Retired #11: David Zaharakis - Survivin'

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11 - [PLAYERCARD]David Zaharakis[/PLAYERCARD].jpg

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2021
Last Game Played: Round 19, 2021 (omit)
Injury Status: n/a
 
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Lore said:
What's risky about it? The only thing that's obviously risky is him resting on his laurels I would think.

His age... he's what, 27? Four years takes him to 31 which should be fine, even if all he's capable in the last year of this contract is playing the Stanton/Howlett/Bird/Hocking type depth player role and helping the kids in the twos for the majority of the time I wouldn't call it a loss.

Bodies don't wear out as quickly as they used to because we know better how to manage injuries and recovery. The main issue seems to be the game going past the brain, which is obviously more of a problem if we were to send him on a European holiday for a year in the middle of his career.
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Four years is a long commitment and a lot can happen.
Mark Mercuri's deal cost our club a lot of money and some good players we couldn't afford to keep.
Zaharakis' form has been good after week 4 or so but I think 3 years would have been safer.
You do not sign players to long term deals so they can be depth players in their last year.
 
I assume that four years is the trade off to secure him at a discounted rate.

It makes sense to me because we have to have some free space given departures and our previous attempt to sign O'Meara.

Front-end the contract and by the time that there is some risk were not paying him anything we can't wear when we need to sign up other players.

A problem or two aside he has been durable and, just as importantly, he is a pro that looks after himself. I'm not worried by this at all.
 

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foj1 said:
Four years is a long commitment and a lot can happen.
Mark Mercuri's deal cost our club a lot of money and some good players we couldn't afford to keep.
Zaharakis' form has been good after week 4 or so but I think 3 years would have been safer.
You do not sign players to long term deals so they can be depth players in their last year.
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Depends what money he's on and whether it's front-loaded or not I guess. Hawthorn has all shorter contracts if I remember right, but I'd say Essendon doesn't really assess risk the same way, judging by the contracts we've given to others who are older and more injury prone.
 
Lore said:
Depends what money he's on and whether it's front-loaded or not I guess. Hawthorn has all shorter contracts if I remember right, but I'd say Essendon doesn't really assess risk the same way, judging by the contracts we've given to others who are older and more injury prone.
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Purely by results Hawthorn's method has worked more effectively than Essendons.
 
foj1 said:
Four years is a long commitment and a lot can happen.
Mark Mercuri's deal cost our club a lot of money and some good players we couldn't afford to keep.
Zaharakis' form has been good after week 4 or so but I think 3 years would have been safer.
You do not sign players to long term deals so they can be depth players in their last year.
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The problems with the Mercuri deal is that we signed him and some others up to deals allowing for a salary cap increase that never came.

Was Hawthorn really signing its best 27 year olds to short term deals?
 
Zaharakis is a really good B Grade player.
Not sure you give a four year contract but Lore is quite right unless you know how much he is being paid it is impossible to ascertain how good the deal is for either side.
 
BrunoV said:
Was Hawthorn really signing its best 27 year olds to short term deals?
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Last off-season I was looking up contract lengths and player ages from a few of the clubs and seeing what the strategies were like. The ones I looked at other than us were Hawthorn, Geelong and Bulldogs. Just picked a couple that might be seen as a good example without being interstate or having academies or whatever (see attached).

EDIT: I should add, being year-old charts the ages of the players are all a year older than when the contracts were current, if that makes sense? So a player who is on that chart as being 28 with a 2018 contract was actually 27 at the time. The data it draws from uses player birthdays to automatically find their age, which is why it's all screwy.
 

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Lore said:
Last off-season I was looking up contract lengths and player ages from a few of the clubs and seeing what the strategies were like. The ones I looked at other than us were Hawthorn, Geelong and Bulldogs. Just picked a couple that might be seen as a good example without being interstate or having academies or whatever (see attached).
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Football is a result based industry more than most.
Our results for 15 years have been rubbish.
Our list manager has been there for all that time.
I think questions need to be asked and Essendons supporters should be angrier than what we have been about what has happened to our great club.
I think Arsenal fans may provide a template.
 
He's a restricted free agent. If you don't offer him 4 years he's not staying. Clearly the club wanted to keep him.
 
foj1 said:
Four years is a long commitment and a lot can happen.
Mark Mercuri's deal cost our club a lot of money and some good players we couldn't afford to keep.
Zaharakis' form has been good after week 4 or so but I think 3 years would have been safer.
You do not sign players to long term deals so they can be depth players in their last year.
Click to expand...

We are in a very different place to when Mercuri's deal was signed.
 

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foj1 said:
Football is a result based industry more than most.
Our results for 15 years have been rubbish.
Our list manager has been there for all that time.
I think questions need to be asked and Essendons supporters should be angrier than what we have been about what has happened to our great club.
I think Arsenal fans may provide a template.
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Eh. You can be angry and upset, or you can be delusional and look for excuses. Or you can just take it for what it is - a new era - and then you play the waiting game.
 
Lore said:
Eh. You can be angry and upset, or you can be delusional and look for excuses. Or you can just take it for what it is - a new era - and then you play the waiting game.
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That is a philosophical statement that actually says nothing- like good philosophy does! :)
New eras are quite common and mostly unsuccessful. I have seen too much footy to be swayed by cliches.
 
Lore said:
Eh. You can be angry and upset, or you can be delusional and look for excuses. Or you can just take it for what it is - a new era - and then you play the waiting game.
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A lot can go wrong at any club and unfortunately ours we have had more than our share.

Only the naive and bitter look for excuses and unfortunately don't get to enjoy all the good things that can also happen.

It has been widely acknowledged that over the last 15 yers we as a club have made many mistakes. I think those mistakes have beeen rectified and we have come through the other side much stronger. A new era of success will be ours soon.
 
foj1 said:
That is a philosophical statement that actually says nothing- like good philosophy does! :)
New eras are quite common and mostly unsuccessful. I have seen too much footy to be swayed by cliches.
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Sure, new eras are commonly unsuccessful, but you've just been complaining about bygone eras so I'm not entirely sure what you're advocating?
 
foj1 said:
That is a philosophical statement that actually says nothing- like good philosophy does! :)
New eras are quite common and mostly unsuccessful. I have seen too much footy to be swayed by cliches.
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You ain't the only one who has seen a lot of footy, foj.
 
What's the fuss about a four year deal ? Zaharakis is a core player who will play a vital role in the next premiership.
 
Zaharakis has been fairly durable over his career.
If dollars were less than rivals offers don't mind giving him an extra year.
Rd 8 onwards he has been great (excluding the Brisbane at Etihad game).
Career high average disposals per game of 25.9 this season even with his poor output in the first 7 weeks.
Disposal average rounds 1-7: 19.9
Disposal average rounds 8-23: 29.3
 
foj1 said:
Football is a result based industry more than most.
Our results for 15 years have been rubbish.
Our list manager has been there for all that time.
I think questions need to be asked and Essendons supporters should be angrier than what we have been about what has happened to our great club.
I think Arsenal fans may provide a template.
Click to expand...
It is simply not possible to attribute any blame for our results over the period 2013-7 to list management.
If results don't improve in this 4 year period however, I think we would be looking at list management amongst other things.
 

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Retired #11: David Zaharakis - Survivin'

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