Mark Harvey 'On the Couch': VERY unimpressive

[Rik E Boy]

OK, fronting up to the media after coughing up a 50 point lead to the bottom placed Demons is not a task that any coach would savior, but still I believe I have yet to witness a less inspiring interview performance from a coach in my life as the one I witnessed last night.

Mark Harvey does not appear to have any answers, he does not appear to be all that articulate and does not make a lot of moves on match day either. While he was overly defensive in relation to some players he completely failed to support some other players who copped a bit of a serve from Robert Walls.

Harvey was critisied for bringing up a point and then clamming up about again and refusing to answer follow up questions in two separate press conferences in relation to why Josh Carr snapped against the Cats and then he did the very same thing during the interview On The Couch.

Dean Laidley has copped some stick in the past for not handling interviews well but he would have run rings around Harvey last night. One thing that got me was that Robert Walls said that Shaun McManus should have been given his walking papers two years ago and this did not even bring a response from Harvey. If he agrees, why is McManus still there..if he doesn't, why didn't he go into bat for the veteran Docker? But he lept to the defence of Chris Tarrant and Mark Johnson, both who I believe offer the Dockers less than McManus, who at least is whole hearted in his efforts which is more than you can say for Tarrant.

With the oldest list and a coach with plenty to learn on match day and in front of the cameras, I believe the Dockers are light years away from being a contender, when only two years ago people thought they were nearing the pinnacle of football. Isn't it amazing what one poster can do??

regards,

REB

[The Riddler]

I watched it and didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or embarrassed....he seriously had no idea!

[rod_rooster]

He was on Footy Classified as well and was equally unimpressive. Was asked about a number of players and his response was that they were recruited under another coach. He had no answers when it was pointed out that he had a lot to do with those decisions as well. He just kept trying to blame others and was stumped when it was pointed out that he was a big part of what went on before he was made senior coach.

I find it appalling that he firstly didn't stick up for the list he has. Even if privately he feels differently as the figurehead of the club he should make every effort to back in the players he has publically. Just look at the difference with Clarkson when people had a crack at Richie Vandenburg last year. Secondly that he just sits there attempting to blame others for all that is wrong with the Fremantle Football Club is a disgrace. I was pleased that he was made to look like the fool he is when the panel kept making the point that Harvey was a big part of all the decisions that have been made at the club since he first arrived.

[JK]

To be honest, I thought both sets of panel last night asked good hard questions, questions that not only need to be asked of the Freo footy club, but also well answered.

Sadly we only got the first half of that.

That club badly needs a Malthouse type to grab it by the scruff of the neck and drag them up off of their backsides, perhaps even ruffling a few feathers close to home along the way.

Harvey hasn't come close to showing any of that spine so far.

[Hondo]

That club badly needs a Malthouse type to grab it by the scruff of the neck and drag them up off of their backsides, perhaps even ruffling a few feathers close to home along the way.

Good call

I was thinking myself if the clubs needs to do what Sydney did in the early 90s when they got Ron Barassi as coach

Someone experienced to sort the place out

I immediately thought of Sheedy

[Brad]

Harvey reminds me a bit of 'Spud' Frawley at the Tigers, but Spud did get us into one finals series.

[Dutchy]

Dean Laidley has copped some stick in the past for not handling interviews well but he would have run rings around Harvey last night.

Agree Laids was ordinary in his first year but he sought professional help and has improved to the point where he is very good to listen too away from the heat of the battle (not in post match)

The way Freo are going I dare say their Admin wouldnt even think of getting Harvey some professional help...

He seemed like he has been forced into the role when all he wanted to do was be 2IC all his life....

[mighty_tiger_79]

Harvey was critisied for bringing up a point and then clamming up about again and refusing to answer follow up questions in two separate press conferences in [color=#FF0000]relation to why Josh Carr snapped against the Cats and then he did the very same thing during the interview On The Couch.[/color]

on footy classified harvey mentioned Carrs hand etc, but wouldnt go into any detail about it saying 'im not here to dob players from other teams in'

maybe its the first time that a team/players have got too CARR physically and he is a case of dishin it but not handling it when it comes back his way

[Punk Rooster]

he looked close to tears!

