News Media Thread, 2023: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[JoshWoodenSpoon]

There's no such thing as positive 'hot take'

I quite like Caro and K Cornes.

 

[Tugga27]

Nic Naitanui is a 32 year old, overweight ruckman with dodgy knees. As great a player as he is (and has been), if he's our savior we are totally ****ed.

All you've said is true.
But he still makes a massive difference to us.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Simpson said in the post match presser than Natanui is more unlikely than likely for this week. If his injury is an achilles then how given how difficult it is to judge when it is right or not and given that if you properly injure or re - injure/inflame your achilles then it is season over it could be a while before they are brave enough to say he is available.

 

[THE A5]

Anyone have access to this article?

 

[DanWCE]

Anyone have access to this article?
View attachment 1635937

Nope. But I predict he ends up at Brissy for donuts.

 

[Mulldogg]

Gavin Bell is very much a WCE “company man”.

Doesn’t have opinions on much, is conservative in response to criticism from the likes of Gary Lyon, is very measured in his responses and always very diplomatic when questioned on opponents.

One might say he “takes the conservative approach” to interactions with the media.

Can’t recall when during the interview but there is a comment about younger players having to earn selection and not be gifted games but it kinda grates a little with the lack of selection pressure on more senior players post-2018 (excluding 2022 due to availability issues).

 

[Keys]

Anyone have access to this article?
View attachment 1635937

Three games into the 2022 Upper Great Southern Football league season, Boddington coach Gary Gillespie took the rare step of giving the club’s star recruit a public bake.
Jarrod Cameron was popular, bubbly and fun to be around.


But the coach thought he was a bit lazy.

“We are always looking for someone who can complement our local boys, and he was a given, but he didn’t really treat it very seriously at first,” Gillespie said. “Obviously he was a paid player and we are looking for bang for our buck and I called him out while presenting an award.

“I said, ‘We go through the motions of trying to recruit players and every now and again you get a dud, eh, Jarrod.’”

The story can be told now because the two are mates and stay in touch. It can also be told because Cameron responded the right way for Boddington, shedding 22 kilograms in seven months and now on the verge of a remarkable return to WAFL football at Swan Districts.

“I am happy for him,” Gillespie said. “I believe he belongs in the AFL system and it is good to see him having a red hot dip. I am sure there are clubs in the AFL who have players that really aren’t up to it. I reckon he is a cut above some of them.

“You don’t see that calibre of footballer every day of the week.”

When you think of Cameron’s AFL career, the word rollercoaster comes to mind.

The younger brother of Brisbane star Charlie made his debut as a teenager in 2019, kicked 10 goals in his first four games including two bags of four, then faded from the Eagles best 22. He played a further five games in 2020 but began to suffer osteitis pubis.

He was off the Eagles list by the end of 2021.

“When we first got wind of Jarrod being delisted from the Eagles, he was a bit of a lost soul at that time,” Gillespie said.

“We made contact with him and I think what got us over the line was that he used to go to school with a couple of our guys - Jacob and Billy Schorer. He took comfort in the fact that he already knew a couple of people and he thought, ‘Close to Perth, I will give it a go.’”

For Cameron, Boddington’s attraction went beyond his mates from school. It is also a gold mining town. Cameron was also able to get work at the mines and the town is just an hour’s drive from Perth.

Reflecting upon his Eagles days, Cameron said battling OP was a struggle but also acknowledged his part in getting overly caught up in the lifestyle of being a high profile footballer in Perth.

“I had a contract. I made a few mistakes. I have learned from that. I know what I have to do. I know what I got wrong,” he said.

“I had OP from 2019 all the way through until I finished up at West Coast. Just couldn’t get rid of it. I was a bit iffy about my body and I thought I would just go and play in the country and work for a year and try to find the love for it again.

“I had a year off and I am ready to go again. It was (healing) both mind and body. I played footy last year, got through the year and found the love for the game.”

Gillespie remembers the hush in the rooms after he had delivered his public clip to Cameron.

“He didn’t take too kindly to it but it turned him around,” Gillespie said. “It was a little bit icy for a couple of days and I went to talk to him and I said, ‘I just want more out of you, Jarrod, come on.’ Blow me down … the rest is history. Not only is he a fantastic, gifted footballer, he is a great bloke to boot.

“He has cemented lifelong friends in Boddington and we keep in touch regularly.”

And Cameron stood up when it mattered on the field.

Gillespie had to do some more fast talking come first semi final day when the team found itself 40 points down at quarter time against Kukerin-Dumbleyung.

