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- Jan 25, 2010
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Re: 2011 Geelong Board player review - Six senior players remain!
#7: Harry Taylor, Geelong Board player review, 2011
Unlike many of our community here, I'm not the sort of fan who carries a man-crush for any players. I tend to like them from afar and happily revel in their triumphs while minimising their mortal failings. To be honest, I don't even have any desire to meet them away from the field of dreams.
At one stage I coached three members of the national basketball team - including the captain and starting centre - in Div 1 in Canberra in the mid 80s and contributed absolutely nothing to their career progression (but we did win the championship). At times, my work has also brought me into close working relationships with Olympic medallists of all hues and sundry World Champions, but sporting celebrities don't tend to appeal to me at all on the basis of their sporting prowess or public profiles alone. I've rubbed shoulders with sporting stars, and to be honest, in real life a lot of them really aren't all that interesting, or occasionally, the sort of people you'd want within a million miles of your kids.
Kinda like every other member of the human race, really.
Harry Taylor is the one Geelong Cat that I wouldn't mind meeting away from footy. I'd even let him meet my son as well. Him, as a fellow military history nerd, I would find incredibly interesting, even though our beloved "Cognac" or "Q9" is actually called "Drill Bit" by his team mates and peers.
"Drill Bit". As in "boring". (As if!)
But that's Harry. Our Harry. Arguably the most complex personality in the entire organisation. So how on earth do I present any sort of half accurate review of him in less than a tome the size of War and Peace? (Note to Harry: think eastern front. Only in an earlier war.)
OK, Lincoln referred to "lies, damned lies, and statistics", so for 2011, Harry's stats read:
Played 24 - 208 kicks/ 148 handballs/ 356 disposals; 144 marks; 18 frees for/ 9 frees against; 46 tackles.
He ranked tied for 1st in the team in marks with Corey Enright, despite playing 1 more game than Boris but getting subbed off far more often. Only Andrew Mackie scored more frees for among the backs (19), and only Taylor Hunt conceded less frees against (8, in 11 less games). And only Mackie (59) and David Wojcinski (49) had more tackles among the backs.
So it was a productive year (to put it mildly).
This compares to Harry's All-Australian season of 2010:
Played 23 - 191 kicks/ 197 handballs/ 388 disposals; 159 marks; 12 fees for/ 11 frees against; 35 tackles.
I don't know about you, but the I'd take the 2011 stats any day over the previous year, which were to that time the most productive numbers that Harry had pulled.
Everything about Harry Taylor - even his name - reads like a Jimmy Stewart movie from the late 1940's. The Harry Taylor Story features a tall raw boned country boy who, when not possessed of a draftable physique or range of skills in his teens (AFL clubs tend to like their meat young), moseys on down from his home in rural Geraldton to Perth (well, Freo, which is basically Perth Lite) and earns a physio degree while playing in the WAFL. In The Mission 2 by Scott Gullan, Harry himself is quoted as saying, "I was never anything outstanding as a junior" (p260).
Even though he was a tad older than most rookies that tend to be drafted, he nominated for the draft in his final year of uni and then focused on his studies. Nine clubs interviewed him (Stephen Wells talked to him for only two minutes in order to camouflage the depth of his interest), and many of those 9 clubs kept very much in contact (Melbourne advised him that they would definitely draft him).
The night before the draft, Our Harry attended a uni break up show, and was basically sleeping it off the next morning when the draft was run and won at 8am Sandgroper time. He eventually woke to find 95 missed calls on his mobile (including 5 from a very much less than impressed Mark Thompson) advising him that that he was going to Geelong - it was to be the very first time that he had ever left WA. He was drafted as a forward/ ruckman at pick #17, and the consensus of opinion among the clubs was that he was a wasted pick that early as he would still be available in Round 2 (or possibly later).
"You wouldn't say that he was a stand-out at all", Stephen Wells states in The Mission 2 (p259). "He wasn't even setting the world on fire the year we drafted him but he looked like someone who might be useful." His attitude and rampant professionalism was noted even then: "I was pretty confident he was a mature person who would do whatever he could to play good AFL footy." (Stephen Wells in The Mission 2, p260).
This thoroughness and perfectionalism is the cornerstone of Harry's career, and has understandably earned him the unreserved admiration of those who work closest with him.
Tom Lonergan: "He's a pretty intense character - trains like an absolute madman. He always dots the i's and crosses the t's."
David Wojcinski: "He's the ultimate professional. He'll do anything to improve his game."
Matthew Scarlett: "He's become the best centre half back in the league. I've got huge raps for Harry, and he's a terrific guy."
He became a core element of our defence from his first year (so much for being a forward come ruckman), and it seems as though he's been there forever. We Catters are just so used to seeing him glide in from the side and snare critical mark after mark from opposition kicks, and to then watch that elegant understated left boot of his initiate another retaliatory strike by the Cats. He is Rommel with a decent left boot, Slim with a clunking overhead mark.
