Wayne Campbell - How good was he ?

[Harvey Leadpipe]

This is one I never heard before. That is outrageous. Those carnts should be named publically. That game against Melbourne killed our club, broke a lot of hearts, again lost the club many of the supporters that went away between 1985 and 1995, destroyed the football credibility that took years for us to regain after SOS.

I would dearly love to know which players were having a laugh while I was surrounded in the outer by Richmond fans bawling their eyes out.

Agree. I remember the Sunday morning after the 1995 Preliminary final against Geelong when we were belted, watching the Ch.7 footy show with Rex, and Nick Daffy was a guest. Now I know that the season had ended, and the players were going to let their hair down in some way or another, but he was banging on like they'd just taken out the Soccer World Cup. He turned up utterly blind (and I'm not one to begrudge him that), and belted out crap like "Oooh yeaaahhhh, we've done extremely well this year. I'm sooooo proud of the boys, we've had a maaaaaaassive year, such a greaaaat year for the fans, I hope they're proud of us toooo!"

1995 was a pretty decent year, but I'm damn sure none of us wanted it to be a one-off. I would have been ok with his responses if he had also told us that no matter how big the night before was, the boys wanted to make up for being belted by Geelong, and that they'll do everything they can to go one or more better the next year. But it seemed that they were more than content just getting close. The word that gets bandied around other teams scandals is "culture", and although nothing of huge substance ever came up, it wouldn't surprise me that this certainly was the culture at Punt Rd for a long time. ie "Close enough is good enough, let's hit the piss".

Glad all those useless **** are gone. Let us fans have a party culture when you're playing in a winning culture.

 

[Haggard H]

Great post. Your parents must be so proud.

Not at all. Bradley might not have been the toughest going around, but he was more influential and damaging in many many more games than Campbell. The way I see it is that Campbell at his peak would get his 30 touches a game, every game for 6 weeks in a row. Yeah, pretty good. But he wouldn't directly influence the result of the match. His possessions were often cheap handballs and his kicks short to positions that didn't hurt the opposition. You couldn't stop him getting his 30 touches, but teams didn't worry about putting any time into him because they didn't have to. They knew that no matter how many times he got the ball, the damage would be minimal, and that his direct opponent would be more valuable getting the ball himself rather than being a stopper on WC.

Don't let your one-eyed parochialism cloud your judgement here.

As another poster said, a good ordinary footballer.

I know life is tough for you guys at the moment, but if you're going to try something as complicated as subjectivity, then a little introspection would be a good idea (as foreign as the idea of taking a good, hard look at yourselves is down at "Sell Our Soul For the Corporate Dollar Park")

 

[Goldust]

DISPOSAL wise - he was the toe-pick king!!!

Got it plenty, hurt you rarely.

Simple truth, that would have been enough to elevate his status if he were part of the Kangaroos premiership successes, or wherever else...an honest toiler for us incapable of lifting us a rung or two!

 

[deliberate!!]

The king of the cheap stat. Pretty much invented the handball to a teammate under pressure so they had no choice but to give it straight back to him, inflating his own stats. Might have got a whole stack of the footy, but you need to ask yourself how many matches did he have a direct, pronounced influence in?? I think you'll find not many.

I don't care that u come from Carlton 'Snoozer', but there was never a truer summary of Campbell........u were right on the money, mate.

That guy oversaw a generation of the RFC going short and st@ffing around with the ball....
Just like Lambert before him...

The amount of times Campbell air kicked the ball that landed on the goal line,
instead of kicking through it, used to drive me mad....
He handballed to guys in trouble, to get himself out of trouble...
Short stepped....ran on the spot.......stopped, propped, and killed any team flow momentum so he could get his picture taken....and we relaced Knighter with him.....ha

I want to wrap up Frawley and Campbell in the one 'nightmare waste of time' big bag and forget about them....

Forget em...

