Past #39: Leigh Harding - selected with #13 in 2000 RD - retired at end of 2010 season - coaches at BL

[Shinboners]

you're so negative about this years trading period, yet i think we've done pretty well. so do most people here...

I sure am.

And I will be gutted and angry if we get Lekkas and Piccioane for next season.

I do hope that I'm wrong and that by the end of next season, people are dragging up my comments about the deal and forcing slice after slice of humble pie down my throat. I do feel slightly more optimistic than yesterday, but deep down I know that I'm just trying to convince myself that we have done the right thing........but in my heart of hearts, I just think we've made a mistake in trading for Thompson.

 

[big nick]

Reported in today's Age, the Hawks want a second round draft pick for Lekkas. Apparantly we're going to trade Harding to get that second round pick.....so anyway, I'm off to e-mail Dean Laidley and the recruiting team. You see, I've got $US20,000,000 in Nigeria, and I need someone's bank account details to get the money out....the boys will get their 20% cut of course.....oh, and I'll need about $20,000 from them to get the wheels rolling on the deal......I'm sure they'll help me out on this one......

Dont agree, but like your humour

 

[bluesSAfan]

forgive me for thinking on the positive side, but the best lekkas can give the roos is a near all-australian midfielder. the best harding can give the roos is 5-6 goals in one game once or twice a year

 

[Roonaldo!]

Damn, Harding is so much better.

Just needs to work on his shooting for goal and when he masters it, will be great.

Not worth it.

 

[speedy]

I would swap Harding for Lekkas in a heartbeat. But I would prefer to swap Harding for a rd3 pick (rd2 would be pushing it).

 

[WA ROO]

Having thought carefully about this trade weighing up the pros and cons,doing comparisons and running a computer check on both players I say
NO ********ING WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
again
NO ********ING WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Moti]

Would jump at this one. We have plenty of guys pushing for HB positons and this will push the likes of Sansbury, Grant and Harvey into the forward line. Much better than Harding.

Although, would prefer the 2nd round pick.

 

[tashibatts]

IF we trade Harding - trade him for a pick (we need more picks.. having traded our first two ) and that is all.. not for Lekkas.. and not for Piccione.

They aren't needed.. we really dont need to mirror the hawks wooden spoon side.

Go Roos

 

[Big Gee]

From a hawthorn supporter ,thanks you Dean Laidley i o u a beer.

 

[mighty mick]

please no i dont want this one to go through,

dont think all the hawks looking to be traded are looking for anything but a release from the club.,

thompson was ok fits our needs.

 

[Thewlis Dish]

Damn, Harding is so much better.

Pure tripe.

Lekkas is a good footballer - it was only in 2003 that he was Hawthorn's leading goalkicker and one of the most dangerous flankers going around. One bad season, and suddenly all of Hawthorn's footballers are garbage, despite the inevitability that things around the club would have been awfully negative in 2004.

As Lidge says, we keep hearing about how Harding has all this potential etc, but how many chances does he need? For all the good games he has, there are three or four times as many crap ones where he is lazy, soft and uncommitted.

The only thing that would put me off getting Lekkas is his age, but certainly wouldn't be too unhappy if it only took Harding to get him, as I don't really want Turtle on our list next season anyway.

But if we could get a second rounder for Harding, why not just keep that?

 

[WILKO_6]

Would much rather trade Harding for Zantuck. 7/6 years younger, better skills, tougher, ok i admit he may have some discipline problems but that can be overcome.

 

[Hotel 6]

Pure tripe.

Lekkas is a good footballer - it was only in 2003 that he was Hawthorn's leading goalkicker and one of the most dangerous flankers going around. One bad season, and suddenly all of Hawthorn's footballers are garbage, despite the inevitability that things around the club would have been awfully negative in 2004.

Harding was our leading goalkicker in 2003 and he is 5 years or so younger. I am a fan of Turtle and think he is worth keeping. I think it is his fitness/injuries that are causing his problems. If he can get a preseason and fitness on his side, then we can assess how he is going.

I'd much rather have Turtle over Lekkas, in fact it should be a no contest!!

 

[carlos' roos]

Pure tripe.

Lekkas is a good footballer - it was only in 2003 that he was Hawthorn's leading goalkicker and one of the most dangerous flankers going around. One bad season, and suddenly all of Hawthorn's footballers are garbage, despite the inevitability that things around the club would have been awfully negative in 2004.

As Lidge says, we keep hearing about how Harding has all this potential etc, but how many chances does he need? For all the good games he has, there are three or four times as many crap ones where he is lazy, soft and uncommitted.

The only thing that would put me off getting Lekkas is his age, but certainly wouldn't be too unhappy if it only took Harding to get him, as I don't really want Turtle on our list next season anyway.

But if we could get a second rounder for Harding, why not just keep that?

well said, i just think that why not? at worst if lekkas is so hopeless like peoply want us to believe well he'll be great for port melbourne won't he. I don't think jyd is in the habit of playing guys who aren't up to it. My opinion mirrors yours somewhat, i think lekkas would be very handy. He is an extra attacking option, an extra midfield option and frees up harvey or grant for pinch hits in the forward line where we all began to love them in the first place. If a second rounder at the most or harding (best case scenario) is all it costs for a calculated risk like this, why the hell not???

 

[Angus1]

Why the hell are North so keen on Hawthorn players????
If we don't pick up a tall defender I will be bloody angry.

