LEADERSHIP and Kevin Sheedy go together like chickens and eggs, and the GWS coach used his forum in The Sunday Herald Sun to not only outline his plans for GWS's inaugural captain (2012), but also to reflect on matters present and past.
His policy is simple: he's going to buy the best leader he can, from the plentiful choices possibly available under the beneficial drafting and recruiting conditions available to GWS at the end of this season.
He cites the successes of the Gold Coast Suns (Gary Ablett) and Carlton (Chris Judd) and teams in similar building/rebuilding situations, seeking the best player available, and then making him captain.
Writes Sheedy: "That's the way GWS has to go. We have no choice other than to find our captain from another club."
He defined his need as finding a "strong and determined leader. Someone I can rely on to set the example and lead the way."
He did note that being a great captain is not necessarily a natural talent. "It's an instinct and a skill that can be developed and nurtured. If there was a formula, every club would buy it."
In the midst of his musings, he revealed he may have made a mistake selecting David Hille as captain during his time at Essendon.
"The thing I like with senior leadership is taking a risk. At Essendon we trialled David Hille as captain when he was 24 (2007).
"In retrospect we should have gone with Dustin Fletcher for a year or two, but you live with those decisions.
"Hille would never say the captaincy was something he didn't want, but perhaps it became a burden for him. Nevertheless, I'm sure the experience will continue to serve him well."
One wonders what Matthew Lloyd, appointed captain when James Hird relinquished the leadership at the end of the 2005 season, would make of that.
Finally, the legendary coach took a little Sheedy-swipe at Melbourne, claiming the club should have taken "a punt this season with a younger player as captain. Adelaide did it with Nathan van Berlo and it will hold them in good stead."
Another day, another change of name at Etihad
MEDIA WATCH received an over-excited release from the Essendon Football Club late on Saturday, declaring that there will now be a 'Fletcher' end at Etihad Stadium, commemorating (on Sunday) not only Dustin Fletcher's great career, but his 36th birthday.
This decision came about after a vote from 10,000 Bomber fans via essendonfc.com.au, placed the Fletcher tribute ahead of other choices - Essendon greats Dick Reynolds, Bill Hutchison and Terry Daniher.
From Sunday, a FLETCHER sign will now be papered over LOCKETT, after LLOYD was papered over COVENTRY in 2010, promoting memories of former Essendon spearhead, Matthew Lloyd.
Fletcher was chuffed: "It's an amazing honour to see the family's name recognised at the ground. I've spent more than half my life at the club - it's a place that I love being involved with - for all the opportunities and the friendships and what it means to so many people," Fletcher said.
All that's well and good, but from this Sunday, the homage made to the game's two greatest goal-kickers - Tony Lockett and Gordon Coventry - will be painted over permanently at Essendon home matches. The Lockett and Coventry ends were launched when the stadium was opened in 2000.
If you're a Bulldog fan, you'll note that at one end of the ground, we now have the Johnson end, honouring the recently-retired club games record-holder Brad Johnson, a tribute applying only to Dogs' home matches.
Sometimes (often, in fact) Media Watch wonders whether the world has gone mad. Permanent tributes are becoming as permanent as a promoter's change of mind.
In this case, we understand that in this new era of ground-sharing, the ability of clubs to pay tribute to club greats at ground is not as it was; nor, in a time when the AFL manages game day to within an inch of its life, opportunities to do things like taping down the wind sock at Windy Hill - a great moment from the Sheedy era - is no longer within the home club's grasp.
However, we also believe that tributes created to represent icons of the game should never be tampered with.
Nobody alive today has a clue who Charles Brownlow was, so how about we name the medal the Bob Skilton Medal - at least until Chris Judd wins his third?
Or at Essendon, what about a new name for the club's best and fairest trophy, the Crichton Medal, named after not a player, but a former club president? Makes sense to call it the Reynolds-Hutchison-Hird-Fletcher medal, doesn't it?
For all that, Media Watch does have one name we would like to change. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is a naming anachronism, with cricket having its moments in one five-day period each year.
In 2010, 3,082,030 fans attended AFL matches at the MCG, an average of 53,519, millions more than attended one Test match, and a handful of irrelevant 20-20 and limited over spectacles.
Cricket is now a very big second to AFL at the people's ground.
We wonder whether an online vote would object to Media Watch's new name for the MCG - the AFG, Australian Football Ground.
Already a name change offered for QClash
WHILE we're on names, and re-names, we note that it took just one match for the Gold Coast Bulletin to move away from the official AFL-created title of the Brisbane Lions - Gold Coast Suns annual clashes.