“I didn’t go off at them, I just said to them at quarter time that when we had played Kukerin- Dumbleyung earlier in the season they had been 35 points up and we had come back and lost the game by a point,” he said.

“I said, ‘This team being 40 points up will think they have done enough. They are going to go to sleep. We just need to wake up.’

“Jarrod Cameron was the catalyst for that win. He played in the middle, He sparked them up and around goal. I think he ended up with three that day. When we won that game I had this feeling that we could go all the way if the planets aligned - and they did.”

Boddington beat Kukerin Dumbleyung by 21 points, then Katanning by nine points in a hard fought preliminary final, then beat Wickepin by a solitary point on grand final day.

Cameron shared player of the finals honours.

“What is there not to like about him? He has a contagious personality,” Gillespie said. “He is just a fun person to be around. He brought a lot of laughter and banter to our footy club.

“Our success has reignited the flame within him to have another crack.”

Gillespie gave Cameron another pep talk about committing to a higher level. He told him that there was nothing wrong with playing footy in the country with his mates for a decade if that was what he wanted to do. But if he was going to have a go, give it everything.

“I said to Jarrod, ‘If you are going to do this, you are going to have to become more disciplined.’” Gillespie recalled. “It is a massive effort to go and play football and leave out the socialising and not being able to enjoy a beer.”

That was the Boddington end of the story.

Cameron’s end is just as impressive.

In the back half of last season, over Christmas and now heading into this season, he has shed 22 kilograms and is now just above his original AFL playing weight.

“I focussed on my eating habits and once I started losing weight I found it easier,” he said. “If I was carrying any extra weight it was harder - more strain on my groin.

“I was 96 kilograms and now I am at 74 kilograms. I am pretty proud of myself. I thought I wouldn’t get back to that. I cut back on eating heaps, eating out and junk food. It helped me turn things around - just eating the right things.”

He had a false start to making it back to the second tier when he went to train with North Melbourne’s VFL team over Christmas. He found the Melbourne lifestyle difficult and contacted Swan Districts football manager Phil Smart and new coach Andrew Pruyn, a key figure in his development as a teenager, about re-joining them.

“My goal for now is to play round one in the league team. If I do that then everything else will have its place if I am doing things right,” he said.

He works at Access Hire where former Richmond and fremantle AFL star Chris Bond, who later was Fremantle’s football manager, has become a mentor.

“I reckon I have seen a bigger picture about life. I work 10 hours a day and then go to footy training. I feel like I have matured over the last year or two,” he said.

Boddington’s close proximity to Perth meant Cameron was able to live and work where he was playing and still get back to Perth some weekends to watch his old WAFL team play. It set him thinking.

“Not to be arrogant - but I saw people in front of me and I thought I was better than them. It gave me the drive to want to play footy again,” he said. “I kept thinking I could be doing this if I changed my habits and my ways.”

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Gavin Bell is very much a WCE “company man”.

Doesn’t have opinions on much, is conservative in response to criticism from the likes of Gary Lyon, is very measured in his responses and always very diplomatic when questioned on opponents.

One might say he “takes the conservative approach” to interactions with the media.

Can’t recall when during the interview but there is a comment about younger players having to earn selection and not be gifted games but it kinda grates a little with the lack of selection pressure on more senior players post-2018 (excluding 2022 due to availability issues).

Sounds like a pretty boring interview then.

If he wants to bat every question away and take the company line on everything then i understand that. He doesn't have a license from the club to ad lib or broadcast his own personal personal opinions to the media or give any kind of personal commentary on anything. But in that case why bother doing interviews?

 

[Rowan18]

Three games into the 2022 Upper Great Southern Football league season, Boddington coach Gary Gillespie took the rare step of giving the club’s star recruit a public bake.
Jarrod Cameron was popular, bubbly and fun to be around.


But the coach thought he was a bit lazy.

“We are always looking for someone who can complement our local boys, and he was a given, but he didn’t really treat it very seriously at first,” Gillespie said. “Obviously he was a paid player and we are looking for bang for our buck and I called him out while presenting an award.

“I said, ‘We go through the motions of trying to recruit players and every now and again you get a dud, eh, Jarrod.’”

The story can be told now because the two are mates and stay in touch. It can also be told because Cameron responded the right way for Boddington, shedding 22 kilograms in seven months and now on the verge of a remarkable return to WAFL football at Swan Districts.

