Why was Groom gone?

[gijoe93]

Hey guys I’m only 27. Die hard docker but the early days all I know is DVDS and YouTube! haha . But I know the trade we made with McLeod for Groom! But looking ar Grooms stats 18 goals in 7 games! Looks like he was probably worth the trade! Why was he delisted? All I can find out is that he did his knee at north and didn’t play much. Anyone remember what type of player he was? Was he any good? Also by Wikipedia saids he kept getting dropped!

 

[FD2646]

Hey guys I’m only 27. Die hard docker but the early days all I know is DVDS and YouTube! haha . But I know the trade we made with McLeod for Groom! But looking ar Grooms stats 18 goals in 7 games! Looks like he was probably worth the trade! Why was he delisted? All I can find out is that he did his knee at north and didn’t play much. Anyone remember what type of player he was? Was he any good? Also by Wikipedia saids he kept getting dropped!

Lanky full forward who was very good at state league level - kicked six in 1995 Wafl GF for West Perth. I can't recall him having many tricks and was your typical lead and mark full forward.

 

[freo1997]

Hey guys I’m only 27. Die hard docker but the early days all I know is DVDS and YouTube! haha . But I know the trade we made with McLeod for Groom! But looking ar Grooms stats 18 goals in 7 games! Looks like he was probably worth the trade! Why was he delisted? All I can find out is that he did his knee at north and didn’t play much. Anyone remember what type of player he was? Was he any good? Also by Wikipedia saids he kept getting dropped!

18 in 7 wasn't great back then. Wasn't terrible too.

Fitzroy and Freo wouldve been the only teams without a spearhead capable of kicking 50 plus around then.

Lockett, Dunstall, Kernehan, Sumich, Ablett, Osborne, Modra, Rocca, Longmire/Carey, Loewe list goes on..

 

[Wigarus]

Hey guys I’m only 27. Die hard docker but the early days all I know is DVDS and YouTube! haha . But I know the trade we made with McLeod for Groom! But looking ar Grooms stats 18 goals in 7 games! Looks like he was probably worth the trade! Why was he delisted? All I can find out is that he did his knee at north and didn’t play much. Anye1qq1!one remember what type of player he was? Was he any good? Also by Wikipedia saids he kept getting dropped!

He was left at the altar...

 

[Paracleet]

Still having trouble coming to terms with it Chris?

 

[CapitalA]

Lanky full forward who was very good at state league level - kicked six in 1995 Wafl GF for West Perth. I can't recall him having many tricks and was your typical lead and mark full forward.

So a Ben Brown

50

Ben Brown

Age

33

Ht

200cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.7

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.2

3star

G

2.2

5star

D

7.9

2star

K

6.3

3star

HB

1.6

1star

M

3.7

4star

T

0.9

2star

G

1.0

4star

D

8.0

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.4

4star

G

1.2

4star

? Lol

 

[BettercallSaul]

FWIW I was surprised at the time he and Greg Madigan didn’t get more of a go. Both weren’t world beaters but to be fair to them that squad wasn’t exactly brimming with quality.

 

[stax on the mull]

We had some other players and he was probably surplus - we likely through a combination of bad luck and poor assessment of our list after the first season as is often the case, didn't get right which of our players would have short or long term AFL careers.

I remember Burrows being a good player but he had a knee injury and never played in the 2nd season. Peter Mann was playing great football at centre half forward and there was Hunter, Hutton and Bandy kicked 4 in this first game at full forward. Then Clive was coming through as the No 1 draft pick and I think for a while we even played Jeff White

Jeff White

Age

49

Ht

195cm

Wt

97kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.5

4star

K

8.2

3star

HB

6.3

4star

HO

18.7

5star

No current season stats available

D

6.2

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

1.6

2star

HO

3.0

5star

as permanent forward.

 

[Kram]

Wasn't he pretty much completely injury riddled?

I thought I read once that someone at Adelaide was quite annoyed to lose him at the time.

I pretty much can't remember anything about how he played when he did.

 

[Kram]

Then Clive was coming through as the No 1 draft pick and I think for a while we even played Jeff White

Jeff White

Age

49

Ht

195cm

Wt

97kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.5

4star

K

8.2

3star

HB

6.3

4star

HO

18.7

5star

No current season stats available

D

6.2

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

1.6

2star

HO

3.0

5star

as permanent forward.

One article I do remember reading was White after being traded to Melbourne comparing himself to Michael Jordan in what he wanted to do for his new club, what a bell end.

 

[Rob]

Neesham made a few strange decisions about players - he clearly got sets against certain players and decided they were surplus to requirements. I remember Groom, he looked OK to me and I never really worked out why we were so quick to delist him. Especially given we had no decent key forwards. Peter Bell was another one - never got a go, was delisted and round 1 the next year he gets 22 touches and kicks 4 goals for North.
That year, we drafted Scott Edwards at number 7 overall, and delisted him before the start of the season. I shit you not.

 

[BettercallSaul]

Neesham made a few strange decisions about players - he clearly got sets against certain players and decided they were surplus to requirements. I remember Groom, he looked OK to me and I never really worked out why we were so quick to delist him. Especially given we had no decent key forwards. Peter Bell was another one - never got a go, was delisted and round 1 the next year he gets 22 touches and kicks 4 goals for North.
That year, we drafted Scott Edwards at number 7 overall, and delisted him before the start of the season. I sh*t you not.

