Forward Planning - The Age 1995

[GVGjr]

I was asked to dig up this article a while back but I thought a few others might be interested as well.

This is from the Age back on the 10th of December, 1995 that had journalist Richard Hinds spending time with the Bulldogs leading into the National Draft.

The draft pool was very shallow and ended up being a disaster for us but I still find it an interesting read.

I can't really scan it because the home scanner is A4 and of course the Age prints on A3.

We had 4 picks that year 9, 29, 43 and 51. Originally we had pick 13 but a trade with Adelaide for Kym Koster moved us up the order. We shipped pick 13 off to Freo for the rights to Hugh Reimers, a key defender who was highly touted, and Brad Wira a hard nosed small defender that the club hoped would cover the loss of Koster.

The aim was to draft Allen Jakovich but we knew that 13 would be too late with Collingwood positioned at number 10. The aim was to get ahead of them in the draft order.

[GVGjr]

Part One

It was two days before Footscray was to play Geelong in the third qualifying final.
In his office at the Whitten Oval was the Bulldogs football Manager Garry O'Sullivan was about to dodge yet another call from one of the dozen of acquaintances, fans and others who always rang at this time of the year hoping to score tickets.

This time however, the name of the man waiting on the line got his attention. "The tickets aren't for me" explained Allen Jakovich. They were for a supporter who suffered from a serious bone marrow disease. O'Sullivan was happy to oblige.

Then out of interest, he kept the conversations flowing. Was Jakovich over his injury? Had he done any training? Would he be putting his name in the draft?

The answer to each question was yes. O'Sullivan took Jakovich's phone number and said he would give him a call once the Bulldogs finals campaign was over.

Two days late Footscray's season ended - horribly. An 82 point loss to Geelong meant that for the second consecutive season the Bulldogs had crashed out of the finals. The post-mortem began immediately.

For the past two years, Footscray had used the National Draft to bring in raw talent to the club. By 1995, 18 of its senior list were 20 years or younger Those names were the distant future, but at Footscray the momentum created by the club's 1989 survival campaign had slowed.

It needed onfield success immediately, and in the wake of the Geelong debacle, the match committee decided that they only way to get it was by recruiting "ready-made" players who could fill specific positions in the senior team.

Recruiting Manager, Mark Kleiman was told his priority was to identify a full-back, centre half-back, midfielder and a key forward. If they were not available in the draft, the club would trade players and draft choices to get them.

Meanwhile O'Sullivan had mentioned his conversation with Jakovich to coach Alan Joyce. Now they decided to get Jakovich in for a chit chat. What did they have to lose? The club had tried various options at full-forward - Richard Osborne, Chris Grant, Illja Grgic - but the club had not had a reliable multiple goal kicker since Simon Beasley retired in 1988.

The week before the grand final, Jakovich met O'Sullivan and Joyce at the Bulldogs office and immediately expressed interest in playing with Footscray.
But Jakovich's reputation for erratic behavior, on and off the field preceded him. At Melbourne he had exhausted even the vast amount of goodwill granted a player who had averaged more than 4 goals in 47 AFL games. After back surgery in 1994, Jakovich failed to attend several of his early morning rehabilitation sessions and his weight had ballooned. Finally, the Demons called a news conference to announce that he would be cut from their list.

So before it took a chance on a 27yo with a chequered past, Footscray needed more information. In the following weeks Jakovich was examined by the club orthopedic surgeon David Young, the Bulldogs studied his medical records and they checked that he was indeed working out regularly with a personal trainer.

All the reports were positive and eight weeks before the draft, Footscray had made up its mind. Allen Jakovich would be its full-forward. Whats more Jakovich seemed to be doing all he could to become a Bulldog. (Coach Joyce would have been pleased to hear the usually outspoken Jakovich tell a news paper reporter a week before the draft that he didn't want to be interviewed because he had made an agreement to keep a "low profile")

[GVGjr]

Part Two

When the pre-draft trading period began in November, the Bulldogs got busy, swapping Ben Sexton, who had never quite grasped his chances at full-back and full-forward, for James Cook, who had lived in Steven Kernahan's shadow at Carlton. Recruiting another full-forward seemed a strange move but Cook had already expressed interest in trying centre half-forward or centre half-back, and there was no guarantees that Jakovich would be drafted.

