How Shane Woewodin’s feud with Melbourne was finally healed nearly two decades later

Shane Woewodin had a "complete falling out with Melbourne" after being traded while on holidays. It took two decades to repair the rift.

 

Cheers mate, can't wait to get stuck into it!

And flying Shane and Deanne and Taj's siblings, over to watch Taj's first game with us will complete the healing.

Can someone post full article?

  On 27/04/2022 at 08:01, dazzledavey36 said:

Can someone post full article?

I don't have access to this article but Will Schofield who wrote the article hosts an awesome podcast called Backchat which had Shane as a guest this week.

I'm guessing that the content discussed for the article will be contained in the interview.

Podcast will be on Spotify and YouTube tomorrow.

Sneak peak on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cc2REZJluoS/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

Edited April 27, 20223 yr by BAMF

Woey was a great of the MFC. I would say it's one of the few things Daniher got wrong. That was culture killing. The board paid him too much which wasn't Danihers fault.

Let every Melbourne supporter hope Taj can play anything like his old man.

Interview is up. Starts at 30min in.

If these links don't work then search Backchat Podcast.

Spotify

Youtube

I don't have much sympathy for Shane.

His management had us over a barrel because Jeff Farmer had left & leveraged a very fat contract for Shane who was a solid player who happened to have 1 great season.

He was being paid way overs.  If he'd agreed to be paid what he was worth he could have stayed at Melbourne.

So if he was cranky with the Club who cares.

No doubt Shane was badly advised after his Brownlow victory. His management turned the screws on the club that had given him a chance when 15 other teams weren't interested. I agree that he would have had a long and successful career at the MFC if he had accepted a fair and reasonable wage at that time.

That said, the decision to trade Shane and how it was played out, caused significant damage at the time to the club, the player group and the supporter base. That is 100% on the club given they accepted and signed the contract. I'm very glad that these issues have now been addressed and resolved.

  On 27/04/2022 at 22:02, Cranky Franky said:

I don't have much sympathy for Shane.

His management had us over a barrel because Jeff Farmer had left & leveraged a very fat contract for Shane who was a solid player who happened to have 1 great season.

He was being paid way overs.  If he'd agreed to be paid what he was worth he could have stayed at Melbourne.

So if he was cranky with the Club who cares.

A lot of truth in here.

And a fair bit of revisionism in this thread.

  On 27/04/2022 at 22:21, poita said:

No doubt Shane was badly advised after his Brownlow victory. His management turned the screws on the club that had given him a chance when 15 other teams weren't interested. I agree that he would have had a long and successful career at the MFC if he had accepted a fair and reasonable wage at that time.

That said, the decision to trade Shane and how it was played out, caused significant damage at the time to the club, the player group and the supporter base. That is 100% on the club given they accepted and signed the contract. I'm very glad that these issues have now been addressed and resolved.

There was a new broadcast deal in the wings, Freo was hovering, Farmer was offered big money and we had recently played off in a granny.

Mistakes were made and if anything it shows how good our list management is now compared to then

 

There were errors on both sides . . . neither covered themselves in glory. 

However . . . I do care about the MFC and Shane. Regardless, he is MFC family. One of us. 

And for anyone that's been fortunate to meet him, he's a true Dee and a top bloke to boot.

If we can now bring Junior back into the fold our club will be properly reunited. 

  On 27/04/2022 at 14:09, Wrecker46 said:

Woey was a great of the MFC. I would say it's one of the few things Daniher got wrong. That was culture killing. The board paid him too much which wasn't Danihers fault.

Let every Melbourne supporter hope Taj can play anything like his old man.

These decisions were made by the Board?

  On 27/04/2022 at 23:35, FarNorthernD said:

If we can now bring Junior back into the fold our club will be properly reunited. 

Junior is well and truly back in the fold. He presented Jordon with his debut jumper, and was a part of the MCG Premiership celebration.

As others have said, it was a 2 way street. If his management screwed us over post Brownlow, then the club had to make decisions based on what they thought was his true worth was post the 2002 season. Players like Breen, Bruce and Whelan were coming off rookie contracts and had to be paid. We'd been through salary cap breaches 5 years earlier. 

