Booney wrote:therisingblues wrote:Sojouner, I witnessed similar scenes during the 3 quarter time huddles. Sturt would be getting whipped as usual, but Phil was calm in his address, just went through the things he wanted the group to concentrate on and gave them some encouragement. They were basically kids back then, a reserves side that had to step up play league because the club had very little money to pay recruits or anybody with a reputation, and going on what Sturt had gone through the previous few years, nobody of note really wanted to play for us anyway.
A couple of years later, when we were semi-competitive it was an interesting contrast watching Phil get fired up if anybody gave less than 100%. You could hear a pin drop within the crowd of about 100 people at the huddle after he finished serving it up to whoever.
You just knew things were changing, we'd finally found the right street. Gives me goosebumps right now just thinking about those days.
I believe Phil was one of those who applied to coach Sturt after Phillips left. So he may still be about to have another crack. I think the bloke deserves it, and has a lot to offer, particularly a club like South. Just give him the reins, I'm sure he'd have the club going in the right direction in a year or two.
I don't think he would have delievered the flag in 2002 for Sturt. From what I understand Phillips cashed in by introducing a slight variation of tricks on an already well drilled group, and then saved up the grand daddy of game plans for the big day. It seemed we were one dimensional after that, and everybody pegged us out.
Phil's day should have been 1998. What a bloody fairytale that would have been....
Tell us about 98 some more.
Ouch that still hurts !!!
