Time to ask that question again...

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Good point relapse. I was certainly in favour of trading for Carey. Not so sure about Ronnie Burns though...

Ayers won me over early in his coaching tenure. From memory he started off with a series of losses and earned the wrath of Crows fans and the media for continuing to play Ricciuto up forward, rather than in the midfield. As the losses mounted the pressure increased but he persisted.

Later in the season it emerged that Ricciuto had been playing with cracked ribs and Ayers had wanted to protect him. Never at one stage did he 'sell out' his player, even though he was under extreme heat at the time and everyone was demanding to know the reason why.

He had his weaknesses (Rehn washing his car ) but no doubt had his good points. Damn that behind post!

 

[Stiffy_18]

Good point relapse. I was certainly in favour of trading for Carey. Not so sure about Ronnie Burns though...

Ayers won me over early in his coaching tenure. From memory he started off with a series of losses and earned the wrath of Crows fans and the media for continuing to play Ricciuto up forward, rather than in the midfield. As the losses mounted the pressure increased but he persisted.

Later in the season it emerged that Ricciuto had been playing with cracked ribs and Ayers had wanted to protect him. Never at one stage did he 'sell out' his player, even though he was under extreme heat at the time and everyone was demanding to know the reason why.

He had his weaknesses (Rehn washing his car ) but no doubt had his good points. Damn that behind post!

One thing about Ayres is that he has always faced up to any criticism coming his way and he never sold out his players. He is a man of high integrity and he did endure some trying times while he was here. Like everyone, he has his flaws but he also has some real positives that shouldn't be forgotten.

As for the Carey thing, I always prefered Pavlich but was happy with Carey. We needed someone to come in and be the key forward. At that time Pav was playing CHB but I still thought he would be a gun forward because he showed glimpses of greatness early in his career in the forward line and in his junir footy. Ah well, the ship has sailed now.

On Burns, I thought that was a punt very much worth taking. Burns, on his day was a match winner and a genuine crumbing goal sneak. Sure he was at the end of his career BUT we practically gave up nothing for him. It was a low cost, potential high return investment.

We gave up Ben Finnin who didn't play a game for Ronnie and Geelong paid most of his salary in the process too.

 

[Glenno23]

Where did i put my time machine.......


Cos thats the only chance of getting Pav......

 

[Coopers]

We can thank genius here.



"Yeh, thats right, I'm ruining your future"

Oh yeah, that's the worst mistake AFC have made, right there.

 

[Mad Dog]

On Burns, I thought that was a punt very much worth taking. Burns, on his day was a match winner and a genuine crumbing goal sneak. Sure he was at the end of his career BUT we practically gave up nothing for him. It was a low cost, potential high return investment.

We gave up Ben Finnin who didn't play a game for Ronnie and Geelong paid most of his salary in the process too.

Ben Finnin

*s*******

 

[macca23]

Ben Finnin

*s*******

What a draft pick that one!! An undersized KPP and too slow for a flank.

He didn't even have a proper head!!

The width of his face was slightly thinner than your average pencil!!

 

[Mad Dog]

What a draft pick that one!! An undersized KPP and too slow for a flank.

He didn't even have a proper head!!

The width of his face was slightly thinner than your average pencil!!

yes - in some publishing software, if you type the letters PIN-HE......the autocomplete function actually suggests "FINNIN"

 

[Smoooothy]

We can thank genius here.



"Yeh, thats right, I'm ruining your future"

but i have strong hair

but as long as we have the goodwins, the mcleods and the rucciuto's at this club, that along with our current crop of second string players, we should be in good shape

how we let this man run our club for 5 years is beyond me!!!

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Very very true, he held out until he was told by Adelaide that they were getting Carey before he re-signed with Freo. Port thought they had him but supposedly he was only interested in coming to the AFC and was supposedly told that if the Carey didnt commit to Adelaide that we would then be going after him.

That's how I remember it also.

Don't know how many here saw the Port v Freo game or the Essendon v Freo game but the Pavinator is in tremendous form right now. He'd make a huge difference to any team with a good midfield.

I thought at the time that picking up Carey was a mistake by the Crows. When he hit some good form later in his second year at AFC it did make me wonder whether he had come good but then he bashed his knee against a goal post as I recall and that was the end of him really. IMO he was past his best in his last year at North. Then he had a year out of football. As good as he had been it was hard to imagine even at the time that Pavlich wasn't the better option. Certainly that's how Port saw it but as you said he didn't appear interested in coming to Alberton.

 

[CrowHop]

You are only basing that on speculation, who knows if Mathew Pavlich wanted to come home. By the sounds of it he has impeccable amounts of integrity and may have stayed to get the job done in Fremantle.

As for today – it’s time we forgot about Pavlich and looked towards developing our own long term players.

James Sellar is the new Warren Tredrea – only likable

I can vouch for it, Pav wanted to go home.

 

[CrowHop]

I didnt mind Ronnie Burns coming here, he cost us nothing (in $ and in draft picks) and Carey was worth a stab. The biggest blunder was our drafting/recruiting from 99 to 03. On the whole it was a mess. I remember at one stage we had noone on our list under the age of 20 except Fergus Watts who was 19.