 

[IDGAF]

Agree. I remember the Sunday morning after the 1995 Preliminary final against Geelong when we were belted, watching the Ch.7 footy show with Rex, and Nick Daffy was a guest. Now I know that the season had ended, and the players were going to let their hair down in some way or another, but he was banging on like they'd just taken out the Soccer World Cup. He turned up utterly blind (and I'm not one to begrudge him that), and belted out crap like "Oooh yeaaahhhh, we've done extremely well this year. I'm sooooo proud of the boys, we've had a maaaaaaassive year, such a greaaaat year for the fans, I hope they're proud of us toooo!"

1995 was a pretty decent year, but I'm damn sure none of us wanted it to be a one-off. I would have been ok with his responses if he had also told us that no matter how big the night before was, the boys wanted to make up for being belted by Geelong, and that they'll do everything they can to go one or more better the next year. But it seemed that they were more than content just getting close. The word that gets bandied around other teams scandals is "culture", and although nothing of huge substance ever came up, it wouldn't surprise me that this certainly was the culture at Punt Rd for a long time. ie "Close enough is good enough, let's hit the piss".

Glad all those useless **** are gone. Let us fans have a party culture when you're playing in a winning culture.

Always loved your work Harv

No exception there .

After shocks have been shuddering through our club ever since that finals series . It`s almost as though that victory over the bombers that year was like winning a premiership

3-4 year lucrative contracts were handed out all round , obviously with precious little "incentive" based clauses in them ... and the rest is history .

I can handle the late eighties and early nineties because fact is we were the "Namibia" of the AFL with barely the shirts on our backs , massive credit to the people that helped claw us back from the brink , KB included ... finally we bore fruit in 95 and promptly pissed it up against the wall ...from that period up until now has been nothing short of disgraceful ... players who have been weak of mind and weak of spirit

Who`s to blame ? ... you could point the finger in many directions , but your right Harv , i truelly believe the bulk of that playing list from that period were more than happy to stick thier cue in the rack and say "Well ... that`ll do me , i`m on the big coin now ... salad days " .. and promptly invested in bars and restaurants which relegated footy to about the 4th most important thing in thier lives .

Where Wayne Campbell lies in all this ... i really can only speculate because unless you were then you don`t really know do you .

One thing i will say , i don`t hold it against him for that moment of wanting to pull the pin and shoot through , he was obviously very professional and did give it his all when it came to his footy career ... and when it was obvious that we were lurching towards another downward spiral , i don`t blame him for re-assessing where his future lay ... they worked through it and he stayed .

In the end - i would say he was more than a handy footballer who ended up being tarred with the brush that unfortunately was used to douse a fair few of his ordinary team-mates

Also , no-one has mentioned the fact that him and knighter had to carry the burden of the midfield for 5-7 years on thier own shoulders .

How do you think things may have turned out if Messrs Maxfield , Lambert and Free had have been there a few more years ... throw porky Broderick into the mix as well ... pretty potent bunch if you ask me .

History treats WC a little too harshly for mine

 

[IDGAF]

Cons:

1) Selfish early in his career. Worried more about his stats than winning games
2) Gutless. Always looked over his shoulder when he got the ball in case he got crunched from behind
3) Never got reported
4) Didnt put Liber in a hospital when he should have
5) Sucked up to Frawley so he could be captain
6) Wanted to join North
7) Nick Daffy's flatmate and best mate
8) Threw me out of the Swan more than once

His biggest sin is that he was a senior player in a group that kept choking on the last match of the year when we needed to win to play finals.

LMAO @ all of them

 

[Woodstock]

A pet hate of mine is when people use this line of agrument.

When a poster asks how good was so and so, I think it goes without saying that the question is suffixed with "by AFL standards".

Going by your argument every player who has ever played AFL is a great player because they are better than 99.9% of the overall population.

Or is your argument that we mere mortals have never played AFL so we cannot judge those who have?

Either way its ridiculous.

What is ridiculous is that people not good enough themselves criticise others who manage to play 15 seasons of footy at the highest level. This is completely different to the player who lucks it for 1 or 2 games.