Apparently it was Daniher who said “we have too many players with their arse too close to the ground”. Nek Minet extra P. Bell.

 

[StingBitten]

I've been watching the Dockers since age 6 and am now 36.

EDIT: If one person gets it I'll be beyond thrilled.

 

[Bender571]

I've been watching the Dockers since age 6 and am now 36.

EDIT: If one person gets it I'll be beyond thrilled.

 

[stax on the mull]

Neesham made a few strange decisions about players - he clearly got sets against certain players and decided they were surplus to requirements. I remember Groom, he looked OK to me and I never really worked out why we were so quick to delist him. Especially given we had no decent key forwards. Peter Bell was another one - never got a go, was delisted and round 1 the next year he gets 22 touches and kicks 4 goals for North.
That year, we drafted Scott Edwards at number 7 overall, and delisted him before the start of the season. I sh*t you not.

Ben Edwards.

 

[Farrand]

Didn't fit into Neesham plans. Not that he was anything special. We had plenty of average KPF like him, Krummel, Ridley, etc. Our game plan was way beyond it's time and Groom was a victim of circumstance.

 

[StingBitten]

View attachment 993875

You are the man the absolute man.

 

[Kram]

I've been watching the Dockers since age 6 and am now 36.

EDIT: If one person gets it I'll be beyond thrilled.

Only took me 2 days to catch on.

 

[Wilksyy]

Ben Edwards.

Ahhh Ben Edwards

Next they selected Ben Edwards, a slightly built utility from Claremont. As he was a Western Australian, the Dockers could have taken Edwards before the draft. For reasons known only to them (former coach Gerard Neesham declined to tell us), they instead wasted their prized pick seven. Edwards has the rare distinction of being one of the few AFL draftees to be delisted by their club before the new season had even begun. We rate it as the worst draft selection made by any club in history.

 

[Paracleet]

Ahhh Ben Edwards

Gee thanks. Just needed to wedge in a round 7 2008 reference there somehow to really finish the job of cheering us all up properly.

 

[fnerd]

Yeah I remember that ....drafting a bloke we could've pre listed.,with pick 7 ,then delisting him before the season even started....fmd.
Unlike our McLeod tradetho it rarely gets brought up, surprisingly

Neesham was unique with his game plan but feck me he was utterly all over the show(most notably on the wrong side ) when it came to evaluating players abilities.

 

[Purple Jesus]

Only took me 2 days to catch on.

I still have no idea

 

[ThePope]

Yeah I remember that ....drafting a bloke we could've pre listed.,with pick 7 ,then delisting him before the season even started....fmd.
Unlike our McLeod tradetho it rarely gets brought up, surprisingly

Neesham was unique with his game plan but feck me he was utterly all over the show(most notably on the wrong side ) when it came to evaluating players abilities.

We had a fixed list size. He only wanted 8 local players, Edwards was the bottom of the list, so he was picked in the national draft. He philosophically didn't want to draft too many kids, especially not from over east. So he picked Clive (21 & a SANFL premiership player), Edwards, Brad Rowe (26 year old) and redrafted Jay Burton. Neesham didn't even attend the draft. He wasn't interested. He didn't think it was the way to build a team.

He wanted 17-18 year old kids to do their 2 to 4 year apprenticeship in the WAFL before being drafted. He was the anti-GWS. Unfortunately the rest of the comp didn't agree, so we ended up with a bunch of good ordinary/already peaked 23-27 year olds with no growth prospects.

As for Groom, in the recent Freo history book, Smart and Neesham talk about the Groom/McLeod trade - and as much as they didn't know much about McLeod, they also didn't know much about Groom. When Smart actually saw him play (after trade was done), he realised that he wasn't the sort of player Neesham wanted. Remember, Phil Smart was the Claremont Colts coach, and had never seen any games outside of WA. And of course no youtube/7Plus or whatever back then either!

 

[Wilksyy]

We had a fixed list size. He only wanted 8 local players, Edwards was the bottom of the list, so he was picked in the national draft. He philosophically didn't want to draft too many kids, especially not from over east. So he picked Clive (21 & a SANFL premiership player), Edwards, Brad Rowe (26 year old) and redrafted Jay Burton. Neesham didn't even attend the draft. He wasn't interested. He didn't think it was the way to build a team.

He wanted 17-18 year old kids to do their 2 to 4 year apprenticeship in the WAFL before being drafted. He was the anti-GWS. Unfortunately the rest of the comp didn't agree, so we ended up with a bunch of good ordinary/already peaked 23-27 year olds with no growth prospects.

As for Groom, in the recent Freo history book, Smart and Neesham talk about the Groom/McLeod trade - and as much as they didn't know much about McLeod, they also didn't know much about Groom. When Smart actually saw him play (after trade was done), he realised that he wasn't the sort of player Neesham wanted. Remember, Phil Smart was the Claremont Colts coach, and had never seen any games outside of WA. And of course no youtube/7Plus or whatever back then either!

For all of Neesham's faults, it's also important to remember the poor fella only had a staff of three to help him out.