Retired #21: Dyson Heppell - Goodnight, sweet prince. What a legend! 🤙 - 24/8

[Lore]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2024
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 27, Highly Evolved

 

[andleanback]

The right choice. Looked like if he didn’t Scott would’ve made him capt again.
Thanks for your service dys hopefully you can squeeze the last bit of footy out yourself.

 

[rumply]

Wise decision, takes the pressure off so he can focus on playing his best footy.

 

[JuniorWatch]

Hird for captain.
Sheedy vice.

 

[Lore]

Actually that graphics job is really bad he's got a two-tone knee but no legs, a hand but no arm, a skin coloured Sherrin and some weird growths on his leg just for starters.



Lazy work cutting around his thumb too...

 

[boncer34]

Is Hep an on field leader? Cos I don’t see it, what’s the point of playing a guy who’s not good enough to get a game of football merit and brings SFA leadership game day. We can’t keep hiding him on the field, he’s not in at the center bounce, he’s not general organizing defense he’s hiding on a wing or flank we’re they are trying for him to have the least negative impact on the side, that’s not a leader

Jesus

 

[BrunoV]

It might look like cognitive bias but I suspect the reality is that he's taking the pressure off the team because he is borderline best 22.

Sides don't need the story of the captain not being a best team player.

Once you factor in role changes and the positions on field his competition for time on the ground is a combination of D'Ambrosio, Redman, Ridley, Hind, McGrath, Durham, Martin, Langford and Cox, that's of the guys we've seen play AFL.

There is nothing about Heppells form for at least 3 years that suggests he's got anyone other than Cox and maybe Massimo, (as an all round player I think Mass has already shown enough in that unaccountable quarterback role) covered at half back or on a wing in 2023.

 

[boncer34]

Hopefully we find someone who can find the pill like him.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Won’t know exactly how it happened of course but doesn’t really matter, it’s the right call all round. He’s a fringe player now and we have a ready replacement in Merrett.

Good move.

 

[Vander18]

What to say?

Ripping bloke, gives it everything - has never shown any clue as to what real leadership is. That said, not his fault he was made captain or that there were no other remotely feasible candidates. He did his best, would never argue that.

Very, very interesting to see what happens now.

 

[boncer34]

What to say?

Ripping bloke, gives it everything - has never shown any clue as to what real leadership is. That said, not his fault he was made captain or that there were no other remotely feasible candidates. He did his best, would never argue that.

Very, very interesting to see what happens now.

Based on?

 

[citizen-erased]

Won’t know exactly how it happened of course but doesn’t really matter, it’s the right call all round. He’s a fringe player now and we have a ready replacement in Merrett.

Good move.

i think this is the crucial point for me
It would be awkward at the point where he's no longer best 22, but still captain. this mitigates

 

[Maddogm]

Based on?

haircut obviously

 

[Vander18]

Based on?

My observation of him as our Captain for 107 games?

 

[boncer34]

My observation of him as our Captain for 107 games?

What hasn't he done?

 

[Vander18]

Based on?

To elaborate - his inability to drive standards.

He’s been one out which hasn’t helped, but he has never been able to influence the group the way Selwood and others have.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

To elaborate - his inability to drive standards.

He’s been one out which hasn’t helped, but he has never been able to influence the group the way Selwood and others have.

You've gotta be kidding. Selwood didn't build Geelong or even strongly influence it - he inherited an outfit that was elite at everything from top to bottom. Sure he maintained it, but he couldn't have walked into a more settled or professional setting.

With a few exceptions, footy captains don't achieve much on their own. They're your classic middle manager. They largely keep things running smoothly if they're good, but they don't turn a place around.

The lionisation of the likes of Voss and Selwood is always overdone... they owe the vast majority of what they achieve to their teammates, club and coach.

I maintain that no AFL captain I've seen has shown anything like the leadership that Jobe did during the saga. He stood in front of the whole thing, 24 hours, every day for years on end, and was the face of it. No other footy captain has had to do anything like that.

