Sacked podcast 2022: Rocket on Aker’s handstand and that viral Minson spray

Sacked podcast 2022: Rocket on Aker’s handstand and that viral Minson spray

https://i.postimg.cc/d3y2PtCJ/eade.jpg

Rodney Eade’s seven years at the Bulldogs was the most enjoyable time of his career but it wasn’t without it’s controversies. In the latest SACKED, Rocket lifts the lid on Aker’s handstand and the rant that has Tik Tok buzzing.

FORMER Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade says the club made an error in banning Jason Akermanis from his famous handstand celebration in the prelude to his 2010 sacking.

And Eade says the crucial free kick paid against Brian Lake for pushing Nick Riewoldt in the 2009 preliminary final was a “crock of garbage” and “bulldust”.

Eade enjoyed a brilliant seven-season stint at the Western Bulldogs as he helped build an immature team and guided it to a trio of preliminary finals.

He told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast his time at the Bulldogs was the most enjoyable of his time in football despite winning four flags as a Hawthorn wingman and taking Sydney to the 1996 grand final.

One of Eade’s famous rants at ruckman Will Minson in 2019 went viral on an audio clip and Eade admitted to Sacked that while it was his voice it was a heavily edited minute-long package of a full 150-minute game.

But Eade’s legacy at the Dogs was his tactical nous and capacity to build up a young side desperate for self belief rather than his strong emotions which occasionally spilled over.

Eade realised early the lightning quick Bulldogs kids were beautiful ball users and he tailored his game style around their particular skills.

Renowned as a master tactician, Eade said at times he made moves only to see how his opposition coach reacted: “I think as a historian of the game I always asked questions. Why do you do this, what are they trying to achieve? Sometimes we made moves not knowing what the effect would be.

“One game something was thrown around in the box and someone said, ‘What is going on here?’ I said, ‘I’ve got no effing idea’. But the bloke next door has got no chance”.

Eade never won a premiership in his 377 games as coach of Sydney, the Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast but said after four playing flags he can still sleep well at night.

“That’s what happens in footy, it doesn’t stick in your craw,” he said.

“I was asked the question at the Bulldogs and I said I would love to win one more for the players and the supporters rather than myself.

“It might have been different if I hadn’t won one as a player, it wasn’t a personal thing driving me, my coaching was more about the team and the club and trying to get each bloke getting the best out of themselves.

“Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have won one. But probably at the Bulldogs, I enjoyed coaching the most and maybe even my footy the most other than the premierships. It was a terrific club to be a part of.”

AKER CONTROVERSY

Akermanis has long felt the Leading Teams model in which players get strong 360-degree feedback only allows for players to be bullied and the triple Brisbane Lions premiership player was told he “looked content” in one Dogs session.

Akermanis told Sacked in 2019 the club’s “A-Team” of players was “more powerful than I ever thought” as they banned his trademark handstand which had been so powerful in bringing young fans to the Lions.

“They were like, ‘It’s too individual, we don’t want individuality here’ … d***heads. It was a huge collective of very, very weak individuals allowed to get away with it,” he said.

Eade told Sacked this week Akermanis’ 77 games at the Dogs had been full of positives but it was not a surprise his tenure ended in acrimony.

“He is his own person, as we know. I thought our group handled him really well, they gave him a lot of rope which people don’t realise,” Eade said.

“2007 was the first year, he didn’t have a great year, but after that he played some good football. At times he was getting tagged by (Jared) Crouch and we would get him to play a different role. He would accept that.

“I think the issue was when he retired at the end of 2009, he was going to finish and he had a job at Channel 7 and radio and they all fell through so he came back and said, ‘Can I keep going?’ but we had no more (salary cap room) left so he got some sponsors to get extra money.

“He was fading and (injured) and he got frustrated so it was as much my fault to agree with him to go on that extra year.”

Of the handstands Eade was adamant: “I didn’t mind it.

“We had (leadership facilitators) Leading Teams at that stage. And Leading Teams was quite raw and open. And obviously he didn’t like the feedback he got as a group at one stage.

“That was the second (instance). But the first one was brought up by one player about the handstand.

“If they’d asked me, I had no issue with it, and some of the players didn’t either, but the players spoke about it.

“And then I took a vote on this and the facilitator from Leading Teams extrapolated it out and they got blokes to have their opinion and they as a group said we would rather you not do it.”

Asked if that was like a red rag to a bull, Eade said: “I agree.”

THE ARRIVAL

Eade said despite the accepted narrative, he was not beaten to the Hawthorn coaching job by Alastair Clarkson.

Instead on the day before his Hawks interview the Dogs refused to allow him to leave their own meeting until he signed on as coach.

“With the Hawthorn job, Dermott (Brereton) called me and flew to Sydney and said, ‘I’m really good mates with Ayresy (Gary Ayres) but I’d like you to get the job’.

“I said, ‘I am going to interview with the Bulldogs’, so he said they would get me an interview on the Monday.

“So on the Sunday I went for an interview with the Bulldogs with Rob Walls and Jose Romero and a couple of others in the interview and I think they had made their mind up on me beforehand, it’s what I pieced together later.

“They said get your manager in, we don’t want you to leave the building. Ricky Nixon came in and worked a deal out. So I never got to be interviewed by Hawthorn.”

LET’S RUN

The Dogs had five 200-gamers at the club in Chris Grant, Luke Darcy, Rohan Smith, Brad Johnson and Scott West (all went on to play 300 games) but then a big gap to the next generation including Lindsay Gilbee, Daniel Giansiracusa, Bob Murphy and Daniel Cross.

They desperately lacked self belief.

“I remember one Saturday morning I said, ‘Can the senior players go to my left. And the rest go to my right’. Eight players went to my left,” Eade said.