“I am happy for him,” Gillespie said. “I believe he belongs in the AFL system and it is good to see him having a red hot dip. I am sure there are clubs in the AFL who have players that really aren’t up to it. I reckon he is a cut above some of them.

“You don’t see that calibre of footballer every day of the week.”

When you think of Cameron’s AFL career, the word rollercoaster comes to mind.

The younger brother of Brisbane star Charlie made his debut as a teenager in 2019, kicked 10 goals in his first four games including two bags of four, then faded from the Eagles best 22. He played a further five games in 2020 but began to suffer osteitis pubis.

He was off the Eagles list by the end of 2021.

“When we first got wind of Jarrod being delisted from the Eagles, he was a bit of a lost soul at that time,” Gillespie said.

“We made contact with him and I think what got us over the line was that he used to go to school with a couple of our guys - Jacob and Billy Schorer. He took comfort in the fact that he already knew a couple of people and he thought, ‘Close to Perth, I will give it a go.’”

For Cameron, Boddington’s attraction went beyond his mates from school. It is also a gold mining town. Cameron was also able to get work at the mines and the town is just an hour’s drive from Perth.

Reflecting upon his Eagles days, Cameron said battling OP was a struggle but also acknowledged his part in getting overly caught up in the lifestyle of being a high profile footballer in Perth.

“I had a contract. I made a few mistakes. I have learned from that. I know what I have to do. I know what I got wrong,” he said.

“I had OP from 2019 all the way through until I finished up at West Coast. Just couldn’t get rid of it. I was a bit iffy about my body and I thought I would just go and play in the country and work for a year and try to find the love for it again.

“I had a year off and I am ready to go again. It was (healing) both mind and body. I played footy last year, got through the year and found the love for the game.”

Gillespie remembers the hush in the rooms after he had delivered his public clip to Cameron.

“He didn’t take too kindly to it but it turned him around,” Gillespie said. “It was a little bit icy for a couple of days and I went to talk to him and I said, ‘I just want more out of you, Jarrod, come on.’ Blow me down … the rest is history. Not only is he a fantastic, gifted footballer, he is a great bloke to boot.

“He has cemented lifelong friends in Boddington and we keep in touch regularly.”

And Cameron stood up when it mattered on the field.

Gillespie had to do some more fast talking come first semi final day when the team found itself 40 points down at quarter time against Kukerin-Dumbleyung.

“I didn’t go off at them, I just said to them at quarter time that when we had played Kukerin- Dumbleyung earlier in the season they had been 35 points up and we had come back and lost the game by a point,” he said.

“I said, ‘This team being 40 points up will think they have done enough. They are going to go to sleep. We just need to wake up.’

“Jarrod Cameron was the catalyst for that win. He played in the middle, He sparked them up and around goal. I think he ended up with three that day. When we won that game I had this feeling that we could go all the way if the planets aligned - and they did.”

Boddington beat Kukerin Dumbleyung by 21 points, then Katanning by nine points in a hard fought preliminary final, then beat Wickepin by a solitary point on grand final day.

Cameron shared player of the finals honours.

“What is there not to like about him? He has a contagious personality,” Gillespie said. “He is just a fun person to be around. He brought a lot of laughter and banter to our footy club.

“Our success has reignited the flame within him to have another crack.”

Gillespie gave Cameron another pep talk about committing to a higher level. He told him that there was nothing wrong with playing footy in the country with his mates for a decade if that was what he wanted to do. But if he was going to have a go, give it everything.

“I said to Jarrod, ‘If you are going to do this, you are going to have to become more disciplined.’” Gillespie recalled. “It is a massive effort to go and play football and leave out the socialising and not being able to enjoy a beer.”

That was the Boddington end of the story.

Cameron’s end is just as impressive.

In the back half of last season, over Christmas and now heading into this season, he has shed 22 kilograms and is now just above his original AFL playing weight.

“I focussed on my eating habits and once I started losing weight I found it easier,” he said. “If I was carrying any extra weight it was harder - more strain on my groin.

“I was 96 kilograms and now I am at 74 kilograms. I am pretty proud of myself. I thought I wouldn’t get back to that. I cut back on eating heaps, eating out and junk food. It helped me turn things around - just eating the right things.”

He had a false start to making it back to the second tier when he went to train with North Melbourne’s VFL team over Christmas. He found the Melbourne lifestyle difficult and contacted Swan Districts football manager Phil Smart and new coach Andrew Pruyn, a key figure in his development as a teenager, about re-joining them.

“My goal for now is to play round one in the league team. If I do that then everything else will have its place if I am doing things right,” he said.