Trading Woey didn't destroy the fabric of the club like tapping Junior Mac on the shoulder. We continued to play finals.

The fact that Woey continued to attend Pat Players functions meant that he was never totally lost to the club.

It's his fault he got the best deal/most money he could?! 

Very hard to make a judgement without knowing exactly how it all played out but I agree with a lot of points here that his management got a better than value contract and that we also handled it poorly. It did seem that after making the GF we were handing contracts out like drunken sailors to the point where we had to over-correct. From memory I think Neita, Bizzell and possibly Robbo all came into the club one day and volunteered to take pay cuts. We lost Stephen Powell as a cap casualty to St Kilda, put bluntly we were in salary cap hell. At Neita’s B & F acceptance speech I think he finished off with a message to the club telling them to ‘please keep this list together’ which could be taken a number of ways but it felt like departures were inevitable.

Whether Shane was given the opportunity to take a pay cut himself or was just suddenly put on the trade table is something maybe someone else can fill in the blanks on. It may have been a case of the cut he was willing to accept was poles apart, I don’t know. He was certainly filthy though over the club’s statement on the website stating what he would have been earning in the next 2 years. This was a time when there was no free agency and probably less info out there on earnings so I did feel for him there. 

Be thankful for our list management now where these interactions are being carried out much more professionally and respectfully. 
 

  On 28/04/2022 at 00:37, Cards13 said:

It's his fault he got the best deal/most money he could?! 

No it's not but when you become the number 1 played player at a club.... you don't finish 15th or so in back to back B&Fs - it's a fair disconnect between getting what you can and your performance matching your paycheck

Listened to the podcast. As supporters, we really only got the club's side of the story at the time. It sounds like Neale was caught in the middle on this one, and it doesn't cover the club (board) in glory. It's sad it took so long to heal the rift, but I,m glad he's back on board.

It's worth a listen before shooting your mouth off about how greedy you think he was.

Taj was a Dee from the get go and it's his dream come to true to be drafted by us.

Edited April 28, 20223 yr by Roger Mellie

  On 28/04/2022 at 22:23, Roger Mellie said:

Listened to the podcast. As supporters, we really only got the club's side of the story at the time. It sounds like Neale was caught in the middle on this one, and it doesn't cover the club (board) in glory. It's sad it took so long to heal the rift, but I,m glad he's back on board.

It's worth a listen before shooting your mouth off about how greedy you think he was.

Taj was a Dee from the get go and it's his dream come to true to be drafted by us.

I had a listen to it yesterday and couldn't agree more.

Shane was desperately wanting to stay at Melbourne and even begged the club for it. Our board at the time was a shambles and it was great to hear that Neale Daniher owned his actions and apologised to Shane few years ago.

Those thinking he was greedy are absolutel nuffies.

  On 28/04/2022 at 22:37, dazzledavey36 said:

I had a listen to it yesterday and couldn't agree more.

Shane was desperately wanting to stay at Melbourne and even begged the club for it. Our board at the time was a shambles and it was great to hear that Neale Daniher owned his actions and apologised to Shane few years ago.

Those thinking he was greedy are absolutel nuffies.

Absolute revisionist BS. He was a $300,000 a year player getting paid $500,000 a year.

If he had agreed to be paid what he was worth he probably could have stayed on.

Apart from 2000 he was a completely average, ordinary player. Even Collingwood woke up & delisted him shortly after.

From memory Woey suffered from foot stress fractures possibly from training loads, etc certainly had an impact on his last years of footy.

  On 28/04/2022 at 22:58, Cranky Franky said:

Absolute revisionist BS. He was a $300,000 a year player getting paid $500,000 a year.

If he had agreed to be paid what he was worth he probably could have stayed on.

Apart from 2000 he was a completely average, ordinary player. Even Collingwood woke up & delisted him shortly after.

Second placing in a Copeland in 2004 was not too shabby.

Probably eligible for the Bluey in those years too, given the amount of his salary the Dees were said to have been paying him to play with C’wood….😀

Edited April 29, 20223 yr by Tim