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. Tim Watson played 307 Games for Essendon from 1977-1994, including three premierships (1984, 1985 and 1993). In 1994 Tim joined Channel Seven in Melbourne where he presented the weeknight sport bulletin on Seven News for four years. He was a pioneer host of 4-Quarters (1995) and Around The Grounds (1997). He also hosted Against All Odds: James Hird's Own Story following the 2000 AFL Grand Final. Tim returned to the AFL ranks in 1999 as coach of St Kilda, a position he held for two seasons. After returning to the Seven Network on a full-time basis in October 2000, Tim co-hosted the footy show The Game and from 2002 he joined Bruce McAvaney and Caroline Wilson on the couch as a member of the Talking Footy team. Along with his continued weekend sports presenting duties for Seven News, Tim is a breakfast host with Melbourne's Radio SEN, along with Billy Brownless and Andy Maher.
