TOPIC:

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!

I think you'll find that was Neesham walking out to go back to EF for the 1985 season - JT was livid.

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'.

Southerner wrote: 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

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.

Here's his player page ...

waflfootyfacts.net/player/stats.php?PlayerID=5577

Southerner wrote: 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

So the opportunistic fellas intuition has let him down at his last gig or he just decided to have a change because he grew bored by success.

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.

Talking about the 80's and 90's - I've added a new quiz on my site "The 1980's Quiz". Give it a go

waflfootyfacts.net/quiz.php