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John Meeson

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John Meesen
Details:
Club: Modewarre/Geelong
DOB: 20 June 1986 Hgt: 200cm Wgt: 88kg
Position: Ruck
Natural Foot: Right

Honours:
Victoria Country 2004
Ruck in TAC Cup Team of the Year 2004
National Draft Camp 2004

TAC Stats:
2003: 19 games, 6 goals, 10.9 PPG
2004: 16 games, 9 goals, 17.1 PPG

Strengths: Meesen is another promising ruckman in the draft pool, and has been one of the best performed at TAC Cup level this season. Once again, his tapwork is good, and John’s second efforts around the ground are excellent, he never stops trying and working hard.

He usually does OK around the ground, takes some very strong grabs, and is improving in this area.

Weaknesses: His kicking can be suspect, especially when he tries to kick off a step. He seems to struggle a little bit when played up forward. Not particularly quick.

Footydraft.com comment: Meesen is a proven performer and should add to the ruck stocks of any club looking to the future.
 

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Dave, I'm fairly sure it's Meesen.

By the way, Meesen should prove to be a fairly good pick up for your club. Good luck with him.
 
Here is a very interesting artice fromt eh age featuring the John 'Mean Machine' Meesen

Bumper crop
November 20, 2004
20s_meesen_narrowweb__200x255.jpg

John Meesen
Photo: Vince Caligiuri

Today’s AFL national draft will have such a country flavour, you can almost hear the drawl. Emma Quayle looks at why and tracks six players in the draft back to their roots.

John Meesen can't remember the first game of football he played. But he has heard lots about it. The Grovedale teenager started out on the Mount Moriac oval, in a Modewarre Warriors guernsey, playing for the under-11 team that featured Geelong VFL player Jackson Bolton and his twin brother Matt, the sons of former Cats and Sydney player David Bolton. Oh, and a couple of young Abletts.

"I was only six, so they used to stick me down in the back pocket and hope I'd stay out of trouble," Meesen said. "Those guys all played in the forward line, so the ball never came down my end. Everyone reckons I just used to sit down there building sand castles."

Meesen does not know which club's colours he will be swathed in after this morning's national draft, but he should be left guessing for only a few seconds after the 10am start and understands already that his AFL dream must involve a decent drive from home.

He is not the only country boy whose bags will need some serious packing. The Geelong Falcons produced Luke Hodge, 2001's top draft pick; Brendon Goddard, No.1 the next year, grew up in Gippsland. Last year, four of the first 10 players called out hailed from country Victoria. The bush will be just as well represented this morning.


Brett Deledio, the Murray Bushrangers' competitive, cluey onballer, has been touted as the No.1 pick since early this year and should be nabbed by Richmond. Rough-and-tumble Leongatha forward Jarryd Roughead has joked with his Kyabram friend that he'll be joining him there.

Meesen's name will be called quickly, Warrnambool midfielder Jordan Lewis shouldn't be available past the first round, with Bushrangers' speedster Chris Egan and Echuca defender Ruory Kirkby also in first-round calculations. Other names to watch are Matt Rosa (Warracknabeal), Dean Polo (Wy Yung) and this year's Vic Country captain, Andrew McQualter (Traralgon).

Modewarre's latest Ablett, you may have noticed, already has started his first pre-season at Geelong.

There might not be much rural water around right now, but is there anything in it? The AFL's national talent manager, Kevin Sheehan, believes the Victorian Country boys benefit from having the same coach, Leon Harris, guide them through their under-16 and under-18 representative teams, picking out flaws and then fixing them.

He points also to the success of the TAC Cup, which allows country kids to work towards the big time without having to abandon their home, school and friends for what used to be half-chances. "When you talk on country radio, you're always asked about the AFL taking kids away from the country," Sheehan said.

"People forget that before the TAC Cup started, about 120 kids used to be dragged out of the country home to try out for under-19 teams and most of them never went back, even if they didn't make it in footy.

"Now, if they go away, they leave later and with the promise that they'll be looked after."

Harris, who took on the country teams for what he thought would be one year, is still there eight seasons later. He gathers his teams together for only one full weekend before their annual carnivals, but suspects the many hours his boys and their parents spend on the road demand a real determination to make it.

