Player Watch #44: Cameron Zurhaar - has re-signed until the end of 2029 - finishes 6th in the 24' SBM

[Only Forwards]

When was the last time there were comments about wanting to see improvement?

is that a pre bye thing or something recent? And if it is recent did he say it or are the media rehashing shit from pre bye?

 

[cybercrab]

When was the last time there were comments about wanting to see improvement?

is that a pre bye thing or something recent? And if it is recent did he say it or are the media rehashing shit from pre bye?

He said it quite a while ago on a podcast, maybe in april?

 

[Horizons_00]

Reckon he's gone. Would love him to stay but he's still fidgeting around now when several teammates have committed long term.

This messaging around us needing to prove ourselves to him is actually pretty distasteful if it really is coming from his camp.

Yep. I reckon he is gone. To who? No idea

But why do i feel like its going to be *

 

[FlyHigh18]

i'll bet another club has already offered more than we have, and for some reason we're not budging.
more to play out.

 

[King Corey]

That depends. If it translates as "All I want to see is some hope for the future" or wtte I can understand it.

Otherwise yeah I tend to agree.

I'm starting to turn on him.

Why is he more important than Larkey, Simpkin or Sheezel? They signed long deals during even more dire team form.

Put some faith in the club direction or let us plan around you.

 

[Sphynx]

I'm starting to turn on him.

Why is he more important than Larkey, Simpkin or Sheezel? They signed long deals during even more dire team form.

Put some faith in the club direction or let us plan around you.

That is a very good point.

The other point continually made, as a senior player, he is directly responsible for that improvement.

Cam is hardly the best player on this team, there's easily 6-7 better footballers in there, some of them a lot younger and more inexperienced than he is.

To drive improvement, he needs to stop having a patch of 1 or 2 A grade games, followed by 3-4 games of C+ performances.

I think it's very rich to base a decision on improvement, team success etc when you are arguably one of the better players in the side whom fluctuates the largest between their best and worse games.

You can not say that about LDU (sometimes), Sheezel, Wardlaw, Larkey, Xerri, Comben, Simpkin, Powell etc. There will be peaks and troughs, but they bring it most weeks fairly consistently and aren't like what we get with Zurhaar between his best and worst.

A heap of his issues are around effort as well.

He picks and chooses weeks where he's a beast defensively. We've all seen games where he's genuinely switched on and the massive difference to when he's not.

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

By the end of the 2024 season is cam in our top 8 players? By the end of 2025 is he in the top 12? I would love him to stay he is my favourite but I don’t see him in either of the categories above.

 

[ferball]

I'm starting to turn on him.

Why is he more important than Larkey, Simpkin or Sheezel? They signed long deals during even more dire team form.

Put some faith in the club direction or let us plan around you.

That's how I felt after the Adelaide game tbh. Since then I've come around a bit.

 

[Passmore]

I actually think he'll stay. We went through this last time with him and he signed post season. I remember we'd go through the same shit with Corey Jones

Corey Jones

Age

43

Ht

187cm

Wt

91kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.3

3star

K

9.2

4star

HB

4.1

3star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.7

4star

G

1.4

5star

No current season stats available

D

6.6

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

2.2

2star

M

0.8

1star

T

2.2

4star

G

0.4

3star

every contract.

I'd like to see this "what can you do for me" narrative put to bed though. It's not exactly endearing.



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[speedy]

I like Cam and want him to stay, but how many games a year are you happy with his output? 25%? It’s been like that for his whole career.

I hope Duursma becomes a much much better version playing that 3rd/4th medium tall if Cam does leave.

 

[Tas]

I like Cam but I am not fussed if he wants to leave.

I think Ford is a good like-for-like replacement for him. Jy will also be spending more time forward imo.

We have Curtis, Duursma, Sheezel with George and Harvey unknown at this point, we also have Stephenson and Taylor who are medium size options. I think if we ever get another quality KPF it will come at the expense of the Zurhaar/Ford type of role as being a secondary option when Larkey has lost his mojo.

