Ricky Nixon vs Tadgh Kenelly

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So, AFL Player Agent Ricky Nixon is to set up a recruitment drive in Ireland to get players for the AFL.

Link 1 HeraldSun
Link 2 RTÉ

Well, seemingly Tadgh Kenelly has come out and warned the GAA not to deal with Nixon (no link at the moment) as has Jim Stynes, and Nixon has come back saying it's sour grapes on the part of Kenelly, that Kenelly himself had approached the AFL about becoming involved with a similar process.

Anyway, on Morning Ireland (RTE Morning Radio Show) this morning there was an interview with Kenelly saying that he never approached the AFL in any shape or form, but once again warning players to "be wary" of Nixon. He went on to say that Nixon was offering no "protection" for recruits, and that he would be there as a "sounding board" for players.

Sherifu

What kind of background does Ricky Nixon have?

Is he a Don King type figure?

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I don't know, but Kenelly certainly doesn't seem to like him.

hanton12

Sherifu wrote: »

What kind of background does Ricky Nixon have?

Is he a Don King type figure?

he played for a while in AFL, with a fairly average type career (less than 100 games in total. Think he left St Kilda after a contract dispute, so was always going down that road I suppose. He was a PE teacher too according to last saturdays papers here. He started up a sporting agency, and is now setting up an agency in Ireland to recruit players. Charging up to $18,000 per club and he will give them a list of players and his reports and findings from here. Sounds like a gangster in fairness. He is going on about how he is being open about the whole dealings, but I'd say he is only open to certain things and is still a snake.

One Cold Hand

So he's not actually approaching the players himself? Sounds like it's more of a scouting mission he's on. Can't imagine the GAA being too happy either way.

scaramanga

think one of the main gripes is that ur man nixon is over here on sort of finder fee commission. Kenelly was quoted as saying he was lucky to have arrived to a fairly well off club where he got pivate coaching, education ect set up , where as nixon is just finding suitable players and charging the clubs for it thus any potential Irish players welfare could be in danger if they sign for a "less well off " club with this guy
Also Kenelly said that none of the 9 irish players over were asked how the Gaa was run/organised prior to nixon coming over.
Dont think Tadgh is actively chasing a scouting carreer what he means is that any irish players offered the chance to go over should feel free to contact him - as has been the case with nearly all the Irish lads that have gone over in the last few years

One Cold Hand

Nixon bites back: link

Xavi6

I really don't see the problem with these proposed camps to be honest.

The training programmes and club presentations will give the players an idea of what they will be in for if they come over. Better to make an informed decision rather than coming over and realising you made a mistake.

Boca

Xavi6 wrote: »

I really don't see the problem with these proposed camps to be honest.

The training programmes and club presentations will give the players an idea of what they will be in for if they come over. Better to make an informed decision rather than coming over and realising you made a mistake.

Don't think that's the problem Xavi.

I think there's genuine concern that players could be signing up with 3rd party agents who may not neccessarily have the players best interests at heart.

For example, players could be recruited to the club that pays highest commission to the 'agent' and could find themselves at an unsuitable club (ie. West Coast) or locked into an unsuitable contract.

Tadhg and Jim are both smart guys as well as having been through the process - I'd respect their opinions

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What makes The Eagles a less suitable club?

Boca

DesF wrote: »

What makes The Eagles a less suitable club?

you may not have heard but they've had a few 'issues' over there - serious drink & drug culture, connections with criminal figures etc

hardly the best environment for impressionable young lads from country towns!

One Cold Hand

Yes, cos NO ONE at ANY other club drinks or takes drugs!:rolleyes:

I think coming from Ireland they should be able to handle the drinking culture.

Xavi6

Lol at the Eagles bashing. They just happened to be the first club caught out. I know for a fact that the Dockers players get up to the same shit in Perth every weekend.