He also tries to find the right mix at selection, to pick teams that leave him equally optimistic about claiming all the championships he can and having boys to drink to on draft day.

Those who are drafted this year might even be matched by next year's batch: of the 30 players picked in the Australian Institute of Sport AFL Academy after this year's under-16 championships, nine come from country Victorian homes. "There's a balance there to strike," Harris said. "If you take too many under-17 kids into an under-18s carnival, you'll struggle, but the players who are going to be good enough rise to the occasion.

"Who knows what it is? They go in cycles, these things, but there's always a real passion in the country kids. There has to be, because they've got to do a fair bit of work to get there and they have to be pretty desperate.

"The country's always supplied the AFL with some special players. But we're on a nice roll, there's no doubt about that."

JOHN MEESEN
GROVEDALE

John Meesen's father, Paul, is about 10 games off Modewarre's all-time record. He also has missed only one of his son's games in the past six years. He probably will have a decision to make after John gets drafted today.

"He's played 300-and-something games and he only needs a few more," Meesen said of his father. "He'll probably do that and then give it away. He's getting a bit old, I reckon."

Meesen's memories of his dad's best footy are sketchy, although one moment has stuck. "It was a grand final and he was the captain and he'd been targeted all day," he said.

"He was standing at centre half-forward and his opponent came up behind him and punched him twice in the head. He's got a permanent metal plate in his face now. They said he was never meant to play again and he's played every year since."

It is his father Meesen has asked for his most honest advice, particularly in the past few years. He got only a late call-up to the Geelong Falcons' under-16 team, made the state side, but had a "pretty pathetic" carnival.

"When you make under-16s, you think everything's just going to come easily. It didn't, and my dad pretty much told me that," Meesen said.

"When you have a bad game, a lot of people will say, ‘It's someone else's fault' or ‘Keep your head up', but he tells me everything right down the line. I always argue back and argue my point, but I can't get away with anything because he's always right on to me."

And so this year, Meesen made himself stronger and healthier. The young ruckman hit the weights, made a deal with himself not to drink all season and trained harder than he had before. The goal: this morning, when Meesen will hear his fate first-hand.

"I got invited to the draft but I don't think I'll be driving up. I'll be shaking all over the road," he said.

"I think the most nervous time will probably be when they start reading out the names, but it will be a good time, too. I'm excited, more than anything. It's one of those things where you've done everything you can and you just want your goals to be achieved."

Wherever football takes him, Meesen will miss Modewarre.

"It's hard to explain. It's one of those places where people come and they don't leave," he said.

"People just get hooked on the place."

JORDAN LEWIS
WARRNAMBOOL

Jordan Lewis is ready for a pre-season. He hopes. Last week, the 18-year-old dragged his girlfriend out on a 50-kilometre bike ride and in the past month, he has joined an exclusive club, learning how to box in "The Shed", the garage gym frequented by ‘Bool boys Jonathan Brown, Matt Maguire and Brent Moloney when they return home.

Lewis was born in Warrnambool, where his mother's family has long lived and where his father moved at 16 for football. He grew up with two sisters who, until recently, proved tough to talk into backyard kick-to-kick.

"I'd be out there by myself kicking it around," Lewis said. "But I get my younger sister out there sometimes and she's getting better. She played school footy the other day and kicked two goals, so I must have taught her a few things."

Lewis phoned home from a cousin's house as a nine-year-old one night, and asked his mum if he could fill in for his cousin's team. She said no, but he played anyway. "I didn't get too many kicks," he said. "The only thing I remember is being petrified of the big kids."

Having ditched a potential basketball career (he played in the same under-16 state squad as Jarryd Roughead and Andrew McQualter), Lewis joined the Geelong Falcons, where he has spent the last two years in the top age team. Mick Turner, the Falcons' regional manager, describes him as a cross between Cameron Ling and Dean Solomon.

It has been a long two years. Required in Geelong each Wednesday night for training, the Warrnambool regulars would leave school early, jump on a bus (driven some weeks by Mr Lewis) and drive there, gathering teammates along the way. Lewis got his own driver's licence this year, and spent the night before games in Geelong, and noticed a difference in his football. "You just had so much more energy," he said. "You weren't getting out of the car and spending the whole first quarter getting into it."

