He rang and I don't reckon he could talk about thirty seconds when yeah, he was absolutely devastated, completely nutterly devastated. So as a parent, yeah, it's not a you know, it's not a death or anything. I'm unfortunate, but yeah, he was just I thought he'd misdied me. That's how I was talking to him to talk.
I'm John Ralph and I'm Glenn McFarlane.
Welcome to Sacked, a podcast that explores what really happens when the ax falls in the AFL world. Will take you behind the scenes with some of the biggest names in football and find out how they found out their time was up and who pulled the trigger. Sacked AFL is made possible with the support of subscribers to The Herald Sun. To find out more, go to Herald Sun dot com that are you or download the Herald Sun app at your app store today.
No regrets that David Nobles story.
Nothing came easy for the short blonde kid who spent his teenage years emptying the vending machine in his old man's pub in Hobart, finally getting the chance at Fitzroy with a home ground North Hobart, to be at the age of twenty one, Noble's league career pete it out at exactly two games in one season. He worked hard to become a coach, despite some big hurdles along the way, but found his calling in recruiting and administration with the
Crows and Brisbane. And yet when the chance to be the man at his own club appeared, Noble jumped at the opportunity, despite the monumental challenge that leading North Melbourne posed.
David Noble, Welcome to sacked, mate.
You've had an incredible career in sport avenue player, assistant coach, list boss, development, footy boss and now you're the see of motor racing team and you've got a some who players AFL.
Have you squeezed this into fifty seven years? Mate?
I'm not sure, Glenn. Here you going, John? Yeah. Look when you sort of I guess the will just keeps turning, sort of keep moving forward, you move on to the next task, and it's not sort of until you get to chat with guys like yourself in reflection that you sort of look back and go, holy moly, there's been a fever of groundcver there.
You're a lively skillful rover When you began your senior footy career at North Hobart. How did it you know, how did you get into North Hobart and how did your sporting and footy career start.
Yeah, my dad played at North Alfi John Noble and then dad was a commentator back in a a publican. I'm and Dad had pubs through Tazzy and so we're hotelier is through there and my dad was president of the aoh was national president at one point in time, and I ended up sort of working in the pub. I don't know if the child.
Labor is the right way you could get away with it?
Then well you could. Yeah, the intercom went, I had to go down and they count the twenty cent pieces out of the bingo machine and refeel the tills. So yeah, Dad played through there, played with junior footy for a cuples with North Hovard under a Danes with a guy called Wayne Upton, and then probably came straight out of school. Darryl Sutton came down from North and Sydney and started coaching North. I had a pre season through there as
a really young buck. As a seventeen year old. I was uck enough they let me train and yeah, I got my debut through through Darryl and yeah, I started from.
There and from there some really good success. You became a vice captain of the club, You won two premierships. There was the call to Victoria coming because I think there was at the Melbourne Footy Club. There was an interest there from Melbourne at one stage in eighty seven or something along those lines.
Yeah, yeah, I think so. Gary Davidson came on board and was probably ahead of his time. I mean David I'd come back from Richmond. He was a teacher by trade. You know. He loved the work that Parker had done in investing in in you know, his people and giving them a say so from that side of things, yeah, he was great. He pushed us to a new level of fitness, He challenges to a new level of engagement
and taking responsibility that sort of collaboration. Yeah. I'd seen a couple of guys, you know, I played against Maddy Armstrong and Lynchy and a few of those guys and they went early and I'm thinking, ship, surely I'll get a chance, But yeah, it wasn't until I was twenty one that I got the chance. And back then, you know, I distinctly. Remember that if you didn't get drafted in your early couple of years like he were toached, you
were just about, you know, not there. And you know, Arthur Wilson came down and spoke to me, and you know, God love him, and he's no longer with us, and I reconnected when I went back to Brisbane. Yeah, he recruited me.
And obviously James Podziadley was the marquee man for recruits ladder in their twenties. But was that something you said to John when he was battling away in the essay and Phil you know, take time. I was a late bloomer, because it's amazing to think that history repeated.
Yeah, yeah, it was. Was the was both the twins actually, I mean Mark didn't unfortunately get drafted, but it was it was just chip away, you know, continue to just you know, search for improvement, you know, continually look to improve and hone your game. And I've always had the philosophy roughly that I think, you know, recruiters will find you. If you're good enough, they'll find you. There's enough of them around as we know, and if you're good enough, you'll get found.
They found you. But you had to wait.
So Chris Grant was pick one five in the nineteen eighty eight National Draft. You were one hundred and eleven in the eighty nine National Draft as a twenty two year I think you missed it irrelevant. If you're the last pick of the NFL draft, you must have been pretty close to the last pick in that draft.
There was about four or five others.
I checked it up last night, David including it makes me feel there's a couple of good ones in there as well.
Yeah, well back then it was Look I think now, well I don't know about now, but when I was in the list, management did something. It got overseas and went to a few teams and looked at how they sort of did things in the NFL, and look, the lad of the draft, the stronger the character. That's what they ended up doing. And so I'm going to stand by that because one hundred and eleven means I've got a lot of character.
