Amid the controversy of the Mitchell/Lewis departures from Hawthorn, I read the story of what some might consider was Melbourne's equivalent -

The day the Dees traded a Brownlow medallist.

I remember this was the subject of great angst and criticism from a packed house at an MFC members information night at Camberwell Town Hall not long after the trade was announced.

Can't remember what we got in return, but that turned out to be a fairly astute move by the MFC based on the realitive lack of performance from Woey there after.

I'm not sure it is really an equivalent though in the respect that Woey still had the 'best' years of his career ahead of him, rather than being close to the end like Lewis, which probably made it an even gutsyer move by the MFC.  I think Lewis has more runs on the board so to speak.

I really do hope we get value out of Lewis though.  Similar to Woey, I can recall a number of players who switched teams and weren't a shadow of their former self.  Easy for average player to look good in great sides.

30 minutes ago, The Oracle said:

I remember this was the subject of great angst and criticism from a packed house at an MFC members information night at Camberwell Town Hall not long after the trade was announced.

I remember the board being so arrogant and dismissive of members during the Q&A.  Even child members copped it re: Woey.

Those years were about the elitist power struggle.  Football came a distant second.

It wasn't just us - Lloyd reveals Sheedy wanted to trade him for Judd

Admittedly, Sheedy wanted to bring in a Brownlow Medallist and not dump one.

Felt for Woey, while he struggled in 2001, I thought he was showing signs of getting back to his best in 2002 and yet we traded him anyway.

He was my favourite player Woewodin, and I remember the trade very well.  News of it broke the same day Mark Waugh was dumped from the Australian Test side (was my favourite cricketer).  Neeldess to say it wasn't a good day for me!

Funny story, my girlfriend at the time reckons that night I was talking in my sleep saying 'the number on Woewodin's jumper will have to change!'  Slightly disturbing really....

1 hour ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Can't remember what we got in return, but that turned out to be a fairly astute move by the MFC based on the realitive lack of performance from Woey there after.

I'm not sure it is really an equivalent though in the respect that Woey still had the 'best' years of his career ahead of him, rather than being close to the end like Lewis, which probably made it an even gutsyer move by the MFC.  I think Lewis has more runs on the board so to speak.

I really do hope we get value out of Lewis though.  Similar to Woey, I can recall a number of players who switched teams and weren't a shadow of their former self.  Easy for average player to look good in great sides.

Don't agree with this. I thought at the time it was a horrible play, and I still think it was. It ripped something intangible out of the club - 2002 was a cracking season (should've been in the prelim - Goodwin will remember how lucky the Crows were), and 2003 was an unmitigated disaster. The club also let Stephen Powell go to the Saints for nudda. Complete ball's up, which Daniher always tried to defend, unsuccessfully in my view.

From memory, we got pick 14 or 16 or so for Woey, which we used to pick Daniel Bell.

 

I remember that day well - it almost broke my heart. Worse still - he was traded to Collingwood.

Don't think there were any real winners from the deal. Woey didn't do much at Collingwood and was delisted after three seasons. The draft pick we received was used on Daniel Bell who didn't make it, and the money we saved to re-sign to Yze and Johnstone didn't exactly pay dividends. TJ won a B&F in 2005 but that's about it, where as Yze's career declined rapidly after 2002.

All in all, poor handled by the club. Publicly revealing how much Woey was due to be paid in 2003/04 was a tactless as it comes.

As much as I enjoyend "The wide receiver" I think that one wonderful year may have been tainted by the association with Shane Charters. 

Charters was associated with James Hird & Ben Cousins in their Brownlow years.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-coach-james-hird-linked-to-convicted-drug-trafficker-shane-charter/story-e6frf9jf-1226572461168

Still burns me to this day.

Was my favourite player.

Was one of my favourites, too!  Great story of guts and determination the way he apparently knocked the door down to get a run with the team, and then to excel so well.  Off-loading him to the Enemy was a dog act!

I was at the "G" a few years ago on Queen's Birthday, when Woey and his kids were given a lap of the ground in front of the two teams he had played for.  His kids (and, if I recall correctly, Woey himself) decked out in Red & Blue.  That was special.  Seemed to me he was telling the world he was still a Dee at heart!

Would love to see the bloke back with the Dees in some capacity.  Is he still an assistant at Brissie?

 

The sad thing was that at the time, Woey loved the club. However, for some reason after his Brownlow year, Woeys form and inability to make an impact was very noticeable and in my view was lucky to keep getting games. He was never endowed with pace.  I think his first year at the Pies was okay but after that he was an ordinary player. 