He trained with Warrnambool through the season, but notched only one senior game — the grand final, which the club lost to Terang by four goals. It reminded him what he'll miss, living away from home.

"There were about 15,000 people down there and the noise was amazing," he said. "I had jelly legs for the first half, but it was a great day.

"I had a few people say to me, 'Don't play. Something might happen and you'll get hurt.' But I'm glad I did. They've been good to me and I just wanted to give something back."

ANDREW McQUALTER
TRARALGON

Andrew McQualter will not be torn entirely from his comfort zone after draft day.

For the past three years, he has lived away from home, in the Caulfield Grammar boarding house. The onballer played school football and caught a train home to Traralgon as often as he could, to catch up with his parents and help out the Gippsland Power.

McQualter started out in junior sides coached by his father, Ken, a 170-game, "Team of the 1970s'' player for Traralgon. There are things he has missed about country footy.

"The crowds up here are so different to school," he said. "It's a better atmosphere, I reckon. When I played at Traralgon, all the thirds boys used to back their utes up and drink cans on the back of the ute.

"It's a different lifestyle down here. There's probably not as many opportunities, but I love it. I wouldn't have wanted to grow up in the city."

McQualter's trip to draft day has not run completely to plan. As captain of this year's Vic Country side, his national carnival went very wrong, quite quickly. He got a knock to his hip during the second quarter of the first match and couldn't get back.

"I iced it like a crazy person," he said, "but it wasn't meant to be. I'd geared myself up for the carnival for a long time, so it was frustrating. But there wasn't much I could do."

McQualter re-introduced himself to the recruiters at the draft camp in Canberra, running second in the beep test, second in the agility run and third in the time-trial.

"I knew I had to have a good camp if I was going to get drafted," he said. "A lot of people thought I wasn't very athletic and I had that in the back of my head, I guess. People thought that was my downfall and I wanted to prove them wrong."

McQualter grew up with Brendon Goddard, playing football, cricket and basketball with and against the young Saint, before joining his best friend at boarding school. He wouldn't complain if he ended up at Moorabbin, but can see the benefit of starting out somewhere different.

"I know it's a cliche, but you'd go anywhere," he said. "It's the one thing I've always wanted to do. I'm happy to do it anywhere."

RUORY KIRKBY
ECHUCA

Ruory Kirkby knows what it's like to be a bit of a local identity. Up until last week, his family owned one of the local bakeries. "You get all these people knowing who you are, saying, ‘You must own Kirkby's Bakery'," said the 18-year-old.

"You get a bit sick of it, though. You go into the bakery to grab a drink and your friends always ask why you aren't getting something to eat. But after a while, you never want to see another cake again."

At the start of the season, Kirkby thought himself capable of an AFL career, even if not many other people did. He had not played in any of the Bendigo Pioneers' development teams, then scored a pre-season spot in January, but did not hear his name when the final squad was announced after the last trial game.

"It was pretty disappointing," he said. "It was like I'd set some goals and they were all gone. But I just had to re-assess everything. I had to think positive and come up with some new ideas."

Kirkby drove home with his dad, and decided there were other ways to make it. He played the first four games of Echuca's season, heard that the Pioneers were short on talls and went back.

The call-up meant committing himself to seven or eight hours on the road each week, Kirkby sharing the drive to Bendigo for training with two teammates. "We'd have a bit of fun and a few laughs, but it was pretty hard," he said.

"You wouldn't get home until 9.30pm some nights and then you'd have to study. It was hard to fit everything in, but you just had to stick at it and hope that it paid off."

It did, quickly: only a few weeks after he made the Pioneers' team, Kirkby was wearing a Vic Country jumper, and playing well enough in defence and up forward to earn an invitation to draft camp. If he is not picked up in the first round today, he should be gone by the end of the second. "It was amazing, but I had nothing to lose, so I just went for it," he said. "I never would have dreamt of having a carnival like that, though. It was probably the best footy I've ever played in my life. It just popped up at the right time and all of a sudden here I am."

CHRIS EGAN
SHEPPARTON

Chris Egan played the final game of his season twice. When the grand final between same-town teams Shepparton East and his club, Rumbalara, ended in a draw, the teams went back to Violet Town to try again.

