In an era where footballers are so heavily scrutinised in the general public, several recruiting decisions have derailed clubs. Here’s a look at five of the worst from the past decade.
Players who arrive at a club via trade, draft and rookie listings can be identified as recruits but due to the large number of draft busts, this article will only be looking at players recruited by awful trade decisions.
Sometimes trades are one sided because a team gives up too much for an average player. Others are simply bad recruiting decisions because players bring bad habits to their new clubs. Every coach says they can fix a player’s bad habits but history suggests otherwise.
Here’s a look at five of the worst recruiting decisions from the past decade.
5. Jordan McMahon
In 2007, Jordan McMahon was traded from the Western Bulldogs to Richmond in exchange for pick 19. It was a trade with the approval of coach Terry Wallace and one of his most questionable decisions which led to his sacking.
The Bulldogs used pick 19 on Callan Ward who is quickly becoming one of the league’s best midfielders.
Although McMahon played 34 games in three seasons before being delisted, his impact on the AFL has been ridiculous considering how little he did on the field. In round 18 against Melbourne in 2009, McMahon kicked a goal after the siren to win the game.
Melbourne did not win another game for the season and were entitled to the priority draft pick used for Tom Scully. A three year investigation into tanking ensued.
Looking back on it, most people wish McMahon had just missed that kick!
4. Andrew Lovett
During the 2009 trade period, Lovett was traded from Essendon to St Kilda in exchange for pick 16. It was an offseason from hell for the club after Lovett was embroiled in a rape allegation, of which his new St Kilda teammates were present.
Lovett never once put on the St Kilda jersey after being immediately sacked by the club once rape charges were laid against him. Further drawing unneeded attention to his new club, a lengthy trial required St Kilda players to be cycled through the witness box.
Meanwhile, Essendon were grinning after a complicated trade saw Jake Carlisle land at Essendon in exchange for parting with Lovett.
3. Israel Folau
Let’s not kid ourselves – the guy was awful at football. He was recruited as a marketing tool and in the hope that his athletic abilities could make him a regular in the team.
Despite being paid $1.5m per year, roughly 30 times more than the kids who were drafted, he still couldn’t do his job.
Breaching his contract and leaving the game after just two years (one in the AFL), Folau may have helped gather attention in Western Sydney towards AFL, but recruiters around the country now know that intangible skills greatly outweigh physical athleticism in the game of Australian football.
He may have passed all his interviews and fooled recruiters to believe his commitment but in the end, Folou was a disaster.
2. Jason Akermanis
The AFL’s human headline, Akermanis never hid from the cameras and thrived when a microphone was placed in front of him. A gifted athlete, it took the very best of Leigh Matthews to tame the child-like man.
But in the end, Matthews and everyone in Brisbane had enough of his arrogant ways.
Every bit of his talent was exhausted by Brisbane until it reached the point where his on-field brilliance could no longer justify his culture killing demeanour.
Although playing reasonable football which still made him one of the top ten players at the club, the Lions were prepared to lose him for nothing until the Western Bulldogs and Rodney Eade showed interest.
Akermanis then found his way to Witten Oval in exchange for pick 34 at the end of 2006.
Believing they could change him, everything from media bans to interventions were tried but ultimately, it ended in hatred much like his departure from Brisbane.
Selling out his teammates, accusing opposition players of using drugs, disrespecting his coaches and homophobic comments were just a few Akermanis headlines. By the end of his career, he had few friends in the league beyond journalists.
1. Brendan Fevola
It’s not often a team passionately wants to get rid of their leading goal kicker for the past seven seasons but in 2009, Carlton decided enough was enough.
Fevola had always been one of the rowdier players around the league who was often baited by The Footy Show who took full advantage of his lack of professionalism.
The cameras loved him and in 2009 when The Footy Show asked him to host their Street Talk segment at the Brownlow medal, fans were greeted with what remains as probably the funniest interview segment ever.
Fevola’s booze filled night which was fully caught on cameras eventually cost him his job at Carlton who had previously suppressed such Fevola activity.
Unfortunately for Carlton, Fevola’s excellent form on the field had warranted him a three-year contract extension which he signed in 2008 and kept him contracted until the end of 2011.
When the decision to trade him was finally confirmed, he had two more years remaining on his contract which was worth $700,000 per year.
