Opinion Nathan Van Berlo: Midfield Coach

May 17, 2009
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Why is Perth home? He spent his entire adult life in Adelaide.

Why would you for a second think he's being flicked?

Maybe he just wanted to come here to work with a young team.
Go back and listen to Burns on MMM the other day. They have him the "you're a SA lad" and he replied how he'd spent most of his adult life in Melbourne and didn't really consider himself as a SA guy anymore. Not saying VB is the same, but people lay down deep roots in adulthood that change their perspective on things.
 

ShadeyP

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If it was VB coming back into our club where we were at the start of 2019 then it would have been a firm NO but with the changes made and the coaching panel we are building i think he will gel very well with Nicks and Burns and the younger players coming through .

Big fan of Adam Kelly and overall for the first time in a while we are on the right track to expedite our rebuild and climb back up the ladder .

It was always going to be 2020 and 2021 to cast aside some dead wood and debris to lay the foundations for future growth and we are on solid ground so far .
 
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Mar 21, 2016
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I think it's fairly obvious that most (if not all) clubs use external business incentives as a player retention tool.
Your point has some merit though. Perhaps we just need to find business opportunities that aren't directly related to board members.

BTW Roo isn't the only one. Talia recently spoke of his friendship with Bob Forde and their business dealings.
Sam Jacobs and Rob Chapman
 

Mr Alldayeveryday

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There’s a difference between failing with a team of gun players “GWS”, versus squeezing the best out of a bunch of OK players with a few a graders, “Craig, Pyke”. It would be nice to combine both.
I'd prefer the Blight/Walsh approach with a team of gun players.
 
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I'd prefer the Blight/Walsh approach with a team of gun players.
Blight took over basically a SA state team and put the finishing touches on it...that's not possible these days through the AFL draft unless you bottom out for 5 or 6 years. Not a whole lot of footballers coming out of SA even close to the calibre of the top 10 or so players Blight had to work with. Andrew McLeod, Mark Ricciuto, Shaun Rehn, Simon Goodwin, Darren Jarman, Nigel Smart, Ben Hart, Tyson Edwards, Mark Bickley, Troy Bond, David Pitman, Rod Jameson, Matthew Robran, Kym Koster and an absolute A grade Victorian Kane Johnson....How many on our current list would get games in front of that lot? Not too many I'd think.
 

Vhaluus

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Sam Mitchell returns from WC to Hawthorn, supporters embrace it and welcome him back

VB returns from WC to Adelaide, supporters go straight into negative mode.

As supporters we know them as players but we dont know them as coaches it is here it is almost impossible to assess the impact of an asst coach unless your in the inner sanctum

Im ok in principle with the appointment of VB and lets see what he brings

On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app

You can't be serious here.

Hawthorn are hardly the inbred cesspool that we've been.
 

Mr Alldayeveryday

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Blight took over basically a SA state team and put the finishing touches on it...that's not possible these days through the AFL draft unless you bottom out for 5 or 6 years. Not a whole lot of footballers coming out of SA even close to the calibre of the top 10 or so players Blight had to work with. Andrew McLeod, Mark Ricciuto, Shaun Rehn, Simon Goodwin, Darren Jarman, Nigel Smart, Ben Hart, Tyson Edwards, Mark Bickley, Troy Bond, David Pitman, Rod Jameson, Matthew Robran, Kym Koster and an absolute A grade Victorian Kane Johnson....How many on our current list would get games in front of that lot? Not too many I'd think.
Blight cleaned out the old guard, pretty good players. Played the and developed the youth Simon Goodwin and Kano were premiership players with under 10 games. It didn't mater if you had 200 games and a big name or 0 games played, if you earn't your spot you played. Craig/Pyke wouldn't have asked for that clean out of the older players to begin with. Walsh was very similar to this all be it probably more likable to all the players than Blight.
 

