Unjustified praise

[Leeds_Tiger]

A Tiger mate of mine has often been embarrassed by the players he believes will go on to big things, only to find they eventually fail and he's left picking an old number off his guernsey. Notable failures that he's latched on to have been Todd Menegola (29) and Wayne Hernaman (11).

I myself have been guilty of singing a guy's praises too early - Wayne Peters (5) back in 1988.

I'd be interested in hearing from other Tigers which players they have thought would go on with the job but ended up letting them down.

 

[londontiger]

Great post Leeds Tiger.

I myself have plenty of these.

I thought Andrew Underwood and Terry Wallace would have been great for the Tigers.

And Elliott from fitzroy I thought would have been good.

But the two players I have been let down most by are

Anthony (First Pick in the Draft) Banik

And Richard (Biggus Diccus) Lounder.

Pat Steinfort was also another recently that I used to watch in the Reserves that I thought could make the grade.

Besides that, remember the coup we pulled off when we drafted Jeff White and Tony Lockett.

Both were reported by the media as going to the tigers.

But we know that a bagful of cash and some new golf clubs does a lot to sway most footballers.

So the fact that they never signed the dotted line is quite disappointing.

 

[Leeds_Tiger]

Thanks Fox

 

[mightytiges]

I think most tiger supporters thought Anthony Banik would make it as he came with such huge wraps on him and was a first draft pick.

I thought Stuart Wigney would make it at tigerland up til round 9, 1995. He did nothing at Footscray or the crows but at Richmond during the first nine rounds he was terrific (was great against Carey in the R4 game against North where we kicked 9 goals in the 1st qtr). Unfortunately he broke his ankle in Sydney (same game Richo did his knee) and when he returned to the side he was like he was back at Footscray/crows - did nothing.

Another one was Ricky Jackson. He was terrific at under 19 level for Richmond but in hignsight his small size went against him at VFL level.

 

[Dean3]

The daddy of them all has to be John Pitura, but that's ancient history.

 

[johnson2richo2003]

where do i start?
phillip walsh came to the club with big raps.one year wonder as it turned out.
terry keays had the skills but his attitude stank.
wayne henneman similar type to brodders but didnt make the grade for some reason.
justin plapp yet another case of believing what poeple said about him.
ashley prescott had the attitude and the desire but just couldnt convert it onto the field

 

[admin]

I was going to say Justin Plapp too. Mainly for the fact, not of his own doing, that he started out with a massive cult following expecting him to be the next big thing.
A few flashes of brilliance and a lot of mediocrity resulted instead.

I disagree about Prescott. Was never brilliant, but probably wasn't expected to be. I thought he was pretty honest.

Got a mind blank here.....what was the name of the little aboriginal player we got a few years ago and what were the circumstances of his leaving? I think he left mid season?
Geez no wonder I can't remember details of all the other players mentioned on this thread I can't even remember the recent ones.

 

[PMac]

The parade of high draft pick failures for the tigers makes sorry reading and has been coverd, here's some of my ideas on other failures:

Terry Wallace: No idea what happened there. A hawks great before us, a pretty useful player for the doggies after us but rubbish for us.

Phillip Walsh. Rookie of the year (I think) the previous year, came to us a fell in a heap.

Steven Jurica. Played 13 games in his first year, 21 goals including 5 in his 4th game, looked like being the perfect partner fro Richo. Played just 5 more games.

 

[DragicevicFan]

Plapp was one i also had high expectations for, came onto the sccene with a bang, but then, failed to deliver after that, mainly due to Mr Geischen in my opinion.

You might be thinking of Ashley Blurton, he came over from the Weagles as once again, Mr Geischen had big wraps on him, turned out to be too fat and the slowest Aboriginal to ever set foot on an AFL ground.

James White was one who looked like he could of gone on, but then just quit footy for reasons we will probably never know. We had to convince him to stay after one year, then he played a couple of decent games but never really wanted to be there.

