Player Watch #9: Luke Davies-Uniacke [Part II] - [Herald Sun] LDU has parked contract talks with the club & is expected to command offers of more than $1m a season

[big_e]

He is 100% worth that for us, but I'm worried the club might not see it the same way

Some of the more well-known negotiations during the Rawling era have been quite odd - demanding someone say they want to stay before offering a contract, or outright refusing to speak to a player's management, etc don't give me great hope that this one will be handled well.

EDIT: everything bolded is incorrect. Reminder that a quick Google before posting might save some embarrassing moments..

 

[The Warlord]

We should be putting a heavily front loaded 7 year deal in front of Luke worth about $9 million. That would make him 32 at the end of the contract.

I've been really impressed by his efforts since the contract stuff started, get the sense he's really bought in.

 

[The Warlord]

Some of the more well-known negotiations during the Rawling era have been quite odd - demanding someone say they want to stay before offering a contract, or outright refusing to speak to a player's management, etc don't give me great hope that this one will be handled well.

LOL when did this happen

 

[kool kangas]

I've been really impressed by his efforts since the contract stuff started, get the sense he's really bought in.

His efforts have been well below that of previous seasons unfortunatley. Watching him closely shows he loses interest, doesn't seems to like the way the play is happening in the midfield. If he doesn't get the ball from Xerri tapping it to him his head goes back "its happened on more that 1 occassion" as if to say "whats the point" . He's doing a lot of standing around watching, no running to position, not chasing and and not going in for the ball when he has the opportunity to. No longer do l feel we are getting the 100% effort from him that we are use to seeing and maybe around 70%. l hope he stays but l dont see it happening.

 

[DocSholl]

Someone getting it.nearly 30 times a game plus six clearances and six inside 50s while going at only 70% effort is.pretty spectacular.

 

[DuckYeah]

Make of it as you will. The Aints offer Weitering a 1.5 x 5? Ish.. I reckon LDU has told em to ship off. Thats a good sign

 

[DuckYeah]

His efforts have been well below that of previous seasons unfortunatley. Watching him closely shows he loses interest, doesn't seems to like the way the play is happening in the midfield. If he doesn't get the ball from Xerri tapping it to him his head goes back "its happened on more that 1 occassion" as if to say "whats the point" . He's doing a lot of standing around watching, no running to position, not chasing and and not going in for the ball when he has the opportunity to. No longer do l feel we are getting the 100% effort from him that we are use to seeing and maybe around 70%. l hope he stays but l dont see it happening.

I cannot agree.

His previous midfield combinations have not been the way they are today.

Cunners, TT, JZ here n there.

He is absolutely growing as a player. He is trying. He is a Roo.

Zurhaar might be drinking his own bathwater, this bloke isn’t.

LDU will be a Roo for life

 

[King Corey]

Make of it as you will. The Aints offer Weitering a 1.5 x 5? Ish.. I reckon LDU has told em to ship off. Thats a good sign

LDU isn't FA for another year, they can probably accommodate both.

 

[ChairmanZia]

We should be putting a heavily front loaded 7 year deal in front of Luke worth about $9 million. That would make him 32 at the end of the contract.

But is that a good thing though? Is he that indispensable like martin to tigers and franklin to sydney?

By doing this only makes us look desperate and that's never a good tactic in negotiation.

He is worth 5, maybe 6 years at around 1 mil nothing more. It's up to him to decide but we will be pushing forward with arrangement as if he is going if he hasn't signed by certain date.

We need to be more professional in how we run the club.

 

[ChairmanZia]

I cannot agree.

His previous midfield combinations have not been the way they are today.

Cunners, TT, JZ here n there.

He is absolutely growing as a player. He is trying. He is a Roo.

Zurhaar might be drinking his own bathwater, this bloke isn’t.

LDU will be a Roo for life

He isn't going to stay...

 

[blackshadow]

Is he that indispensable like martin to tigers and franklin to sydney?

Short answer yes.

Long answer **** yes!

He isn't going to stay...

He’ll re-sign long term. Maybe not this year but he will.

Absolutely no substance to the media speculation that he wants out.

 

[archereleven]

His efforts have been well below that of previous seasons unfortunatley. Watching him closely shows he loses interest, doesn't seems to like the way the play is happening in the midfield. If he doesn't get the ball from Xerri tapping it to him his head goes back "its happened on more that 1 occassion" as if to say "whats the point" . He's doing a lot of standing around watching, no running to position, not chasing and and not going in for the ball when he has the opportunity to. No longer do l feel we are getting the 100% effort from him that we are use to seeing and maybe around 70%. l hope he stays but l dont see it happening.

7th in the league in PAs and 1st in the league in defensive half pressure acts kinda makes your '70%' argument invalid.

He isn't as clean as he is surrounded by 20 gamers and a new ruck, but working hard he is.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[DuckYeah]

He isn't going to stay...

Ok..

 

[DuckYeah]

Short answer yes.

Long answer heck yes!

He’ll re-sign long term. Maybe not this year but he will.