You did, and you came to a footy club that was you know, I had a lot of ta as you said before, a lot of tazzy guys that ended up.
At Fitzroy, didn't they in that sense? And coach by Curly Austin.
You had some injuries in that first year, but I hate to take you back to your first game. You did play it at home, but it was a pretty tough day though, wasn't it.
I'll get the cheers of the crowd because he comes from North ho but this is his home ground.
I'd get a touch here too.
Yeah. Debuted on my home ground and got thrashed by one hundred and fifty six points. And I played on garriers and at one stage, wow, I thought, oh yeah, I've got him covered and then I reckon. Within three seconds he was having a shot on goal.
What was it like to play with airs? You know that smooth mover, great mover through traffic.
What was he like? Easy?
Was?
He was Canane, the Barbarian.
He was apart from his size, is the the biggest cups I've ever seen in a life until I worked with Neil Craig. But he just didn't stop. Ralphie Like for me, it was just like holy crap, Like it is non stop the whole time. They don't rest, they anticipate, they predict where the ball went. And it was a great lesson like for me as a twenty one twenty two year old. It's like, you know, I've got so much still to learn in the caper. So yeah, it was.
It was a pretty big lesson well stats, whyse though, you've still had eighteen touches in a team that's been absolutely flowed, two tackles and one hit out David, Do you remember the hit out one.
Hit out there as well?
But that was Passy's first game in you know, first AFL, know AFL game at the time, in thirty nine years to be played there, did it mean something special to play it there?
And oh your family would have been there?
It was it was extremely you know, a proud moment to have family there playing my old home ground. Funny story though, because back then we got billeted out. We didn't start a hotel really, no, we had, you know, a couple of Terry Moore, his mum and dad had people start at their place. I started up a brother's place. Yeah. We And I think I think if the truth known, Ralphie and I know you had Rouzy on a couple of weeks ago, I think a couple of them went
and checked into a hotel somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, And back then it was like, you know, that was the way that we had to do it. I mean we had no money. A few always hadually have to pay for our own bags and boots and bits and pieces. It wasn't you know, the the improved or the glamorous environment that is at the moment.
So you had no money, but it was a pretty powerful side.
So you played again the next week and then not after How you know how many what ifs and how many close run things where they're involved in your career, Fitzroy.
A lot, I think unfortunately. You know, I did go and speak to to Sure at the end of the year and yeah, I said I was going to go and do an improvement program. I'd gone to get a speed coach and bits and pieces, and he pretty much said he didn'tink to make any difference. Gary Buchener at the time then got a pointed to Sydney and he rang me and said, look, they'd be keen to have
me in Sydney. And unfortunately I didn't have a manager back then and didn't know that I had to renominate for the draft.
And then you get to the Western Bulldogs in nineteen ninety eight for like a captivating period there under Terry Wallace.
Player rang me and said, looking looking for a coach for the for the reserves as it was back then, come on board. We still ran our own structure from a reserve ran on the smell of an early rag.
There was financial powerhouses early on there were.
Yeah, I like taking on those challengers and yeah, won a flag. It was was unbelievable, you know, to play the coach on the MCG and when a flag was is a very cherished.
Memory and how how much did they celebrate that given that you know flags are in short supply until twenty sixteen.
Yeah, it was a it was a bit of sweet because we got we got bold over the seniors got bold over in the premium again and we sort of were to sort of push through and win the flag. So it was it was it was an awkward b and F. You know, there's a few of us having a few drinks and there was like sort of a somber mode on the other side. So but yeah, any cis test success at that point in time, you know, for the Doggies was well.
Cherished and that was Plow in his prime. Really wasn't it As a coach?
Yeah, what did you take from from him in your coach coaching pathway there date.
He is the coach that I would go to for to make a move to win a game. Like he just had an unbelievable skill to be able to assess who needs to be where at what particular point in time. I mean, I think you could talk to someone like John O. John A would play six spots in one day, but the right time to have him or Brownie go forward or go back, or go in the center bounce like Plower just had an unbelievable understanding of the game.
And so I think for me, his detail of knowing what to do when to do was It's a bit innate, but he had a phenomenal ability to assess the game quickly and make quick decisions. I think back then to Glenn, you're able, you probably had more matchups than what you do now. You could legitimately have matchups. And his ability to maneuver and manipulate the team to get an outcome with their first class.
It's a great combination too, because he's got the tactical act. Remember then, he's got the themes, you know, signed the match balls. Yeah, absolutely as well. And talking about the flood game, but that's a pretty powerful union of both of those characteristics.
Yeah. Yeah, the flood game is an interesting one. We went down to Wriby, we marked out the field, the coaches all came in in trench coats into the meeting. This we were going in cognito to ambush this game. We went out, we had all the ground marked up in squares, and he nailed the execution, like to a t. We bowled them over comfortably in the end. And yeah, it was, it was a it was It was a master stroke game.
