Player Watch #28: Jack Darling - has officially been traded to NM from WCE in exchange for #67 - welcome Jack

[Flawed Genius]

Darlings (191cm) potential impact on Duursma (190cm) - who multiple people have suggested is a hyper talented player with a tendency to coast - can't be understated either

Let's instil some work ethic and give him an example to chase

 

[BlueandWhiteinmyBlood]

Darlings (191cm) potential impact on Duursma (190cm) - who multiple people have suggested is a hyper talented player with a tendency to coast - can't be understated either

Let's instil some work ethic and give him an example to chase

Definitely sounds better then following sleevo around all last pre season.

 

[speedy]

He’s played an invaluable role in the development of Sheezel. Harry couldn’t speak higher praise of Pup.

Poor example. Sheezel is the one showing everyone how it’s done.

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

It’s not make or break…. Its just more of the same shit that’s been going on here for far too long.

I understand the pain. Me personally, I haven’t seen a modicum of success throughout my lifetime supporting this club. It’s a hard thing to have to endure and it’s even more difficult to look at the bigger picture.

I’m not saying things are just going to “happen” for us or that there are no grave concerns I have for the club’s trajectory.

However, looking at this Darling move, it’s clear to me that we will be drafting a young promising key forward in the draft, with Jack being a stop-gap whilst the kid develops in the VFL. Jack will pass on what he’s learnt from being in the system in exactly the same way that Shiels did for Harry.

If you ever wonder why Harry is so mature and beyond his years, I’d put it a little bit on Pup for putting his arm around the kid.

 

[kool kangas]

I understand the pain. Me personally, I haven’t seen a modicum of success throughout my lifetime supporting this club. It’s a hard thing to have to endure and it’s even more difficult to look at the bigger picture.

I’m not saying things are just going to “happen” for us or that there are no grave concerns I have for the club’s trajectory.

However, looking at this Darling move, it’s clear to me that we will be drafting a young promising key forward in the draft, with Jack being a stop-gap whilst the kid develops in the VFL. Jack will pass on what he’s learnt from being in the system in exactly the same way that Shiels did for Harry.

If you ever wonder why Harry is so mature and beyond his years, I’d put it a little bit on Pup for putting his arm around the kid.

l'm hoping its Armstrong....

 

[Flawed Genius]

Poor example. Sheezel is the one showing everyone how it’s done.

OK what about Wardlaw then who has said on several occasions that he adores Shiels and follows him around asking him questions?

 

[Rollmop]

OK what about Wardlaw then who has said on several occasions that he adores Shiels and follows him around asking him questions?

True - I remember Harry talking about George and Pup and their bond

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

Poor example. Sheezel is the one showing everyone how it’s done.

No it isn’t a poor example. Sheezel has not arrived as the finished product. That is a poor argument. Especially since it’s been said from the horses mouth how important Shiels has been for his development.

 

[the big lebowski]

Responses from eagles fans when I asked what darling would bring to north

* best answer may be no 7

1:

-Defensively Darling is still good
-Will still attract a good defender, so will take some heat off Larkey
-Has been durable and a good trainer
-Knows where to lead/block to free up his partner (think Kennedy/Allen/Waterman)
-Likely contribute 20+ goals a season
-Will help set standards for the young forwards to match

Most importantly though
He isn't Pink or Teakle

Could be your Drew Petrie

Drew Petrie

Age

42

Ht

197cm

Wt

101kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.3

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

3.7

3star

M

5.4

5star

T

2.7

4star

G

1.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

5.2

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

1.2

2star

M

1.6

2star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.0

1star

, who still has a role at the Eagles and is loved by the players.

2:

He'll run hard. He's lost his agility and any jump. For some reason he prefers to concede front position and try and shift his opponent under the ball (not very successfully mostly). He'll train hard, present in excellent nick and probably not get injured. He's happy to share the ball around when he gets it if there's a better option on.

3:

Jack is durable and will present well for the next 2 years

He has lost some of his leap so you won’t get as many pack marks as say 3 years ago

As a sidekick to Larkin, he will do well and probably get you 30 goals a year

He will straighten you up and command a decent defender man him up

He is also useful taking forward ruck knocks

He is also a pretty good set shot

4:

He moves like a brick shithouse, but he’s still great defensively, will draw a defender away from the other forwards and will run in patterns to open space up in the forward line. Durable player too so should help set training standards (just don’t ask him about vaccinations).