At the time, he was one of the top five highest paid key forwards in league and finding a club to take over that contract was extremely difficult.
Eventually though, Michael Voss put his hand up to take the troubled forward off Carlton’s hands and the Blues hierarchy were delighted.
Brendan Fevola and pick 27 were traded to the Brisbane Lions in exchange for Lachlan Henderson and pick 12 with Carlton agreeing to pay a meagre $100,000 per year for the remaining two of Fevola’s contracted years.
The Lions gave up a promising key position player in Henderson and to free up salary cap space, champion full forward Daniel Bradshaw did not have his contract renewed. Bradshaw subsequently played for Sydney the following season.
Away from the AFL spotlight in a smaller market, it was hoped Fevola would fade out of the national headlines with fewer AFL reporters in Brisbane than Melbourne.
How wrong they were.
Fevola had one mildly successful season with the Lions in 2010, kicking 47 goals in 17 matches but that was his last. Away from the structured nature of an AFL club, the lack of babysitting during the AFL offseason saw Fevola return to his alcohol and gambling fuelled adventures.
At one point he was omitted to a rehabilitation clinic to tackle issues of depression only to be found exiting a nightclub at 7am while he was supposed to be rehabilitating.
Finally by February of 2011, the Brisbane Lions accepted that Fevola was unrepairable and severed ties with the troubled forward who finished his AFL career with 204 games and 623 goals.
Players can do all the stupid things in the world but the buck stops with the people who bring them into the club.
Stay tuned for next week when we look at the five best recruiting decisions from the past decade.
Yarraville Tiger
Guest
Richmond got played by Hawthorn in that draft. We wanted Roughead and Hawthorn were meant to take Buddy at 2. Hawthorn reversed the order knowing that we didn't want Buddy due to discipline issues and in turn got both the players they wanted and left us with nothing but Tambling.
Martin
Guest
Also Peter Bell should never have left Fremantle for North Melbourne.
Me Too
Guest
The Lovett trade is the worst of them. Tainted the st kilda brand and when you add what it actually cost them - the 2010 flag. Luke Ball wasn't rated by Lyon and when the opportunity to draft Lovett appeared Ball was no longer considered worth keeping and was offered a pittance of a renewal contract, ensuring he would move on. He insisted on a collingwood move, and with the 'ball' in their courts, the magpies smartly refused to offer a decent trade. So off he went, for no compensation, and became an integral member of the 2010 premiership side - added that hard inside mid they lacked.Ball, along with Jolly, turned them from contender into champions. The look of sadness on his face when the pies beat the saints in the replay revealed the anguish Ball had put himself through in leaving his mates. Not much of a doubt, if Ball had stayed at st kilda, the 2010 flag would be flying over seaford. If Lyon had gotten over his own personal anger at Ball, and played him in the last quarter of the 2009 final (Ball had been one of the saints best players in the first half, before being taken off and 'rested'), the saints may won back to back flags and erased their reputation as perennial failures forever.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Fair assessment. Jonathon Hay is the obvious omission though given he cost 2 first round draft picks.
Macca
Guest
SO what figures can we use if not memberships? Attendances aren't that great, profits aren't good where is the figure that demonstrates this support? And jsut because the memberships are better than the NRL doesn't mean they are good, the Swans aren't competing against NRL clubs. FOr example how many players on an NRL club list? Do the swans have "League clubs"? And how many NRL CLubs are in Sydney, there has only been one AFL club up there for 30 years, in a city of what 2m people and they can only find 27k members?
Macca
Guest
Benjamin, The difference in you Carlton example is that they are 2 different topics, I am talking about the one topic just 2 different vehicles. But if you want to get that technical aout the phrasing of my post go for your life. To me the reaction of a lot of posters on this thread defending Folau from even the slightest criticism proves my point.
Matt F
Roar Guru
Membership numbers aren't a great indicator because Sydney as a city has never had a membership culture. The Swans membership numbers may be low compared to other AFL sides but they're greater than those of any NRL side and given that Sydney is an NRL city that's quite an achievement. It's no coincidence that the sides with the lowest membership numbers in the AFL are from NRL cities.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Stratton
Guest
Macca, your missing my point. Under your rules anyone could mention a singular and a repeated occurance in the one sentence. You said 'stories and comment' being inundated. How about my NM example? How about me saying we have been inundated about Carlton cheating scandals and volunteer work over the past 20 years, when scandals = 3 and volunteer work = 100? Wouldnt you question this? Hey man I'm just pointing it out from the readers perspective. I gotta go.