Doesn't matter who it is, be it Wayne Campbell, Craig Bradley, Marcus Ashcroft, John Blakey ... to play that much footy, the answer to the question is they were "bloody good".

It amazes me anyone could be stupid enough to pick holes and suggest otherwise.

 

[IDGAF]

What is ridiculous is that people not good enough themselves criticise others who manage to play 15 seasons of footy at the highest level. This is completely different to the player who lucks it for 1 or 2 games.

Doesn't matter who it is, be it Wayne Campbell, Craig Bradley, Marcus Ashcroft, John Blakey ... to play that much footy, the answer to the question is they were "bloody good".

It amazes me anyone could be stupid enough to pick holes and suggest otherwise.

Pretty close to the mark

 

[Madtiger2006]

Cambo was a very good reliable player. Good skills, good footy brain and would almost always do something good when he had the ball and was always good in a one on one contest. His experience was great for the team in his last couple of years. His knockers have ignored his many great qualities and they have focused on his not so strong points only. I'm sure his knockers are all closet supporters who don't even bother turning up to games or maybe they are the ones who get smashed at every game and don't know what end of the ground the ball is at

 

[Heisenberg_]

was a very good player for the Richmond Football Club, anybody who says otehrwise is lying to themselves.
And if we were guaranteed that our first pick (13) would turn out to be nearly as good as Cambell we would take it every time no matter what a sh*t wrap he gets

 

[Ando_4]

Very good player but well short of great.
Probably our 4th best player in the last 20 years behind Weightman, Richardson & Knights.

 

[oxx]

Is Campbell guilty of holding the club to ransom and,for his early career,
was he in fact "bigger" than the club ?

Does the s h i t side of Bowdens attitude and arrogance stem from Campbo
and/or the years questioned afew posts back ? ?

I rekkon those players were Bullus,Campbo,Daffy,Joel,...u could guess if u tried.

 

[Madtiger2006]

Is Campbell guilty of holding the club to ransom and,for his early career,
was he in fact "bigger" than the club ?

Does the s h i t side of Bowdens attitude and arrogance stem from Campbo
and/or the years questioned afew posts back ? ?

I rekkon those players were Bullus,Campbo,Daffy,Joel,...u could guess if u tried.

Bowden plays cocky, tries to baulk every player and kicks grass cutters deep in defence. Campbell was always reliable and safety first. Bowden is just himself

 

[Big Punt]

What is ridiculous is that people not good enough themselves criticise others who manage to play 15 seasons of footy at the highest level. This is completely different to the player who lucks it for 1 or 2 games.

Doesn't matter who it is, be it Wayne Campbell, Craig Bradley, Marcus Ashcroft, John Blakey ... to play that much footy, the answer to the question is they were "bloody good".

It amazes me anyone could be stupid enough to pick holes and suggest otherwise.

I agree that anyone with that sort of longevity in AFL has at the very least a claim for the "very good" category. But that doesn't mean:

• They are "untouchable" and cannot be criticized
• That us mere non-AFl playing mortals cannot express an opinion on him - positive or negative

Whilst many of the posts on this board are mindless and unjustified to players the likes of Campbell, it amazes me anyone could be stupid enough to deny anyones right to make a valid criticism of any player no matter how how great the criticisee and no matter how much football skill the criticiser lacks.

 

[deliberate!!]

What is ridiculous is that people not good enough themselves criticise others who manage to play 15 seasons of footy at the highest level. This is completely different to the player who lucks it for 1 or 2 games.

Doesn't matter who it is, be it Wayne Campbell, Craig Bradley, Marcus Ashcroft, John Blakey ... to play that much footy, the answer to the question is they were "bloody good".

It amazes me anyone could be stupid enough to pick holes and suggest otherwise.

Completely idiotic statement.....that's the dumbest justification for a long career I've ever heard....

You can play 20 years in a club that goes nowhere, when you're surrounded by team mates who are crap.....you can be just a little bit better than crap, and outlast those 1 gamers......but you're still crap..