5:

Hes been the #3 or 4 target for us this year, with a very weak midfield kicking it in f50. Hes always going to find it hard to kick goals in that situation, he plays as a tall not a small so our structure just didnt work for him.
He copped a lot of shit for realistically being played out of position in a poor team.

He is still very good to elite for tackling/pressure inside 50. He doesnt lose many marking 1 on 1s, despite not winning them either.

I presume your club will want to draft a KPF, and then have Darling hold the fort for a couple of years with Larkey + Teakle/whoever(ruck/fwd) until your young KPF is actually ready. This makes sense and idk why your fellow supporters cant see this, a 18 year old KPF generally cant do much in their couple of years of footy.

Instead of having Pink or Teakle as an important part of your fwd structure who arent natural KPFs, you get a guy who knows how to play a FF or CHF role and knows how to be the #2. Should improve forward structure straight away.

I dont think you guys want Zurhaar to be forced to play as a pseudo tall either, Darling frees him up too to play whats more natural or even allow Zurhaar to have stints onball. I know you guys probably lack a big body mid with aggression

6:

Not a lot of scoreboard impact but he should would help alot in the defensive side and take pressure off larkey. He will be non competitive if he isn’t fit but like Simmo said this week, he hardly lost a contest this year (didn’t win a heap tho) but neutralised most of them. Think his slow down and being undersized he would be more suitable if he was the third tall tho

7: *

Has been said but by far his best remaining strength is halving contests. Sounds like a bad thing (shouldn’t forwards be winning them?) but so much of our ball movement plan over recent years has been dump it long to the wing to a 2v1, and Darling will somehow manufacture a stoppage from it more often than not. Very clever at tap ons, timely spoils, stuff you don’t want as your ace from your KPFs but it’s how he’s remained viable.

Work rate can’t be questioned. Regular impact can however. He’ll be in the right spots and you can see his old man body chasing and working, but some games he just doesn’t get anywhere near it with any regularity. As shown this year though, he still has these bizarre quarters and games where you think he’s 10 years younger and he drags you into periods of momentum.

As a work horse to guide a young forward line, and to halve some contests when you’re panic exiting D50, he’ll be an asset. As a match winner or scoreboard impact, he’ll make you tear your hair out with the quarter by quarter rollercoaster experience, and more often than not with where we’re both at you’d simply rather someone younger get the minutes. But if Clarko’s MO is get some experience in to set standards - can’t fault it at all.

For the Eagles, if we got a meaningful pick back (eg 40s not pick 75 or some nonsense) it would be a no brainer and a bit of a win for all parties. If that’s too rich for North, I’d prefer he just ring up game 300 here or test the market elsewhere to see if someone will give up a third rounder for him. But he’s about to be fourth/fifth in line for the only position our list has in absolute spades, so it all makes too much sense if the deal is there to be done.

 

[scottywiper]

Remember Liam Shiels being delisted by Hawthorn? He’s played an invaluable role in the development of Sheezel. Harry couldn’t speak higher praise of Pup.

Keep carrying on misery guts. You can dislike the way Jack plays onfield, but daring to question what his important role will be off-field for our club shows a clear lack of knowledge of what is valued inside the four walls of a club.

Thanks for enlightening me Brades!

 

[DocSholl]

We didn't sign Shiels on a multi year deal because the Hawks didn't want to extend him though. He also had impeccable credentials from a leadership point of view

I reckon people would be less irked if Darling was just coming across for the final year of his existing deal, rather than literally telling the media its a chance to get a multi-year deal

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

Thanks for enlightening me Brades!

Instead of scottywiper, let’s call you scottyswiper because you didn’t address my argument, you just deflected it.

 

[scottywiper]

We didn't sign Shiels on a multi year deal because the Hawks didn't want to extend him though. He also had impeccable credentials from a leadership point of view

I reckon people would be less irked if Darling was just coming across for the final year of his existing deal, rather than literally telling the media its a chance to get a multi-year deal

Darling is not a leader. Never has been. No one at WC thinks that. He was a good player but it was never due to his leadership. He's actually considered a fairly selfish player by his teammates.

