Mega Thread The Media Thread

[theGav56]

Freo got hooked, line and sinker. Fantastic ploy by Hawthorn at the time. Was ominous given Croad was in such bad form he didn’t play in 03 Finals. Hawks made a promise, in some way, to Croad later. Pick 1 was too good to ignore
Cannot believe we even entertained the idea of a pick 1 trade. Darkest days in Freo was 2001 season.
Know what’seven worse for the wound.. Tarrant did the same thing, yet we revitalised him as a CHB instead of a CHF In the end. BOTH players ended up in GFs after we traded back.

The context is who we would have taken. IF Adelaide want Thilthorpe this year, they should trade pick 1.

 

[raffrox]

The context is who we would have taken. IF Adelaide want Thilthorpe this year, they should trade pick 1.

So it was a talent identification and trading issue then.

Sorry but I don't think you mess around with a pick 1 unless it's massive overs.

 

[dominguez]

The point is We handed over pick 1 in a Superdraft for a guy who hated being here and never wanted to come. Watching the interview, the way he described the trade was like as if it was a prison sentence being handed down to him. How on earth did our list management team not pick up that vibe from him? And it appears the hawks promised him “we’ll get you home in a couple of years Trent. Just do this for us and we will get you back home in no time. Silly little Fremantle are giving us a massive opportunity to screw them over here so just bear with us for a couple of years”

We were going to take Polak at 1 and would have probably taken Sampi at 4 instead of Hodge/Ball so even if we didn't make that trade we would have ended up with egg on our face. If that had happened the Saints would have got Riewoldt and Kossie one year then Ball, Hodge and Dal Santo the next.

Our club was a total basket case in 2001. Wooden spoon and over the salary cap. The Schwabbolly era that followed was bad, but the Drum era was worse. Like Mickey Barlow said it took RTB to make our club relevant.

If we had taken Mundy at pick 10 and Ryley Dunn/someone else at pick 19 in 2003 we would have come out of the Croad saga looking ok.

 

[dominguez]

Freo got hooked, line and sinker. Fantastic ploy by Hawthorn at the time. Was ominous given Croad was in such bad form he didn’t play in 03 Finals. Hawks made a promise, in some way, to Croad later. Pick 1 was too good to ignore
Cannot believe we even entertained the idea of a pick 1 trade. Darkest days in Freo was 2001 season.
Know what’seven worse for the wound.. Tarrant did the same thing, yet we revitalised him as a CHB instead of a CHF In the end. BOTH players ended up in GFs after we traded back.

Getting Modra and Croad was all about marketing, just like Folau and Karmichael Hunt. From 1995 to 2001 our club was irrelevant, tickets were given away just to get bums on seats like the Suns and Giants did early days.

As much as that trade looks crazy now I don't recall any outrage in WA at the time. Big, strong, good looking, could kick the ball a mile and was 22 years old. A spine of McPharlin Pavlich Hasleby Croad Polak looks great on paper. The fact that he didn't really want to leave the Hawks, and that Connolly as the senior assistant at Hawthorn really pushed the trade, made the relationship rocky from the get go unfortunately.

 

[JammoMonty]

Anyone listen to the Open Mike episode with Trent Croad? Quite interesting. My gosh, he really didn’t want to come to the dockers. “Yellow and black blood in my veins” he said.
brereton told him “we’ll get you back in 2 years son” when he signed for us. A dark time in freo history indeed.

Is there a bigger balls up than that trade in the last 30 years??

 

[JammoMonty]

Connolly didn't want him.

Interesting when you hear that. President wanted him, coach didn’t.

Ross didn’t want Hogan. Bell put an end to it and Rosich overruled him and pushed it through.

Imagine where the club would be today if the Croad deal never happened.

He looks so stoked To be apart of Freo. He did his best work at the Left Bank.

 

[Dockeroo]

We were going to take Polak at 1 and would have probably taken Sampi at 4 instead of Hodge/Ball so even if we didn't make that trade we would have ended up with egg on our face. If that had happened the Saints would have got Riewoldt and Kossie one year then Ball, Hodge and Dal Santo the next.