Macca
Guest
Harry M - Iceland is an untapped market too should the AFL go there? A place is only a market if people actually want the product, by Matt F's own admission after 30 years and 2 premierships the media in Sydney still don't cover the Swans much. Based on a report from April last year swans home games only averaged 20k and if memory serves they were still losing money before last year. In 2011 they had just 27k members which was less than the struggling Bulldogs, Melbourne & North Melb and was the third lowest in the AFL, only beating the 2 Qld teams. In 2010 the figures were pretty much the same. So I don;t have to sample 2m people when the figures speak for themselves. After all if that is how Sydney supports a team that has rarely missed the finals for a decade and played in 3 Grand Finals in 7 years then what hope do GWS have?
Harry M
Guest
Macca because its an untapped market. NRL supporters are begging the NRL to go national so if no-one cares in WS about AFL (I assume you have sampled 2m people) wouldnt that be an untapped market too. The AFL have made some good decisions over the years and see some future
Macca
Guest
TCCOBS - It isn't a silly argument it is actually exactly what I said originally, It is gold old strummer who deleted my "comments" with a few well placed dots to try and make his case. Go back to 10.10 yesterday and read my original comment and you will see "the past 2 years where this site has been inundated with stories and comments about how great he was/will be." See the "stories AND comments" - how else would you interpret that other that "stories and comments"
The Curious Case of Benjamin Stratton
Guest
Just let it go Macca. The guy has pulled you up on exageratting a few numbers and rather than correct yourself you try to dig yourself out of a small hole with silly arguments that you meant comments and stories are combined. Its like trying to justify saying that since 1920 North Melbourne has been inundated with Sudanese and Australian born players.
Macca
Guest
You really are a clown Strummer - I thikn I have said this before but I know why you are called Strummer.
Strummer Jones
Guest
Apology accepted. Cheers
Macca
Guest
Strummer - I did a 5 minute search came up with 3 stories quoting sheedy saying Izzy will be great and 4 others talking about what massive potential he had and that he would burst games open, that GWS don't need cloke because they have him and that he would be a "top Shelf Ruckman", all over about a 2 month period - If I bothered searching back the full 2 years or going through every story that mentioned Folau and extracting the quotes relating to him there would be plenty more. If you then add in all the comments that you conveniently want to ignore you would see my point. And for future reference when I apologise you will generally see the words "sorry" or "I apologise".
Australian Rules
Guest
ah yes, but folau...
Andy_Roo
Roar Guru
The recruiting of Fevola to Brisbane will forever tarnish Michael Voss' coaching career. Recruiting Fevola was a bad mistake but offering Bradshaw and Rischitelli as trades was a worse one. It doesn't matter how good a coach Voss is or might be, he will never be forgiven.
Strummer Jones
Guest
Sorry, I thought you were saying sorry. I am sorry for mistaking your sorry. So to be clear, you were really trying to say this : “makes a welcome change from the past 2 years where this site has been inundated with around 3 stories about how Sheedy believes he'll be great (extremely unusual for a coach to say this about one of his players) and many many comments about how great he was/will be.” ? Now I don't mean to be picky but were there really any (and I mean ANY) comments from anybody that stated in the same sentence something like "Izzy was great". Or, is this a case of me having to separate the "is" and "was" part of your statement as well whereby the "is'es" get heaps more (if any) numbers than the "was'ses"?
TomC
Roar Guru
Get a room, boys.
Macca
Guest
Strummer - Firstly stop selectively qutoeing, those little dots you put in dramatically change waht I said, just because you were interested in comments doesn't mean I wasn't referring to them as well. What I said was "makes a welcome change from the past 2 years where this site has been inundated with stories and comments about how great he was/will be." So There have been numerous stories and many many more comments. I didn't say we were inundated with stories, I said we were inundated with stories AND comments, the combination of both caused the inundation. Secondly you excluded articles on this site that were "regurgitating Sheedy" when I made no reference to quality of article just that they existed. And I wasn't proven incorrect and I didn't apologise. I will now accept your apology for trying to verbal me.