Stop looking through rose coloured glasses....

Did you guys actually go the games.....or watch it on TV again....

Shees..

Campbell was wallpaper as a Captain....
I wouldn't follow him down a dark lane...
Johnson is Wallpaper Captain V2.

 

[wart101]

Completely idiotic statement.....that's the dumbest justification for a long career I've ever heard....

You can play 20 years in a club that goes nowhere, when you're surrounded by team mates who are crap.....you can be just a little bit better than crap, and outlast those 1 gamers......but you're still crap..

Stop looking through rose coloured glasses....

Did you guys actually go the games.....or watch it on TV again....

Shees..

Campbell was wallpaper as a Captain....
I wouldn't follow him down a dark lane...
Johnson is Wallpaper Captain V2.

Completely Idiotic statement......THAT THE DUMBEST JUSTIFICATION FOR JUSTIFYING YOU REASONS FOR THINKING THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR HAVING A LONG CAREER.

ummmmmmmm, wayne campbell is a good player, ummmmm, shinned at times, was he criss judd or a micheal voss or even a wayne carey? i think you all know the answer to that question and with that answer you can answer How good was he.

good enough to play AFL ******** yea but was he elite like some of those names above ******** no!

Problem solvered, how good was he? he was as good as wayne campbell.

 

[UpTheGuts]

This is one I never heard before. That is outrageous. Those carnts should be named publically. That game against Melbourne killed our club, broke a lot of hearts, again lost the club many of the supporters that went away between 1985 and 1995, destroyed the football credibility that took years for us to regain after SOS.

I would dearly love to know which players were having a laugh while I was surrounded in the outer by Richmond fans bawling their eyes out.

early in Q3 that was too...

Walls has said that in the 96 preseason the players were constantly in the rooms watching a replay of the 95 semi win. what could have been eh...

 

[1980]

What is ridiculous is that people not good enough themselves criticise others who manage to play 15 seasons of footy at the highest level. This is completely different to the player who lucks it for 1 or 2 games.

Doesn't matter who it is, be it Wayne Campbell, Craig Bradley, Marcus Ashcroft, John Blakey ... to play that much footy, the answer to the question is they were "bloody good".

It amazes me anyone could be stupid enough to pick holes and suggest otherwise.

You've just described Danny Frawley's career as a player. You should be embarrassed.

 

[1980]

Always loved your work Harv

No exception there .

After shocks have been shuddering through our club ever since that finals series . It`s almost as though that victory over the bombers that year was like winning a premiership

3-4 year lucrative contracts were handed out all round , obviously with precious little "incentive" based clauses in them ... and the rest is history .

I can handle the late eighties and early nineties because fact is we were the "Namibia" of the AFL with barely the shirts on our backs , massive credit to the people that helped claw us back from the brink , KB included ... finally we bore fruit in 95 and promptly pissed it up against the wall ...from that period up until now has been nothing short of disgraceful ... players who have been weak of mind and weak of spirit

Who`s to blame ? ... you could point the finger in many directions , but your right Harv , i truelly believe the bulk of that playing list from that period were more than happy to stick thier cue in the rack and say "Well ... that`ll do me , i`m on the big coin now ... salad days " .. and promptly invested in bars and restaurants which relegated footy to about the 4th most important thing in thier lives .

Where Wayne Campbell lies in all this ... i really can only speculate because unless you were then you don`t really know do you .

One thing i will say , i don`t hold it against him for that moment of wanting to pull the pin and shoot through , he was obviously very professional and did give it his all when it came to his footy career ... and when it was obvious that we were lurching towards another downward spiral , i don`t blame him for re-assessing where his future lay ... they worked through it and he stayed .

In the end - i would say he was more than a handy footballer who ended up being tarred with the brush that unfortunately was used to douse a fair few of his ordinary team-mates

Also , no-one has mentioned the fact that him and knighter had to carry the burden of the midfield for 5-7 years on thier own shoulders .

