Kevin Sheedy

the jigsaw man : the piecing together of a super coach

Plot

Who is Kevin Sheedy? Genius? Madman? Visionary? Eccentric? It depends on who you ask. In this extraordinary book Tim Watson, one of Essendon's all-time greatest players, seeks out the truth about Kevin Sheedy and his 25-year reign as coach at Windy Hill. Sheedy himself has co-operated for the purposes of this book, but Watson baulks at none of the controversies - from Sheedy's role in the Hawthorn drug-taking allegations of 1984; the disastrous recruitments of Mike Richardson and Geoff Raines; and the board-inspired player revolt which threatened Sheedy's tenure in the late 1990s. Then of course there are the back-to-back premiership triumphs of 1984-85, the unexpected glory of 1993 and the unparalleled success of season 2000, on top of Essendon's emergence as an AFL superpower - in no small way built on Sheedy's direct marketing genius. Gathering together as many pieces of the puzzle as possible, Watson discovers a ruthless, compassionate, eccentric, quirky, self-driven character, spurred on by a desire for greatness and an insatiable love for the game. More than any other observer he has given us the true essence of Kevin Sheedy - Jigsaw Man.