News Harvey officially a Lion

[Damarus]

It's now official.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/125766/default.aspx

FORMER Fremantle coach Mark Harvey has joined the Brisbane Lions as an assistant coach.

Harvey was sensationally ousted as Fremantle coach in September when the club decided to replace him with former St Kilda coach Ross Lyon.

He had been linked with a role at West Coast before being appointed to the Lions on Thursday.

Harvey will join his former Essendon teammate Gary O'Donnell as well as Adrian Fletcher and Shane Woewodin as assistants to Lions coach Michael Voss.

He will move to Brisbane to start his role with the club later this month.

"When I spoke to the club initially, I was impressed by the strong desire they showed in returning to the top and the processes and plans they have in place to ensure they reach it," Harvey said in a statement released by the Lions.

"They have a very talented and developing young list and it's clear they want sustained success."

The 46-year-old had held down the coaching position at Fremantle for five seasons.

He oversaw 39 wins from his 97 games in charge of Fremantle, including a semi-final in 2010.

Prior to that he was an assistant to his predecessor as Fremantle coach, Chris Connolly. He previously served as an assistant to Kevin Sheedy at Essendon.

Harvey played 206 games for the Bombers during a 14-year career that included three premierships and a club best and fairest in 1992.

The Lions will return to pre-season training on Monday.

Brisbane Lions general manager of football operations Dean Warren said Harvey brought great experience to the Lions.

"Mark is an outstanding coach in his own right and we are delighted to have been able to secure someone of his calibre," Warren said.

"Mark will be an outstanding addition to Michael Voss' coaching panel from both a cultural perspective and with the football experience and knowledge that he brings.

"His strong desire to continue his coaching career in Brisbane is also a great indication that we are building a club where people aspire to be and perform at an elite level."

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Fantastic news indeed

Good luck Harves

 

[Seppo]

Not sure the use of the word 'outstanding coach' is warranted for his success rate of 39 wins from 97 games...

Jeez I'm bagging Harves out so much these days. Was he really that bad???

Good luck to him!

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

good luck harvs. good to see he's landed on his feet. and not with the weagles.

 

[peppy la pew]

Poor ol Vossy, if he dosen't turn them around this year, BAM !

Hellooooo Harves, the backdoor master.

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

Not sure the use of the word 'outstanding coach' is warranted for his success rate of 39 wins from 97 games...

Jeez I'm bagging Harves out so much these days. Was he really that bad???

Good luck to him!

he did everything well except:
develop a game plan
match day coaching
manage players
communicate to players and the media

everything else was grouse.

 

[freocuz]

Good luck to Harvs. Don't hold anything against him, he's a very capable assistant coach.

 

[Clay Davis]

We get Lyon, Harvey becomes a Lion.

 

[Robbo2003]

he did everything well except:
develop a game plan
match day coaching
manage players
communicate to players and the media

everything else was grouse.

Care to explain?

Seems he got a great thing going in 2010 getting a young side in the 8 and winning a final. In 2011 the club was ravaged by injury and they missed the 8.

 

[Avid_Avenger]

Poor ol Vossy, if he dosen't turn them around this year, BAM !

Hellooooo Harves, the backdoor master.

Seems like a chronic coincidence

He'll have a few more complaints (excuses) to offer up there too: 'The AFL fixture doesn't cater for our demanding travel requirements. The heat drains energy levels as the season goes on. The floods make it hard to train. The meter maids are distracting. The cyclones make skill execution difficult' or words to lesser effect (coherence).

But on a serious note, good luck to Harvs - he was a good sort at heart and helped regenerate us at a time when we needed it. Can see him doing a few more years and then bowing out on his own terms if Crazy Vossy survives that long.

 

[Damarus]

We get Lyon, Harvey becomes a Lion.

Obviously wasn't prepared to take his sacking lion down and went out there and got himself a new job to prove himself to the football world.

 

[23cmonShane!]

All the best Harves!

 

[peppy la pew]

Care to explain?

Seems he got a great thing going in 2010 getting a young side in the 8 and winning a final. In 2011 the club was ravaged by injury and they missed the 8.

Thanks for the history lesson brah

 

[purpleman]

We should have thrown him in as part of the Clark deal!