The Bulldogs, however, were doing their best to ensure that he would. On-baller Kym Koster had returned to Adelaide and wanted to be traded to the Crows. Footscray suspected that it would not get Jakovich with its 13th pick. Adelaide had the ninth pick, maybe just good enough.
Footscray did not want to lose the talented Koster, but with Jakovich in mind the deal was done.

Having addressed its goalkicking problems, the Bulldogs next priority was defence. Already it had decided that Grant would be tried at centre half-back in the pre-season. But the Bulldogs wanted options.

The 13th pick was traded to Fremantle for Hugh Reimers, an athletic South Australian who had been listed by Fremantle the previous season and Brad Wira, a rover from Claremont. But Reimers was untried. So when O'Sullivan took another call, this time from lawyer Stephen Peak, Manager and business partner of former Bulldog full-back Tony Campbell, he again showed interest.

Campbell the would be entrepreneur who helped pioneer gloves in Australian football, had left the Bulldogs in 1993 to try his luck as a punter with an American football team.

This year he had injured his achilles tendon playing for Perth and at 28 was a forgotten man. After two years out of of the AFL, Footscray needed to be convinced of Campbell's fitness. Again the club ran physical tests. Like Jakovich, Campbell passed.

According to O'Sullivan, the Bulldogs meeting on the Thursday afternoon the day before the draft was a tense affair. Footscray's priority had been decided - Jakovich - but would he be there for them to take?
Of the teams ahead of them in the order, the Bulldogs were fairly certain Hawthorn, West Coast, Fremantle and Sydney would not take Jakovich, but had no idea what Fitzroy or StKilda would do.

"If someone took Jakovich, we had plan B" said O'Sullivan. "That was to sit there stony faced show no emotion and get on with it"
Plan B was never enacted. When his turn finally came, Kleiman called Jakovich's name, to the surprise of some including it seemed, the Collingwood contingent that had the next pick, and who fell into an immediate huddle.
Brisbane might have also been thrown by the Bulldogs choice. Footscray had been correct in assuming it would not have got Jakovich with its original 13th selection.

With the rest of their picks they stuck to their plan to draft ready-mades. After short debate they took 22yo former Collingwood draftee Todd Curley ahead of a robust 17yo Luke Godden, eventually picked by the Magpies. With their 3rd they went for Mark West, a 22yo on-baller from Cairns via South Australia.
As planned, Campbell was the 4th and final selection. Given the shortage of experienced key defenders the Bulldogs were unwilling to risk having Campbell train with them all summer and be drafted by someone else in February.

While Jakovich was to be the subject of the most post-draft speculation, Campbell was another big gamble. The Bulldogs were unfazed by the inevitable criticism about their choice of older players.

If they were uncertain before, by Saturday morning, the Bulldogs were well aware of the impact of Jakovich would have at the Whitten Oval. Already their new full-forward had appeared on the front and back pages of Melbourne's two daily newspapers. Maybe the Bulldogs hope that Jakovich would keep a low profile was optimistic, but when they called his name they knew they were not drafting a shrinking violet.

"We needed firepower, we needed someone who was going to to ignite a bit of passion, someone to get the terraces jumping a bit - just someone who would make a difference" said O'Sullivan. "Allen Jakovich has all those qualities wrapped up in one"

Now it remains to be seen if he can still kick goals.

(GVG's notes)

There is a picture of a white board that listed all the names for each selection

9 - A.Jakovich, C.Groom, D.Healy, B.Williams, L.Godden
29 - T.Curley, N.Credlin, A.Lamb, N.Carter, L.Trew
43 - M.West, K.Fraser, A.Thompson, B.Cassidy
51 - T.Campbell

We would have selected Chris Groom if Jakovich wasn't still available.

[GVGjr]

History will say this was a train wreck for us but I know that there was a hell of a lot of excitement around the club when all this fell into place.
Jakovich was supposed to kick us a few bags of goals, Campbell and Reimers to help Grant as key defenders and Wira and Curley coming off solid WAFL seasons were to provide us with some midfield depth. West was highly rated as an impact player and Cook some insurance as a key forward.

I'm not sure why I kept this article for so long but I haven't had a read of it in ages and thought some of you, perhaps the older guys more so, would enjoy it.

The local council is giving everyone in my neighborhood a chance to clear out some of the junk that has been collected of the years and whilst there is old furniture and cupboards out on a number of nature strips, I don't think I'll throw out the collection of draft and Bulldog articles just yet. :)

[wimberga]

For us 'younger' folk, what exactly happened to Jackovich?