 

[Merlin007]

Reckon he's gone. Would love him to stay but he's still fidgeting around now when several teammates have committed long term.

This messaging around us needing to prove ourselves to him is actually pretty distasteful if it really is coming from his camp.

seems increasingly likely. I have to confess I've been overly-optimistic - I thought the club promo for the wine bar, with the implied help with finance from a major sponsor, was part of the sign-on package, but maybe it was just a bit of goodwill to show the club was keen

 

[warlord__]

I expect him to leave, more so for the large fan base of a big Victoria club that can help accelerate his career post-football

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

I’ll miss his two games a year where he looks like a dominant footballer.

 

[The acurate one]

Oh stop it youse lot, negative nellies, he has every right to want to see improvement.

How many wins has he played in, since when was he ever a CHF.

Now yes my fav player and yes I'm attempting to get an invite to a dinner he would attend, and no I aint paying it would be a privilege for Cam to be in my company But that's for another day.
I don't think we can lose in this situation, so just relax.
And I highly doubt he goes, unless we want him to as the compo is to good to refuse.

 

[Passmore]

Oh stop it youse lot, negative nellies, he has every right to want to see improvement.

How many wins has he played in, since when was he ever a CHF.

Now yes my fav player and yes I'm attempting to get an invite to a dinner he would attend, and no I aint paying it would be a privilege for Cam to be in my company But that's for another day.
I don't think we can lose in this situation, so just relax.
And I highly doubt he goes, unless we want him to as the compo is to good to refuse.

Hopefully dinner consists of Cam, LDU, a pen, 2 contracts and a shotgun.

 

[Kofi]

I thought the emotion he showed during the game on Saturday was the most invested he’s looked all year.

 

[The acurate one]

Hopefully dinner consists of Cam, LDU, a pen, 2 contracts and a shotgun.

Well a very good friend of Cams he is.
I just can’t see Cam leaving tbh.

 

[Tas]

Oh stop it youse lot, negative nellies, he has every right to want to see improvement.

How many wins has he played in, since when was he ever a CHF.

Now yes my fav player and yes I'm attempting to get an invite to a dinner he would attend, and no I aint paying it would be a privilege for Cam to be in my company But that's for another day.
I don't think we can lose in this situation, so just relax.
And I highly doubt he goes, unless we want him to as the compo is to good to refuse.

I liked McKay as well, but he wasn't invested, when you aren't invested you aren't giving 100%. Ben leaving got us a really good pick, it created a vacancy and Comben has looked good, Dawson has looked good prior to getting injured and we have Logue to return so life has gone on without Ben. The world keeps spinning and life goes on.

 

[The acurate one]

I liked McKay as well, but he wasn't invested, when you aren't invested you aren't giving 100%. Ben leaving got us a really good pick, it created a vacancy and Comben has looked good, Dawson has looked good prior to getting injured and we have Logue to return so life has gone on without Ben. The world keeps spinning and life goes on.

I from memory didn’t rate McKay much and have a vague recollection of him playing for us. Looked like a good VFL type to me.
Yes we can cover Cam if he left. But it isn’t a good look though.

 

[justroyal]

I actually think he'll stay. We went through this last time with him and he signed post season. I remember we'd go through the same shit with Corey Jones every contract.

I'd like to see this "what can you do for me" narrative put to bed though. It's not exactly endearing.



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Let’s flip the narrative.

rawlings: ‘what can you do for us cam?’

Zuurhar: ‘well. Usually about midway through the season, every season, I start to come good and have a good string of games. Then I kinda fizzle off, before round 21 to get some surgeries on some niggles booked in….but I lost some weight this pre-season!’

Nah. Maybe him taking us play hardball is helping the team play better. Then again, none of the other pillars were playing hardball.

 

[Tas]

I from memory didn’t rate McKay much and have a vague recollection of him playing for us. Looked like a good VFL type to me.
Yes we can cover Cam if he left. But it isn’t a good look though.

I think the only player coming out of contract this year or next year that we can't afford to lose is LDU. He is just too good a player for whatever compensation we would get, even if it was band 1.