Our club was a total basket case in 2001. Wooden spoon and over the salary cap. The Schwabbolly era that followed was bad, but the Drum era was worse. Like Mickey Barlow said it took RTB to make our club relevant.

If we had taken Mundy at pick 10 and Ryley Dunn/someone else at pick 19 in 2003 we would have come out of the Croad saga looking ok.

Surely we would have calculated that Polak would be still available at pick 4 and taken Hodge, Ball or Judd with pick 1?
Jeez we’d be some laughing stock still now if we’d gone Polak and Sampi with 1 and 4 in a draft like that!
Not to mention Bartel or Stevie J or several others available.

 

[fnerd]

“Jeez we’d be some laughing stock still now”

As opposed to the highly professional , well respected and ruthless organisation we are now!

 

[raffrox]

Getting Modra and Croad was all about marketing, just like Folau and Karmichael Hunt. From 1995 to 2001 our club was irrelevant, tickets were given away just to get bums on seats like the Suns and Giants did early days.

As much as that trade looks crazy now I don't recall any outrage in WA at the time. Big, strong, good looking, could kick the ball a mile and was 22 years old. A spine of McPharlin Pavlich Hasleby Croad Polak looks great on paper. The fact that he didn't really want to leave the Hawks, and that Connolly as the senior assistant at Hawthorn really pushed the trade, made the relationship rocky from the get go unfortunately.

You don't remember the look on Croad's face when he came out of hand surgery?

He was in complete shock.

Edit: JammoMonty beat me to it.

 

[dominguez]

Interesting when you hear that. President wanted him, coach didn’t.

Ross didn’t want Hogan. Bell put an end to it and Rosich overruled him and pushed it through.

Imagine where the club would be today if the Croad deal never happened.

Would have made zero difference, we were going to take Polak at 1 and we got him at 4 anyway.

Imagine if we had hired an experienced coach after Neesham? We wasted a decade on Drum/Connolly/Harvey.

 

[Taylor]

Would have made zero difference, we were going to take Polak at 1 and we got him at 4 anyway.

Imagine if we had hired an experienced coach after Neesham? We wasted a decade on Drum/Connolly/Harvey.

Having Chris Judd on our side taken at pick #4 would have had a material impact on football in the 2000's

 

[Paracleet]

Interesting when you hear that. President wanted him, coach didn’t.

Ross didn’t want Hogan. Bell put an end to it and Rosich overruled him and pushed it through.

Imagine where the club would be today if the Croad deal never happened.

He looks so stoked To be apart of Freo. He did his best work at the Left Bank.

View attachment 982631

Again this narrative that Bell was somehow overruled by Rosich on the Hogan trade. Where is it coming from?? I half fancy Bell himself.
To reiterate as acting list manager he reported to Bell. Overruling was not possible.

 

[CapitalA]

Again this narrative that Bell was somehow overruled by Rosich on the Hogan trade. Where is it coming from?? I half fancy Bell himself.
To reiterate as acting list manager he reported to Bell. Overruling was not possible.

So you think he relegates his CEO status because he stands in as list manager? I don't think so...

 

[Midnite65]

Would have made zero difference, we were going to take Polak at 1 and we got him at 4 anyway.

Imagine if we had hired an experienced coach after Neesham? We wasted a decade on Drum/Connolly/Harvey.

Imagine if we had actually made a well experienced AFL coach our No 1 priority instead of gambling on Neesham where we might have been now?

 

[Paracleet]

So you think he relegates his CEO status because he stands in as list manager? I don't think so...

The CEO can't force a director of footy to do anything. This isn't 2001.
Hogan is here because Bell completed the deal. Irrespective of whether Ross didn't want him (which I doubt) and irrespective of who started the process (Rosich we all agree). Bell had the option to pass and didn't and talk about him being forced is either made up by people on here who feel a need for Bell to be 'clean' or put about by Bell himself.
The latter strikes me as implausible on reflection since you'd think Bell would prefer to own a mistake rather than look weak, which is what that ludicrous story would make him if it was true.