ShadeyP

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Blight took over basically a SA state team and put the finishing touches on it...that's not possible these days through the AFL draft unless you bottom out for 5 or 6 years. Not a whole lot of footballers coming out of SA even close to the calibre of the top 10 or so players Blight had to work with. Andrew McLeod, Mark Ricciuto, Shaun Rehn, Simon Goodwin, Darren Jarman, Nigel Smart, Ben Hart, Tyson Edwards, Mark Bickley, Troy Bond, David Pitman, Rod Jameson, Matthew Robran, Kym Koster and an absolute A grade Victorian Kane Johnson....How many on our current list would get games in front of that lot? Not too many I'd think.
Agree to a point but Blight also had a fair bit to do with the rapid growth and performance of McLeod , Goodwin and Edwards who were all only 21 when they won the first one in 97 . Johnson was 19 , Hart 23 and Roo 22 at the time .

Rehn was also coming off his 3rd Knee Reco .

No doubt we had a very good team but we also had a bunch of unheralded journeyman that we got more than the most out of .

Unbelievably good times for the club .
 

rocket18

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Blight cleaned out the old guard, pretty good players. Played the and developed the youth Simon Goodwin and Kano were premiership players with under 10 games. It didn't mater if you had 200 games and a big name or 0 games played, if you earn't your spot you played. Craig/Pyke wouldn't have asked for that clean out of the older players to begin with. Walsh was very similar to this all be it probably more likable to all the players than Blight.

Agree with first part, Blight got rid of the old guys before he even unpacked his bags. He was all about getting talent in and playing at the highest level.

Disagree with Walsh being similar, he played VB, MacKay and Wright for every game possible (these 3 stunk it up week after week but kept picking them).

Tragically we never found out what his end game was but on exposed form his selection policy was not similar at all to Blights.
 
May 17, 2009
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Blight cleaned out the old guard, pretty good players. Played the and developed the youth Simon Goodwin and Kano were premiership players with under 10 games. It didn't mater if you had 200 games and a big name or 0 games played, if you earn't your spot you played. Craig/Pyke wouldn't have asked for that clean out of the older players to begin with. Walsh was very similar to this all be it probably more likable to all the players than Blight.
I think Robert Shaw gets a tiny bit overlooked too given he got games into guys like 30 games into Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards and debuted Peter Vardy and Kane Johnson as well. Blight did the smart thing by clearing out the old guard to make way for the new generation of players to take bigger roles, but if there's anything good to come from the Shaw years it was setting up 2 300 game players early for us so they began to take off when Blight came in.
 

Vhaluus

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Weren’t you 10 last time we won a flag 🤣

Shows what a s**t club we have been over the past two decades really doesn't it?

I like how you somehow seem to think this is an insult to me rather than an indictment on the club
 

hey shorty

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He gave Grigg, Kelly and CEY their first real chances, blooded Lever from the get go and was on the cusp of debuting Atkins and Knight.
Hmmmm yeah he just didn't have many to pick from did he.
 

jo172

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He gave Grigg, Kelly and CEY their first real chances, blooded Lever from the get go and was on the cusp of debuting Atkins and Knight.

Grigg played 14 games under Sando. Ellis-Yolmen played one game (as a sub) under Sando.

Kelly and Snake were the only blokes to actually debut under Phil from memory.

Riley Knight and Atkins debuted in the weeks immediatley after his passing (and from memory he had indicated they were going to be picked)
 
May 17, 2009
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Grigg played 14 games under Sando. Ellis-Yolmen played one game (as a sub) under Sando.

Kelly and Snake were the only blokes to actually debut under Phil from memory.

Riley Knight and Atkins debuted in the weeks immediatley after his passing (and from memory he had indicated they were going to be picked)
Grigg was constantly sub and barely playing. And yea, that 10 minutes Sanderson gave CEY was great too.
 

Vhaluus

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What's your issue with this appointment? Midfield coach of a flag-winning team not good enough? Oh hang on, he's an ex-Crow so it MUST be boys club :rolleyes:.

1)he was co-midfield coach of a flag winning team
2)The midfield he coached was full of very experienced players with very few young kids to mentor (which is the situation we're in) and had been good for years before he came along
3)the midfield declined significantly once his co-coach left
4)He hasn't been out of the AFC system long at all
5)He has played besides some of our current players, bringing his ability to be impartial into question
6)As a player he was gifted games towards the back end of his career, games his form did NOT justify; so he is part of that toxic culture.

So I think a better question is: why are you content with this appointment?
 
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