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

Irrelevant to this thread, but can we imagine Wardlaw under the guidance of Luke Parker

26

Luke Parker

Age

32

Ht

183cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

24.2

5star

K

12.6

5star

HB

11.6

5star

M

3.8

4star

T

5.6

5star

CL

5.8

5star

D

22.1

5star

K

12.3

5star

HB

9.9

5star

M

3.9

4star

T

5.0

5star

CL

5.5

5star

D

21.2

5star

K

11.4

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

8.0

5star

CL

5.2

5star

! The perfect player for George to learn from.

 

[Shinboner1]

A club champion at west coast, but they don’t want him.

Don’t want him teaching their young forwards. Don’t want his one percenters. Don’t want him driving their training standards.

That’s alright, at North he will be an invaluable resource.

We let goldy go.
He played finals
He coached the young players
He mentored xerri
He played close to 300 games
He covers the ground well and was still a top 10 player at the club at his time of leaving
Players leave..

 

[The Nostradamus]

We’ve got 2 all aus key forwards now

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

We didn't sign Shiels on a multi year deal because the Hawks didn't want to extend him though. He also had impeccable credentials from a leadership point of view

I reckon people would be less irked if Darling was just coming across for the final year of his existing deal, rather than literally telling the media its a chance to get a multi-year deal

I respect your opinion Doc, but when Shiels came over he had been delisted by Hawthorn, with their fans in droves labelling him “cooked” and saying he “had no impact on games”.

The narrative is similar here. Shiels played two years at North. Darling will play two as well. Big deal? Play your role on and off field, then we will reassess at the end of the contract saying it was a successful move.

 

[the big lebowski]

Darling is not a leader. Never has been. No one at WC thinks that. He was a good player but it was never due to his leadership. He's actually considered a fairly selfish player by his teammates.

This west coast supporter said darling

Really really good at leading patterns that keep space for the main F50 target, throws in lots of dummy leads to space and is a good enough goalkicker that defenders can't just leave him. Not a big ego about him whatsoever, has made those around him better - and while Teakle/Pink don't seem to have egos at all either and am sure would be happy playing that role they're probably still working their own games out at AFL level - Darling would do all this like clockwork.

Personally I find it hard to reconcile a guy that spent a whole game jumping into comben so that Allan could take marks and kicks goals as being selfish

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

Darling is not a leader. Never has been. No one at WC thinks that. He was a good player but it was never due to his leadership. He's actually considered a fairly selfish player by his teammates.

Evidence of this Scotty? If you could post some below that would be very helpful to gain some perspective here.

 

[the big lebowski]

Career ave goal assists

JD 0.6 per game

Larkey 0.3 per game

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

All this angst but I am not even sure Jack gets a game

Zane Comben bull
Curtis Larkey (small)

Won’t be the second ruck option.

As an older head who sets standards and effectively replaces greenwood I can live with.

 

[Jeremy Jordan]

Darling is not a leader. Never has been. No one at WC thinks that. He was a good player but it was never due to his leadership. He's actually considered a fairly selfish player by his teammates.

Where is this info from?

 

[the big lebowski]

All this angst but I am not even sure Jack gets a game

Zane Comben bull
Curtis Larkey (small)

Won’t be the second ruck option.

As an older head who sets standards and effectively replaces greenwood I can live with.

Personally I think this move cements comben down back, with the option of swinging him forward in a game of needed.

 

[perplexed]

The last 10 years of pick 58:
2023 George Stevens
2022 Noah Long
2021 Lachlan Rankin
2020 Cameron Fleeton
2019 Trey Ruscoe
2018 Fraser Turner
2017 Jack Patmore
2016 Matt DeBoer (delisted by Freo drafted by GWS)
2015 Tom Phillips
2014 Harry Dear

Some list. However Pick 58 will be more like 50 after picks have disappeared in matching bids. And Twomey was saying yesterday that lots of clubs are clearing out their fringe players in order to take these picks to the draft this year. I don't like picking up Darling, partly coz I think he's cooked, but mainly because of the list spots issue. If signing him means we payout CCJ, Biggie and Stevo, then let's do it.

 

[scottywiper]

Evidence of this Scotty? If you could post some below that would be very helpful to gain some perspective here.

Happen to know a few people in footy over here. You can believe what they are telling me, or not. Up to you.