[FrediKanoute]

I think he ended up playing 2 games kicked f-all goals and sat on the pine for the season before getting delisted......he ate a lot of pies too!

[Twodogs]

For us 'younger' folk, what exactly happened to Jackovich?



He got fat and was drunk most of the time.

[mjp]

I played football with both Jakovich's at South.

One night, I gave Alan a ride home from training, and he was very excited to tell me that he had found some new runners, and pulled them out of his bag to show me.

You know what is coming next - they were the runners I had bought that day (the club only gave us one pair / year!) and had put in my locker...

Needless to say, he walked home to South Coogee.

[alwaysadog]

All that has been said is true, except that when the judgement of those recruiting players gets so warped that they convince themselves that all you need to consider is the upside, then the club is on the down side.

All Wheels work in laying plans for a long term future were being undone and recklessly so. Just like a more recent example of a few crazies bent on instant success.

[BulldogBelle]

Interesting read. Too bad the doc didn't discover Jako's dodgy back.

[craigsahibee]

He did manage to kick 3 against the saints at OO late in 1996 to give us a rare win that year in a game we had no right to win.

[Pembleton]

He did manage to kick 3 against the saints at OO late in 1996 to give us a rare win that year in a game we had no right to win.

I remember that game, it was shifted away from WO because of the condition of the surface. It was the day i started to think better times could be coming soon.

I have only just come across this now. Thanks for posting it GVGjnr. I actually remember bits of it from reading it back then. Back in the mid 90's this kind of insight into an AFL club's planning was much more rare, so i guess it stuck in my mind. I remember being struck at the time by the 'stony faced' plan B (makes you wonder how many times something major has fallen through that you never end up hearing much about), and Jackovich's refusal to do a pre draft interview. It was evidence of how keen he was to come to the dogs, and by extension how committed he would be! The king hit on McKenna out at Waverly was the point where it started to become obvious that we'd backed the wrong pony.

[alwaysadog]

I remember that game, it was shifted away from WO because of the condition of the surface. It was the day i started to think better times could be coming soon.

I have only just come across this now. Thanks for posting it GVGjnr. I actually remember bits of it from reading it back then. Back in the mid 90's this kind of insight into an AFL club's planning was much more rare, so i guess it stuck in my mind. I remember being struck at the time by the 'stony faced' plan B (makes you wonder how many times something major has fallen through that you never end up hearing much about), and Jackovich's refusal to do a pre draft interview. It was evidence of how keen he was to come to the dogs, and by extension how committed he would be! The king hit on McKenna out at Waverly was the point where it started to become obvious that we'd backed the wrong pony.

We'd backed a stablefull of wrong ponies.

[Mitcha]

Part Two
(GVG's notes)

There is a picture of a white board that listed all the names for each selection

9 - A.Jakovich, C.Groom, D.Healy, B.Williams, L.Godden
20 - T.Curley, N.Credlin, A.Lamb, N.Carter, L.Trew
43 - M.West, K.Fraser, A.Thompson, B.Cassidy
51 - T.Campbell
We would have selected Chris Groom if Jakovich wasn't still available.

Great read, I also agree that Curley and Mark West played some reasonable footy for us and that Jakovich and Campbell were worth a punt, as plan B for each pick would have amounted to the worst draft by an AFL side in the history of the game.

[Remi Moses]

Hmmm, that clears something up for me.

At a game against West Coast at OO a few years back the 'Barkly St Boys' were in full voice, getting stuck into Glen Jakovich at the warm up. The best line that went out was 'Your brother owes me money Jakovich!"

yes got into Crows fans that year at a game at the w/o . Had a chant going about South Australians which didn't go down well with our visiting fans.

[Remi Moses]

I vividly recall a photo of Jakovich at pre-season training he looked 20kg's over playing weight. The alarm bells began ringing very early doors.:eek:Just out of interest does anyone know what's happened to Shaun Baxter?That had to be one of the worst years ever following the club,and by christ there's been a few

[Happy Days]

Just out of interest does anyone know what's happened to Shaun Baxter?That had to be one of the worst years ever following the club,and by christ there's been a few

He was on Gladiators last year as a contestant. He's working these days as a personal trainer and seems in good health.