As for trading Harding I like the idea but we should be able to get something better for him.

 

[carlos' roos]

Harding was our leading goalkicker in 2003 and he is 5 years or so younger. I am a fan of Turtle and think he is worth keeping. I think it is his fitness/injuries that are causing his problems. If he can get a preseason and fitness on his side, then we can assess how he is going.

I'd much rather have Turtle over Lekkas, in fact it should be a no contest!!

I know people like turtle, i like him too but no matter how fit he gets HE CAN'T KICK. No practice or age will help this, look at richo FFS all these type of players do is frustrate the supporters. I want to see a roo mark the ball inside fifty and breathe a little easier thinking to myself : hey we are a good chance to get one here. Not: oh god not harding again, surely he won't miss AGAIN. Maybe give him one more chance, he gets paid enough to spend time learning to kick so lets see. Another season like the last and i think he's gone if its not too late already

 

[Thewlis Dish]

As for trading Harding I like the idea but we should be able to get something better for him.

Based on what? He's almost 24 and had a shocking 2004. If we even got a late second rounder I'd be dancing with joy.

 

[Angus1]

I know people like turtle, i like him too but no matter how fit he gets HE CAN'T KICK. No practice or age will help this, look at richo FFS all these type of players do is frustrate the supporters. I want to see a roo mark the ball inside fifty and breathe a little easier thinking to myself : hey we are a good chance to get one here. Not: oh god not harding again, surely he won't miss AGAIN. Maybe give him one more chance, he gets paid enough to spend time learning to kick so lets see. Another season like the last and i think he's gone if its not too late already

Spot on there. He can play but we all know that he is unreliable. The thing is other teams seem to think he is pretty good. He could be a good player to use as a trade. Maybe we could add a young player with him in able to get a good defender or a good onballer who can kick straight.

 

[Hotel 6]

I know people like turtle, i like him too but no matter how fit he gets HE CAN'T KICK. No practice or age will help this, look at richo FFS all these type of players do is frustrate the supporters. I want to see a roo mark the ball inside fifty and breathe a little easier thinking to myself : hey we are a good chance to get one here. Not: oh god not harding again, surely he won't miss AGAIN. Maybe give him one more chance, he gets paid enough to spend time learning to kick so lets see. Another season like the last and i think he's gone if its not too late already

All his problems have stemmed from OP (I'm not spelling because I don't know how to ), which would cause problems for his kicking I would have thought. The time he kicked the ball with the laces facing towards him shows me that he is either practicing a lot at kicking for goal or he has no idea what he is doing. I hope he has been practicing a lot

 

[carlos' roos]

Spot on there. He can play but we all know that he is unreliable. The thing is other teams seem to think he is pretty good. He could be a good player to use as a trade. Maybe we could add a young player with him in able to get a good defender or a good onballer who can kick straight.

This is what jyd said of the thompson trade. Lekkas has a good 4 or so years left in him. We need to top up on middle aged players. Young players are exciting and play with flair, older players are hard and experienced but they all seem to be inconsistent. Middle aged players seem to be in their prime and form the nuclious to carry the side through up and down patches. He is ready made and is somewhere in the between a short and long term fix. By the time someone like him retires so will have colbert and archer, we have lost a couple of hard nuts into retirement so lekkas will act as a fallback until harris, m stevens, wells and co are in full flight. He would give us options and that could never be a bad thing

 

[carlos' roos]

All his problems have stemmed from OP (I'm not spelling because I don't know how to ), which would cause problems for his kicking I would have thought. The time he kicked the ball with the laces facing towards him shows me that he is either practicing a lot at kicking for goal or he has no idea what he is doing. I hope he has been practicing a lot

good one

 

[greg]

This is what jyd said of the thompson trade. Lekkas has a good 4 or so years left in him. We need to top up on middle aged players. Young players are exciting and play with flair, older players are hard and experienced but they all seem to be inconsistent. Middle aged players seem to be in their prime and form the nuclious to carry the side through up and down patches. He is ready made and is somewhere in the between a short and long term fix. By the time someone like him retires so will have colbert and archer, we have lost a couple of hard nuts into retirement so lekkas will act as a fallback until harris, m stevens, wells and co are in full flight. He would give us options and that could never be a bad thing

nucleus

 

[Angus1]

Based on what? He's almost 24 and had a shocking 2004. If we even got a late second rounder I'd be dancing with joy.

What i mean is I can't understand why the club don't go after a tall defender. It should be our main priority. Now if we could get even an average one I'd take it for Harding. I'm not saying that Harding is worth a good player just that we should use him to get the type of player we need.

 

[Woodson]

Re: Harding for Monica ?

Spot on there. He can play but we all know that he is unreliable. The thing is other teams seem to think he is pretty good. He could be a good player to use as a trade. Maybe we could add a young player with him in able to get a good defender or a good onballer who can kick straight.

That other club can be the pussies from down the highway. Does Harding come from there originally ? He's performed damn well at the Cattery and North may ask to get a last minute trade deal like James Kelly...too much ok ok... how about David ' Monica' Wojcinski ?

 

[Dr Who]

Re: Harding for Monica ?

That other club can be the pussies from down the highway. Does Harding come from there originally ? He's performed damn well at the Cattery and North may ask to get a last minute trade deal like James Kelly...too much ok ok... how about David ' Monica' Wojcinski ?

We got Zantuck as reported on SEN earlier on.