Mark Pitura and Anthony Banik were two who let me down when i was younger, i thought the sun shined out Baniks ass when he was drafted, and after the Fosters Cup '93, i thought Pitura was going to be a star

 

[admin]

You might be thinking of Ashley Blurton

Thats the one dragga. Thanks

 

[Rampaging_Richo]

Matthew Manfield - Bernie Quinlan is a friend of mine and said that as a junior he was a freak - could run 100 in under 11.5secs and jump over a double decker bus. In fact it was common for him to take huge hangers each week as a young fella. However, battled injury from his first day at Richmond and to this day, still does.

Ash Blurton - skill, speed, *smile* attitiude

Banik - strength, speed, skill, absolutley petrified of going in. (Confirmed by Alan Jeans in a chat one day)

Stevan Jackson - Big, skilled, one fat *smile*.

 

[diggler]

Michael Laffy. I remember he kept Warwick Capper (in his prime) scoreless to 3 quarter time in one of his first games. Problem was Capper kicked 6 in the last quarter as the swans came from 8 goals down to pinch the game. Sad thing was the same thing happened next week against the pies with Brian Taylor going beserk in the last quarter and coming back from 8 goals down. ;D

 

[MC24]

That is so cruel Diggler. I had almost managed to erase those memories from my mind and now they all come flooding back. :'(

 

[Rampaging_Richo]

Diggler - I think you will find that for many Tiger matches, Laffy was practising for his role as THE MOLE

Did anyone tell you that you look like Toady from Neighbours ;D ;D ;D

 

[tro-boy]

Although I am not defending Banik, my recollection was that he was playing good quality football until he suffered glandular fever. Never came back.

 

[Koalalill]

You are right Tro-boy. Banik came back from some pretty bad injuries near the end of 1994 and started playing some good footy and was then de-listed.

One of my biggest disappointments was a player Bruce Lennon who was drafted in in the early 90's even though it was known he would miss an entire season because of knee reconstruction.

He finally made is debut and played some great footy (I think he even finished in the the top 10 of the B&F). And that very same year he was de-listed. A player I beleive this day could have anything. He wore No. 5 before Jamie Tape

 

[Tigerblood]

I thought Tim Powell (21) was going to make it ... turned out to be another charade.

 

[mellowyellow]

Of the recent lot Justin Plapp, like others mentioned came with high expectations and if memory serves me correctly, Peter German ex Burnie Dockers coach was instumental in getting him to the club.

It was understandable at the time why we sought him given his outstanding form in the state league,but as time has shown he wasnt quit up to the standards that the AFL demands.

There is at least 1 other player who currently is on the list that could also go that way if his not able to take the next step..this year or next.

 

[Leeds_Tiger]

Top post that, Bruce Lennon! I'd forgotten all about him. Although I don't know that he would have "had everything", he didn't seem that good to me.

How about Brad Gwilliam? Was doing OK until he ran into a post and did his knee.

Here's a few others that have disappointed me over time:

Stevan Jackson - proves that just because you're on the WCE list during their period of greatness doesn't mean you're going to make it.

Todd "Turbo" Breman - 170 odd goals in the understregth WAFL translated to about 50 odd in the AFL reserves.

David Williams - he always played well against us but after we nicked him from Melbourne he hardly played a senior game.

 

[Tigerdog]

Well done L_T Id forgotten some of those aswell.We really have done some ordinary recruiting over the years.
And if you think about it so many of them were players that only ever played well against us.And in those dark days of the mid to late 80s and through the 90s didnt practically any hack play well against us? Blokes like Williams, Aaron James, im sure there are many others but that will do for now...
Have a look at the list of names above .... Id tried and succeded to forget most of them. But I also believed in the abilities of blokes like Banik, Elliot, Matty Dundas, etc
Also thought that J Rombotis would be good for us but so much for that line of thinking....
One of the blokes I most wanted to succeed was Mark McQueen he was built like a tank didnt mind havin a dip and could take a grab... maybe he was a lil short for a key position and too slow for other spots I dunno but I thought we had finally found ourselves a bully-boy/muscle man at last!
and what about .... Slater.... Esler...... Lounder......Steinfort.... we didnt really have an eye for ruckman for awhile there.
Surely there are a few more diamontes like the ones above to uncover...
Is one G Taylor headed the same way? or did he go at the end of last year?