THE PROTÉGÉ

Posted September 10, 200915 yr

by Whispering Jack

Graeme Yeats was born in September 1964 on the Monday after the Melbourne Football Club won its last premiership. The Demon fans of the time who were still celebrating their team's triumph on the very day when he came into the world would not have been aware but young Yeats' sporting career was to become closely intertwined with the game's oldest club.

Yeats played his junior football with VFA club Prahran and joined the Demons in 1984 under coach Ron Barassi. He enjoyed a 182 game (45 goals) senior career over a dozen seasons. He was a clever and reliable wingman who started at the club during a period when the Demons were strugglers who hadn't tasted a finals appearance in his entire lifetime. But things were on the up and up and it was not long before a new coach, John Northey, would lift them to a Preliminary Final in 1987 and then to a Grand Final (albeit a losing one in 1988 to Hawthorn) and for the remainder of Yeats' career they would be regular finalists. By the time it was over at the end of 1995, the man who wore the number 8 had made a successful move to a back pocket, a position in which he excelled. He was revered by Demon fans of his era as great defender who gave everything for his club.

With his AFL senior career over, Yeats found a new home at Springvale as a player and assistant coach with the VFL Scorpions which later moved to Casey and this year entered into an alignment with the Demons. In the 1996 grand final, he famously kicked the goal that gave the Scorpions the premiership.

In 1997 Yeats returned to Melbourne as Reserves Assistant Coach and in 1999 he began a five year stint as coach of Sandringham. A year later Sandy entered a union with the Demons that met with instant success in the form of the 2000 VFL premiership. From 2000-03 his role as Zebra coach was doubled up with the position of Melbourne FC Development Coach.

Since 2004 Yeats has been coach of the Under 18 TAC Cup team, the Dandenong Stingrays. Current Demon midfielder Nathan Jones was drafted to the Demons after playing for the Stingrays in their losing grand final of 2005. Three years later Yeats was the unlucky losing coach in yet another TAC Cup grand final. One member of that team was a youngster below draft age but who even then looked to have a big future in the game. That player is with Yeats and the Stingrays again this year - a player who may well soon extend the Yeats link with the Melbourne Football Club.

He is The Protégé.

Last Saturday afternoon, the TAC Cup competition put on a double header at Visy Park. The first game was an Elimination Final between Guy McKenna's Gold Coast and Dennis Pagan's Northern Knights.

My own association with this competition dates back to its inaugural season when my oldest son was in the first squad for the Central Dragons (later Prahran and now Sandringham). He never made it thanks to a shoulder reconstruction on the eve of the season. A few years later my godson played a season with the Dragons. I remember witnessing a superb game at the Junction Oval between that side and the Eastern Ranges. The highlight was the brilliance of two Indigenous footballers in David Wirrpunda and Justin Murphy. To my memory the standard of the competition was far higher than it is now but it's a different ball game these days so my judgement might be open to debate.

However, there's one thing for certain. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I could witness a team from the Gold Coast running around or that such a team would employ flooding and tagging tactics. Given that I came to watch future draft prospects, I wasn't particularly interested in them but Luke Shreeve kicked five goals, Alik Magin looked good and beanpole Charlie Dixon was dangerous as a ruckman/forward.

For the Knights, the player who interested me was Dylan Grimes. He impressed with his decision making and run out of defence and while he's not quite a key position player, I think he's a good enough potential to warrant consideration for a family reunification programme with brother Jack if available with a late draft pick. Kane Lambert was good as was Dixon's opponent Sam Grimley for the Knights who lost by 14 points.

The second game was the Qualifying Final between Gippsland Power and the Dandenong Stingrays and it was decided by the same margin of 14 points although it was played with greater intensity and was also graced by The Protégé.

This game was a replay of last year's Preliminary Final which I reported here - TAC OF THE TOWN.

"Gaertner spent a fair amount of the game on tall Gippsland youngster John Butcher who is being hailed as next year's number one draft pick but he was off his game a little yesterday. He took one or two strong marks but lived up to is name with his kicking. While promising, he still has a long way to go and will benefit from the extra year in Under 18 ranks. On the other hand, Dandenong youngster Tom Scully is the one who looks like challenging Butcher for the # 1 favourite spot next year. He showed out with some clever play on a half forward flank and will probably be a premier midfielder by the time he gets the call at the highest level."

Twelve months down the track and Tom Scully has cemented his place as the one most likely to be drafted at number 1 in November but I still have the same queries over John Butcher and I question his capacity to fit into the top ten in a draft containing so many talented medium sized players. He'll play AFL but I wonder how long it will take him to be in a position to compete with the competition's big boys and I wonder if he'll make it all the way to the top.

The Gippsland boys looked superior for most of the first three quarters - they were bigger and stronger, turned the ball over less than the Rays and seemed to be able to answer all challenges. They had their backs to a slight breeze for the last term but they looked like winners.

Scully was playing on a wing with licence to roam up and down the flanks and there were few forays for him onto the ball. He didn't dominate but you could see he was good. He knew instinctively where to place himself and his disposal, mainly by hand was crisp and clean, devastatingly quick.

He had some interesting team mates. Levi Casbolt is a likely looking left footed forward type. Defender Dylan Roberton saw off his smaller opponent who was supposed to be a bit of a danger man. His kicking was also spot on as was that of Ryan Bastinac, a midfielder with class and good balance who blends in well with The Protégé.

For the Power, clever small forward Tim Northe kicked a few goals and Nathan Vardy was the best ruckman on the ground. Although not a beanpole 200cm type, I can see him attracting interest in the second round of the draft. Jack Weston was impressive. Butcher just didn't get into the action enough although it was said that he's been playing injured.

At three quarter time, a now grey haired Graeme Yeats approached the huddle to address his players. Pointing at the players' positions on a whiteboard he read out The Protege's name. The potential number 1 draft pick, was named as the "rover".

Nowadays, you don't hear the word " rover" as much as you would in "the good old days". They're all midfielders and on ballers and such. But Scully is a true rover of the tradition of the game. He glides across the ground and does everything, gains the hard ball, wins the clearances, gets the contested footy, gives it off by hand and sends bullet like passes down the ground. He reads the play brilliantly, can work inside and outside and has an enormous engine.

So he accumulated the ball 14 times in that final quarter as a rover and finished the game with 34 disposals. His team turned a two goal deficit into a 14 point win. He gave the ball perfectly to team mates on 25 occasions but I can't recall him getting an easy one once.

So what makes a player The Protégé?

On Sunday, Hutchy had Melbourne Football Club list manager Tim Harrington on his TAC Cup Future Stars programme on Channel 9. They were discussing the stars of this game and in particular the one who got Graeme Yeats' team across the line with three steady quarters and one super quarter of football. There was of course, no need to mention him by name:

"A particular person dominated the second half and did really well."

When they don't even have to identify you by name, then you've become The Protégé.