He works at Access Hire where former Richmond and fremantle AFL star Chris Bond, who later was Fremantle’s football manager, has become a mentor.

“I reckon I have seen a bigger picture about life. I work 10 hours a day and then go to footy training. I feel like I have matured over the last year or two,” he said.

Boddington’s close proximity to Perth meant Cameron was able to live and work where he was playing and still get back to Perth some weekends to watch his old WAFL team play. It set him thinking.

“Not to be arrogant - but I saw people in front of me and I thought I was better than them. It gave me the drive to want to play footy again,” he said. “I kept thinking I could be doing this if I changed my habits and my ways.”

If he gets back to AFL, it won't be in Melbourne, as he said he didn't like the lifestyle when trying to get into a VFL team.

Sounds like it will be Freo if he wants to give AFL another go. Some Freo guy is mentoring him.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Shed 22kg **** me how fat did he get?

 

[KERRPOW]

I was more confident of beating Norf than I am of beating GWS.

I can see some huge defeats away against the top sides.
We really need NN back asap.

For 10 games over 2 years

 

[THE A5]

Shed 22kg * me how fat did he get?

Got to 96kgs. Says it in the article

 

[Wild Kelly]

Simpson said in the post match presser than Natanui is more unlikely than likely for this week. If his injury is an achilles then how given how difficult it is to judge when it is right or not and given that if you properly injure or re - injure/inflame your achilles then it is season over it could be a while before they are brave enough to say he is available.

3 lines? Are you okay DT?

 

[JackieMoon33]

Going to throw this one out there...

Strange that Dan Venables and Scherri-Lee got married on a weekend where not a single West Coast team mate is able to be there in support for them. Even if it was a home game chances were zero anyone could attend given the Sunday spot is a given due to form.

Anyways, just an observation.

 

[THE A5]

Going to throw this one out there...

Strange that Dan Venables and Scherri-Lee got married on a weekend where not a single West Coast team mate is able to be there in support for them. Even if it was a home game chances were zero anyone could attend given the Sunday spot is a given due to form.

Anyways, just an observation.

A large group of the lads were present

 

[DanWCE]

Going to throw this one out there...

Strange that Dan Venables and Scherri-Lee got married on a weekend where not a single West Coast team mate is able to be there in support for them. Even if it was a home game chances were zero anyone could attend given the Sunday spot is a given due to form.

Anyways, just an observation.

Except most of the playing list was at the wedding

 

[Bender_]

LOL there's a shit load of them there.

 

[WCErevival]

Nelson and Waterman still bachelors.

 

[squashface]

Going to throw this one out there...

Strange that Dan Venables and Scherri-Lee got married on a weekend where not a single West Coast team mate is able to be there in support for them. Even if it was a home game chances were zero anyone could attend given the Sunday spot is a given due to form.

Anyways, just an observation.

This is an almighty fumble, chief.

 

[JackieMoon33]

LOL there's a s**t load of them there.

Ahhh it was a while back... My bad

 

[JackieMoon33]

Ahhh it was a while back... My bad

I'll go back to my life now.

 

[Rowan18]

Going to throw this one out there...

Strange that Dan Venables and Scherri-Lee got married on a weekend where not a single West Coast team mate is able to be there in support for them. Even if it was a home game chances were zero anyone could attend given the Sunday spot is a given due to form.

Anyways, just an observation.

It's likely that when they organised the wedding they assumed the season would start this weekend (AFL pushed the season one wk forward late in 2022).

 

[Truckosaurus]

Hmm, don't see Sheppard there

 

[Dylan82]

My biggest frustration with the mids was their inability to push back and cover North mids when they pushed forward. A number of their goals came from our defenders being outnumbered, that only happens if our mids don't cover their men.

It's impossible to see on TV if that's because they were lazy/unfit or if we are pushing up too aggressively and then turning the ball over. It's pretty hard to make up 20 metres on an opponent in AFL (given the fitness standards).

This is the reason above all others for why the team is arguably the most inept in the competition right now.

There is absolutely ZERO accountability given to opposing runners when they do not have the ball.








The first signs of this rot appeared during 2020 and have progressively increased in toxicity since then.

It has occurred too long and too consistently to not be an instruction from the coaching staff.


The team doesn't provide any cover for the defence because it's still stuck in the past, trying to cover stationary pieces of turf and completely ignoring the opposition runners that turn the zone into Swiss cheese.

 

[Chris_6678]

Ginbey on the WC podcast mentioned he has grown from 188cms to 191cms and is still growing!