And so how long did you spend plotting out or you know, the blokes standing in those positions is for.
Those that you know this is the uber flood.
There was before the flood, before you know, Rodney sort of instituted it. And you know what was it that session like and did the players buy into it or do they have to be challenged to think?
We coun't be essident they had to be challenged. It's like it's got to be shipped me like we do on this. Really, it took us a couple of days to convince the guys. It was like, okay, you've got to fall back to this spot to really heavily inundate that area to not get through, and then we sort of stepped them through it, and then we went out and we trained it, and eventually the benefit was the player got them all united. We've got them all on the same page, which I think is the trade of
any game plan. If you are a strong leader, and you can have the worst game plan in the world, but if you're all united, it's the strongest game plan in the world. And that's what we had.
Absolutely and Plow you stood in for Plower in a in a pre season game.
Did you down in Tazzy? Was that one of the ideas? Yeah, what happened there and.
That must have been a you know, you must have been thinking at that stage, at some stage, I want to coach at this level.
Yeah. Absolutely, it's a great opportunity. I think player had a great sentiment, you know, in understanding that and us going back to Tazzy and he said, look a lot of the coach for the for the game down there back at my old home ground. It's a bit of a blur sort of, I think, Glenn, looking back on it now, there was just so much excitement, I think from my side of things to just probably not muck anything up, you know, so just knowing that you're sort of going to hand the baby back at a point
in time. So yeah, look at it was. It was great to be able to just take charge for a day and see the I guess the level that you sort of have to go to to get that next opportunity.
That was an incredible side that period there for the Bulldog not to win an AFL senior flag. Do you look back at that now and think some of these guys really deserve it? They put everything into it. How stiff were they, do you think nine in that sort of bracket?
Yeah, I was watching, I knew I was going there again of ninety seven and I'm cheering like crazy.
I still think it was a goal at the end of the day.
Clips time.
So right a point, what.
Do they do when they go yeah, yeah, Brett Montgomery does so he was standing wrong. Yeah, I think to see the guys like you know, Tonal Libritory that have worked so hard he had a need come back in the shortest amount of time to get himself back and going. You know, Maddie Croft, those guys, it's gotta wine that had sort of been through, you know, through that period, Grandy. I mean there's some there's some fabulous players that. Yeah, it's always an interesting one is that they do you
deserve to sort of get that, you know, metal. But here we were. We were a group that had the bones of our backside out. We were cap in hand to the AFL all the time, and we we battered above our weight, you know, for those two or three years strongly. It was. It was a phenomenal effort, was well led organization. David Smrgan did a great job to keep a ship afloat and we played some exciting footage through that period time. So we were a bit stiff.
Terry Wallace, we understand how to contracted Sydney.
He moves on, He's denied the farewell game betrayed, according to David Morgan, who later city regretted that, what's your memories of that crazy few weeks as you something's happening here, but I don't really know why Terry's leaving.
Then it obviously became clear.
Yeah, it's pretty clear in my mind because I got.
The at the end that you did that. Yeah, So they.
Put RhoD In Wrodeer coach the team for the rest of the year. He got the gig and look at me was I didn't gree but he had the respect to call me with me eyeboll and say, budgets maan cup, I haven't got a spot for her. We just bought a house. We're in debt up to our eyeballs, and yeah, we pretty much lost everything. You had to put the family in the trailer and drove to Adelaide for a job.
Well, so what do you have to sell your house? You know, it's it's as visceral as that.
Yeah, we had it. We bought a new house and invested. I mean back then, if you remember he went with that tween in a two thousand and two, you could borrow as much as you possibly could get from so we did, and yeah, it just it just didn't work out for us from a financial perspective. So yeah, we had we had to Wadelaide and basically had to reset our whole life.
Yeah, tell you what, I'm about to say the same thing. Yeah, I still let you borrow a heck of a lot. To tell you what, but how do you how do you break that to your life?
Yeah? Not very not very pleasantly. It's you know, you're the number one read winner, and there's a range of embarrassment and difficulty that's got to come with that conversation. And yeah, look, I just all though of a career. I think like she's the rock behind our family. I just can't thank her enough. She's just supported me and we're everywhere I've asked to go, she's gone. But yeah, to sit there and say, look, we have to find a job. We probably have to put the house on
the market. They called an election at that point in time, back into Victoria. Back then the market traditionally in those periods which I found out, you know, sort of during that since the market, real estate market flattens, you know, closing rates go down, and we had to sort of firesale the property to get ourselves out of debt. Well we didn't get out of there, but yeah, we just had to pick ourselves up and choof off with three kids.
You proud are your resilience throughout all that time. But everyone has stepbacks. But you know, they hit you.
Pretty hard, they do. Yeah, they they question you a lot. There's no doubt that life presents a lot of challenges for us. We've been been through some enormous challenges and just getting Our family started with all our kids in the IVF, and that presented its own challenges, you know, to establish a family. And that's why we were so down close. It's just because of the hard work and the effort that goes into establishing a family unit. But yeah, we think we're pretty resilient.