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

Care to explain?

Seems he got a great thing going in 2010 getting a young side in the 8 and winning a final. In 2011 the club was ravaged by injury and they missed the 8.

we were ravaged by injuries, and that had a massive impact on our ability to front up, but when we did front up, we had no recognisable game plan week in, week out. that's point one: develop a game plan

match day coaching - players played out of position, which screwed up our forward line and allowed small forwards to destroy us. this was mainly due to midfield injuries, but compromising other positions weakened us further.

manage players - injury management, playing players too soon after returning from injury, favouring under performers like michael johnson and paul duffield to continue while unfairly cutting jack anthony after single games, etc.

communicate to players and the media - managing player expectations, communicating to them clear understanding of their roles, making excuses to the media about injuries later in the season when refusing to do so at the start of the season, smokes and mirrors with the media that became tiresome and old fashioned.

they're the negatives, but i always liked harvs. he oversaw a massive cleanout of our list and got us into a position where someone with a bit more game day nouse and who demanded greater professionalism in his playing group, could step in and give it a crack. unfortunately, despite him saying so recently, harvs hasn't really shown the ability to take a team to that level to give it a shake. he's a good assistant coach who will contribute to building a side, but he's too distracted to urge a team to really seize their opportunities.

 

[Robbo2003]

You've glossed over a lot of points without really explaining them.

And if he is a coach lacking game day nous and professionalism then why was he given a long term contract?

 

[Avid_Avenger]

We should have thrown him in as part of the Clark deal!

Haha, wonder if the idea of getting Harves onboard became sweeter to Crazy Vossy after the trade week dramas.

Nothing better than disconnected revenge (in reality, it just all makes us feel better that Harves has a job).

 

[Seppo]

What went through my head for a split second when I read the thread title was this...

 

[Nickos66]

Good onya Harves.

 

[Nothing]

We should have thrown him in as part of the Clark deal!

Maybe it was.

Chris Bond: We wont take Clark and you can have Harvey.
Crazy Vossy: That's sounds too good to be true.

 

[PapaJ]

match day coaching - players played out of position, which screwed up our forward line and allowed small forwards to destroy us. this was mainly due to midfield injuries, but compromising other positions weakened us further.

I don't think Harvey's game day coaching was as bad as many make-out. Sometimes throwing players around and thinking outside the box has worked well, sometimes it didn't. It wasn't a great strength when you look at the on field results, but it wasn't that bad either.

Agree with the rest though. Also agree that I don't think he was ever going to be the sort to get us to the absolute top. Think he was and will be a great assistant coach, so good luck to the guy and I'm glad he got a gig.

 

[Nickos66]

You've glossed over a lot of points without really explaining them.

And if he is a coach lacking game day nous and professionalism then why was he given a long term contract?

Was he??

He might've gotten one at the start of his tenure to oversee the turnover of over half of our list, it's what was needed and he received the confidence of the board and fans alike to do so. This takes time and he was afforded it to do so.

He was then given a 2 year extension and let go after 1 year, as you know.

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

You've glossed over a lot of points without really explaining them.

And if he is a coach lacking game day nous and professionalism then why was he given a long term contract?

if you had kept up to step with harvs over the past couple of years, you'd know that was explaining it enough.

why was he given a long term contract with the lions? he's an able assistant, not a head coach.

 

[BananaOnTheRun]

I don't think Harvey's game day coaching was as bad as many make-out. Sometimes throwing players around and thinking outside the box has worked well, sometimes it didn't. It wasn't a great strength when you look at the on field results, but it wasn't that bad either.

Agree with the rest though. Also agree that I don't think he was ever going to be the sort to get us to the absolute top. Think he was and will be a great assistant coach, so good luck to the guy and I'm glad he got a gig.

i've beaten it up a bit more than it is, but i think this year showed that thinking outside the square failed more times than not and when it came to thinking inside the square, there wasn't enough to fall back on.

 

[Robbo2003]

if you had kept up to step with harvs over the past couple of years, you'd know that was explaining it enough.

why was he given a long term contract with the lions? he's an able assistant, not a head coach.

No, I mean if Harvey was not seen by Fremantle as a professional coach with match day nous then why did they give him a long term contract?