Past #7: Adam Simpson - 306 games for NM (95-09; 5th AT) - NM captain (04-08) - current WCE head coach

[Twinkletoes]

Yer my sources said that Lacchy will miss this week with rib injury, will be fine to play next week though.

I hope your source isn't the Chief of Football then tdf, or Lachie's screwed!

Thanks for the reports RB and snrub. Sounds like one of those great nights our club has periodically, in honour of our many legends.

 

[gokangas]

Thanks for the reports guys - Simmo is rolled gold class. Glad to see Laids was there.

 

[snrub]

do u think it would have hurt when scott t punched l hansen?

I can report that Lachie was placed on heavy pain killing sedatives shortly after. So much so that he possibly didn't know what he was saying - apparently offered to swap clothes with some guy wearing a royal blue suit.

 

[drew]

Talking to people at the cocktail party you could tell Simmo's 300th would be big. Would have been great to be there. Thanks for the report.

 

[Arden]

Scotty Thompson pausing to punch Hansen in the ribs as he snuck behind him between tables was a highlight - love ya Scotty.

Why were you gazing towards Scotty all night?

 

[gokangas]

Leigh Matthews provided a tribute. Interesting choice. VERY interesting choice.

 

[blackshadow]

Great reports from RB and snrub - it truly was a special night.

Another highlight was Simmo's parents getting up and speaking (Dad then Mum) and his Mum presenting Simmo with a huge scrap book (1 of 5) of media clippings she kept throughout his 300 game career.

Also a great panel consisting of Peter Bell, Shannon Grant and Matt Capuano - some great tales and laughs from those three and some laughs from Sam Kekovich earlier in the evening.

 

[blackshadow]

Leigh Matthews provided a tribute. Interesting choice. VERY interesting choice.

And in his tribute he said if he coaches again Simmo would be the first door he'd be knocking on when looking for an assistant coach.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Beautiful report, RB.

Can I just go back to clear up one point. Were you typing this while being... spooned? By the Chief of Football?

 

[RoyalBlue]

Beautiful report, RB.

Can I just go back to clear up one point. Were you typing this while being... spooned? By the Chief of Football?

Yes, and it was, wonderful.

 

[Chadwiko]

And in his tribute he said if he coaches again Simmo would be the first door he'd be knocking on when looking for an assistant coach.

Huge. The love and respect for Simmo is immense.

This must have been such a cathartic experience for Simmo, especially after the crap he had to put up with through "BorisGate".

 

[HUTCHYHAIR]

Huge. The love and respect for Simmo is immense.

This must have been such a cathartic experience for Simmo, especially after the crap he had to put up with through "BorisGate".

Good choice for the club to go with Steak instead on Chicken for last nights dinner.
I thought instead of the Adam Simpson footy's they should've given rubber chickens with a North Melbourne #7 jumper on

 

[scottywiper]

Good choice for the club to go with Steak instead on Chicken for last nights dinner.
I thought instead of the Adam Simpson footy's they should've given rubber chickens with a North Melbourne #7 jumper on

Now that's wit.

 

[Arden]

Now that's wit.

Nope, it's a ****wit.

 

[snrub]

Leigh Matthews provided a tribute. Interesting choice. VERY interesting choice.

What was even MORE interesting was the way the tables were numbered - the official party was on table number 5 and the table markers were all black and white. Bucks wore number 5 for the black and whites. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[THEKING18]

I was there... however, I was working.... got the whole night on film... great night...

 

[DarwinRoo]

There were speeches from Harvey, Crocker, Pagan, Simmo's parents (who brought tears to the eyes of many of us), a panel consisting of Grant, Bell and Capuano, and finally Simmo himself, who received a standing ovation.

It would have been worth the price of admission alone.

 

[kangakings]

Re: 7. Adam Simpson

simmos 300th unlucky the kangas had a bad day but he is a true champion

 

[scottywiper]

I was there... however, I was working.... got the whole night on film... great night...

Will there be something released on it?