"They were up by a goal with about a minute to go and I kicked a goal. I took a mark and put it through from 45 metres out, but then one of their onballers crumbed the ball with about 30 seconds left and kicked it straight through the middle," Egan said.

"I went up for a mark with about 10 seconds left and the next thing I knew, the ball was punched right past me out of bounds and the siren went. It was pretty shattering, but it was probably more painful for the guys who had been there all year."

Egan went back to Rumbalara after finishing off his second and last season in the Murray Bushrangers' under-18 team. The forward/midfielder was the youngest player in the mostly indigenous team; his father, Eric, was the oldest.

"We finished off the season together, but that's it for him now — he's going to follow my footy," Egan said.

"He's done pretty well. He's had arthritis in both his legs and his shoulder and he plays in the ruck all day and fights the pain. But he was starting to get on my nerves when he got home, saying, ‘I'm sore, I'm sore' and complaining all the time."

Egan will be at Rumbalara with his parents and four-yearold brother, Jordan, this morning. He had some tough times there this year. "When you go back to your country club, everyone says, ‘He should do this and that', and it's not that easy," he said.

"Because you've got a name for yourself, the players get into you and punch you in the head and try and suck you into a lot of stuff you don't want to do on the footy field. You have to learn how to be smart about it."

Still, the speedster is desperate to be his club's first draftee. "That would make me proud," he said. "That would be a really big thing."

Egan, who was born in Kyabram and moved to Shepparton at eight, felt his football improve this year after he started an AFL traineeship, working as an assistant physical education teacher at a local primary school.

"I do football for the kids at lunchtimes, so I umpire that and I'm basically breaking up fights all the time. But it's good fun," he said.

"It's really helped me out, I reckon. I've been more committed to what I've got to do. You have to be everywhere on time and not be late, and if you're late, you have to make a phone call and all that. It's made me a bit more accountable."

JARRYD ROUGHEAD
LEONGATHA

Jarryd Roughead plays a bold sort of football and is blunt off the field, too. When one coach asked him at the draft camp in Canberra last month whether he copped much from his mates, Roughead said he did. When the coach asked what he copped it for, the red-headed forward leaned towards him and said: "What do you reckon?"

At another Canberra camp, for the Australian Institute of Sport AFL Academy last year, Roughead was sitting up after midnight talking with his mates when a figure appeared beside him in the doorway and told the teenagers they had two minutes to shut up.

"I looked around and it was Kostya Tszyu," Roughead said. "He wasn't in a good mood. I reckon we were in bed within 30 seconds and, for the rest of the night, even if we just heard the door creak, we were packing it."

Roughead's family was one of the first to inhabit the Gippsland town of Leongatha. The football club was built, appropriately, on Roughead Road, but there is more to that story.

"There's also a Roughead Street and the tip's down there," Roughead said. "We don't tell many people about that one."

Roughead was a talented enough basketballer to make several junior state sides and spent a year playing for Dandenong. He took football seriously only after he made the Vic Country under-16 team and because his dad wanted him to play. Michael Roughead played one game with the Footscray reserves; his brother, Paul, also played reserves for the Bulldogs and might have gone on had he not hurt a knee.

"Dad said at the start of last year that if I quit basketball, he'd go down and coach the under 16s at Leongatha. I decided to do that and it all just went from there," said Roughead, a former Adelaide fan, who dumped the Crows for the Kangaroos after they lost three games in a row during the mid-1990s.

"I'd had enough of basketball, but I wanted to do it for my old man, too," he said. "He's got multiple sclerosis and to see me do well makes him happy, I suppose.

"That makes me feel good as well, to see him watch me play and get into it, and get excited for me."
 
Stiffy_18 said:
Don't be a copycat:p

I was going to have him but we can share :D
Click to expand...
Can't do that - One minute Wood the next Meesen ;)
Wheres the loyalty, what happened to Stiffy (been dumped)
 
An excellent read Stiffy_18.

Thanks for providing us with some more background info. :)

I'll bet your as stoked as me with Meesen. :cool:
 

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Stiffy_18 said:
Here is a very interesting artice fromt eh age featuring the John 'Mean Machine' Meesen

Bumper crop
November 20, 2004
20s_meesen_narrowweb__200x255.jpg

It is his father Meesen has asked for his most honest advice, particularly in the past few years. He got only a late call-up to the Geelong Falcons' under-16 team, made the state side, but had a "pretty pathetic" carnival.