Boca

Xavi6 wrote: »

Lol at the Eagles bashing. They just happened to be the first club caught out. I know for a fact that the Dockers players get up to the same shit in Perth every weekend.

... that makes it ok then :rolleyes:


Anyway, I'm not 'bashing' anyone, my point is that if I had a brother or son who was being recruited by AFL clubs I'd be very cautious about what club they ended up at and certianly wouldn't want any dodgy-agents involved.

Xavi6

No I never said it was ok. My point is that you can't pick one club over the other because they're all the same.

Boca

Xavi6 wrote: »

No I never said it was ok. My point is that you can't pick one club over the other because they're all the same.

I take your point but I have to disagree - clearly they're not all the same.... in fact there's a huge difference in the culture at the various clubs - it's part of what makes the league interesting IMO

couple of examples:

clubs like Brisbane, Sydney - strong leadership, strong discipline and generally over-perform

St Kilda, Carlton - underperforming, weak leadership, less discipline


Do you honestly believe the whole Ben Cousins thing would have been allowed get so out of control at say, Brisbane? Look at how Leigh Matthews dealt with Akermanis - zero tolerance, regardless of ability or reputation. Contrast that with the West Coast approach at the time. From what I've heard Worsfeld wanted to get tough with Cousins well before things came to a head but was 'discouraged' from doing so by the board.

hanton12

long interview with Nixon about mainly the recruitment thing in Ireland. He still manages to have 2 digs at Kennelly in it tho!

Ricky Nixon played 63 VFL/AFL matches with Carlton, St Kilda and Hawthorn over a 10-year period. In retiring from top-level football, he taught physical education at Carey Grammar before forming his sports management company, Flying Start.
afl.com.au’s Ben Broad spoke with the leading player manager about a range of issues – from his ambitions in Ireland to Ben Cousins and his competitive line of work.

THE INDUSTRY
Ben Broad: I read a quote where you said "Everybody wanted to be a phys-ed teacher in the '80s and now it seems everybody wants to be a sports agent". You’ve done both and, given your standing in the game, you must be pretty happy you made the switch.

Ricky Nixon: Yeah, it is funny I suppose. Just prior to this interview I had 30 students from Curtin University in my boardroom and they all want to be agents, so they were quite interested.
The exciting part for me, and I explained to them, is that the offer to do administrative roles and CEO roles is always there for me but it’s not me, I mean I’m very entrepreneurial. I go, 'Okay there’s 70 agents in Australia and 70 trying to sign [Nick] Naitanui and 69 are going to miss out. If I can go to Ireland and sign five kids, I’m only competing against myself. And Naitanui’s going to pay the same amount of fees as the five kids in Ireland'. So you’ve got to keep moving ahead with the times. There’s no point just staying where you are.

Do player managers have a bad reputation? How do you think they’re perceived by the footy fan?

To be honest, I’m not really sure. It’s interesting actually because yesterday I had to do a Google search on Club 10, a thing that I did many years ago. So I typed in ‘Club 10, Ricky Nixon, AFL’ and up came this chat program.
It was talking about what I was doing in Ireland and all these people were commenting and saying, 'Oh it’s a good thing, he should be allowed to do it' and then you get the comments [like] 'He’s nothing but a money thief, he’s this, he’s that, they’re all piranhas'.
I love the way people comment, like Tadhg Kennelly for example from the Swans, can comment on you as a person, but they’ve never met you nor have they spoken to you nor do they know what you’re doing. But they’re quite happy to make comments.

The whole industry does seem like it can get quite personal at times.

Oh it’s very, very competitive there’s no doubt about that and very personal.
I mean the five biggest competitors to me all used to work for me, so why should I show them any favours when you know, you give them a job, you pay them salaries.

IRELAND

You mentioned Ireland earlier. What’s the latest there?

