Old vs New?

[PrinceOfPockets]

All the talk on the '3 questions' post about Neesham got me thinking. I realise these types of posts have been done before but what is everyones honest opinions of the bad old days? For me, I have no complaints. Although we've had some great (and extremely disappointing) moments over the last few years, my memories of the early days are just as good to look back on.

I still look back fondly and remember clearly:

-Watching us towel up the Saints at Waverley from Rotto in 95
-My first Freo game. It was against the Roos at Subi in early 95 and we got bent over pretty comprehensively. Good times...
-Peter Miller slotting through the first major of the first derby. (Theres one for the trivia buffs)
-The Hyphen and POP dominating in the first home win v Geelong at WACA
-Ben Allan's after the siren drop punt...
-Listening on AM v Roos from WACA in 97. The next day headline read something like "Speed Kills". We used to be regarded as quick...
-Watching from the terraces Rd 21 07 v Geelong. A win and we would have made the eight. Dirty Harry (all time favourite) and Toia were running the midfield. Fats McGovern may have made a cameo. 28K was our highest non derby home crowd at the stage. Needless to say we lost and Jeffrey tore us a new one the following week.
-Getting the demo derby VHS sent to the pub I was working at in the UK. Not too many were keen to see it on the big screen but she was good.

So were these times good or bad? What used to make your day when you knew premierships were a long way off?

 

[Kram]

I pretty much try to forget much of those times, possibly just miss a few of the hangers some of the guys took and some favourite players, though these days you can cut back on Vallium prescriptions to watch Freo in close games

 

[theGav56]

Having been a memeber since day dot I share a lot of those memories, and while they were definitely the bad old days I enjoyed that we also dared to be different. Neesham was a wildcard, exciting, but made such a poor job of recruitment that he seriously damaged the club list for anyone following on.

 

[Frigate]

I liked sitting on the bank, with the drums and the exciting brand of footy. It got frustrating as hell at times, but every game was entertaining. The little things like Abraham taking his screamers. It was a new exciting brand of footy. The good things will always remain.
Expectations did not ever seem to be that high for me. Now expectations are to be a flag contender, and we demand consistency, home and away.

 

[Billy Hunt]

Having been a memeber since day dot I share a lot of those memories, and while they were definitely the bad old days I enjoyed that we also dared to be different. Neesham was a wildcard, exciting, but made such a poor job of recruitment that he seriously damaged the club list for anyone following on.

Neesham wanted to build a club with a bit of soul & asked the AFL to be left out of the draft in return for the recruiting zones of EFFC & SFFC which was rejected. Instead we got the worst deal of any start up club entering the AFL. Remember, any un-contracted players we did get from other teams, they got the cream of the next years draft making the 1995 & 1996 drafts the weakest ever.

Cameron Schwab was employed to recruit un-contracted players living in Melbourne but there was no quality player that wanted to move west to a start up club with training facilities that resembled those of the Mukinbudin Football Club. (Apologies to the MFC, theirs were probably better.)

Had Neesham instead just gone after the best kids available at the time, we would have been fielding an under 21 side that would have been smashed every week & would have finished 1995 with out a win, possibly a couple of wins the second year & a new coach to start the third year.

Yes, Neesham made some monumental stuff ups in recruiting but how many coaches are asked to be the coach, recruiting officer, list development officer & marketing manager.

 

[chook2734]

Agree 110% Billy. The WAFC has a lot to answer for the early days of Fremantle. After the monumental balls up of the early days of West coast where they had no training base and virtually bankrupted the whole of WA football, you would have thought a little foresight may have seen the second club enter a little more prepared. Instead they decided to fill the board with the most incompetent people they could find in an effort to protect their precious little weavils. Some of the pioneers of this club (those who weren't the complete incompetents anyway) do deserve a medal for the fight they put up for the club - it was an absolute disgrace the way it was set up.

 

[swannies]

Neesham wanted to build a club with a bit of soul & asked the AFL to be left out of the draft in return for the recruiting zones of EFFC & SFFC which was rejected. Instead we got the worst deal of any start up club entering the AFL. Remember, any un-contracted players we did get from other teams, they got the cream of the next years draft making the 1995 & 1996 drafts the weakest ever.

Cameron Schwab was employed to recruit un-contracted players living in Melbourne but there was no quality player that wanted to move west to a start up club with training facilities that resembled those of the Mukinbudin Football Club. (Apologies to the MFC, theirs were probably better.)

Had Neesham instead just gone after the best kids available at the time, we would have been fielding an under 21 side that would have been smashed every week & would have finished 1995 with out a win, possibly a couple of wins the second year & a new coach to start the third year.

Yes, Neesham made some monumental stuff ups in recruiting but how many coaches are asked to be the coach, recruiting officer, list development officer & marketing manager.

Great post Billy. I often think Neesham cops too much flak, especially over player recruitment, but he had to make a call on those players and whether he thought they could make it, ie McLeod. That was his job and he was on a hiding to nothing.

But I loved him when he was at Swans (even liked him at EF), the little general, boy does he have a football brain. Doing pretty good things with Clontarf as well, I hear.