Roast Uncle Reggie's "Dump on Mark Harvey" Thread

[Reginald Perrin]

As there are a few people getting their knickers in a twist when I rail against unsubstantiated claims regarding Mark Harvey's responsibility for our injury woes in other threads, I thought we could have a separate area where all the negative comments could be aired, allowing anybody the opportunity to avoid this thread and remain blissfully unaware of my opinions.

Personally I think we owe Harvey our gratitude for getting our list in the best shape its ever been in. I believe he was poorly treated by the club, and continues to be poorly treated by some supporters without any justification.

Some will say that all the positives that came from his tenure as senior coach were provided by other coaches/staffers, yet all the negatives are laid squarely at his feet. This is pure bullshit.

Here is your opportunity. Dump it all in here and leave the other threads clear and you won't have to put up with me banging on about it in your favourite thread. Get it out of your systems now, because I don't want to hear it when the season opens.

I'll get you started:

I didn't think it was right that Harvey carried Ballas boots off the ground after every game, I think he should have been instilling some discipline in the Mayor and making him do it himself.

 

[peppy la pew]

Freagles should not be allowed to make new Freds.

 

[Reginald Perrin]

Freagles should not be allowed to make new Freds.

I agree.

Just as well there aren't any on our board.

 

[Clay Davis]

Here we see Mark Harvey adopting the surfer look. A classic for the late 70s, but somewhat dated by the time he had pulled on boots for Essendon. The hair brushing across his eyes may have caused him many an injury, as it would likely have obscured his vision.

 

[Clay Davis]

A few years later, we see Harvey with a modified hairstyle - the mullet! Of course, once again Harvey has adopted the dated look; as shown by the 'AFL' logo, this is from the 90s. The fringe is still way too long and likely to cause injury to both him and his teammates as he will have reduced capability to see where he is going.

 

[Clay Davis]

The hair is a bit trimmer, but look out! Mark is spraying his premiership winning captain with some kind substance, no doubt to force Bomber Thompson into slipping over and relinquishing the captaincy, thereby letting Harvey ascend to the throne. A wily customer is Mark, indulging in white-anting very early in 1993.

 

[KePLOW]

I liked Mark Harvey. Up until now he was the best coach we ever had. He got the team playing for each other and instilled some pride in the boys for the Freo badge. He was great at empowering youngsters and had an interesting 'outside of the box' way of going about his work.

Unfortunately he was also a poor communicator. Confused the hell out of the playing group, the media and us supporters. He lacked tact on game day. He was always full of wonderfully exotic excuses (Eagles stole our game-plan WTF??). He also had at his disposal the most promising list in the country, but in the last year and a half of his tenure allowed said list to degenerate into a luckless rabble of injured players.

Say what you like about it the injury list being other people within the club's problem, but at the end of the day the buck stops with the head coach. One of the first things Ross did when he came to the club was make it clear that players being available was top priority. In other words, he's taking responsibility himself for the injury list.

It's cool that you liked Harvey bro. Most of us did. What people posting on this board need to stop doing is making taking their points of view to the extreme as you've done. I'm sure you weren't 100% happy with Harvey's performance so stop acting like you are. I know what you're saying though, none of us were 100% disappointed with him so all you really wanna hear is a little respect coming from here for a former coach... fair enough

 

[Freo88]

I didnt actually know you were sticking up for him Reggie because a few of your comments have talked about injuries due to harves.

I dont really have a problem with him but its hard not to get pissed when you see Mundy still struggling with injury due to quite obviously being brought back too soon.

I also didnt rate his experimentation in the pre-season last year starting zac as ruck rover for example. Also how he quite obviously had his favourites and wouldnt drop people. I dont think we will have that problem with Lyon as he has shown his form in dropping big players if their form warrants (Dal Santo, Kosi)

End of the day, it is probably wrong that we keep hanging shit on harves because we've got a heap to thank him for- like the guts to undertake a full rebuild and give us some hope.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

Mark Harvey:

Good Bloke? Yes

Rejuvenated our list? Yes

Rushed players back against medical advice? Dont know, but dont think so, Mark was blindsighted by the events leading to his demise, I doubt that he would have rushed a guy like mundy back, effectively ruining his next preseason whilst he was still under the impression he would be coaching. especially in a game that meant nothing..... I tend to lean towards blaming our medical staffe

Good communicator? No

Good Tactically? My instincts say no

As good a coach as ross lyon? No

Harshly dealt with? yes

Was it a good move by the FFC? My opinion is a resounding YES

 

[Clay Davis]

Having taken charge of an AFL team through subterfuge, Mark can now completely injure an entire playing list with a full complement of evil learned over 30 years. In this photo, he uses his 'crazy eyes' technique to confuse players and force them to run into one another. The person Harvey is looking at is unseen in photo, Rhys Palmer.

 

[Clay Davis]

Having finally adopted a more formal haircut and lost control of a playing list, Mark now sports a puzzling jumper with weird wrap around sunglasses. What look is he going for? One would suggest he is dressed as a Bond villain would - is this a hint towards his nefarious plans to injure the entire playing group of the AFL? Only time will tell.

 

[Clay Davis]

A little known training technique Mark Harvey employed was the 'threaten with fire'. Instead of pushups or laps after a mistake, Mark Harvey would caution that he could set things aflame just by looking at them. Used once on Daniel Gilmore.