"When you make under-16s, you think everything's just going to come easily. It didn't, and my dad pretty much told me that," Meesen said.

"When you have a bad game, a lot of people will say, ‘It's someone else's fault' or ‘Keep your head up', but he tells me everything right down the line. I always argue back and argue my point, but I can't get away with anything because he's always right on to me."

And so this year, Meesen made himself stronger and healthier. The young ruckman hit the weights, made a deal with himself not to drink all season and trained harder than he had before. The goal: this morning, when Meesen will hear his fate first-hand.
Click to expand...
Great article Stiffy. Sounds like Meeson has a good head on him & has done everything possible to improve. The fact he has been doing weights & is more advanced that Wood would suggest why he was our preference.
 
Lefty said:
An excellent read Stiffy_18.

Thanks for providing us with some more background info. :)

I'll bet your as stoked as me with Meesen. :cool:
Click to expand...
You've got no idea how stoked I am to have Meesen. I am VERY happy with the things we have done in this draft. It was pleasing to see that we went with the strength of the draft rather than going against it.

2 quality ruck prospect who both do a lot more around the ground, both can take a grab and kick a goal. We also get a ruckman with a bit of a grunt in Meesen.

Chad Gibson I am extremely happy with. This kid will become a crows favourite with the way he plays his footy.

Just on Meesen, he was interviewed on 5AA and he was greatful for getting drafted. He thought that he would get picked up by Hawthorn or Richmond @ 4 but he knew that he won't go past Adelaide :). Sounded like a pretty laid back country lad.

Just then his old man was interview on 3AW by Clinton Grybes, Dwayne Russell and Caroline Wilson and he seemed genuinely pleased that we picked him up. He also thought John would go for Hawks but is not worried that John will have to more interstate saying that he was going to move anyway. He also said that if he you are to go interstate Adelaide would be the club to go to with the big supporter base, great facilities and good opportunities.

He sounded genuinely pleased that his lad was getting a chance with us. Sounded like a good bloke too.
 
Stiffy_18 said:
You've got no idea how stoked I am to have Meesen. I am VERY happy with the things we have done in this draft. It was pleasing to see that we went with the strength of the draft rather than going against it.

2 quality ruck prospect who both do a lot more around the ground, both can take a grab and kick a goal. We also get a ruckman with a bit of a grunt in Meesen.

Chad Gibson I am extremely happy with. This kid will become a crows favourite with the way he plays his footy.

Just on Meesen, he was interviewed on 5AA and he was greatful for getting drafted. He thought that he would get picked up by Hawthorn or Richmond @ 4 but he knew that he won't go past Adelaide :). Sounded like a pretty laid back country lad.

Just then his old man was interview on 3AW by Clinton Grybes, Dwayne Russell and Caroline Wilson and he seemed genuinely pleased that we picked him up. He also thought John would go for Hawks but is not worried that John will have to more interstate saying that he was going to move anyway. He also said that if he you are to go interstate Adelaide would be the club to go to with the big supporter base, great facilities and good opportunities.

He sounded genuinely pleased that his lad was getting a chance with us. Sounded like a good bloke too.
Click to expand...
Yes fantastic result
Meesen sounds like a typical hardworking country lad from a footballing family.
Will not give us any grief IMO.
 

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Stiffy_18 said:
You've got no idea how stoked I am to have Meesen. I am VERY happy with the things we have done in this draft.
Click to expand...

I thought you wanted pick 18?

myself, am very happy. if we going to take a ruckman at least let it be:
1. the best in the class
2. the ready to play guy, who we don't need a crystal ball on.

actually this draft reminds me a little of essendon 1996.

they needed a tall running, athletic chb type. so they drafted the same guy 3 times - Mark Bolton, Dean Solomon, Judd lalich. they got 2 out 3. everyone thought they were nuts, but it did them all right.

we have obviously wanted athletic ruckman style talls, hell if one of them pans out great.

seems this draft was one of the harder to forecast; or as the internet becomes more prominent, there is so much more smoke around. can't decide.
oddly it's 5:45 in the morning and I think the wife is wondering where I have gone!
 

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