DAVE: Alright fellas, finals fever is in the air, Jonty, you and I have finals kicking off this weekend and…
JONTY: Yes we do, and it was interesting…
DAVE: Excuse me; I haven’t finished my intro yet. Let me continue….and it’s a very exciting time of year. Would like to talk now Jonty?
JONTY: I was just going to say that we mostly avoided the wild weather on Saturday and it felt like the turning point from the cold wintery days to having the smell of finals in the air.
DAVE: It was freezing when the breeze kicked in, but I understand where you’re coming from, the days are getting longer and we’re not far away from having some cracking sunny days in finals.
LIV GOLF
DAVE: Boys, it’s hard not to avoid what the Great White Shark is doing at the moment, with Greg Norman splashing the cash for the Saudi’s trying to entice some of the biggest names in world golf away from the US PGA Tour. If I gave you boys a semi-trailer load of money, and you were allowed to spend it on three players to bolster your local footy team, who would they be and why? Let’s start with you Jonty before you rudely interrupt again.
JONTY: (Laughs) I’m looking at it that I’m building a footy team from scratch, with players that I cover in the Southern League. The three that I’m going for, with instant success in mind and not looking for a prolonged stay at the top of the ladder, would be Marc Holt as my forward, obviously a legendary figure in these parts. He’s been a bit quiet of late but is ready to explode in finals and is a massive presence up forward. In the midfield, Nathan Freeman has come to Dingley and really bolstered them, he adds a new dimension with his proven ball-winning skills, and then I’m going to Hampton Park and selecting Sean Winsall as my defender. I found out a lot about him writing a feature about this 200th game last week. People only had positive words about his ability to build the culture at the Redbacks, and he’s a lockdown defender who is very creative with his ball use.
DAVE: Very well answered Jonty, but if we had a little tachometer that measured how many times that Marc Holt had been mentioned in LTS, what would we be up to now Tyler?
TYLER: Lots, too many, the tachometer would be smoking and working some serious overtime. I’ve gone with a similar mindset, trying to buy a spine that would make the Tyler Football Club the envy of all opposition. LTS is very hypothetical, so here we go. Comfortably the best defender in South East at the moment is Ryan Morrison (Noble Park), I’ll begin with him. In the midfield, I think Kurt Mutimer is going to run away with the Outer East league best and fairest this year, he got 51 touches last week and has kicked 31 goals for the year, he’s flying. And here’s my hypothetical…when you start a new club you need to make money at the gate, that’s what it’s all about, so I’m going – in his prime – Simon Goosey.
DAVE: Love it!
JONTY: Oooooh yeah!
TYLER: The crowd is going from one end to the other. Sucked in Morro because no-one will be at your end watching you save goals, they all be up Goose’s end and making me a lot of cash. Mutimer will put it down his throat and we’re away.
DAVE: That’s an enticing prospect, but is Mutimer a two-way runner? Pakenham had a gun midfielder called Russ Lehman, who now plays at Longwarry, and Russ ran twice as fast when running into the forward line than he did when pushing back.
TYLER: Kurt is a bit of a forward runner, but with due respect you’d be running the wrong way if you were running into Narre’s defence this year, the ball is never down there. (Boys laugh). He’ll hit up the Goose and the Tyler Football Club will win a lot of flags.
DAVE: That’s very impressive Tyler, but this is LIV Golf and I’m splashing the cash big time. If I could have AFL players, past or present, I’m going with Max Gawn to float a kick behind the play and then drift forward and dominate local defenders, and I’m going with Mark Ricciuto to lead my midfield. He was a man against men in the AFL; just imagine the carnage he would cause in West Gippsland footy this year. And the recently retired Josh Kennedy – of the Eagles variety – is heading east to stand in the goal square for my team. Imagine him, not so fit, with 10 extra kilos around his belt; he’d be unstoppable at full forward.
JONTY: He makes the most of his opportunities.
TYLER: That’s a good one Dave; we’re talking a good financial decision here as well. I’d eat my hat if Josh Kennedy didn’t hang around and have 10 cans after the game and have supporters eating out of his hand.
DAVE: Boys, if I can’t have Gawn, Ricciuto and Kennedy, then I’m going local and having Russell Gabriel as my ruckman, he’s a brute. Former Pakenham and Garfield midfielder Lincoln Withers is the country equivalent of Ricciuto, and Kerem Baskaya is standing in Kennedy’s place at full-forward. We don’t want to blow the tachometer to pieces, so I’m very happy to have Kerem as my man.
TYLER: 308 snags in 51 games at one stage of his career…that’s pretty incredible!
SUPERSTAR STALWARTS
DAVE: Boys, Lauren Jackson has just been selected in the Australian Opals squad at age 41 which is a great achievement after so long out of the game. My question is who are the ageing superstars of local sport that are going to have a huge influence over the coming weeks? Tyler?