[NFC]

I first watched Footy Classified, and I seriously thought he was close to tears. I highly doubt that, but it looked like it. It was a pretty intense interview, one of the first times it's actually lived up to it's billing of being, "in the hot seat".

Then I watched On the Couch just a few minutes ago and wow, again more rubbish served up by Harvey. He really struggled, Mike and Robert really gave him some hard hitting questions which he struggled to answer, especially the tripe he served up abaout the culture of Fremantle.

[Booney]

One thing for certain is an AFL club is now run by more than just one man and Mark Harvey is merely the front man for a football department clearly lacking any nouse.

Over the last couple of years Fremantle have shown a certain level of arrogance and over inflated self belief as in the draft/trade process they have decided to "top up".
The recruiting of the likes of Tarrant,Kepler Bradley,Mark Johnson and Dean Solomon coupled with the retention of McManus and perhaps Mathew Carr show they felt they were close to the pinnacle.How wrong they all were.

I feel for Harvey,as you said mate he isnt the most articulate and probably sold himself on passion (not to say he wasnt impressive in the interview process).Passion,one thing Fremantle are lacking and one they wont posses for some time.

[NFC]

Dean Laidley has copped some stick in the past for not handling interviews well but he would have run rings around Harvey last night.

Agree Laids was ordinary in his first year but he sought professional help and has improved to the point where he is very good to listen too away from the heat of the battle (not in post match)

The way Freo are going I dare say their Admin wouldnt even think of getting Harvey some professional help...

He seemed like he has been forced into the role when all he wanted to do was be 2IC all his life....

Are you serious? He still sounds pretty underwhelming, in fact they were bagging him about a month ago.

[NFC]

One thing for certain is an AFL club is now run by more than just one man and Mark Harvey is merely the front man for a football department clearly lacking any nouse.

Over the last couple of years Fremantle have shown a certain level of arrogance and over inflated self belief as in the draft/trade process they have decided to "top up".
The recruiting of the likes of Tarrant,Kepler Bradley,Mark Johnson and Dean Solomon coupled with the retention of McManus and perhaps Mathew Carr show they felt they were close to the pinnacle.How wrong they all were.

I feel for Harvey,as you said mate he isnt the most articulate and probably sold himself on passion (not to say he wasnt impressive in the interview process).Passion,one thing Fremantle are lacking and one they wont posses for some time.

I made a similar comment. Heart. The one thing the Fremantle Football CLub is void of.

They are a "nothing club".

[gadj1976]

If he thinks they can still make the 8, and do so by playing the more senior players such as Solomon, McManus, Farmer et al, then I'm going to put $20 bucks on him to get the flick first, because you would have to think that that is not the way the Freo footy club want to go about it. I see a massive clash between coaching phylosophy (of which I question Harvey's after seeing On the Couch last night) and footy club mentality of salvaging something from a wreck of a season.

[Dutchy]

Dean Laidley has copped some stick in the past for not handling interviews well but he would have run rings around Harvey last night.

Agree Laids was ordinary in his first year but he sought professional help and has improved to the point where he is very good to listen too away from the heat of the battle (not in post match)

The way Freo are going I dare say their Admin wouldnt even think of getting Harvey some professional help...

He seemed like he has been forced into the role when all he wanted to do was be 2IC all his life....

Are you serious? He still sounds pretty underwhelming, in fact they were bagging him about a month ago.

Who is "they"? and in what context?

[Royal City]

I watched it and didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or embarrassed....he seriously had no idea!

dont feel sorry for him . he chose freo over the bombers.

couldnt agree more REB. was a terrible interview.

What would you do if you were Freo's CEO watching that interview ????

[evans01]

saw another interview with him on Sports Tonight and he was attrocious.......i felt embarrassed just watching him, his responses where very slow and he seemed to be totally confused???......................

he just seemed totally out of it, it was real cringe value watching the guy trying to response to reasonable questions.........hate to think how he addresses the players???