I’ve actually just read a newspaper article out of Ireland where Carlton did exactly what I’m stating shouldn’t happen … this needs to be professionally done. The GAA need to know what’s going on, the clubs over there need to know what’s going on.
The GAA are saying [AFL] clubs or representatives are going over there willy-nilly, meeting players, ringing them, holding trials, taking them to Australia and the county or club doesn’t know. Before they know it, their next superstar, who was going to lead them to the All-Ireland final, is on a plane to Sydney or Melbourne and they are really ****ty about it.
I certainly see where they’re coming from so what I’m suggesting, and I think we both agree, is the way forward is to have a registration system where agents and club representatives have to register with the GAA. If you go to approach a player you have to do it above board, up-front and tell the county that you’re approaching the player so they at least know you’re doing it … the other thing I think we need to do is put some rules on how many blokes can come from Ireland.

Is there anger in Ireland at you that, with your draft camp, you’re potentially making it easier for players to leave the Gaelic game?

I thought I was going into a barrage of everyone wanting to kill me, so I was very guarded about notes being stuck under my hotel room door, just in case they were ticking!
But when I got there, it seemed to be like anything in football or sport. The people that complain or bitch and whinge are usually a minority. The people who think you’re doing a good job don’t usually get on radio and say, 'You’re doing a good job!' Everyone I met in the street or I met at Croke Park or wherever were really supportive.
They were basically saying, 'Hey listen, we don’t want to lose one of our young kids but who are we to stop a young kid going to the other side of the world, meeting new people, getting a professional career, advancing himself and getting out of Ireland where it rains every day and it’s not that bright?'
I use the analogy if one of my sons was approached to play soccer in Ireland and I wanted him to play AFL football. What would my reaction be? Well maybe I wouldn’t be that happy, but it’s his choice.

COMMITMENT FROM THE CLUBS

Now you’ve got five AFL clubs signed up for your venture over there – Brisbane, Geelong, North Melbourne, Richmond and St Kilda. How does it work? They pay you a fee and what does that get them?

Number one is we’re tapped into Dartfish software. Stephen Wells at Geelong, for example, instead of him spending a lot of money having to go to Ireland all the time to identify talent, every week in his office he goes onto this site. The top 25 players are on there, he’ll click on their face or name and get information on what they’ve done in the last couple of weeks and also edited-up tagged highlights from their Gaelic matches – kicks, marks, handballs, clearances, whatever you want to see.

You’re also going to run a draft camp.

Yeah, we’re going to run one similar to the one run at the AIS. It’ll just be a two-day camp that’ll involve some physical testing with all the normal stuff; some psychological tests, some skills testing which will involve a fair bit with the Gaelic ball, just to get them comfortable, and then some with the Aussie Rules ball. And then we’ll do some face-to-face interviews with the clubs.
We’ll also do some social activities just to see how they interact with other people and that’ll be a full two days.

Are you hopeful more AFL clubs might come on board?

Yes and no. I certainly don’t think it could work with 16. I don’t think it could work with more than seven or eight.
There’s a couple pending. A couple of clubs, such as Collingwood and Sydney, have or say they already have great networks over there.
The [GAA] president made it very clear that he would like me to put something back to them about the welfare of the players that don’t make it. We already do it, but they weren’t aware of that.

THE TALENT

Where have these potential players come from?

We’ve got a list of about 80 or 90 players that we’ve identified as having the potential to play AFL footy. They range from 17 to 23 and have been identified by a former AFL player, Dermot McNicholl who played with me at St Kilda, by three people who are involved in coaching elite junior sport over there and some other people who shall remain confidential.

And are these 80 or 90 players off-limits to the 11 other AFL clubs not involved in your program?