How do you think things may have turned out if Messrs Maxfield , Lambert and Free had have been there a few more years ... throw porky Broderick into the mix as well ... pretty potent bunch if you ask me .

History treats WC a little too harshly for mine

A lot of this is probably true.

But we cant discount the effect getting rid of Northey had. Maybe Sheedy would have taken us onto a premiership and taught a little reality to players like Daffy. Fact is, we didnt get him, and we lost what we already had.

 

[Snoozer]

I know life is tough for you guys at the moment, but if you're going to try something as complicated as subjectivity, then a little introspection would be a good idea (as foreign as the idea of taking a good, hard look at yourselves is down at "Sell Our Soul For the Corporate Dollar Park")

Bradley might not have been the toughest going around, but he was more influential and damaging in many many more games than Campbell.... Fact.

Not sure what doesn't make sense about that.

 

[tugga]

Bradley might not have been the toughest going around, but he was more influential and damaging in many many more games than Campbell.... Fact.

Not sure what doesn't make sense about that.

For what's it's worth, I agree with you, but it's hardly fact. It's your opinion, nothing more.

 

[cairo tiger]

professional, thourough, skillful, worthy, tireless, these are some words that come to mind, the fact is he played tirelessly for years for the club and achieved what we cretins may only dream of, playing for the mighty yelow and black...i do notput him in the champeeen class but a very effetive footballer for te tiges, thanks for all your efforts and your dignity campo

 

[Woodstock]

You've just described Danny Frawley's career as a player. You should be embarrassed.

Big Punt, 1980 & Deliberate - I'm not saying the players don't have deficiencies, all players do (except Chris Judd), they can work around it. I find it staggering though that people bag someone who's played so much good football at the highest level, who's made do with what they have, and been highly successful with it, especially when you the people bagging them haven't come anywhere close to that. You are free to express your opinion, as am I. However, stacked up against him in football terms, what does our opinions really count for ... NOTHING !!! Like him or not, Campbell deserves a bit of respect for what's he's done, especially from Tiger supporters.

It's a bit like bagging Richo because he's such an inconsistent kick and he's had a pretty ordinary temperment for most of his career. There's no way I'd bag Richo, that's him, that's what he does. He's still an out and out gun. These guys deserve respect.

 

[IDGAF]

Is Campbell guilty of holding the club to ransom and,for his early career,
was he in fact "bigger" than the club ?

Does the s h i t side of Bowdens attitude and arrogance stem from Campbo
and/or the years questioned afew posts back ? ?

I rekkon those players were Bullus,Campbo,Daffy,Joel,...u could guess if u tried.

Cambell and Bowden .... dunno

Bulluss and Daffy ... defineately

Exhibits A and B right there .

Never forget a Melbourne player`s comments after the last home and away in 98 when we did our usual "roll over and cop it right up the sphincter" when we had to win to make the finals

..." A lot of them were not even trying after half time , you could see they had given up ... one of them was even laughing and talking about where they were going to pissed that night "

That is not quoted word for word but that was the general jist of it , Strongly suggested that Paul Bulluss was the author of those comments .

 

[STANG-A]

Anyone remember Bullus getting dropped from the 94 Richmond v Carlton game at the oval in london? Missed training because he was in a pub or something? Funny bloke though.

Seriously, though, the back end of the '99 season, Cambo carried us, absolutely carried us. He was safe whenever he had a shot inside 50, and he often kicked the pressure goals. His 1995 was outstanding, and while a year doesn't make a player, he was one of the comps premiere midfielders for a few years there.

I thought he was really valuable late in his career, a wise head, good decision making, and despite what lots of people say, good skills. He wasn't perfect, but i think he was a bit better than some of you are suggesting. You'd have to feel sorry for him, playing his whole career at Richmond during our least successful period EVER! Lots have players have wanted to leave before him, i mean Weightman nearly joined Carlton!

Thought it was unselfish to finish on 297 games as well, he could have pulled a Wanganeen and retired mid-season this year, but i thought that was quite a dignified way to leave the game.