Nick Smart was very excited with the Suns' victory on Saturday night, while labelling the match the very Aussie slang title of the "inaugural Sunshine Stoush", a title we preferred to ABC-TV's Offsiders commentator, Gerard Whateley's reference to the "Pineapple Cup".
Media Watch has never been a column that enjoys spin, or marketers congregating to 'create' culture, but we quite like Smart's spontaneous moniker, delivered under a very parochial headline, with its well-considered removal of a defining apostrophe: What's that pussycats? Suns in your eyes?
Smart wrote: "Now we have a rivalry - and it is 1-0 to the Gold Coast Suns.
"There were many grenades thrown back and forth between the Suns and the Brisbane Lions in the lead up to Saturday night's inaugural Sunshine Stoush.
"But a rivalry is not about words, it is about actions."
The AFL has preferred to draw from other cultures for its branding of its inner-city/state clashes, choosing Derby (England) for the WA matches, Showdown (USA) for SA pairings, and now QClash (Twitterati?) for Queensland clashes.
We are grateful for abc.net.au for the following discussion on the derivation of "stoush".
"There was a time when "stoush" (meaning "fight") was a very common piece of Aussie slang: "Stoush was both a noun and a verb: to stoush someone was to bash them or fight them, while a fight was called a stoush.
"It probably had its highest currency in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. In typical Aussie fashion the Great War of 1914-18 was called "the big stoush".
"The earliest citation is from a report in The Bulletin in 1893.
"The source of the word remains a mystery, but the English Dialect Dictionary records a somewhat similar word "stashie" meaning "uproar" or "quarrel".
"So stoush may have started life as an English dialect word that immigrated, changed, and then lived on here while it died out back in the British Isles."
Mem-or-ies
MEDIA WATCH has a long memory, and we well recall a piece written after the Suns had lost their first two, in which Andrew Hamilton (writing across News Ltd papers) - reported what many were thinking at the time - that the recruiting policy of mixing players who had left clubs for money with a baker's dozen of newcomers may not have been best practice.
The comment piece was written after Nathan Krakouer, an in-and-out performer for Port Adelaide, had been dropped for being out of shape.
Krakouer was back on Saturday night, in shape and on song - with five goals, showing exquisite skills on the ground, in the air, and in the mind. His decision-making was breathtaking.
Media Watch has noted many times this season that first thoughts are often best left aside before conclusions are reached and postulated.
From what we've seen over the last three weeks - one quarter aside - the Scott Clayton-led list management looks right on the money for the Suns, providing enough short-term excitement for the club to keep the faith, while allowing long-term dreams to gain new momentum.
Goal umpiring: status quo for Harvey
FREMANTLE coach Mark Harvey has proven himself to be a practical character over the journey; firstly as a great defender at Essendon, and through occasionally turbulent times as coach of Fremantle.
He fronted up to the Seven Network's Game Day program on Sunday not many hours after Richmond had upset the more favoured Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday night.
Asked about the goal-umpiring errors in the Brisbane-Gold Coast clash on Saturday night, and whether there needed to be any technology involved, he said the answer remained the same as it has been for 150+ years: "Human instinct. Just let it go," he said, while suggesting the umpire at fault may well be rested this week.
Reflecting on Saturday's loss, Harvey pulled no punches. He described Richmond's last quarter domination as a "freeway", in the sense the traffic was all painted in yellow and black.
Harvey also revealed he was well and truly a son of the seventies and eighties, when he said his favourite song was 'Dancing Queen', the signature tune of Abba.
New digs for West Coast
The Sunday Times reports that the West Coast Eagles are looking to embark on a multi-million dollar rebuilding of its training facilities at Patersons Stadium.
The Eagles' current facility, state-of-the-art when built in 1999, is now falling behind what's right for 2011-2020. Any plans, subject to fund-raising, and possible Government support, would include a social club facility.
Club CEO Trevor Nisbett said that the club's need had been crystallised by a recent visit to America by club officials. He said: "We've been looking at the current facilities that are being built, in the States in particular, and they're amazing.
"There's lots of examples of facilities that are amazing, compared to where we're at.
"You have to try to keep ahead of the pack."
Good news for Cats
And one last moment from Game Day.
Joel Selwood noted that discussions between his management and Geelong had been on the go for "a long time", and were "in a good space".
Put on the spot, he said the words all Geelong fans were waiting to hear, this time straight from the horse's mouth: "I'll be at the Geelong Football Club for years to come."
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