No, not at all. A kid rang me the other day and said, 'I’ve been invited to go to a meeting with this club, what should I do?' and I said, 'I’m telling you, you should go because I’m inviting 25 to my camp, you’ll be lucky if four of you get taken, so you should go to every meeting you can. But what I’m telling you is don’t sign with them, because why wouldn’t you get yourself in front of five other clubs as well and then make a decision after that?'
How will that work?
The minute the camp’s over the clubs are on their own in a competitive environment. So when the camp’s done, I’ve narrowed this down, I’ve tested them, you are now competing against Collingwood, Sydney or anyone else in our co-op and they all understand and know that that’s the case. But they’re getting a bloody cheap recruiting system for $30,000.
And whatever guys do make their way to clubs will obviously be Flying Start clients?
It’s funny because everybody thinks this is all about the management side of things but I actually didn’t do it for that reason. We haven’t actually yet decided how we’re going to approach that. There’s obviously no point in me signing up 25 players because they’re obviously not all going to get drafted. We’d like to think we’ll manage the ones that come out of our recruiting system.

Do you think all this, the AFL searching Ireland for talent, could lead to Gaelic football becoming a professional sport?

Ummm, no. They’re adamant, I asked them that.
Actually the other thing I offered to them was to help them as much as I could because of the amount of work I did with the players’ association in the early 90s, to get it to be a $10 million business.
[But] I think they just thought I was going to walk in there and say, 'Look this is what I’m doing and if you don’t like it, well I’m just going to do it anyway'. I didn’t think that was the way to approach it and I wouldn’t do it that way anyway.

THE VENTURE

In all your time in footy, is this one of the most exciting things you’ve done?

It is. I push the fact that you’ve got to be entrepreneurial in this business because you can get into a rut in this business. I’ve been in ruts over the last 16 years where you just sit there for 6-12 months twiddling your thumbs going, 'God, it’s just one bad thing after another'.
One player stuffs up and then you fix that and another one stuffs up. So we worked hard to get our list into shape, where we reckon the 70-odd players we’ve got are pretty bloody good people and pretty good footballers.
And if we get a player, and there’s one high-profile player who’s recently changed management groups, we weren’t interested because the amount of work that had to go into just looking after him all day isn’t what we’re about anymore.

CLIENTS

It must be hard at times. Do you get to have friendships with players or not?
Straight after this Brad Johnson’s coming in and he epitomises what it’s about these days. The last meeting we had a couple of weeks ago, he came in with four takeaway coffees for the staff and myself. Now I compare that to Player X ... it’s like, 'You don’t pay us, mate, to clean up your mess and go to the club and have media conferences and everything else.
I respect you’ve got to take the good with the bad, and we’ve still got players on our list who are going to stuff up, but we can’t afford to have 70 of them.
And you guys in the media, it’s your job to report it and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and we’ve perhaps learnt through some of the Ben Cousins stuff of the effect that can have.
Because you’ve got wife or girlfriend and family, then you’ve got club, then you’ve got supporters, so really in the end it affects thousands and thousands of people.

COUSINS

What about Cuz … where’s he at and how confident are you that he’ll make it back to the AFL?

The thing with Ben Cousins is I love Ben Cousins. I love him because he’s as honest as it comes. The bloke stuffed up, he knows he stuffed up, everyone knows he stuffed up. But I don’t think there’s anyone in Australia who dislikes Ben Cousins.
We all want Ben to get better and I think people sometimes think that players are superhuman in that if Ben wants to play AFL footy again he’ll just be able to do it like that. I’m not sure if life’s ever going to be that simple for Ben ever again.
What’s more important for Ben and his family and people here is we just want him to have a great life and we’re not really that interested to be honest in whether he plays AFL footy again.
If Ben wants to be, then we’ll support him 110 per cent but it’s not high on my radar to get Ben playing AFL footy. It’s to be able to have a beer with him when he’s 65 [and] not walk past the cemetery and go, 'We used to manage that bloke'.

Have you had any interest from clubs though?

