Dean Bailey Interview on 3AW

[Demonland 73,140]

Earlier this week, the Demons started preseason training for 2010. Here is Alpha33's transcript of a 3AW SPORTS TODAY interview conducted by Dwayne Russell and Rohan Connolly with Dean Bailey (Monday 12 October 2009):

DR: Write this number down. Have you got a pen it's 1300DEMONS. Have you got that Rohan?

RC: I just remembered having a conversation about how do you dial "D".

DR: No, It wasn't us but it sounds like a good one. That's 1300DEMONS if you're not a member yet they've got 8,300 members and they're growing by the day and it's a good news story for the moment at least. Dean Bailey, their coach has joined us because they started training today. Welcome to you Dean.

DB: Thanks guys. G'day Rohan?

RC: How are you Dean. Do you know what number D is on the keypad?

DB: I'll just check my keypad and I'll tell you.

RC: Takes a while to get the hang of it I know - it's like 13CABS. You ring up and you get the hang of it occasionally. Now back on deck already and I reckon this is a couple of years in a row for you blokes. Your players must hate you.

DR: In the nicest possible way.

DB: No. Last year we started October 13^th and this year we started October 12^th so it's only 24 hours but we tend to look at October at the kind of the month to get the players ready for November when we start to ramp it up a little bit. The guys know what we're doing in preseason. It's a similar programme to last year and we don't rush them into it which is really important.

RC: So presumably you have the first and second year players starting ahead of the more senior players but in your case that comprises about 90% of your list now doesn't it?

DB: There's about 20 odd who started today and obviously the rest of the squad starts a week later. We had some boys come back today in pretty good condition and to be fair they've looked after themselves over the six to seven weeks they've had off and I think it's a good sign for young players. Even though there's a transitional period between when the season finishes and the preseason starts you've got to keep yourself in reasonable condition so that you can start the preseason in good nick and some of the blokes who turned up today were in exceptional condition which is great.

RC: Who looks particularly sharp do you think?

DB: Well just going on skin folds and again on how they look and also on some of the running they did this morning, Bennell and Jetta rolled up in exceptional condition which was fantastic. Guys like Ricky Petterd and Adam Maric were really good. Ninety per cent of them were fantastic so it was a very good day. The first day's always a good day and it was even better seeing the boys come back.

RC: If I was a Melbourne supporter, I'd be really excited about next year because you've managed to just quietly stockpile a fair glut of obvious young talent but the double edged sword is that the honeymoon period for both yourself as a coach and the team might have just about run out. Do you recognise that? I think the footy world and perhaps the footy media first and foremost are going to want to see some pretty tangible signs of and obvious improvement otherwise the natives are going to get restless.

DB: I think next year we'll be looking to putting games into players. Jack Watts is a pretty classic case where he's played three games of AFL footy and that means he's played three games with everyone else. Jack's going to be an important player for us up forward and I think players need to have played forty to fifty games together to get that continuity and trust on the ground. You can train as often as you can but it's the games that are really important. We're not going to get distracted by other people trying to put pressure on us in regards to this might happen or that must happen which is referring to your question but we're certainly going to put games into young players and they have to play forty to fifty games. That's the pattern of the successful clubs that have been able to do it and we're not going to alter our opinion on that. You pick the most successful clubs like Geelong and St. Kilda at the moment and look back at how many games those players played together - they are consecutive and they are a number before they started to really become successful, you know top four and finals. That's what we'll be doing next year but you're right, there's going to be an introduction of new players this year from the draft and we haven't even seen some of the players we drafted last year. There is some talent there but we've just got to make sure that we mould them and build them up correctly. We don't want young players picking up early injuries that are preventable.

DR: Do you know who you're taking with picks 1 and 2 in the upcoming draft? I know you can't and I don't expect you to tell us and the AFL don't want you to tell us because they want that to be a little bit of the drama on draft day but do you know now, ok we're going to take these two guys.

DB: To be fair, we've probably got four or five players who Barry Prendergast has narrowed it down to and we've still got some follow up interviews but if the conversation keeps going along this line I won't be telling you anyway.

(laughter)

RC: Now we have to ask the obvious one about Luke Ball. Clearly you guys are interested. Are you getting the impression that he's as interested in you as you are in him?

DB: What we said at 2 o'clock or a couple of minutes past two at the end of the trade week, we spoke about the fact that the deal over Ball hadn't been done which surprised us and then we thought we need to get on the front foot and we grabbed hold of Paul Connors (Ball's manager) and we spoke to him for probably 10 or 15 minutes and on Paul's advice he said "you've got to let Luke have a bit of time to himself because he's just been treated to a roller coaster" of wanting to leave and being told that's he going to leave and all of sudden being traded and that the trade's coming and he's rolled up on trade day and he was probably pretty anxious to get something done and then it wasn't done. It probably wasn't the time to be saying to him "look we've got an exciting future at Melbourne, jump on board, and Paul suggested to us to give him a bit of time. Luke's over in New York at the moment and we're tracking his movement in New York pretty closely so we're fairly keen to get in front of him and put forward the opinion that we think he can help Melbourne and we his playing capabilities first and foremost and the leadership stuff as something that he brings with him because of the experience he's had.

RC: I would have thought that there's some really obvious similarities to a guy like Brock McLean. What more would a Ball give you than a McLean did?

DB: I think just the experience that Luke's had – he's played finals football, been All Australian and a best and fairest winner and obviously has just come out of a grand final this year. From my understanding he had a pretty good preseason and was able to string a reasonable number of games this year and he seems to be on the up from this year compared to previous years. So he will certainly bring those extra additives because of his experience that Brock doesn't but they're both very competitive people and I think Luke would certainly complement our young midfield. He would really be a good fit for us.

DR: And finally Dean when a player – any player – and you've had a couple in the last couple of years, comes to you and says "I want to leave your club", do you normally try to talk them out of it or do you see that in their eyes you kind of feel, well they want to go and you let them go.

DB: I think you sit down and talk to them and find out the reasons why and often you'll find when the player's come to that decision he's given it a lot of thought. A lot of the players who get to that stage, they've thought about it and they've probably run through the pros and cons as well and when they get to that decision, it's a matter of then trying to get the concerns and discuss those concerns on the table. But when a player walks in, sits down and says "I don't want to play for the Melbourne Football Club" it's like an employee walking in and saying "I don't want to work for 3AW any more". You might say is there anything we can do to keep you", but if it gets to the stage where he's made a decision that he wants to go, then you facilitate in football terms a trade and Carlton were keen for him and they're getting a good player in Brock McLean. Don't worry about that!

DR: Dean, great to speak with you and we look forward to day two at training. They tell me it's going to be twice as hard as day one.

DB: No worries and thanks for the plug for 1300DEMONS. Get on board!