[The Pie Man]

He did manage to kick 3 against the saints at OO late in 1996 to give us a rare win that year in a game we had no right to win.

Didn't TC kick a few that day as well?

He looked hilarious with mafia slick back hair and gloves.

That was my first year of Uni and I was dating a Hawthorn fan, I didn't go to the footy much that year but I did manage to go to a Saturday night game vs Hawthorn at Waverley for one of the more humilating experience..... #$% we were bad. Daniel Hargrave (sorry if I've misspelt that) was the great forward hope then yeah? Jason Watts was alright in front of goal IIRC

I also seem to remember Jakovich being routinely ignored on the lead, but they may have had a lot to do with a lack of confidence the midfield had in him (maybe) Either that or he was just an unpopular thieving bastard

Thanks for posting that GVGjr, that was a great, if sad read

[strebla]

I always thought that Shaun would have been ok untill his health scare and was very happy to see him fit and healthy on gladiators (I might be wrong but I think he lived with Coon Dog when he first got to the club)

[GVGjr]

I always thought that Shaun would have been ok untill his health scare and was very happy to see him fit and healthy on gladiators (I might be wrong but I think he lived with Coon Dog when he first got to the club)

You're thinking of Scott Taylor not Baxter

[strebla]

You're thinking of Scott Taylor not Baxter
Correct GVGjr no idea how I got that wrong thanks

[Twodogs]

I did manage to go to a Saturday night game vs Hawthorn at Waverley for one of the more humilating experience..... #$% we were bad.


Was that the night that Dunstall had 11 at half time and was kicking them from all over the place? I think he was injured just before half time and seeing they were 100 goals in front already he spent the second half on the bench.


God we were woeful.

[GVGjr]

This is a thread from many years back that I think many people missed so I thought it might be of some interest.

[bulldogtragic]

Thanks G. Train wreck is a fair assessment. Lost a pure gun midfielder. Threw our first pick away for a tall forward. Did nothing with mid range picks. Mind you 1997 was two years after. Makes you further ponder 1997 with more competent list management.

[LostDoggy]

Thanks G. Train wreck is a fair assessment. Lost a pure gun midfielder. Threw our first pick away for a tall forward. Did nothing with mid range picks. Mind you 1997 was two years after. Makes you further ponder 1997 with more competent list management.

I don't think I can ponder 1997 any more than has already been pondered.

[Twodogs]

Dunno about a train wreck. Todd Curley and Mark West were pretty good players in pretty good teams.

[Remi Moses]

That Jakovich story MJP had was similar to some id heard about Jakovich and his time with us.
Liked the lockers, but the problem was not his own locker.

[jeemak]

It's great looking across the responses from all of the old posters. I wish I was here back then (not that I don't love you guys and gals).

Reading the original article, just a small tip of talent drafted at that time may have pushed us over the line in the prelim in 1997. Glad we didn't get some of the players missed in the article, I'll look back on that draft year to see what we missed out on when I'm feeling better about things.

[FrediKanoute]

Dunno about a train wreck. Todd Curley and Mark West were pretty good players in pretty good teams.

I kind of agree. Wacko Jacko was a waste, but we got good service out of Campbell, Curley and West (he nearly won a PF off his own boot). Would taking 3 kids have done anything? we may not have dropped away after 1999/2000, but the reality is, not unlike 2010 we had run our course in those years. What was impressive is that we took a punt.....

[Remi Moses]

I think Tony Campbell's first tour of juty was better than his first.
He had the Alan Jakovich diet

[Ozza]

I can still vividly remember being at training as a 13 year old - and the players finished skills training and returned to the rooms to do extra work (ie. some were doing sit ups, push ups, chin ups, medicine ball stuff) and we were able to just walk into the rooms and watch.

I remember seeing Jako sit down on the floor, as if he was about to do sit ups with others, and all he ended up doing was laying down on his side and speaking to someone who wasn't a player. Gee he was fat for a footballer. Meanwhile, Libba started doing chin ups, and seemed to just keep going for ages and ages. He was incredible - but just needed a boost to get up to the bar!

[KT31]

Didn't Jako end up out on a fishing trawler off WA somewhere because he was a wanted man ?