Woey, Farmer and Travis Johnstone were all favourites of mine at a stage. Thank Christ I chose Wrecker45 as my username.

Wowy won the brownlow as a run with type player - he tagged the oppositions best player and out ran them and beat them. He then turned form the 'tagger' to the 'tagged' and was never the same. He became a liability with being one of the highest paid players at the club yet finishing awfully in the (out of the top 10) B and F. Turns out he wasn't quite as good at getting the ball without being led to it. No shame in that just how it was. Was one my favs at his best. The club did the right thing by him and the club getting him a new start 

The intangibles that people forget were that Woey was our highest paid player, the new TV rights deal had just been signed and there was money sloshing around everywhere and Freo were all over Woey and Farmer to return home.

It was a distasteful episode but there is a back story behind it all that gets lost in time.......

 

24 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

The intangibles that people forget were that Woey was our highest paid player, the new TV rights deal had just been signed and there was money sloshing around everywhere and Freo were all over Woey and Farmer to return home.

It was a distasteful episode but there is a back story behind it all that gets lost in time.......

 

Yes this looks like becoming another one of those myths that develop (like Alves left the Club and Scott Thompson walked out on us).  After Jeff Farmer walked Woewy's management had us over a barrel & got Woewy signed on to a huge contract.  Woewy was a good solid player who had a fantastic year & won the Brownlow but he was nowhere near the player that Hird, Voss or Buckley were so when his form dipped the Club had little choice but to try & move him on.  No winners in this sorry saga. 

It was a terrible decision at the time, and remains one in hindsight.

Firstly, the club shouldn't have allowed itself to be held to ransom by Woewodin after he won the Brownlow. I'm sure we could have come up with a deal that made everyone happy, rather than causing us salary cap problems shortly after. Woewodin was a handy player from 1997 - 1999 (and a favourite of mine), but he was just one of a number of excellent players in 2000. I assume he had a greedy agent in his ear at the time, who put money ahead of team success. Would we have won a premiership in the middle of the Brisbane era? Probably not, but we had a very good team in both 2000 and 2002.

Secondly, let's not forget that a fair chunk of the money we saved by trading Woewodin went to Chris Heffernan shortly after. Heffernan clearly still wanted to be at Essendon and never did anything useful for us. I would have rather Woewodin in his 1997-1999 form than anything Heffernan could dish up.

**NB First post so be gentle

My U12 side in Brisbane played Cooparoo in my first game as a youth coach last season. 

They belted us and one kid in particular tore us up.  At the end of the game, we went and shook hands with the opposition coaches, exchanged a little small talk and walked away.

As we are heading back to the sheds, my assistant coach said "geez that bloke looked familiar", then it struck me that it was Shane Woewodin.

Yeah I lined up against a Brownlow medallist and professional football coach in my first game... fmd.

I said to my son, if nothing else out of the game, Taj Woewodin will be father/son in six years. I think they moved to Morningside this year.

Shane won his Brownlow for his gut running through the midfield and his ability to constantly win the ball and it forward to advantage. Together with the other left footers in Anthony McDonald and Stephen Powell, he formed a formidable running and, at times goal kicking, midfield group that made a major contribution to getting the team into the GF. 

In 2001, Neale tried to turn him into a back pocket/half back and he spent considerable time on the bench and not playing where he played best. The reason was not clear at the time but it destroyed his confidence and career with the dees. If he was the best paid player, then team management that allowed it to happen should be condemned, not Shane who was always a loyal demon. The trade to the unspeakables was one of the lowest points of our history.

It was the reason I first found and logged into demonland.  I was so angry.

11 hours ago, jane02 said:

I remember that day well - it almost broke my heart. Worse still - he was traded to Collingwood.

Agree.  Was the start of the slide we are only now coming out of.  Not quite the sacking of the great Norm Smith but a sliding doors moment.

1 hour ago, Demon17 said:

Agree.  Was the start of the slide we are only now coming out of.  Not quite the sacking of the great Norm Smith but a sliding doors moment.

I wouldn't have thought so. We did win a final in 2006 you know.

I know of several supporters  so shattered by Woey's trade that they have never fully regained their former fanaticism .

I think this one is something that is very difficult to judge in hindsight. For me I didn't like it, mainly for the way it was done. There was no consultation with him or discussions about where he was at and what the club wanted from him, he put on the table and that was that.

We only got pick 14 from memory, which we used on Daniel Bell, who turned out to be not much in the end. It appeared to be more that we wanted to get rid of his salary.

For me, that trade was a mistake.