 

[CapitalA]

The CEO can't force a director of footy to do anything. This isn't 2001.
Hogan is here because Bell completed the deal. Irrespective of whether Ross didn't want him (which I doubt) and irrespective of who started the process (Rosich we all agree). Bell had the option to pass and didn't and talk about him being forced is either made up by people on here who feel a need for Bell to be 'clean' or put about by Bell himself.
The latter strikes me as implausible on reflection since you'd think Bell would prefer to own a mistake rather than look weak, which is what that ludicrous story would make him if it was true.

If he didn't start the deal why would he finish it?

Also Bell did pass on it. But it was re-engaged.

 

[Taylor]

I think Hogan was part of the "Selling hope" campaign that also included appointing Peter Bell. The club can't really afford to not have supporters excited about the next season.

 

[freo1997]

Imagine if we had actually made a well experienced AFL coach our No 1 priority instead of gambling on Neesham where we might have been now?

With the list we had...not even Leigh Matthews could of done better than Neesham.

It was Neeshams chip and draw game plan that made a mainly wafl worthy team Afl competitive. It caught teams out.

I do agree we went Backwards with Drum. And we probably should of brought in a decent coach after Connolly missed finals in 04. We could of won a flag in 04>07 with a decent coach. It was argubaly our most balanced list.

Harvey built the team which lead to our success. But it was Scott's tactics that made us make finals in 2010. 2011 yes we had injuries, but you could tell Harvey had no idea.

 

[Superkoops]

Ross Lyon has said a number times with Channel 9 that the entire Board, CEO, Coach and General Football Manager owned the decision.

They deliberated over the decision. Were put off by the risks, trade price (two first rounders were min requirement from Melbourne) and contract price. It took a a renegotiated and lower incentive based contract and a more reasonable 1st round pick along with a late second (equivalent).

Hasn’t worked out that great to date but deserves to run full course. Hogan himself had to present a compelling case to Freo to get the deal done.

I’m sure there were members of the Board, CEO or Gen Manager that weren’t keen initially but by the time they went back to trade negotiations everyone was on board.

This crap about over-ruling is straight from the Hagdorn manual. Rosich was possibly keen straight up and Bell probably wasn’t but doesn’t mean he was later over-ruled.

 

[theGav56]

So it was a talent identification and trading issue then.

Sorry but I don't think you mess around with a pick 1 unless it's massive overs.

If we were going to take Polak at 1 that trade was genius and a far better outcome than if they'd followed your mantra and didn't "mess around ".

We have no idea how Crows rate the players but if they are seeing Thilthorpe on top of that list but think other clubs don't, they clearly need to consider messing around too.

 

[theGav56]

Interesting when you hear that. President wanted him, coach didn’t.

Ross didn’t want Hogan. Bell put an end to it and Rosich overruled him and pushed it through.

Imagine where the club would be today if the Croad deal never happened.

He looks so stoked To be apart of Freo. He did his best work at the Left Bank.

View attachment 982631

Connolly wasn't coach until after Croad was secured.

 

[raffrox]

If we were going to take Polak at 1 that trade was genius and a far better outcome than if they'd followed your mantra and didn't "mess around ".

We have no idea how Crows rate the players but if they are seeing Thilthorpe on top of that list but think other clubs don't, they clearly need to consider messing around too.

Cool. Now it was a genius trade because we would have got the pick wrong anyway.

It's not like Judd and Hodge are all time greats that will end up with AFL legend status or anything.

 

[eastfreo75]

Easily what this is. Let Carlton get roped into it.
Williams, Martin and Cripps on top dollar. What a dumb club

Add Saad to that as well.

 

[eastfreo75]

If we don't have "space" to sign Mundy our list management is in all sorts of trouble.

It’s BS.

 

[eastfreo75]

Anyone listen to the Open Mike episode with Trent Croad? Quite interesting. My gosh, he really didn’t want to come to the dockers. “Yellow and black blood in my veins” he said.
brereton told him “we’ll get you back in 2 years son” when he signed for us. A dark time in freo history indeed.

That was pretty unethical by the Hawks and totally dumb by us.