Where does Mundy sit in the Pantheon of greats at Freo now?

[Square Peg]

I don’t mind people disagreeing, just curious where I went wrong. Constructive criticism always welcome.

Well you didn't 'go wrong' and the fact I disagree with you isn't criticism as you know more than me.
But here goes from my perspective.

As an intellectual exercise I am always torn with whether you can separate the player from the man, and can see good arguments for and against doing so. Generally I am not a huge fan of cancel culture and deplatforming. But when it comes to thumping your wife, I can't have the Wiz on the best player list.

On McPharlin, the guy never finished higher than third in the Doig, and he got one AA. I know awards aren't everything but i just can't have him at the Sandi level even though he was an incredible player.

And to top if off, both of them were two club players.

Neither will ever be in tier one for me but that's only because tier one is rarefied air indeed. They're both still outstanding players.

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

Hawk fan here, so please forgive the intrusion.

Just wanted to say full respect to David Mundy. Wonderful player and seems like a great fella too.

Would think he's in your top 5 all time.

 

[ImperialPurple]

Well you didn't 'go wrong' and the fact I disagree with you isn't criticism as you know more than me.
But here goes from my perspective.

As an intellectual exercise I am always torn with whether you can separate the player from the man, and can see good arguments for and against doing so. Generally I am not a huge fan of cancel culture and deplatforming. But when it comes to thumping your wife, I can't have the Wiz on the best player list.

On McPharlin, the guy never finished higher than third in the Doig, and he got one AA. I know awards aren't everything but i just can't have him at the Sandi level even though he was an incredible player.

And to top if off, both of them were two club players.

Neither will ever be in tier one for me but that's only because tier one is rarefied air indeed. They're both still outstanding players.

Appreciate the explanation.

I would still have McPharlin top 5 in our best players list, despite only one AA. For a while Glass was an automatic selection, despite McPharlin having better seasons - higher profile club, history of AAs. IMO, McPharlin should have had 3-4 AAs, but the selectors couldn’t seem to see past WC. As for being a two club player, it wasn’t his fault he was picked by Hawthorn (top10 IIRC), but he came back to Freo as soon as he could after his draft contract was up.

I stand by my ‘best Docker’ as the face of the club/loyalty to the club etc. separate from best player. That goes to Pav and McManus with Fyfe close behind. As good as Sandi and Mundy have been as players, they’ve never really been the face of the club.
Fyfe is the best player this club has had, Pav close behind, raffle 3/4 between Mundy and Sandi, and McPharlin 5th. Hogan will be right in amongst that if he can keep his head and body right over the next few years.
Neale is up there too (disloyal bastard that he is), as well as Ballas and Haselby. I’ll concede on Farmer as a person, but not as a player.
I’m not sure that before that 1999 draft any player would be in our ‘best players’ list.

 

[raffrox]

ImperialPurple it's a good point about Neale. Where do people think about where he would sit?

135 games
2x Doig winner
3x Glendinning-Allan Medal winner
Freo best 25 since 1995 team

Gees, I'm not sure to be honest. Had to play through one of the more shitty periods in our history (2016-2019 are right up there for shittiness imo) but he cut and ran.

 

[ImperialPurple]

ImperialPurple it's a good point about Neale. Where do people think about where he would sit?

135 games
2x Doig winner
3x Glendinning-Allan Medal winner
Freo best 25 since 1995 team

Gees, I'm not sure to be honest. Had to play through one of the more shitty periods in our history (2016-2019 are right up there for shittiness imo) but he cut and ran.

Very good question (especially as I, for one, thought he was purple for life, the dirty rat).
He came 7th in the Brownlow in 2016 (obviously while still at Freo, and was our highest vote getter in a truly shitful year).

Last year came 3rd. He was also AA since he left (and should have been when he broke the disposals record), and won the BL B&F last year in a year when they finished top 4. Will probably win the Brownlow this year. Has the AFLCA award as good as wrapped up, would hazard a guess he’ll win the AFLPA MVP also. Ok - this has all since he left, but as far as being in the best players to play at our club, do we count achievements just while at at club, or over his career. If it’s over his career, you’d have to add Modra to the list imo.
Tricky.

 

[Van_Dyke]

for me there’s a couple of tiers
Tier 1: Pav, Fyfe
Tier 2: Mundy, Sandi, McPharlin
Tier 3: Bell, Walters, probably the likes of MJ and Ballas as well

For what it's worth, I think the Great Man (Mr Pavlich) is still the Greatest Docker of All Time. Fyfe is the best player to have ever played for the club

yeah this sums up my thoughts on the Pav v Fyfe ‘debate’

I don't think the top 3 (or 4) will change for a long time. Maybe Cerra or Serong after a Norm and a Chas each, but they still have to put in another 10 years, until they're up there with the true greats.

personally I’m hoping in 5-6 years time the likes of Cerra, Serong, Brayshaw etc are up there, because we’ve got something pretty special coming if that’s the case

 

[Van_Dyke]

ImperialPurple it's a good point about Neale. Where do people think about where he would sit?