Punch Glenn and I she had to be here in Glenelger gather around this.
She did beautiful place, a magnificent place there with Jade Rowlings the coach. Now how did you find yourself a coach there? And what did you learn about it in that second chapter, third chapter of your life?
Yeah, I thought about going in the after I finished the reserves won the flag. We then ended up I don't know if you remember back then, you guys, we sort of dispersed players back out to the VFL. So we had some where we had some of Williams down Clark are actually coached whereby at that point in time. And then I sort of had that period I thought
maybe I need to go back and coach. I didn't think my footy profile was going to be enough to compete with like Rouzi coming out at three hundred games, and back then it was sort of more bad transition of players going into coaching. So glenelg advertised I had an uncle in Adelaide that sort of flipped me in text and said, I look, galdeolgo for a coach. I missed out on the North Battle job, and I missed
out on a job at Hawthorne Park. I think was still involved sort of through there and anyway, so I got the job of corne Elgen. Yeah, jumped in the car and we sort of drove over and settled in Adelaide, And yeah, I love thenfl a I love the cultural environment and the growth of club land. I think roughly like eighteen sixteen to eighteens, reserves, seniors. They operated on zones.
We had the Southeast, which was a phenomenal Boody renowned environment, put up and set up a footy academy there, which I think is still going today to really capture and grow those squad players as they came through, and really enjoyed the time through there. We didn't have necessarily great results, We've had a five year plan, but yeah, I really enjoyed the time there. Some great people.
Those five years at Adelaide as assistant coach. Before you move into list management, footy operations. Some of their great years, they're building years. There's some almost there's again for deep into finals.
Should have won at least one of them.
Two thousand and six was that the one.
I think it might have been five. We Craigie had a march over the whole competition, our preparation through that year, the way we trained, the way we used GPS. Yeah, the whole sports science, the methodology of how we played. It was a very clear method to what we and I think we kept. I think we just ran out of path at the end of five. We probably trained too hard towards the end.
Had a year in which Ru got Michael Schuter got pav virus. You had some you know, and people were questioning the methods, but they were methods that have got you to the brink of a Grand five premiership.
Yeah. So look, we tweaked a bit and maybe you're rightly maybe six is one.
Maybe got away finals.
Yeah, they were to finals and the one in for memory, the one in six was at six home, wasn't it.
It was at home?
It didn't get West Coast the eventual premiere as well.
Yeah, incredible, there's how close.
But there's there's a there's a funny storing there, but it's not for unfortunate, but it was it was a difficult, Yeah, it was. It's a difficult pill to swallow that one. We thought we had a cousins got out of control in the second half and dominated the game and we weren't able to put them away early enough, And yeah, we had to look at our wounds, and yeah, it was probably probably that one. Being at home was probably the one that really stung the most.
You were there as the list boss and you know, predating your time as a list boss as well, the Curt Tippet scenario. We're basically they know you might explain it to us better, but basically had provisions in his in his contract there that he could escape for you, what was it the second or third round pick?
And obviously that was exposed.
Later on and Stephen Trigue was well, the club was panealized with, as you say, a couple of first round picks. How did that break? What did you know of it? Obviously very little? And how did it play out?
I didn't know about the deal behind the scenes, but I was in the conversations with Phil Harper and myself in the conversation with Sydney, and yeah, it was like, holy crap, this is this is rather serious.
The Kurt Tippets saga has taken a sinister twist, with the Adelaide Crows facing a hefty fine and a loss of draft picks. The club has admitted having a hidden clause in Tippett's last contract, agreeing to exchange him to the club of his choice for a second round draft pick.
Look at it got escalated to Rob Chapman and from there, you know, we opened the doors to an investigation, and yeah, weended up coppying some unfortunate some stuff got suspended and we copped some Yeah, I missed out some picks and we had to sort of pigreess I was up and keep going. So it was it was an awkward, difficult time. And the silly thing was that there was room in the cap if we wanted to, I think for a memory of what we were trying to pay Kurt, there
was actually room in the to do it. Like it wasn't like we were capped out, but.
Incredibly awkward time at the club. Were so many things going on, and and Dean Nayli's there for a period of time and and Dean unfortunately has that penalty and then passes away. How awkward was that and how difficult was that for the club at that time?
It was bloody awful, Glenn, to see a guy who I'd known for a long period of time be castigated in the way that I think he did. I'm not suggesting, I mean the truth always somewhere in the middle with all of these these ways. But I spent a lot of time with Baos behind the scenes. He helped me put a lot of things together in less management. His
counsel was. It was just so clear he was great Forcindo and it was it was just such a sad period of time to see him and I have I have personally have no doubt that the stress caused his illness one hundred percent. You know, he would never necessarily reflect on it for too long, but you could tell it absolutely burned him to the core. It as to how he was he was treated.
It can break someone. And again we all feel like at times clubs.
Did things to maximize their draft picks, but issue was not that was issues that the AFIL never pulled it up, and so it became encouraged and it became almost.
Normalized as well.