“And it included the five who had played 200 games. I remember even ‘Murph’ going to my right. I said even if you haven’t played a senior game you should think you’re a senior player. So that told me.”

In his early sessions the club’s skill level stood out, as did the 21 players who could peel off sub-three second 20m sprint times.

“So they have some pace. They can kick it. Let’s change the game plan,” he said.

“Let’s run and bounce the ball. So the average bounces the year before per game was five. We took it to 40. Run and carry the ball.”

The Dogs were 6-10 in 2005 then surged to win five of their last six games to miss the finals by half a game.

FREE KICK

AT one stage in the 2009 preliminary final against St Kilda the Dogs led 2.6 (18) to 0.2 (2) as Brian Lake and Nick Riewoldt went at it in a clash in which a battered and sore Saints skipper kicked four matchwinning goals.

At the bounce to start the third quarter, and after plenty of first-half skirmishes, Riewoldt went down with what the Dogs believed was little contact.

He kicked a goal from a momentum-turning free kick.

“Brian Lake had been into him a bit in the second quarter and got warned and it was a typical over reaction. Obviously Riewoldt had heard (the umpire),” Eade said.

“They get a goal before the bounce and then a goal out of the bounce. Two goals and it’s game on. So yeah, it’s one that got away.”

Did he think his Dogs could have beaten Geelong?

“Yeah, we did. They were a fantastic team but we thought with our run and carry and speed, we might have been a chance,” Eade said.

TIK TOK KING

EADE famously labelled the cerebral, deep-thinking ruckman Will Minson as the “dumbest smart bloke” going around — but they shared a strong relationship.

In 2019 someone posted what was essentially a supercut of Eade sprays from a single game into a one-minute audio package.

It was utterly hilarious as then-assistant Leon Cameron attempted to calm Eade, who kept responding with “OK mate”, before seemingly launching again seconds later.

As Eade said, veteran Robert Murphy said his sprays at players were often overplayed, but this was a doozy.

“When they played it, I thought it doesn’t sound like me. It went rapid fire. It was done over two and a half hours of play,” Eade said.

“They have edited it and put that in and Will wasn’t the only player I said those things to in the box and I am not the only coach who has done that, too.

“I felt for Will and I felt it was not totally applicable. The biggest indicator was Leon says, ‘Rocket, will you shut up’ and I go, ‘OK mate, no worries’.

“It was what it was like in the box. Yeah, no worries. That’s not the way it really happened. Because when someone said pull up, yeah OK, I did.”

Rodney Eade as coach of the Western Bulldogs.

Year Wins Position
2005 11 9th
2006 14 6th
2007 9.5 13th
2008 16.5 3rd
2009 16 3rd
2010 15 4th
2011 7 12th

Eade coached the Bulldogs to 88 wins and two draws from 162 games (an overall winning percentage of 54.9 per cent).

Great era under Rocket, and a missed opportunity for GF appearance. We had some great players and just needed a big target up forward in 2009.

I thought it was stupid banning the hand stand, and Aker's extra year was really something that should not have happened.

Really enjoyed the Rocket years. Thanks for posting.

I will definitely give this one a listen. We played some super exciting football under Rocket.

Great time to be a Bulldog and I love Rocket as a coach.

Rocket was definitely of his time, and I loved watching us when on-song during his tenure.

Tactically way superior to Bevo, but Bevo’s man management is light years better!!!!

I recon he got the most out of the list as any coach I. The AFL. I remember the smartness the day we beat someone. (Not sure who) but with little time to go. We kicked in from full back. The Kick in person walked off the ground at the point post, Eagleton came off the bench got onto the end of the next kick. Ran down the wing for a shot at Goal. Pretty smart and with less than a minute to pull that off states how smart he was.

He also had the tri biggest recutting plays. Aker and Hall. The bumps on seats and the marketing money they pulled really saved the club. IMO.

2009... God 2009.

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Originally Posted by ReLoad

Tactically way superior to Bevo, but Bevo’s man management is light years better!!!!

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Tactically better than the coach who had as many structural issues, if not more, than Rocket and won us a premiership and also made a grand final?

Both Rocket and Bevo had their teams at their best playing a style of footy nobody could respond to. Only one of those guys got the style so spot on that it netted a flag and also made a grand final.

Not having a crack at you, because I agree that Bevo can be a great player manager, but don't believe the over-emphasis on those skills and the diminishment of how crazy he can get his players to play because of how he plans and instructs them to.

I was there for our NAB cup ' We are not worthy' win. The Rocket era was a great time, with lots of interesting personalities on the team.
Dylan Addison, Brian Lake, Will Minson. Love Rocket.

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Originally Posted by Ghost Dog

I was there for our NAB cup ' We are not worthy' win. The Rocket era was a great time, with lots of interesting personalities on the team.
Dylan Addison, Brian Lake, Will Minson. Love Rocket.

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Barry barrrrry barrrrry

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Originally Posted by Grantysghost

Barry barrrrry barrrrry

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That was such a fun day out!

Anyone kept their Barry Hall mask? Cannot recall if they were given out at NAB cup or a later match. I think I have mine in wardrobe somewhere and one of Murph for his 200? game milestone some years later.

Yeah - the Eade era was pretty good, as was Wallace’s. Thankyou Hawthorn.

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Originally Posted by josie

Anyone kept their Barry Hall mask? Cannot recall if they were given out at NAB cup or a later match. I think I have mine in wardrobe somewhere and one of Murph for his 200? game milestone some years later.

Yeah - the Eade era was pretty good, as was Wallace’s. Thankyou Hawthorn.

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Funny Bevo was also at Hawks as assistant to Clarko