New Football Manager

[GVGjr]

The LeasePlan Western Bulldogs are pleased to announce the appointment of
James Fantasia as General Manager of Football.

James will join the Bulldogs from Adelaide where he has been the General Manager of Game Development at the South Australian National Football League. Prior to that role he worked for the Adelaide Crows for 12 years assisting the General Manager of Football Operations and heading up their national recruiting network.
Fantasia has been involved in eight AFL finals campaigns, 5 preliminary finals campaigns, a pre-season premiership and senior premierships in 1997 and 1998.

“He understands what it takes to create a success culture,” Rose said.
He will be responsible for the management of the Bulldogs’ football department including all aspects of football administration, development, leadership, sports science, management of medical, allied health and rehabilitation management, and football technology

Fantasia will report directly to the Western Bulldogs Chief Executive, Campbell Rose.

Campbell Rose said James offered the key attributes wanted by the Club when recruiting for the key position – strategic and analytical thinking, excellent communication, strong decision making skills, sound understanding of budgeting, the ability to delegate and empower staff with a strong commitment to football professionalism.

“He has extensive experience in the football industry. This is a great asset. James will provide us with a new insight into how we take our on-field football operations and performance to new levels. He knows success, has been a part of a successful culture and will help take our club to places it hasn’t been in recent times creating the success our members and board want,” Rose said.

James Fantasia said, “From a personal point of view it is a wonderful opportunity and challenge for myself and my family. I am very excited about the prospects of working with the Western Bulldogs Football Club in particular Rodney Eade and all involved in the football operations.

The club is about to embark on a new and exciting era with a newly completed state of-the-art Elite Learning Centre and I look forward to being a part of these exciting times. I would also like to acknowledge the SANFL for the support they have provided me at this point in my career. I am looking forward to being an integral part of the Western Bulldogs Football Club and I am grateful for the opportunity.”



Career History:

2007:General Manager, Game Development
South Australian National Football League

1995-2006: Recruiting Manager
Adelaide Football Club

1991-1995: State Development Director
South Australian National Football League

1993-1999: State of Origin Football Manager (Honorary Position)
South Australian National Football League

1988-1991: Technical and Development Manager
Norwood Football Club

[GVGjr]

This is a very good appointment in my opinion. Thoughts?

[Templeton31]

ticks the boxes - background in footy, knows recruiting, adelaide strong sports science and high performance club. certainly good on the surface.

anyone know why he left crows for SANFL job?

[LostDoggy]

This is a very good appointment in my opinion. Thoughts?

Why do you say that GVGjr

[GVGjr]

Why do you say that GVGjr

I have followed his career for a while and he is an extremely talented professional and from I can tell he covers the position requirements.

[Go_Dogs]

This is a very good appointment in my opinion. Thoughts?

I think it's a fantastic appointment, although Fantasia had a bit of a checkered draft history, he still seems like a very good candidate for this kind of role.


IIRC, he parted with the Crows reasonably mutually. I think he wanted a new position, they needed someone fresh to head their recruiting department.

[GVGjr]

James Fantasia now a Bulldog

FORMER Crows recruitment manager James Fantasia has been appointed Western Bulldogs general manager of football.
Fantasia leaves behind his position as general manager of game development at the SANFL to take up the Bulldogs job.

The former Norwood and Woodville player brings plenty of experience to the job.

He worked with the Crows for 12 years and has been involved in eight AFL finals campaigns, 5 preliminary finals campaigns, a pre-season premiership and senior premierships in 1997 and 1998.

At the Bulldogs, he will be responsible for the management of the football department, including all aspects of football administration, development, leadership, sports science, management of medical, allied health and rehabilitation management, and football technology.

He will report directly to the Western Bulldogs Chief Executive, Campbell Rose.

Fantasia said he was particularly looking forward to working with senior coach Rodney Eade.

"The club is about to embark on a new and exciting era with a newly completed state of-the-art Elite Learning Centre and I look forward to being a part of these exciting times," he said.

[GVGjr]

Worth a read

Ten minutes with Fantasia

Adelaide’s recruiting team goes into action this weekend for the start of the NAB AFL U18 Championships in Melbourne.

Many of the players on show across the next nine days will end up on AFL club lists in less than six months. So David Burtenshaw from afc.com.au spent ten minutes with Crows recruiting manager James Fantasia.

Is this the biggest week of the year for the recruiting department?

I wouldn’t say it was the biggest but I would say it’s a very important part of the year. Finals footy … that’s a pretty important month, draft camp, the whole interview process. They are big weeks in the recruiting caper. In terms of premium viewing, the championships are up there with finals matches and really getting a chance to see quality players match off against each other. And usually the standard of the games is pretty high so generally you can see those who can take the step up to the next level. I guess because of the pressure and the build-up to this it’s good to see how young players can handle that part of the game.

So how much footy are you going to see over the next week or so?

Well, there are two games on every day and then on Thursday there is also a chance to watch some New South Wales under 16 footy as part of the scholarship program. So on seven out of nine days we will be watching footy.

How many observers will the Crows have at the championships?