And yeah, horrible, horrible time, Patty Dangerfield. So I mean, yeah, you lost a free agent, or he didn't lose him as a free agent, or you know, you didn't officially match the deal. Obviously that that became a trade. It was at nine to eight nine, twenty eighteen, Gore, what was that period? Like, you know how long before that was just obvious that Paddy was going to go home. So you couldn't really do much to stop it.
He and I had a deal Ralphie that he would tell me before I'd tell anyone else. He's good made of mine. We had a great relationship. He came two weeks before he told Paul Paul he probably does now, but and I just said, just just give me a bit of a heads up. I said, I just probably need to get my head around how to plan that for us internally. Bits and pieces. We went over to a little Italian restaurant over in West Lakes and he sat down and I said, you're leaving. Yeah, yeah, he says,
time for me to go home. I said, you can give you one more ye, because said I think we're really close. He said no, I can't, he said, Marty's needs to go, and which was fine. So then what we did through that list management period, what I did was I looked at what we were losing, not in regards to Paddy days, for I looked at the skill set we were losing. It was like, what are we losing. We're losing stop each strength, we're losing running up, we're
losing areel, we're losing goal keeping power. And we went to work on pulling some of those components together through a different mechanism. We were never going to be able to pull one person through that. We had to go about it a different way, and we started to replace some of those parts over the next year or two so that we didn't feel like we were completely diminished in any one particular era. So we tried to reconstruct
it in a different way. That was sort of a methodology I think of list management.
And it feels like you got the absolute top dollar for him in terms of a trade, because I assume that first round compensation pick you're a reasonable side. It might have been I don't know, ten, twelve, fifteen.
As a single.
Yeah, yeah, well he was great. He rang and he said, look once that couple of weeks sort of played out. He said, let's sit down and get our heads together. We went to the AFL on quite a few options. Back then they were prepared to give us their first round if the AFL would also give the compensation. I think that was fair. I went to Andrew Dyllon and said, can we take points and add that points into to a pick to sort of move our picks up so that we don't I guess I suppose you do going,
but don't add any more picks into the draft. Back then they didn't want to sort of do that. We came up with a range of different things and Wellsy and myself, I think red he was sort of with us at that stage. We calibrated a deal and I went to the board and I said, well, look it sort of on a point scale. It's sort of a quest of this and I had to convince the board a little bit to accept it, and we moved on.
We had Brenton Sanderson sit in the very chair David, and he obviously was replaced, and you had a big say and a big involvement in the appointment of Phil Welsh. Can you take us behind the scenes in regard to that.
Yeah, while she was while she was a guy that was never going to apply really Yeah, yeah, he said, if my record's not not good enough and you can't work it out, well I'm probably not for you.
He was.
He was a unique character so much like yeah, yeah, and when we first got him in there, he nailed everything that we possibly do. Alan Stewart obviously worked with Phil back through Portland while she went to West Coast and then came back. And yeah, he in the exercise that we did in the interview. I don't think this is sort of being mentioned too much, but we run a scenario and I still do that with interviews now.
We ran a scenario. We had a five minute segment of tape that we hope that they hadn't sort of watched. We played it live and they had to Basically we were the coaches in the box and he had to coach for that five minutes. He was phenomenal. He just like making moves and what he would want and the data,
the want he had the whole picture. He just placed himself in that spot that Yeah, it was a no brainer at the end of the day, like he's nearly offering a job on the spot that was sort of how good it was.
And obviously we know the story there and he has the twelve. What sort of change did he make initially in there?
Was?
It?
Was it a phenomenal start. You know that he had.
There's some really good performances in that. We know that we saw a film.
As a coach, he saw he saw things I think leaning in people that they probably didn't see them in themselves. Like he was the first on with texts leadership buyers, not the first, but the first to provide that opportunity and really challenge him in that space. You couldn't have had a more positive coach at training like I'd never experienced. It was just there was no negativity. It was like the also bits got left and he just reinforced the
positiveness all the time. He got every coach on the training ground miked up, and he would send messages through the coaching group to pass on to someone up the other end. Rather than yelling, he would make sure that we were following that positive He was sort of right in that positive growth mindset, very clear on the methodology of how we wanted to play. There was no guess work, but there was still freedom to do what we wanted
to do. He was very big on the the defense needs to be structured, the offense needs to be freedom. And yeah, coming out of from Neil de Sando into Walshe it just gelled. It jelled straight away.
How do you forecast what he could have been? Like you talked about sliding doors moments. You can't say you would have been a coaching great, but I mean it's just, yeah, what could he have done over maybe ten years at Adelaide?
He would have won at least one I reckon would have won at least one flag. I reckon if not too. I just think he's not only his methodology but his ability to stay ahead of the game. You know, I think Ralphie he would work from four am in the morning and he being better at seven you'd just be exhausted. But he would be in yeah, way before anybody else would. He had a clear methodology as to how he played
his feet feedback for everyone. So he'd write a list of two key points for every player and he'd hand that to every coach on Monday morning and they were the enforcement points for everyone that we so so there was no mixed messages. He didn't want a scenario where there was mixed messages at all straight you knew where you stood wearing with him. There was no Yeah, there was there was no, but it wasn't in a nasty dictatorial way. It was just an honest this is where
I see you. And the players loved it. They love that feedback. I don't know when he would have been, Yeah, I think he would have been a phenomenal senior coach over a period of time.