135 games
2x Doig winner
3x Glendinning-Allan Medal winner
Freo best 25 since 1995 team

Gees, I'm not sure to be honest. Had to play through one of the more shitty periods in our history (2016-2019 are right up there for shittiness imo) but he cut and ran.

tricky one to judge, i’d say probably a tier down from Bell, Walters, Ballas etc just due to games played. if he stayed with us he’d probably been pushing the Sandi/McPharlin tier for mine

 

[Square Peg]

Appreciate the explanation.

I would still have McPharlin top 5 in our best players list, despite only one AA. For a while Glass was an automatic selection, despite McPharlin having better seasons - higher profile club, history of AAs. IMO, McPharlin should have had 3-4 AAs, but the selectors couldn’t seem to see past WC. As for being a two club player, it wasn’t his fault he was picked by Hawthorn (top10 IIRC), but he came back to Freo as soon as he could after his draft contract was up.

I stand by my ‘best Docker’ as the face of the club/loyalty to the club etc. separate from best player. That goes to Pav and McManus with Fyfe close behind. As good as Sandi and Mundy have been as players, they’ve never really been the face of the club.
Fyfe is the best player this club has had, Pav close behind, raffle 3/4 between Mundy and Sandi, and McPharlin 5th. Hogan will be right in amongst that if he can keep his head and body right over the next few years.
Neale is up there too (disloyal bastard that he is), as well as Ballas and Haselby. I’ll concede on Farmer as a person, but not as a player.
I’m not sure that before that 1999 draft any player would be in our ‘best players’ list.

I am not as sold on the image of McManus as some selfless servant of the club as many either but that''s another thread I think.
Based on both his influence over games and his record I can't have McP equal to Sandi (or Mundy) but each to their own for sure

 

[Cesoir]

Haven't seen any mention of Haselby anywhere - is that because he's turned on the club since he left or do people just not rate him?

Surely 4 Glendinnings would have him above some of the names being touted?

 

[ImperialPurple]

I am not as sold on the image of McManus as some selfless servant of the club as many either but that''s another thread I think.
Based on both his influence over games and his record I can't have McP equal to Sandi (or Mundy) but each to their own for sure

I think McManus because for the first 5 years he was the heart and soul, the guy everyone looked to. Maybe not for all the best reasons in terms of ability, but his flowing blonde kicks steaming down the wing, his undoubted courage and bravery, his leadership, his all-round good bloke personality, and his undying passion for the purple, made him the face of Freo for the first 5 years. Despite his limitations, I think he’s a legend of this club, and deserves to be right up there as the greatest ‘Docker’ of all time, even though he wouldn’t be near the best 20 players we’ve ever had.

 

[ImperialPurple]

Haven't seen any mention of Haselby anywhere - is that because he's turned on the club since he left or do people just not rate him?

Surely 4 Glendinnings would have him above some of the names being touted?

I said Haselby in my second post! Mostly forgotten and highly underrated. Rising Star winner also. Had the quickest hands in the business for some time, knew where to position himself, great pair Of hands for a guy barely touching 6’, kicked a winning goal for us on more that one occasion. Very, very astute footy brain. Classic example of footballer over athlete (cos let’s face it, being athletic wasn’t his strong point, even though he had a decent tank).
And I don’t think he’s turned on the club - he’s in the media, it’s his job to be unbiased, and sometimes he goes too far in the other direction, but he always refers to Freo as ‘my old club’.

 

[gaskin]

Haselby is forever tarnished in my eyes for the shit coaching job he did at Sowfs. I know a couple of guys that played under him and they said he was a massive campaigner that had no idea how to motivate a group of players, nor did he have any tactical nous at all.

As a player, he was fantastic and rightly deserves to be in the discussion.

 

[Wilksyy]

Classic example of footballer over athlete (cos let’s face it, being athletic wasn’t his strong point, even though he had a decent tank).

I remember when I was in East Freo combines (this was like 2001) he would pop in to say hello to some of the coaches there, twice he was holding a chicken treat two-piece feed box in his hands, the dude just loved his junk food. Nice guy though.

 

[ImperialPurple]

Haselby is forever tarnished in my eyes for the sh*t coaching job he did at Sowfs. I know a couple of guys that played under him and they said he was a massive campaigner that had no idea how to motivate a group of players, nor did he have any tactical nous at all.

As a player, he was fantastic and rightly deserves to be in the discussion.