Absolutely no substance to the media speculation that he wants out.

I don’t think there is either. Very different to the CZ behaviour and the Magoo behaviour. Incredibly different. Those two went/are looking for big pay deals, LDU knows he’s set for life.. its a matter of what he wants out of football.

Knowing the trauma Luke has been through, he’s not one to give up. It’s behaviour trait he has. I would be incredibly surprised if he packs it in with the Kangas

 

[DuckYeah]

LDU isn't FA for another year, they can probably accommodate both.

Probably but why the noise this year?

 

[JGreezy]

7th in the league in PAs and 1st in the league in defensive half pressure acts kinda makes your '70%' argument invalid.

He isn't as clean as he is surrounded by 20 gamers and a new ruck, but working hard he is.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

If the stat is supposed to be saying that LDU is the 7th best defensive running mid in the comp then the stat is flawed.

He would sit pretty high in terms of time spent on-ball in the defensive half, for starters.

 

[amaz199]

He needs a big-bodied mid in there to help him. Without any protection, he gets nullified like Cunners used to.

Thomas screwing things up has made our midfield less-potent offensively which means LDU becomes targeted. Until our young mids get games under them there won't be much of a change unfortunately.

 

[archereleven]

If the stat is supposed to be saying that LDU is the 7th best defensive running mid in the comp then the stat is flawed.

He would sit pretty high in terms of time spent on-ball in the defensive half, for starters.

No, it's saying he's working hard defensively despite what some plonkers in here are posting.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[My Left Foote]

Some of the more well-known negotiations during the Rawling era have been quite odd - demanding someone say they want to stay before offering a contract, or outright refusing to speak to a player's management, etc don't give me great hope that this one will be handled well.

Quite possibly one of the dumbest things I’ve read on Big Footy and there are a lot of dumb things. It’s literally Brady’s job to talk to player managers something he does probably every other day. Just another ludicrous post trying to paint Brady as an imbecile. FFS

 

[amaz199]

Some of the more well-known negotiations during the Rawling era have been quite odd - demanding someone say they want to stay before offering a contract, or outright refusing to speak to a player's management, etc don't give me great hope that this one will be handled well.

Where was this reported? From what I recall, the only thing that came out was McKay did not want to entertain offers from us and just wanted to leave. That's not on Rawlings and we made out like bandits with the compo pick.

If we are talking about Ben Brown, we offered and spoke to him constantly but his manager wanted more. As it turned out, despite Stephenson's up and down form, we dodged a bullet because Brown could barely get on the park let alone play decent football in a premiership team. His form decline was dramatic.

 

[big_e]

Quite possibly one of the dumbest things I’ve read on Big Footy and there are a lot of dumb things. It’s literally Brady’s job to talk to player managers something he does probably every other day. Just another ludicrous post trying to paint Brady as an imbecile. FFS

Yeah, I've had a shocker here. Have edited the post to acknowledge I was incorrect.

Fwiw, my assertion was based on a mis-remembering of comments by Ramanauskas after we pulled the pin on the BBB deal. I've since searched and can't find anything remotely like that. Not sure where it came from, tbh.

 

[My Left Foote]

Yeah, I've had a shocker here. Have edited the post to acknowledge I was incorrect.

Fwiw, my assertion was based on a mis-remembering of comments by Ramanauskas after we pulled the pin on the BBB deal. I've since searched and can't find anything remotely like that. Not sure where it came from, tbh.

All good big_e, I get it.

We are so poor on field, we're staring down the barrel of a winless season and additional years being added to our seemingly never ending rebuild. Those frustrations are spilling into every area of the club. We're desperately looking for where things went wrong, who made those decisions, what changes should be made etc. which are all valid thongs to do.

I just feel that Brady is far too often the scapegoat for the position we find ourselves in, the hatred and blame he cops is so disproportionate to his actual involvement of where we are at. In fact were it not for some of his more recent decisions I think we'd be a lot worse off.

 

[JGreezy]

No, it's saying he's working hard defensively despite what some plonkers in here are posting.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

How does it prove that?

I don't think the issue is with him pressuring around contests when the ball is living in our back half.

The issue is with him running back defensively

 

[Themanbun]

How does it prove that?

I don't think the issue is with him pressuring around contests when the ball is living in our back half.

The issue is with him running back defensively

This. It's the transition that's the issue. Not just for him but for most of our mids.

You can let eight blokes burn past you in the middle of the ground, and if the defence manages to snag a stoppage, you lumber your way to that stoppage and lay a hand on the oppo player who wins the ball after the tap, and you rack up a defensive half pressure act.

 

[Elroo]

Probably but why the noise this year?

The old usual Media hype about Little Old North Melbourne should be prepared to bend over to help the "Bigger Clubs", by playing in time slots that nobody else wants, by giving up/trading players to the "Bigger Clubs" to allow them to compete on prime time TV.

North 1 game on free-to-air in Melbourne in the 1st 14 rounds, and not a murmur from the club or the media!