And the morning of we know what happened obviously, the morning of, can you take us through how you first heard that that that feel was gone.
I got a call from the CEO about three in the morning, thinking it was beside the bed. I didn't again.
A players drunk or you know something, something.
One of those ones. I thought you might be a pocket doll or something. Anyway, phase rang again, and I picked up the phone and I sort of walked out of the bedroom and he said, our coach has been murdered. And I remember distinctly, I had the phone in my left hand to my ear. I didn't have I didn't have a stitch on, and I had my hand over
my mouth. And my wife walked out and she said, what's happened, and I reckon, I just stood there for about ten seconds and Fake said of you there, and I went, yeah, I just it was just like I just rose. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like I was in a dream.
Is that as challenging though, as a morning as you've had to have to inform people to bring the players together, had of that morning unfolded?
Yeah, it's it's just I don't know how scary as that I were, but it's it's as awful as it gets. It just no one can prepare you for it, just as Yeah, it's as horrendous as it gets to be able to. Let's say I was in the carriage I
passed through or four o'clock, was driving into Adelaide. We sort of there was myself, Chappy Phase and Emma bar There was a Forusma was the PDM at the time, and so we met and we we said and we tried to I don't know to strategizes the right word, but we were just trying to work out what do we do, like, you know, how do we handle from this who's who's here? We had won a Coach Heith Union, which who I talked to took the north with me. Was a great friend of mine. He was overseas and
he was really close to Walsh's like colleague crab. We've got a whole lot of host of things to do. Who do we support, who do we contact? What do we do? Yeah, and we just tried to work through I don't know a logical process. I think to see try to help everybody that we knew we were going to have to help throughout the day. Yeah, yeah, it was Buddy to was awful.
And that week so the game's canceled.
Eventually playing the next game, you know, emotional organic tribute, you know, which is cathartic, but you know, I still the grief.
He's there. It was a it was extraordinary period for the IFL and for Adelaide.
It was Campo, you know, coached the team. He was he was the senior assistant. We went to Perth. We put all the parents and partners or whoever wanted to come to Perth as and support makers, and we charted another plane. We fow all of all of our family and friends in as well. We played the game as best as we could West Coast. We was so respectful.
I remember the game finishing Ralphie was a game. It was one of those sort of really chilling, chilling in respectful times all of the one we came out of the box and the crowd had sort of started to clap for West Coast, you know, because they'd won the game, and then it just stopped, you know, as a sign
of respect of it. Just it just completely stopped, knowing we had guys you know, on the ground in tears and you know, just trying to deal with that, that emotional sense that our coach wasn't there anymore, and it was, Yeah, it was a pretty poignant moment.
And within a couple of years, this footy club's at a Grand final. You're not there, but the players what they're able to do. You look back now and you think some of those guys went through hell, you know, only two years earlier. Pretty remarkable effort and resilient effort from the group, really with a different coach at the helm, but pretty remarkable effort, isn't it when you think about it now?
It is you know, I think Pike inherited a really robust, resilient group as you see plant. It's yeah, it's something that you ever want to experience, you know, the the adversity, the emotion, the you know, the disappointment, the whole thing. So yeah, so when when Pikey came on board that they've been through to get themselves back into a Grand
final was great. And when I was up and brazy at that point, I was dueing like crazy and hoping that you know, they were going to finally get number three on the board.
In septem twenty sixteen. It's just a little not a regret. But do you think you've got a good bullshit right? Aren't you think what those guys went through with the Adelaide camp and the crowbars and the salut and all that kind of stuff, so you know the powerstance, you think you would have looked at these blokes and said, no, not for us. I know they were searching for different things, but is that something you think to yourself?
If I'd been there, I would have just said no.
Yeah, I spoke to those guys they wanted to do some work in Brizzie and I said no. You could sense it, So that's yeah, yeah I did, And that's just not for me. Look, that's diping what easy if you make to say now I suppose at the time, but my experience when they came and approached us at Brisbane, I said no, So that's why I think I would be in that bucket.
Hindsight, it was a decision you made.
But with another club, yeah, yeah, but they came and spoke to me about similar sort of things about you know, how we could sort of work through some goal setting and different ways of tracking brain waves and bits and pieces, and it just just it wasn't scientifically available to be able to do that. I had a guy who was working with me who was a doctor, and I said, and he helped me run my a moneyball model of Brisbane.
I said, oh, can we do this? And he went no into bukshit and I went, that's what I'm that's what I'm sensing. So yeah, yeah, look, I don't know at that point in time. You know who knows. It's it's probably too easy for me to say no. I wouldn't have done it, but only on the sense that I had that experience with a couple of conversations with those guys and I said no. Up there, I said that I didn't have any money so the program, so yeah, I said no, I.
