Driving Us Up The Walls
Robert Walls
By Shane Thiele
May 22 2002
As a journalist Robert Walls made a great coach and a champion footballer. It's not necessarily the fact that I disagree with all his views, it's just that he seems to have a 'reactionary' style of writing and what I call a 'flavour of the week'.
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He's the Ian Chappell of the football
world in the way he grabs on to a topic and just wont let it go.
The fact that he sports a plethora of media hats means you'll then
hear his weekly rant on radio, television and then read about it
word for word again in The Age.
Two weeks ago he wrote a scathing piece
exposing the holes in Carlton's recruiting since the last
Premiership. Robert's emotive style drew wide praise from some
supporters and heavy criticism from others. On the surface you
could argue that there was nothing wrong with what was written,
it's just that it's difficult to summarise 7 years of recruiting
in 500 words.
Other areas where Walls lost credibility
are as follows: Apologies if you've read them before on various
forums but some recent events have meant that I've decided to once
again bring the former points to light:
1) Similar
to our current predicament the Blues found themselves on the
bottom of the ladder in the first half of 1998. Robert went on to
write almost the exact same style article criticising the clubs
recruiting and lack of forward thinking. Calls of missed chances
to trade the likes of Allan & Camporeale proved premature as both
went on to become All-Australian's in the following two seasons.
Some may say he may have now been right about Allan but no-one
could have predicted his current plight.
Of course the Blues fought their way out
of the mire but at the time there were no problems with the heavy
criticism that was fired towards Optus Oval. The fact is Robert
went on to be one of the Blues staunchest followers as he
regularly rattled the cages of Essendon supporters by naming
Carlton as their biggest threats through seasons 2000 & 2001.
Suddenly in 2002 when the side is bottom
he sees us again as a soft target. He questions the recruiting
policies of the last seven years yet those same policies were in
place when he was touting us as Premiership threats. It would have
been just as relevant to have written the article after the Blues
won thirteen in a row in 2000 or when we were sitting pretty in
2nd spot in 2001 but he choose not to.
2/ The
article referred to the rejects or as Walls put them "pluggers"
from other clubs that took the field in Carlton's Round 6 loss to
the Western Bulldogs. No less than 10 players from other clubs
wore the Navy Blue that night as the Bulldogs registered their
first win of the season. Again it's what he failed to write that
lost me.
Missing from that side were Allan, Hulme,
Camporeale, Koutoufides and dependent on what you think of the
guy, Fevola. Five home grown players who would have replaced at
least 5 of the players he mentioned. His dissection was too brief
as he failed to recognise the fact that Sporn, Wiggins,
Livingston, Merrington, Prendergast and Gallagher had all been
given significant ground-time since the beginning of the season.
Others such as Davies, Smith and Cranage have all now also been
given a taste of it.
Yes, 10 was too many for that Bulldogs
game but in the end weight of numbers caught up with us. We'd run
out of kids who were showing anything at VFL level to make-up the
rest of the side. By Round 22 I'll put money on the fact that
there will be no Mansfield, Fletcher or one or two others in our
final team for the year. Patience isn't one of our strong suits at
Carlton but we must learn to adapt. Whether it's forced upon us or
not the kids are getting a look in sooner than usual and it's
going to take time for them to adjust and adapt to the rigors of
AFL football. They need a stable environment and elite core group
of players to learn off and unfortunately we have been unable to
provide either so far this season.
On top of this the Blues cleaned out
seven or eight fringe players from last season. Yes, more could
have and will go but our turnover was as high as any other AFL
club. It's easy to highlight for example the trading of McKernan,
but a deeper look reveals they may have already been a change of
philosophy at Optus Oval but no-one wants to read a balanced
article do they!
3/ Some of
the players that he criticised were at one time highly praised by
Walls. During the off-season he spoke glowingly of the fact we'd
done better in the Eccles/Massie trade and how the new recruit
might be a chance to play of all places, Centre Half Back?!
Another example is after the Adelaide
final last year, Jim Plunkett according to the bearded one was a
recruiting coup but now to try and prove his point has been
labeled as an honest battler.
It's OK to be wrong but don't give me "I
told you so" in hindsight. Guys like Jim Main etc can bleat about
the Blues mistakes but where were they when they actually took
place?? My memory is good but unfortunately I don't have access to
any sort of database to prove most of these so called critics
wrong.