 

[Clay Davis]

Chris Scott looks at Mark Harvey with bewilderment after Harvey declares Michael Barlow fit to play only one week after breaking his leg.

 

[leungtl]

Can I dump on this thread instead?

 

[Clay Davis]

Mark Harvey addresses Aaron Sandilands, telling him to stick close to Daniel Motlop, who may run riot if Sandilands doesn't stick to his new tagging role, and that Hayden Ballantyne is more than equipped to take the ruck. Note use of 'crazy eyes'

 

[Clay Davis]

Mark Harvey using crazy eyes on Rhys Palmer again, asking him to stick close to Fyfe, as Fyfe is running riot.

 

[Clay Davis]

When asked 'what does Fremantle stand for?', a flummoxed Harvey bites his tongue, and prevents himself from revealing that he'd rather none of the players were able to stand.

 

[Reginald Perrin]

Funny shit Clay.

I didnt actually know you were sticking up for him Reggie because a few of your comments have talked about injuries due to harves..

The sarcasm in my posts is sometimes lost because I don't use smilies, just pretend there's a rolleyes smiley in there.

I don't subscribe to the theory that Harvey was responsible for bringing injured players back early. They are either passed as fit by the medicos or they aren't. There is no such thing as "yeah, he's ready, but don't play him straight away or he might get re-injured".

Can I dump on this thread instead?

Its a free world.

 

[Arcassius]

As there are a few people getting their knickers in a twist when I rail against unsubstantiated claims regarding Mark Harvey's responsibility for our injury woes in other threads, I thought we could have a separate area where all the negative comments could be aired, allowing anybody the opportunity to avoid this thread and remain blissfully unaware of my opinions.

Personally I think we owe Harvey our gratitude for getting our list in the best shape its ever been in. I believe he was poorly treated by the club, and continues to be poorly treated by some supporters without any justification.

Some will say that all the positives that came from his tenure as senior coach were provided by other coaches/staffers, yet all the negatives are laid squarely at his feet. This is pure bullshit.

Here is your opportunity. Dump it all in here and leave the other threads clear and you won't have to put up with me banging on about it in your favourite thread. Get it out of your systems now, because I don't want to hear it when the season opens.

I'll get you started:

I didn't think it was right that Harvey carried Ballas boots off the ground after every game, I think he should have been instilling some discipline in the Mayor and making him do it himself.

Reggie I have always had a great deal of respect for your posts - but I think bashing Harves is poor form. He was a good coach for us and we should treasure his memory.

You should voluntarily card yourself.

 

[Reginald Perrin]

Reggie I have always had a great deal of respect for your posts - but I think bashing Harves is poor form. He was a good coach for us and we should treasure his memory.

You should voluntarily card yourself.

Is a yellow good enough?

 

[Nodgey]

Mark Harvey:

Good Bloke? Yes

Rejuvenated our list? Yes

Rushed players back against medical advice? Dont know, but dont think so, Mark was blindsighted by the events leading to his demise, I doubt that he would have rushed a guy like mundy back, effectively ruining his next preseason whilst he was still under the impression he would be coaching. especially in a game that meant nothing..... I tend to lean towards blaming our medical staffe

Good communicator? No

Good Tactically? My instincts say no

As good a coach as ross lyon? No

Harshly dealt with? yes

Was it a good move by the FFC? My opinion is a resounding YES

Absolutely 100% spot on, KPR.

I'd be hard pressed to come up with more than a handful of names who seriously think that Harves is a better coach than Lyon.

It was a brilliant and well-executed (pardon the pun...) plan for the club to poach Lyon.


FWIW I do tend to agree with Reggie a bit that the re-writing of history to hang shit on Harves is a little OTT.

Whilst the head coach does ultimately bear responsibility for the entire football dept (medical staff included) I don't believe that Harves is to blame for everything that went wrong in 2011.

Sometimes shit just happens. Some people, however, can't accept this and need to find someone or something to blame.

 

[Arcassius]

Is a yellow good enough?

Yes. Everyone in this thread should be carded

 

[Nickos66]

Great input Clay, keep it coming mate.

FWIW I tend to echo KePLOW's sentiments. The good was the pursuit and aquisition of elite young talent and no sentiments when calling the hard shots when chopping the deadwood, whilst instilling some much needed pride and respect into the team and players.

The bad, like KePLOW mentioned is a damning list also. It was also no secret that Harves and the medicos were at odds towards the end of the season, this was documented by Harves in one of his weekly chats with the shnoz on 7 news in the 2nd half of the year and was just one of many straws to weigh the camel down before grinding to an inevitable halt.

Some of his best traits were absorbed by our players which earned us much needed respect, this won't be forgotten, however those traits that he didn't posess could be the difference between us simply being mid tier and top of the ladder material.

 

[Lord Rod]

Harves was great in 2010. The forward defensive pressure,the newfound steel, and quality gameplan were rightly attributed to him and he was rewarded with a contact extension.

Then the wheels fell off. The playing of players out of position, strange gameplan and bad gameday coaching plus his increasingly bizarre media appearances are what sealed his fate IMO.

Nothing personal about Harves at all, but he simply lost the players, fans and administrations confidence. I'm totally convinced that the club has made the right move in replacing him with Ross but I guess we'll all know in a few years time.

 

[Seppo]

inb4lock

These type of threads never end well.

"It's all fun and games until someone loses a brain"