We have a pretty extensive network of operatives and scouts … we have four coming in from Western Australia, six from South Australia including myself and then we have seven who operate out of Victoria, and that includes a couple of regional guys. Friday night we will have a three-hour preview of the upcoming championships and go through looking at each player. Every operative is given a group of players they are responsible for reporting on … they will still keep notes on every one but they will be the spokesman on their particular players. On the Monday we have a workshop … we look at our reporting procedures, we have had people from other industries talk to the group about recruiting, this year we have a presentation from Champion Data. And we have mock draft based on a range of scenarios. And of course all week we watch footy and report back on all of that.

Do the observers watch the games together?

We do spread out a bit but some times it might be useful to be sitting with the people who you can ask questions about a player. But at other times it is important you don’t get distracted, you’ve got a job to do and you are watching someone specifically. You are looking at games differently, depending on what your role is for the day. And we encourage our guys to sit high or sit low or sit behind the goals. Some times it’s good to get another perspective.

What sort of things are on the basic check list when you are looking at the players?

We break it down into three categories. Gaining possession of the ball - what are their prominent features when they take the ball … are they clean, do they use their pace, do they take overhead pack marks, contested? We look at their decision-making … what are they going to do with the ball, where do they move to, time and space, do they make the right options, do they keep the ball flowing? And then we look at their skill level, their actual execution, do they have depth of kick, accuracy, non-preferred? You can classify all those into football ability. You are looking for footy intelligence … how they react in a game, if they can think through a game if they have got an awkward opponent, how they react to playing different roles within their team structure. And we look for their level of competitiveness, their ability to be resilient and durable, to handle three games in a week, handle that pressure, the travelling. They are pretty much about the broad football picture. And then later in the year we get into a whole host of other things like their physical tests, their mental capacity and characteristics. We interview them, their coaches, teaches, work bosses and try to get a picture of how the person presents.

The word is that the 2006 draft pool is very strong. Is this the case?

Yeah, most definitely. Strong for two reasons. There’s probably more depth than in recent years but I think the real reason it is stronger is the quality of the players and how deep the quality goes. There’s easily two real solid rounds and probably a third solid round. And that’s reflected in these championships. Quite often you will have a lot of quality in Division One but this year there is some outstanding quality in Division Two. So on every day there will be a premium opportunity to view players.

They’ve got a pretty strong side. Certainly if you look at experience in the team in terms of playing senior football, the majority of the boys are now playing at reserves or league level in the SANFL. I think there are six or seven who have played league footy so they seem to stack up well. There’s always some unknown quantity when you come to championships because you don’t know how the boys react but I’d expect they will give a good account of themselves.

Are there players who already stand out a top five or top ten picks?

Coming into the championships there will be a school of thought of where they will be placed. There is probably a stand-out group of five or seven and then there’s probably another very good group who would normally be top ten picks who will go out to 20, 25. So it’s a lot deeper. And there’s probably another layer there of 30 players who in most cases would be good second round draft picks and in this draft they will probably end up being third or fourth round picks.

[LostDoggy]

He wasnt much of a recruiter. Adelaide has had an average list for 10yrs. With all there money and expertise, they should have done better

[The Underdog]

Interesting choice.
Has obviously had a few differing roles in football, good experience and he's not Danny Frawley so, welcome aboard James.

[GVGjr]

He wasnt much of a recruiter. Adelaide has had an average list for 10yrs. With all there money and expertise, they should have done better

Not sure that I agree with that. They did very well with the regular latish picks.

[Raw Toast]

I have followed his career for a while and he is an extremely talented professional and from I can tell he covers the position requirements.

I don't think I know as much about as you do, but he does seem one of the few who should know lots about sports science as well as the other intricacies of a footy department. Also seems very much like the kind of person who can help free Eade up for a more complete focus on coaching.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I have followed his career for a while and he is an extremely talented professional and from I can tell he covers the position requirements.

I agree. As the aftershock of the review has settled down I'm really comfortable with the outcome... rather than the pieces "falling" into place, the club with this appointment has underpinned it's commitment to improving the professionalism of the whole football club.
There is absolutely no scope for excuses for not improving our onfield performances going forward.
From where I sit, we have a coach who can now concentrate on what he does best COACH. We have fresh input on the assistant coaching side of things, and with the appointment of Fantasia our football department should have much better coordination.

[Throughandthrough]

ticks the boxes - background in footy, knows recruiting, adelaide strong sports science and high performance club. certainly good on the surface.

anyone know why he left crows for SANFL job?

I'm not 100% rapt in this appointment, as a very casual observer Fantasia has (to me) come over as a bit of a light weight. VERY happy to be proven wrong.


He was one of my friend's boss (up until today I guess!) i'll get the gossip on why he left the Cows by this time tomorrow. I THINK it was something to do with John Reid, but thats just a complete guess.

[FrediKanoute]

He wasnt much of a recruiter. Adelaide has had an average list for 10yrs. With all there money and expertise, they should have done better

He hasn't been employed as a recruited though. He's been empoyed as a football manager, hence the recruitment decisions are delegated to Clayton. His role really is to make certain that all of these areas are functioning and are consistent with the club vision and plan.