[Twodogs]

I kind of agree. Wacko Jacko was a waste, but we got good service out of Campbell, Curley and West (he nearly won a PF off his own boot). Would taking 3 kids have done anything? we may not have dropped away after 1999/2000, but the reality is, not unlike 2010 we had run our course in those years. What was impressive is that we took a punt.....


If we taken 3 kids, and the only name on that list that inspires any confidence in A. Thompson, there may not have been a '97.

[Remi Moses]

Didn't Jako end up out on a fishing trawler off WA somewhere because he was a wanted man ?

Remember Jako pulling out of a game against us in the early 90's straining his back getting out of his car.

[1eyedog]

If we taken 3 kids, and the only name on that list that inspires any confidence in A. Thompson, there may not have been a '97.

Groom did not much at Adelaide and had a short career before going back to W.A.

[azabob]

Groom did not much at Adelaide and had a short career before going back to W.A.

He enabled Adelaide to get Andrew McLeod.

[Twodogs]

He enabled Adelaide to get Andrew McLeod.

He did too.

[Ozza]

Remember Jako pulling out of a game against us in the early 90's straining his back getting out of his car.

That was when he was still a gun (at Melbourne). He slipped a disc in the Western Oval car park.

[GVGjr]

With no footy to watch anyone who loves the draft might find this an interesting article.

[Happy Days]

Imagine blowing a pick 6 on like Jake Stringer in a live draft now.

(I know we sorta did but at least he was 18 and good and not 25 and fat at the time)

[Twodogs]

I played football with both Jakovich's at South.

One night, I gave Alan a ride home from training, and he was very excited to tell me that he had found some new runners, and pulled them out of his bag to show me.

You know what is coming next - they were the runners I had bought that day (the club only gave us one pair / year!) and had put in my locker...

Needless to say, he walked home to South Coogee.


That's *!*!*!*!ing priceless.;)

[comrade]

That's *!*!*!*!ing priceless.;)

I'm not sure what is worse. The fact that he stole them in the first place, or that he was dumb enough to brag to the bloke he unknowlingly ripped off.

[westdog54]

That's *!*!*!*!ing priceless.;)

Its a story I'll never get sick of hearing.

[Twodogs]

I'm not sure what is worse. The fact that he stole them in the first place, or that he was dumb enough to brag to the bloke he unknowlingly ripped off.

The stupid bragging I think. That really put the cherry on top.

[azabob]

Dunno about a train wreck. Todd Curley and Mark West were pretty good players in pretty good teams.

Brad Wira also was a very handy trade that year.

[azabob]

Imagine blowing a pick 6 on like Jake Stringer in a live draft now.

(I know we sorta did but at least he was 18 and good and not 25 and fat at the time)

I think Essendon did something similar with ex Fitzroy FF Darren Wheildon in the same draft. They used their first round pick on him.

He never go out onto the field - he managed to get hit a by a car on King Street one night and never recovered.

[azabob]

I can still vividly remember being at training as a 13 year old - and the players finished skills training and returned to the rooms to do extra work (ie. some were doing sit ups, push ups, chin ups, medicine ball stuff) and we were able to just walk into the rooms and watch.



I can viviidly remember driving to our first pre-season game in 1996 out to Waverley with my dad and sister. I was so excited about seeing Jackovich in the flesh and we finally had a key defender Hugh Reimers who was named to play full back.

On the drive I was reciting the team in the car. I started with the backline

"Sir, Reimers, Wira" but my sister was not paying attention and i said your not even listening and she is like I am...

I replied with well, who is playing full back?

She replies - Sir Reimers... I guess you had to be there but it was priceless.

Dad also got us to nominate how many goals Jackovich will kick....
I stupidly said 13... Not sure if he even kicked 13 in total for us...
My sister said 3 or 4
Dad replied with - none.... he's got more chance of drinking a 6 pack at half time than getting a kick...

[comrade]

She replies - Sir Reimers... I guess you had to be there but it was priceless.

Dad also got us to nominate how many goals Jackovich will kick....
I stupidly said 13... Not sure if he even kicked 13 in total for us...
My sister said 3 or 4
Dad replied with - none.... he's got more chance of drinking a 6 pack at half time than getting a kick...

Geez, way to crush some dreams Dad.

[Twodogs]

Geez, way to crush some dreams Dad.

You should have heard what my dad used to say about Bernie Quinlin. "If he gets a kick in the first five minutes-he will be best on ground. But if he doesn't then he's about as much use as a singlet on a motorbike.