In regards the late 80s and early 90s, I mean the Neesham era at Claremont. The club had a very good side, possiblly the greatest golden time of any side in the competion. What i would like to discuss is Neesham’s coach style – the kicking it side ways, backwards, around corners and every which way.
How far did Neesham invent the ‘possession style’ of football that pervades the code these days? Also, does anyone remember the shepherd tactic Claremont used in their play?
hey gtr: thanks. I think your right about Subi under Bunton. We had a habit of buggerising about with the ball something chronic. I used to joke that our aim was to blind the opposiition with our football stupidity at times. I remember him being asked about it once or twice and he said it was the players whom decided what to do with the ball.
Ark going back to that America’s Cup Challenge, Subi V Hawthorn. Remember Alan Jean’s talking about Subis style of play in the exhibition match.Jeans stated he had no answer to combat that type of play because he had never seen it before.
The same goes for run on football.We where playing that style for a decade while the Vics where still playing the big mark torpedo punt footy.
From memory I think the 1991 CL side barely changed from week to week, they had a very stable side and backed themselves in to get the job done game after game which they did…bar Round 1!
gtr: I remember that game, thanks for reminding me about Jeans’ comments afterwards. From memory we kicked the ball back and across the ground quite often, usually through Phil Lamb and Mark Zanotti. Bunton had put together a good side which was unique to watch, you are right.
bh: the claremont side was a good one,at times they played among themselves. I am sure I saw Neesham and Rowland kick the ball backwards and forwards to each other three or four times, before EF finally manned them both up. Now of course, you can do that if you are in front on the scoreboard.
AR I always remember every week listening to Minno & John Irish Hayes on a Thursday night with their show Footy Teams For Saturday on 6NR and the Claremont side was virtually unchanged every week that year. Their team manager used to read the side out from the backline and by Round 21 you knew it off by heart.
Yeah at the WAFL level Cl were bullies…interesting enough tho a lot of those bullies were less than average at the next level when given an opportunity…didnt Neesham butcher a lot of Freo’s early draft picks getting some real duds back from over east?..Benny Allan was a champ tho…pity he had buggered knees.
Well i would of thought a lot of those bullies were " average" not less than average. The 1987 Claremont side had ex VFL players like Warren Ralph, Peter Thorne and Neesham himself. I don’t think any of those 3 had what could be called successful stints in the VFL. Of the player s who emerged around that time Derek and Dale Kickett, Ben Allan, Don Pyke, Tony Evans, Peter Mann and Jason Norrish where the stand outs in terms of VFL/AFL careers. Guard, Gilbert ,Delaney,Hutton,McGovern. Chisholm and Ridley were among those players who did not quite go on at the next level. I am sure i have missed many others.
Muir, Merrillo,Leach, Gilbert,Carroll, Edwards & Hutton are some names from memory…who made Cl a very strong WAFL side…I guess it was a case of Neesham knowing them first hand and sharing success with them
How many premierships did Neesham win all together?..EF, SD and Cl…must be on similar terms with Tuck at Hawthorn I reckon
Gerard Neesham was the architect of the chip & draw tactic - the Seagull started that in 1989 , and it culminated into a full blown across the field “keep possession” style.
What Seagull needed was a lieutenant (Scotty Rowlands) to marshall the centre & provide a dedicated link point onfield at all times during a game
VFL-wise - not one Vicco rated Seagull due to his less than successful stint with South Melbourne , and it took Kevin Sheedy to finally look at who Seagull actually was & the uncover his Waterpolo background - from then on the chip & draw was sunk
Came down to manning up & never letting the opponent out of a 2 cm radius - tactic fell apart pretty quick when a long kick took out quarter of Seagull’s lines as well
Very opportunistic fella , just went where the success would be and had the insight to see them
I reckon you’re not giving Neesham much credit their Southerner, I’ve never heard him being called the “seagull”, at Tigerland he was and still is called The General. He really was a general as he took charge and (due to his immediate extraordinary success) commanded great respect from everyone. He had a great ability to get players to play for him, in a different style to one of his mentors in Toddy, the general was more matey with his players and is still close friends with several of those blokes.
Scott Rowland played one season I think for one flag, 89, so to suggest he was a key figure in Neeshams 5 Claremont flags is ridiculous.
Yes, the majority of his Claremont Dockers failed at afl level along with the majority of his other WAFL recruits, - Mildenhall, the Parkers, Gooch, Clarke, Miller,Rowe, Clucas, there’s a heap of more names I can’t remember now, and his afl recruits were hopeless, - Nettlebeck, Hynes, Godden, Watters, Ridley, the names go on and on. I think recruiting was more his and Fremantles failures.
Freezin, Neesham was involved in 8 WAFL flags, Swans 83, 84, Sharks 85, Tigers 87, 89, 91, and 93 as non playing coach.
My favourite line from those premiership teams was the half backline from 93, Kickett had returned halfway through the season from Fitzroy and was a revelation as a forward turned defender, 19yo Daniel Southern had chosen to play a year of WAFL rather than accept Footscrays offer and was probably the best chb in the league and Quentin Leach had developed into a player every recruiting officer in the nation was looking at and later became one of the first players Neesham chose for Freos squad.
Glad you mentioned JT - he was one of the biggest influences on Neeshams’s career in footy , that started at East Fremantle in the 1970’s while Toddy was coaching there.
Scotty Rowlands from memory was cleared to Claremont half way through one season (87-88?) and I thought he’d played more than one year there
Can’t find where I typed that he was a key figure in all of the premierships ???
General , Seagull , mercenary all the same just a footy tag mate no sweating on it there
No surprise Neesham and Todd eventually fell out, two very headstrong characters who wouldn’t have been very interested in differences of opinion!
I must also take my comment back about the Parker boys being dud recruits for Fremantle, Shane was hardly a dud!
Southerner-- you have describbed it well as the chip and draw tactic. It involved the over-use of the ball, and in that sense, is very similar to today’s football. Typical of the tactic too, was heavy sheperdding, much of which was controversial , because quite a bit of it took place outside the ‘five metre rule’.
Rowlands transfred to Claremont during the 1989 season and played in the Tigers flag winning side in 1989. His last game was the loss in the 1990 grand final to Swans.
You have to give Neesham credit wherever he went in the WAFL success quickly followed.
He doesnt get as much publicity for his playing career as much as his coaching has but he was a very good footballer, not quick by foot but quick in the mind, read the play well, put himself in the right positions to win the footy and mostly distributed it accurately. He was bloody ruthless on the field as well who gave out a bit but took some also.