I think the club has already threatened to match offers on Zurhaar, so it sounds like the McKay playbook is in full force, we must be confident we can get him pushed to band 1, otherwise I doubt we would even be talking about free agency strategies you would think. Most clubs delude themselves into thinking the player will remain loyal until the bitter end.

 

[Sphynx]

Oh stop it youse lot, negative nellies, he has every right to want to see improvement.

How many wins has he played in, since when was he ever a CHF.

Now yes my fav player and yes I'm attempting to get an invite to a dinner he would attend, and no I aint paying it would be a privilege for Cam to be in my company But that's for another day.
I don't think we can lose in this situation, so just relax.
And I highly doubt he goes, unless we want him to as the compo is to good to refuse.

And the club has every right to know his intentions and the offers on the table. It's Round 16 and there's been a 5 year deal on the table for 4 months according to Twomey.

'IF' he is intending to leave and 'IF' those offers are unlikely to trigger Band 1, the club needs to know.

In the event of that scenario, we should absolutely be throwing massive dollars at Stengle on a long deal that we can front load next year.

Zurhaar for Stengle would probably be a net win for us from a balance perspective.

Zurhaar for Band 1 would be a net win.


We can only get into the Stengle race if we know what Zurhaar is doing though.

Offering Stengle a massive contract, Zurhaar leaving on Band 1 money - Would be a disaster. The list management team would be a laughing stock around the league.

 

[The acurate one]

And the club has every right to know his intentions and the offers on the table. It's Round 16 and there's been a 5 year deal on the table for 4 months according to Twomey.

'IF' he is intending to leave and 'IF' those offers are unlikely to trigger Band 1, the club needs to know.

In the event of that scenario, we should absolutely be throwing massive dollars at Stengle on a long deal that we can front load next year.

Zurhaar for Stengle would probably be a net win for us from a balance perspective.

Zurhaar for Band 1 would be a net win.


We can only get into the Stengle race if we know what Zurhaar is doing though.

Offering Stengle a massive contract, Zurhaar leaving on Band 1 money - Would be a disaster. The list management team would be a laughing stock around the league.

I heard on the wireless that FA compo will now include tenure as part of the rating process.
I'd suggest Cam will get somewhere around the 850K pa for six years. So circa a 5.1 mil contract.
That reeks of band 1 everyday of the week. Clubs are basically buying first round picks, I have often thought if we could put put our current pick one up for sale how much it would be worth to say the West Coast with a net worth of 77 million.
And I'm sure we're happy to see this play out, as has been suggested by others, this is very much like the McKay situation now.
We won with Magoo and we will win with Zurhaar either way.

Good times, and again Duursma, Curtis, Ford, Larkey & unfortunately George who's injured. We're ok for HFF's

 

[Sphynx]

I heard on the wireless that FA compo will now include tenure as part of the rating process.
I'd suggest Cam will get somewhere around the 850K pa for six years. So circa a 5.1 mil contract.
That reeks of band 1 everyday of the week. Clubs are basically buying first round picks, I have often thought if we could put put our current pick one up for sale how much it would be worth to say the West Coast with a net worth of 77 million.
And I'm sure we're happy to see this play out, as has been suggested by others, this is very much like the McKay situation now.
We won with Magoo and we will win with Zurhaar either way.

Good times, and again Duursma, Curtis, Ford, Larkey & unfortunately George who's injured. We're ok for HFF's

I hope so, it will benefit the Zurhaar compo, as the talk is he has 6 years on the table from the Pies.

I don't think he's going to get that sort of money though. 6 x $750k maybe. But if tenure comes into it, it might be enough to get Band 1.

I feel this is a loophole that will get closed fairly quickly though, maybe as soon as it's introduced.

It's likey Zurhaar, Battle and Stengle will all recieve Band 1 and there will be melts and outrage galore around trade week because of it.


The hypocrisy is that FA compo is designed to assist the bottom teams in rebuilding when finals teams gut their best players via FA, which is exactly what is happening.