I don't think Heppell was an outstanding captain but in terms of achievements, he never had the slightest opportunity to be. He wasn't terrible either.

 

[yodellinhank]

You've gotta be kidding. Selwood didn't build Geelong or even strongly influence it - he inherited an outfit that was elite at everything from top to bottom. Sure he maintained it, but he couldn't have walked into a more settled or professional setting.

With a few exceptions, footy captains don't achieve much on their own. They're your classic middle manager. They largely keep things running smoothly if they're good, but they don't turn a place around.

The lionisation of the likes of Voss and Selwood is always overdone... they owe the vast majority of what they achieve to their teammates, club and coach.

I maintain that no AFL captain I've seen has shown anything like the leadership that Jobe did during the saga. He stood in front of the whole thing, 24 hours, every day for years on end, and was the face of it. No other footy captain has had to do anything like that.

Jobe took off to watch The Ashes. Saying he was a better leader than Sellwood is absolutely laughable.

 

[faible]

Jobe took off to watch The Ashes. Saying he was a better leader than Sellwood is absolutely laughable.

If only Geelong had engaged people to undertake a PED program and Selwood had to front the media day-in-day-out for years.

I mean they did the first bit....

 

[Vindicater]

Heppell a shoe in IMO.

 

[boncer34]

To elaborate - his inability to drive standards.

He’s been one out which hasn’t helped, but he has never been able to influence the group the way Selwood and others have.

You think of we had Selwood as Captain we'd have miraculously seen improvement across a poor playing group?

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Great clubman and has been a good leader on and off the field even though we've put him a lot of shit.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

The good bloke, and good leader that this club needed to steer us through the shit times, we need a new captain who drives tough standards to move on though.
He played an amazing role at a time of need, a bit like Tim Paine post sandpaper gate.

 

[Zach Package]

To elaborate - his inability to drive standards.

He’s been one out which hasn’t helped, but he has never been able to influence the group the way Selwood and others have.

This is fantasy land stuff.

Was it not enough for him to sacrifice a year of his career then front up to press conference after press conference after press conference for 5 years copping shit for stuff that was completely beyond his control?

The fact that we can say ‘he saved the club’ and it’s not ridiculous hyperbole is an achievement in its own right.

 

[citizen-erased]

You've gotta be kidding. Selwood didn't build Geelong or even strongly influence it - he inherited an outfit that was elite at everything from top to bottom. Sure he maintained it, but he couldn't have walked into a more settled or professional setting.

With a few exceptions, footy captains don't achieve much on their own. They're your classic middle manager. They largely keep things running smoothly if they're good, but they don't turn a place around.

The lionisation of the likes of Voss and Selwood is always overdone... they owe the vast majority of what they achieve to their teammates, club and coach.

I maintain that no AFL captain I've seen has shown anything like the leadership that Jobe did during the saga. He stood in front of the whole thing, 24 hours, every day for years on end, and was the face of it. No other footy captain has had to do anything like that.

I don't think Heppell was an outstanding captain but in terms of achievements, he never had the slightest opportunity to be. He wasn't terrible either.

this is very true and evident in the number of leaders those clubs have/had.

Of that lions era -> Leppa, Macrae, Voss & both Scott's have gone on to become senior coaches
the Cats skipper in Harley is a candidate for AFL CEO
the current cats side had the likes of Selwood & Hawkins carry that leadership standard forward.

Jobe was excellent considering he was there with the players when his own career was being torn to shreds. Banned in his twilight, brownlow questioned then stripped, and all hope of premiership success pulled from under his feet.

 

[windyhill]

Amused as to how long they took to come to this decision. Love the bloke, like Hobbs, he had/has captaincy stamped on him from day one.
Never met him but he seems such a genuine ripping bloke. You know he’d love a chat and a beer.We were lucky to have such a fella to lead us out of that drug head ****. Beautifully played D. Heppell.