Said, how were you last year Grand final.
You know, you're the man who's had a bit to do with getting the coaching and you had something to to do with those players to miss out the way they did last year. You and mixed emotions obviously with John as well missing out as well. That was a difficult Grand Final for you last year.
It was a crappy day that one. Yeah, it was, Yeah, it was for me. It was a really sad day. Yeah, I was. Yeah, in the end, I was for Brisbane. You know, it's like, unfortunately he got the the end of the stick. I felt through it all, and it was it was a really sad day for a guy that had done absolutely everything within his power from a mid season pick to play a certain number of games in a row and just he's totally committed to not
get that spot and I thought was extremely disappointing. But you know, unfortunately the seasons are made and you move on. But yeah, from from the other side, mate, yeah, there was a there was a huge element of me that was cheering for Brisbane, not not because John to get picked, but the sense of the work that you put in and you've seen it all come to night and you know it's my old team, so I played for you know,
it was nice to go back there and reflect. There's so many people that were still there at Brisban that remembered me run around in the twos wear number thirty eight. It was. Yeah, it was awesome get to I've got to spend some time without the Worsen before he passed away. So there was all that side of things that you've been able to sort of pull something together. And yeah, unfortunately they just I thought when they hit the front, I thought they were away. I did when Charlie kicked
the goal, they were just about over the line. But anyway, yeah, so it was, it was. It was a shitty day being a color supporter. I was sitting next to John Ralphie. He was giving it to me at that stage. How did John tell you that's a difficult thing to tell your dad that I'm not playing, and it'd be the first what I said. I my son deserved to be dropped, and yet in this case we're all shocked because his
former ben sacled through the season. Yeah, I'm a realist, I mean, and I'm probably as firm on him as any mentor as gots like if you don't deserve to be and to tell you about he rang and I don't reckon he could talk about thirty seconds when yeah, he was absolutely devastated, completely natally devastated. So as a parent, yeah, it's just it's not a you know, it's not a death or anything. I'm unfortunate, but yeah, he was just I thought he'd misdied me.
That's how I was to talk really, and how he's held himself out.
Yeah, the pride at which you know, you won't get the flag bap, but you'll have the respect of the football world for the way he's kept himself and has found a way back in this year.
Definitely.
Yeah, yeah, extremely, Like all our family is scremely proud of how he's held himself and what he's done. And he was there to support the guys whatever needs to be done. He was you know, he's a team player first and he had to go away and reflect on that and just try and make himself better. It's a bloody credit to him and he's played some ripping footing this year.
We didn't get you wanted to talk about North Melbourne, but I mean, I think some of the most captivating parts of this podcast have been people like Breton Sanderson and brend McCartney, you know, talking about what they did right but also wrong at a foota club. I think you talked about, you know, when you were appointed. You know, I should have done more research into the environment I
was walking into. How do you reflect I suppose on the year and a half of the roots and what you did right and you know probably how it unfolded, which was not the way you wanted it to go.
Yeah, what they do right. I think I sort of taught players, you know, sort of with the levels of standards and expectation and continue to sort of push yourself and being comfortable to be uncomfortable. You know, I've always probably prided myself, you go through the career sort of
vited with those sorts of I suppose examples. I've never been trying to take on a challenge that it's going to make you uncomfortable or force you into an environment of learning more about yourself, which I think, you know, I tried to. I look on the back on the fact and I think I took everything I possibly had into it. You know, I don't feel like I left not working hard enough or not trying to motivate or
challenge or improve. Yeah, I might have got a bit pointy at different times, but you know what, creating the high performance standards difficult and sometimes you know, challenging, and maybe some people misinterpret that challenge has been too aggressive. I don't know's that's probably for others to judge. But look, I really enjoyed the time there. I had a few challenges. The general manager moved, we had a change in chairman. I suddenly came in. Ben sort of moved, we were
sort of I landed into a period of COVID. So at the end of that first year, Bennie Cunnington unfortunately had had cancel lost the best player. Yeah, but they're just their cards that you dealt with. And in reflection, yeah, maybe I should have just looked a little bit further and deeper into it. Unlike face, I hadn't been at the cold face of vision and you know, sort of being into that point. But you know, I backed myself in and I had a crack and it didn't work out, But that's life.
Unfortunately, I don't regret taking it on. You don't regret taking that on at all.
I don't think I have regret. But yeah, no, I don't think I've got agree. I mean, I'm proud of achieving something that I aspired too early on. It took me a lot longer than I probably thought. But and look, I've probably ended up in a spot where I would have been anyway, you know where I am now. But yeah, it was it was bloody hard. It was really hard. I think, Yeah, it's difficult. I probably didn't I didn't expect the ferocity I probably got from media. I don't
have to say no disrespect rather than sit. Actually we wrote a few articles, but I didn't probably expect the ferocity. But yeah, I'm a big boy. That's what happens. You've got to take the good with the bad. And I take responsibility that I couldn't do enough to get the club into a position where it was, and at the end of the day, I'm responsible for that. But I don't think that responsibility is just all on my shoulders.
