your all for the hoops over 13 stand out seasons. Sadly gone, but never forgotten.