 

[THEKING18]

Will there be something released on it?

No... It's just something the company I work for does... then we send a copy back to whoever... in this case Adam Simpson...or the NMFC...
The company I work for supply all the lighting, visual and sound gear to make such an event possible... and I was the lucky bugger that got to work on that night....

 

[blackshadow]

No... It's just something the company I work for does... then we send a copy back to whoever... in this case Adam Simpson...or the NMFC...
The company I work for supply all the lighting, visual and sound gear to make such an event possible... and I was the lucky bugger that got to work on that night....

Was that you on the video camera?

I was working - doing photos for the club. Sensational night!

 

[THEKING18]

No...I wasn't on the camera... I was doing other jazz... ..I'm only 26... colin who was on the camera is 55...

 

[snrub]

No...I wasn't on the camera... I was doing other jazz... ..I'm only 26... colin who was on the camera is 55...

Was that Colin Christmas? If so, dang, haven't seen him in years.

 

[Horace]

Terrific report RB. Very disappointed that I did not know about this night. Would have loved to have been there.

 

[JD-Roo]

Simmo, heart of the Kangas
Damian Barrett | June 20, 2009 12:00am

HAS there ever been a more self-deprecating captain of an AFL club than Adam Simpson? There are certainly a few challengers, among them Barry Round, Terry Daniher, Andrew Bews, Danny Frawley and Adrian Fletcher.

But Simpson may just top them all, particularly after his speech at Albert Park's Carousel on Thursday night at a dinner to acknowledge his 300 games in the AFL.

As part of a typically North Melbourne function, Simpson rounded off a night of speeches from his mates and family with 20 minutes of his own, straight from the heart.

The women in the room, and some men, had already teared up after a presentation from his Dad and Mum, who adopted him before his first birthday.

Simpson recalled his first training session at Arden St as a 17-year-old, and how his parents were shocked to find him suffering the effects of concussion when they arrived to drive him home.

"Anthony Rock took 10 minutes to knock out of me whatever sort of cockiness I might have had," Simpson told the 400 in the room. "It was one of the best things to ever happen to me. Thanks, Rocky."

The concussion had occurred in a basketball scratch match when Rock, clearly unimpressed with what he perceived as a swagger, tackled the teenager gridiron-style.

Simpson is sarcastic in a good sort of way and he said sarcasm, North Melbourne-style, was part of what made the place tick.

"When people want to make a point at North, it is often done with sarcasm - if someone said to you, 'Is there any danger you can put your head over the ball', it stayed with you," he said.

"You'd learn to let the comment go at the time, but you'd walk away and you'd be thinking, 'Gee, I'd better keep my head over the ball'."

Not that anyone really ever felt Simpson had to be reminded in the first place.

"Never once has he pulled out of a contest, never once has he flinched," said his coach in the 1996 and 1999 premierships, Denis Pagan, who was clearly moved by many of the words spoken on this night.

There was sarcasm aplenty when it came to references to Simpson's kicking.

Pagan said he had developed his own kick - the karate kick. One of his best mates, Shannon Grant, said it was known as the "Simmo Special".

Until late, the night was free of references to Little Boris, the rubber chicken who was the lead character in the Simpson-produced video that early in the season rocked his and the club's worlds for all the wrong reasons.

"I noticed there was no chicken on the menu tonight," Simpson said.

It wasn't Simpson glibly referring to the incident, just his way of proving to the room he was big enough to acknowledge the personal career low when others had chosen, rightly, not to go there.

The Simpson dinner was the brainchild of that great old North man, Ron Joseph.

Joseph regularly infuriates some at North with his stubbornness on certain issues, yet even those who this year have wanted to throttle him were saying wondrous things about him at the close of the night.

Given the events of Tuesday, when Dean Laidley resigned as coach, the Simpson dinner was perfect timing for one of North's unique functions.

And the Simpson occasion once again proved that the quality of people associated with North will always give it a chance to stay alive in Melbourne when other organisations would concede death.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25660343-19742,00.html