Yeah he was a crap coach, but I did hear an interview once and he was asked if he still considers himself an East Freo boy. He said no, that considering his ties to Souths since he finished playing for Freo, he’s now a Souths man. Elevated him in my opinion. Plus when we used to take the kids to training back in 2003-05ish (when it was open night every Tuesday and there was only ever a handful of people there), he used to come over to chat to my eldest daughter, called her by her name and made a bit of a fuss over her. For a 9/10 year old, for whom Hase was her favourite player, this was a huge thing, so I’ve always thought he must be a decent guy.

Oh yeah - and his nickname wasn’t Chops for nothing. No doubt Ross would have told him to go back to the WAFL, get to 8% or GTFO, and we would never have seen him again!

 

[Kram]

One of my mates that isn't really into footy all went to school with Todger Haselby and reckons he's an absolute bellend.

Must say on the brief occasions I've listened to him on the radio he comes across as a flog.

In saying that unless you know someone personally you don't really know, some people just don't get along.

 

[jsdsgn]

Mundy has always been one of my favourite players outside of my own club
Id have Mundy right up there for pure consistency
His peak isnt as good as 3 or 4 others but his consistency places him 3rd for mine.
Pav
Fyfe
Mundy
Sandi
McPharlin

 

[Tbonefreo]

Please keep Desmond's name out of this discussion, he isn't fit to be in the same room as Seany Mac & Shane Parker.

Pav at one, Fyfe at two, then Mundy & Co as the support acts. But then I'm a person who has regularly enjoyed the support acts better than the main acts.

Talking about a game in 2005, just rifling on a certain flogging our team dished out against Collingwood.

He wouldn't be top 20 so relax

 

[Sully90]

For me Fyfe has reached a level of excellence and turned down enough big contracts elsewhere to join Pav at the top on both counts. Yes I know that Pav turned down his offers while we were a basket case, but Fyfe's offers would have been considerably larger, and in this era of player movement I reckon opposition club's would be approaching his manager every season.

After that it's:

• Mundy
• Bell
• Sandilands
• McPharlin
• Walters

In that order. For me anyway.

 

[Wilksyy]

Yeah he was a crap coach, but I did hear an interview once and he was asked if he still considers himself an East Freo boy. He said no, that considering his ties to Souths since he finished playing for Freo, he’s now a Souths man.

He’s now a Souths man?! I take it back he’s a flog.

 

[E Shed]

Just wanted to add a slight addendum to my OP in that I haven't actually said where I rate Fyfe yet.
For me he's got a lot more footy to play and I'll wait till he's getting towards the end (in hopefully 2030) before I place him in my pantheon.
Mundy is far enough along that I thought he rated a discussion. Speaking of loyalty there was times when Melbourne Clubs came hard for Mundy and he left it till the end of the season to re-sign and they were stressful times for me as a fan as he was close to my favourite player then.
It seems strange he was talked about as soft in the early days, mainly because he was such a smooth mover I think. Now he is like a bulldozer at clearances and still has a very handy first few steps for a guy his size.

 

[dominguez]

Pav number 1 by a massive margin and it will never be close.

Sandi, Fyfe, Lukey Mac, and Mundy would be in the next tier for me.

Surely if Fyfe captains a premiership to go with 2 brownlow's he goes to number one?

 

[Sully90]

Just wanted to add a slight addendum to my OP in that I haven't actually said where I rate Fyfe yet.
For me he's got a lot more footy to play and I'll wait till he's getting towards the end (in hopefully 2030) before I place him in my pantheon.
Mundy is far enough along that I thought he rated a discussion. Speaking of loyalty there was times when Melbourne Clubs came hard for Mundy and he left it till the end of the season to re-sign and they were stressful times for me as a fan as he was close to my favourite player then.
It seems strange he was talked about as soft in the early days, mainly because he was such a smooth mover I think. Now he is like a bulldozer at clearances and still has a very handy first few steps for a guy his size.

Essendon and Richmond if I remember correctly. $500,000 a year was the offer I think, back when that was alot of money to offer a player.

 

[ozzie69]

I have only been to the MCG to see Freo play Richmond on two occasions. On both those occasions, we won by a kick after the siren - and it was David Mundy. These are some special memories - he has done very well for a guy that started his career with us as yet another skinny half back flanker. Maybe not quite a Pav or a Fyfe in terms of profile, more of a silk than a bull, hope he doesn't leave it too long to step down. Too many guys leave it one year too long and their final year is just a miserable injury racked year. Better to leave on a high and be remembered at that level.

 

[Square Peg]

Essendon and Richmond if I remember correctly. $500,000 a year was the offer I think, back when that was alot of money to offer a player.

He was also being strongly courted by Gold Coast in their start up period. I remember his missus was dead against it, so we can thank her steadying influence on Dave too.

 

[gaskin]

Surely if Fyfe captains a premiership to go with 2 brownlow's he goes to number one?

Nope. I have outlined before multiple times when this conversation has come up why Fyfe will never reach Pav levels in my eyes so I won't again because I CBF. I look at more than just the talent level and accolades.