The 2011 Grand Final summed up Harry. The SEN crew were convinced that he was carrying a leg injury, and Cloke seemed set to towel him up after sinking three goals in the first 35 minutes from ICBM like ranges. Then Krakouer gave him a bit of a facial just before half time, and Harry was left basically dazed and confused.
Come the second half though, and #7 morphed back into Our Harry once again. He started by continuing Lonergan's work shutting out Daws (while Domsy did a number on Cloke), and then bit by bit, started to dominate the air in the back half like a Spitfire ace in the Battle of Britain. But as good as his aerial work was (and it was very very good indeed), my favourite Harry moment was during one play phase when he barely touched the ball.
Watch the replay of that last quarter, and especially when there was almost a continuous scrum 10 - 15 meters out from Collingwood's goal. Ignore the melee (although there were some exceptional blocked kicks in that brawl), and watch Our Harry. He detached quickly from the main pack, and positioned himself like a soccer goalkeeper on the line between the main posts. As the mass muscle fest continued, Cloke eased into the 10m square looking for an easy gimme, and Harry immediately slid over and covered him. Finally, the ball got out to Tarrant who banged in a long shot at goal, and there was Our Harry, on the last line of defence like the defenders of Bastogne, punching the ball through for a behind and denying the Magpies the goal they so desperately needed to fuel their flagging hopes and put fire back into failing hearts.
The whole sequence displayed all that is great about Harry Taylor. Intelligence, awareness, commitment. While one All Australian centre half back was being comprehensively towelled in that game, our All Australian centre half back picked himself up from a start as dodgy as Dunkirk, dusted himself off, then assumed full control of the air war and made the big key defensive plays in the final quarter (yet again) that ensured the inevitable triumph of the master team.
Harry is the most intellectually prepared and disciplined player in the game today bar none, and only Steve Johnson does anywhere remotely near the same level of research and preparation. In only four seasons with the club, Our Harry has played in three grand finals for two wins, been awarded All Australian honours, and was promoted to the leadership group. In what is considered by many observers to be a two way race between Messrs Selwood & Bartel, Harry Taylor is widely regarded throughout the playing group as being a definite and very much deserving contender for the captaincy.
2011 was yet more of the same from Harry Taylor. More evolution, more leadership, more impact. His drafting back in 2007 was yet another Wellsian stroke of genius (as was Mark Thompson sending him to the backline), and as good as he has been, I feel that Harry Taylor - Our Harry - is only going to provide even greater highlights for the Harry Taylor Story.
With or without the late great Jimmy Stewart starring as .......
#7: Harry Taylor, Geelong Board player review, 2011
Unlike many of our community here, I'm not the sort of fan who carries a man-crush for any players. I tend to like them from afar and happily revel in their triumphs while minimising their mortal failings. To be honest, I don't even have any desire to meet them away from the field of dreams.
At one stage I coached three members of the national basketball team - including the captain and starting centre - in Div 1 in Canberra in the mid 80s and contributed absolutely nothing to their career progression (but we did win the championship). At times, my work has also brought me into close working relationships with Olympic medallists of all hues and sundry World Champions, but sporting celebrities don't tend to appeal to me at all on the basis of their sporting prowess or public profiles alone. I've rubbed shoulders with sporting stars, and to be honest, in real life a lot of them really aren't all that interesting, or occasionally, the sort of people you'd want within a million miles of your kids.
Kinda like every other member of the human race, really.
Harry Taylor is the one Geelong Cat that I wouldn't mind meeting away from footy. I'd even let him meet my son as well. Him, as a fellow military history nerd, I would find incredibly interesting, even though our beloved "Cognac" or "Q9" is actually called "Drill Bit" by his team mates and peers.
"Drill Bit". As in "boring". (As if!)
But that's Harry. Our Harry. Arguably the most complex personality in the entire organisation. So how on earth do I present any sort of half accurate review of him in less than a tome the size of War and Peace? (Note to Harry: think eastern front. Only in an earlier war.)
OK, Lincoln referred to "lies, damned lies, and statistics", so for 2011, Harry's stats read:
Played 24 - 208 kicks/ 148 handballs/ 356 disposals; 144 marks; 18 frees for/ 9 frees against; 46 tackles.
He ranked tied for 1st in the team in marks with Corey Enright, despite playing 1 more game than Boris but getting subbed off far more often. Only Andrew Mackie scored more frees for among the backs (19), and only Taylor Hunt conceded less frees against (8, in 11 less games). And only Mackie (59) and David Wojcinski (49) had more tackles among the backs.
So it was a productive year (to put it mildly).
This compares to Harry's All-Australian season of 2010:
Played 23 - 191 kicks/ 197 handballs/ 388 disposals; 159 marks; 12 fees for/ 11 frees against; 35 tackles.
I don't know about you, but the I'd take the 2011 stats any day over the previous year, which were to that time the most productive numbers that Harry had pulled.