TYLER: Shayne Allan, Noble Park, I did a story on him earlier this year and his coach Steve Hughes sums him up as a player that if you give four chances he will kick four goals. You can’t buy experience and I think he is going to have a big influence as a great finisher in the finals.
DAVE: Is there anyone at Rowville like that?
TYLER: Yeah, Matt Davey, he’s a similar player who will slice you open with only a few touches. Rowville has a lot of kids at the moment, but Davey is in the Allan category and could cause some damage.
JONTY: I won’t go with the obvious, and blow the tachometer to pieces, so it’s Michael Cardamone for me, the Doveton coach who is another one that will hurt you up forward. He’s a small forward, but makes the most of his opportunities and he’ll either kick you a goal or set one up. Danny Ades (Playing coach at Dingley) is another one, just a tough inside midfielder who you would love to play alongside in big finals.
TYLER: Thank god you didn’t go with Brendan Fevola, Dane Swan or Aaron Edwards, playing for St Kilda City.
JONTY: No, keeping it local Tyler.
DAVE: Julian Suarez is mine boys, he came to Tooradin a decade ago and played in a preliminary final and must have thought “how good is this.” This bloke can seriously play, has one of the best two or three sets of hands in West Gippsland footy and I can seriously see him kicking a bag-full of goals in a big final and leading the Gulls to their first premiership in 25 years. Jules is a great man and seeing him have that sort of success would almost bring a tear to the eye. At the opposite end of the ground is Adam Galea, who has stated this is it, he’s last year of footy, so if he wants to be a premiership Seagull it has to happen this year. He’s tough, uncompromising, and I can’t wait to see what he brings to finals football this year.
JONTY: So it’s all on the line.
DAVE: Correct mate…he’s another one who could get the Kleenex out. Brendan Kimber from Phillip Island, just attacks the ball with ferocity, and Brendan Hermann from Nar Nar Goon, he’s still a star in his early 30’s and the playmaker for the Goon through the midfield. And he can kick a goal from anywhere.
COACH OR PLAYER
DAVE: Boys, if I gave you the choice between having the best coach of all time or the best player, who would you pick and why?
JONTY: Definitely…best coach.
DAVE: Explain.
JONTY: I think if the best footballer is put in an environment where they’re not able to thrive, are they going to be able to sustain their high level of play. The coach has a major influence over the environment they’re in. Look at Craig McRae at Collingwood and how important he has been to getting the best out of his players, just by putting the right structures and systems in place. Spirit and belief is far more important than one individual player. The counter balance, having the best player brings excitement, relevance and publicity to your club, where having the best coach doesn’t do that as much – unless you’re Clarko.
DAVE: Question Jonty. How many flags does Damien Hardwick win at Richmond if Dustin Martin isn’t in his side on grand final day?
JONTY: I wouldn’t have thought they’d win all three, but would they have been in the position to contest any without Dimma as coach?
TYLER: They would have won one I reckon….against GWS. Jonty, who coached Leigh Matthews?
JONTY: No idea.
TYLER: Exactly, case in point right there. I think the players set the standards, at the end of the day the coaches are just driving the bus, especially at local level. I think players drive the standards at training and win the big games off their own boot. Bums on seats again, no-one is going to the football to see how good someone coaches.
JONTY: But they’ll come to the football if a team is winning, and the coach has the biggest say in that. At local level, you see a lot of player-coaches so you’re getting a good player as well.
DAVE: The reason I asked this question is because I had the privilege recently of sitting on a table with Pakenham’s 2009 premiership coach, Jock Holland, and the best player on the ground that day, Dan O’Loughlin. I was asking myself, “Who needed who the most?” I feel like the right answer is the coach has more influence, but I’d go with Tyler here and say I’d take the greatest player over the greatest coach. Think Beaconsfield champion Daniel Mislicki in 2014. Beacy won comfortably that day with ‘Slicka’ kicking five from the midfield. It’s a hypothetical, but remove him from that team and I think that game goes all the way down to the wire…that’s how important he was! An interesting discussion though…well done boys. Have a great week, Tyler your turn next week.
TYLER: Hang on, hang on, before we go, I need to throw Jonty under the bus. C’mon Jonty, explain your Olivia Newton John story.
JONTY: Obviously the death of Olivia Newton John has been in the news recently and nearly every time I hear her name I hear it associated with the word Grease. I said to someone, “who is it that called her an Australian icon…doesn’t she have Greek heritage,” I had honestly never heard of the movie Grease.
DAVE: Wowee, that’s really bad, but funny. Let me tell you boys, Olivia Newton John was not only a great singer and great Australian, but a hero to many young teenage boys from my generation for a multitude of reasons. Let’s just leave it at that!