People always say managers pump this up but if Ben wants to play AFL footy, he’ll be playing it. Now whether that means one or 16 clubs are interested, that’s not for me to tell everyone.
But the discussion doesn’t need to happen because we’re a long way off it. My personal preference would be that Ben doesn’t play AFL football because I don’t think he needs to prove anything.
Have you expressed that view to him?
Yeah I’ve said [to him] I don’t think you’ve got anything to achieve in football, but I would be fully supportive if you said to me, 'Yes I do, if I can get back to AFL football that's part of helping me recover from this addiction'.

GETTING PERSONAL

We talked about that personal nature of the business earlier. You were pretty annoyed a few weeks ago when Adelaide’s footy manager John Reid was asked about the possibility of his club recruiting Ben. He said the Crows weren’t interested and you really seemed to take exception to his response.

I haven’t spoken to John but I’ve sent him an email since to say, 'Look I was caught out in the middle of the night in Dublin and I apologise that it was a bit personal. But I don’t take back the fact that I want you to understand, John, and I want everybody else to understand that when you make comments like that … Ben Cousins hasn’t said he’s going to nominate for the draft let alone has he nominated, so to ask whether you’re going to take him is so far away it’s not funny.'
But was he being negative or was he simply saying, 'We’re not interested as a footy club and he’s not the sort of player we’d be looking at'?
In fairness, John sent me an email saying, 'Ricky, I just answered a question from a reporter but I do understand what you’re saying', so he was good enough to do that. And he didn’t even have a crack at me about making the personal comments to be honest, but I know he wasn’t too happy about it.
But you’ve got to wear some and John’s a pretty tough old bugger – he can wear a few. I had to wear a couple from Tadhg Kennelly.

ROCCA

Is Anthony Rocca any chance to have a crack at the NFL next year?

His contract’s up at the end of next year. He’s very interested in it all and he does want to have a go.
The key with playing NFL is you actually have to forego one AFL season because of the difference in the seasons. Effectively the pre-season’s during our AFL season. So if you give yourself a go at it, you need to get over there in about January which is the end of their season, doing training camps through February-March, then go into pre-season and then right about now they effectively go into practice games.
So if Anthony wanted to do that for 2010 he’d have to forego the 2009 season. It’s going to be very unusual for a star AFL player under 30 to go over there. It’s more likely to be when they’re in their 30s, like Ben Graham did.

mousey007

why did michael shields come home?was he not making it over there?

hanton12

mousey007 wrote: »

why did michael shields come home?was he not making it over there?

homesickness and not really adapting to the game. will happen a bit i'd reckon. For all the Marty clarkes you get, you'll also have the Michael Shields, Brendan Quigleys, Aisake (altho he's not prepared to admit defeat yet) etc

thewaltzer

hanton12 wrote: »

homesickness and not really adapting to the game. will happen a bit i'd reckon. For all the Marty clarkes you get, you'll also have the Michael Shields, Brendan Quigleys, Aisake (altho he's not prepared to admit defeat yet) etc

Yeah, its certainly a big culture change in Oz. Needs a rock solid mental attitude to compete in AFL, never mind the rest of it.

theheartofalion

latest is that ricky nixon is holding a recruitment camp in mayo next week.

has invited 20 top players including ian ryan, donie kinsgston, john paul mone... full list in the star

Xavi6

Yeah I had a read of it there the other day. I can't imagine too many of the county's will be happy with their players attending.

Boca

Turns out ol' Ricky was a dodgier character than we realised

link

bruschi

Boca wrote: »

Turns out ol' Ricky was a dodgier character than we realised

link

the whole thing about that girl is mental. she is seriously wrong in the head, and nixon is a bigger fool to have been duped and let himself get in a situation like that.

SSK

Impossible to know what to believe at this stage.

That poor girl needs help though, I struggle to comprehend what is going through her head at the moment.

Xavi6

The girls is clearly a lunatic. She stalked the Saints players from city to city unknown to them, and in fairness having seen her pics they had no reason to think she was underage if she was in a club (plus she looks fairly fit so you would).

Nixon was an idiot to put himself in that position though.