Everything about Harry Taylor - even his name - reads like a Jimmy Stewart movie from the late 1940's. The Harry Taylor Story features a tall raw boned country boy who, when not possessed of a draftable physique or range of skills in his teens (AFL clubs tend to like their meat young), moseys on down from his home in rural Geraldton to Perth (well, Freo, which is basically Perth Lite) and earns a physio degree while playing in the WAFL. In The Mission 2 by Scott Gullan, Harry himself is quoted as saying, "I was never anything outstanding as a junior" (p260).
Even though he was a tad older than most rookies that tend to be drafted, he nominated for the draft in his final year of uni and then focused on his studies. Nine clubs interviewed him (Stephen Wells talked to him for only two minutes in order to camouflage the depth of his interest), and many of those 9 clubs kept very much in contact (Melbourne advised him that they would definitely draft him).
The night before the draft, Our Harry attended a uni break up show, and was basically sleeping it off the next morning when the draft was run and won at 8am Sandgroper time. He eventually woke to find 95 missed calls on his mobile (including 5 from a very much less than impressed Mark Thompson) advising him that that he was going to Geelong - it was to be the very first time that he had ever left WA. He was drafted as a forward/ ruckman at pick #17, and the consensus of opinion among the clubs was that he was a wasted pick that early as he would still be available in Round 2 (or possibly later).
"You wouldn't say that he was a stand-out at all", Stephen Wells states in The Mission 2 (p259). "He wasn't even setting the world on fire the year we drafted him but he looked like someone who might be useful." His attitude and rampant professionalism was noted even then: "I was pretty confident he was a mature person who would do whatever he could to play good AFL footy." (Stephen Wells in The Mission 2, p260).
This thoroughness and perfectionalism is the cornerstone of Harry's career, and has understandably earned him the unreserved admiration of those who work closest with him.
Tom Lonergan: "He's a pretty intense character - trains like an absolute madman. He always dots the i's and crosses the t's."
David Wojcinski: "He's the ultimate professional. He'll do anything to improve his game."
Matthew Scarlett: "He's become the best centre half back in the league. I've got huge raps for Harry, and he's a terrific guy."
He became a core element of our defence from his first year (so much for being a forward come ruckman), and it seems as though he's been there forever. We Catters are just so used to seeing him glide in from the side and snare critical mark after mark from opposition kicks, and to then watch that elegant understated left boot of his initiate another retaliatory strike by the Cats. He is Rommel with a decent left boot, Slim with a clunking overhead mark.
The 2011 Grand Final summed up Harry. The SEN crew were convinced that he was carrying a leg injury, and Cloke seemed set to towel him up after sinking three goals in the first 35 minutes from ICBM like ranges. Then Krakouer gave him a bit of a facial just before half time, and Harry was left basically dazed and confused.
Come the second half though, and #7 morphed back into Our Harry once again. He started by continuing Lonergan's work shutting out Daws (while Domsy did a number on Cloke), and then bit by bit, started to dominate the air in the back half like a Spitfire ace in the Battle of Britain. But as good as his aerial work was (and it was very very good indeed), my favourite Harry moment was during one play phase when he barely touched the ball.
Watch the replay of that last quarter, and especially when there was almost a continuous scrum 10 - 15 meters out from Collingwood's goal. Ignore the melee (although there were some exceptional blocked kicks in that brawl), and watch Our Harry. He detached quickly from the main pack, and positioned himself like a soccer goalkeeper on the line between the main posts. As the mass muscle fest continued, Cloke eased into the 10m square looking for an easy gimme, and Harry immediately slid over and covered him. Finally, the ball got out to Tarrant who banged in a long shot at goal, and there was Our Harry, on the last line of defence like the defenders of Bastogne, punching the ball through for a behind and denying the Magpies the goal they so desperately needed to fuel their flagging hopes and put fire back into failing hearts.
The whole sequence displayed all that is great about Harry Taylor. Intelligence, awareness, commitment. While one All Australian centre half back was being comprehensively towelled in that game, our All Australian centre half back picked himself up from a start as dodgy as Dunkirk, dusted himself off, then assumed full control of the air war and made the big key defensive plays in the final quarter (yet again) that ensured the inevitable triumph of the master team.
Harry is the most intellectually prepared and disciplined player in the game today bar none, and only Steve Johnson does anywhere remotely near the same level of research and preparation. In only four seasons with the club, Our Harry has played in three grand finals for two wins, been awarded All Australian honours, and was promoted to the leadership group. In what is considered by many observers to be a two way race between Messrs Selwood & Bartel, Harry Taylor is widely regarded throughout the playing group as being a definite and very much deserving contender for the captaincy.
2011 was yet more of the same from Harry Taylor. More evolution, more leadership, more impact. His drafting back in 2007 was yet another Wellsian stroke of genius (as was Mark Thompson sending him to the backline), and as good as he has been, I feel that Harry Taylor - Our Harry - is only going to provide even greater highlights for the Harry Taylor Story.
With or without the late great Jimmy Stewart starring as .......