However only today was I reading a copy
of Inside Football from 2000 where the journalist writing the
upcoming preview partly based his tip of Carlton on the fact that
we'd strengthened our backline with the recruitment of Mansfield &
O'Reilly. How times have changed!
4/ He used
one game to try and prove his point and really didn't research the
piece properly. A couple of examples were given regarding the
make-up of Hawthorn and Essendon's team of the present but so
what! When questioned about the 1995 Premiership - a team with 8
players from other clubs and just 4 recruited via the draft he
simply dismissed it as a one-off. When questioned about the fact
that the Kangaroos were the most consistent team of the 90's with
the same method he did not answer the question.
There are numerous examples of the 'kids
only' philosophy not necessarily being the right way to go. Why
was there no mention of the failures of Collingwood, St Kilda and
Fremantle who have generally used such methods in previous
seasons?? More examples of his reactionary style can be found this
year. After the Blues were defeated by St Kilda in Round 1, Robert
was straight on their bandwagon. He labeled them as a chance for
the final 8 and highlighted the fact that we are two clubs heading
in different directions. Sure the Blues haven't exactly kicked on
since that defeat but I don't remember any 100 point drubbings
either.
Walls reiterated this point 'On the
Couch' when he spoke of how such heavy defeats can break the
spirits of youngsters early in their career. Wise words
Robert.....
His next pet was the Geelong Football
Club. Heading in the right direction they were, honest with their
supporters, playing all of the kids and building a home-grown feel
to the club. Three loses by a total of over 200 points and
suddenly Robert has now gone luke warm on the boys from Sleepy
Hollow.
Every team that currently sits in the top
8 has finished in the bottom 4 at least once in the last 4
seasons. It happens for a variety of reasons that needs to be more
closely scrutinised. If it's Carlton's turn this year then so be
it. These things occur for a number of reasons.
5/ On
Saturday night I watched Collingwood defeat the reigning Premiers
in what was one of the best games of the year. I would like to
draw everyone's attention to an interesting fact that came to me
as I struggled to come to terms with the fact that the 'Woods sit
equal top in the Premiership race.
Of the 22 players that took the field, no
less than 11 were from another AFL club. Buckley, Clement,
Holland, McKee, Wakelin, Cummings, O'Bree, Molloy, Licuria, Rocca
& Freeborn. One more than Carlton had in the game that sparked
Wallsy to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. None did their
grounding through the same school, none were taught the
Collingwood way and all as - Robert so eloquently put it - have
brought with them a mish-mash of football grounding and culture
before lobbing on the Victoria Park doorstep. What must also be
noted is that unlike the Blues, they fielded such a team with no
serious injury problems.
Before the injury to McGough their
casualty list read: Rintoul - Migraine. Is it any wonder that they
are winning games? Adelaide is another team who before this
weekend was entirely injury free yet still have included a player
such as Ben Nelson in their 22. Take eight or nine of their best
out and lets have a look at the true depth of their squad.
Anyway I'm digressing. As for the players
I've mentioned above Buckley is of course a standout but the rest
are hardly a who's who of the AFL and have all at one stage been
rejected or severely maligned before this season.
Now obviously this is just one example
but isn't that all that Robert gave in his original article? Could
I also base an entire column on the fact that topping up your list
is the way to go based on Saturday night? Of course not. No-one
has a proven method in which is the correct way to build a squad.
Collingwood have currently the advantage
of a full list to choose from and are reaping the benefits. They
have a good blend of kids such as McGough, Cloke, Lonie & Fraser
and with experienced players around them have been able to ease
them into AFL football. An even mix as apposed to all-out youth or
experience is probably the closest you can get to the perfect
method.
It's taken them years to get to where
they have and eventually the cycle had to change. Compared to the
Caringbush the Blues have been near the bottom for a mere nano-second.
By no means am I defending the club in all areas just pointing to
the fact that everything isn't as clear as some scribes will lead
you to believe.
No doubt when things eventually come good
Robert and the rest of the firing squad will be queuing up to be
first to say that the Blues have finally taken their advice. Only
problem is when you continually have a bet each way, there's no
way you can be wrong.
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