Yeah, And I think that's the thing, isn't that when things are going par shaped, or when you come to a club.
That just was so deep in a rebuild, there's always people to.
Who were looking for a scapegut, and sometimes the coach and then the whispering campaign starts, and look, I wrote that story about you know, we did it on the couch about you know you were pretty I think you said pretty pointed with the players in that Brisbane at the meeting after the Brisbane lost.
So what happens there?
You just you know, you're fiery, You're you're angry, You're keen to get the blokes to realize that they're not putting in as much as they need to.
Yeah. Yeah, and probably the level of competing this probably gets a bit gets the better of me. You know, That's why I probably reflected. I mean, Sonya and Ben were standing outside the door and still to this day they never came and said you need to apologize. It was like I was playing my old team. We've been not too bad in the first three quarters, and the family there there was a there was just a whole host of me going, oh, ship like this thought we'd
be better than this. And I was really I was actually really good in the box that day. I was even he sort of said about you said your box stuff was really good. I was pretty calm, and then I just came down and went, it's just yeah, it's just unfortunately and I should have spoken to them. I should have just walked away and just left it. But I didn't good learning. I mean, I had a good coach.
I had a life coach that I was working with at the time, and that was one of the sort of periods that we reflected on and pulled that apart as to how to sort of continue to move forward. But yeah, it just got better off.
And the hardest thing is, too, I think about these things to reflect because you know, the club said, oh, yeah, you know, he apologized, and that was fine, But then that feels a narrative that you had to apologize rather than saying, you know what I did what coaches coaches do, which is I read the right act.
And you know, we move on from there. So that's you know, and then and then it's snowballs.
Yeah yeah, and yeah, one thing these to another and someone to something else, and you know, that's that's what happens.
Not to lab the point Jason Harnt Francis, how challenging was that to deal with the player who everyone knew was the number one pick, who I think would acknowledge himself had a heap of growing up to do that to do you know, you knew you had two years to try and get the best out of him, but you also know that he knew he could bugger off, which is in fact what happened, you know, in his after the end of his fare year.
You of course had moved on by then.
Yeah. Look, one of the most talented players I dealt with. He just had unsore things in games that you just you couldn't teach, you know. Is just he reminded me a bit in that sense, like a he's probably gonna say Bernie. Vince had great awareness, like he could take a photo and he knew where everybody was. I remember reading an article about Cavendish and as you know, he's one of his thirty fifth spread in the in the
tour over the last week. He has an ability that as he comes into the last one hundred meters he takes it, he can take a photo and he knows where everybody is. That he's got a beat that in that stript it's called recall and which.
That feeling, and yeah, what would he have to do to beat him?
Correct?
Wow?
Yeah, and Rare and Jace had that. Jase had unbelievable recall and understanding and he was so frustrated as a as a young guy wanting to play his trade, wanting us to be good. That it just it just bought over. And so there was that element of balance of high end talent and he just wasn't, you know, mature at that point in time. That was just he was away from home. There was some difficulties of homesickness and frustration
with not playing well, and that's not playing well. So yeah, it was it was a challenge, but you know, he's a good person. He pop. I don't think any of it was deliberate, but he just he just wanted to be successful.
And there's nothing he did right. I'm in the club had to pick him. You've got the likes of Boomer Harvey, the AFL games record, hold of the mentor um. Some of the things just don't work out.
No, no, and some enviornuses don't suit and it's just you got to move on. Mind you. I think you said that it was either he or I, but we both ended up leaving.
What happened?
Yeah, yeah, you know when they when they perform a review that you could be in trouble.
So how last couple of weeks you're rooted.
Let's place it and then you know, I don't know was it a relief had you know, these the gory details.
But how did you get tell you're sacked?
No, I say it rang and we chatted on the phone. You want to catch up and I just said, look, yeah, I'm in trouble. What do you want to do? How do you want to sort of handle it? We chatted a few times over that night. Yeah, we were at a point where they needed to feel like they made it, needed to make a decision to the board, needed to make those decisions. I sent an email to son there that bite to pass on to the board, just to
thank them, you know, for the opportunity. And yeah, we got on with what you need to do in the next sort of twenty four hour spoke to the players the next day, had the presser. I think the players caught up for dinner. I sort of popped in to sort of say goodbye to sort of a few and then yeah, then started to work out get home and what I was going to do for the next to go and have a break.
Yeah.
But just HARKing back on your career and speaking about it now, you must be immensely proud of what you've been able to achieve in the game and what you're doing now, you know, to be chief executive officer of a racing team as well.
There's so much more to get to give, isn't it.
Would you like to get back into footy one day?
I don't think so. It's probably it feels a bit sad, but I don't. I don't think so. I think the aspect of tipping as much as I did in there, I think sort of led me to sort of moving into a different journey and a different adventure. I don't think I'll flick that into forty one night.
Thanks for listening to Sacked.
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