Departing players and Best n Fairests

[Gavin Excell]

The spotlight on this sort of stuff is massive these days but it is really very meaningless.

Yes it can be overblown but there's something to be said about departing gracefully

 

[joe444]

When in doubt, stay classy.

 

[Nvent]

Call Twomey follows it much closer than I do, so will defer to his opinion if that's what he said.

Just based on what I've seen I don't see as much quality as there has been in recent years, so don't envisage it being looked back on as some sort of super draft.

Not the draft you don't want a first-round pick in.

 

[Fadge]

Not the draft you don't want a first-round pick in.

I guess it all depends on a team's list management strategy.

History is littered with many a first round pick who have failed to make the grade.

 

[Bald]

Dogs invited Smith, he didn’t want to. At least that puts it on him and we can say the club did what it could to conduct ourselves in the right away.

Just further to this - I was at the best and fairest last night.

The invitation was sent, declined and he wasn't spoken about at all on the night, which is exactly how it should be handled. I guess it was easier for us as we didn't actually need to mention him (due to him not playing), but the silly swipes at players done by Richmond, or the obvious neglecting to acknowledge by the Saints is a little bizarre.

Jack Macrae attended last night, he won an award, there was no awkwardness. Different case as he's coming to the end of his career as opposed to Smith who's entering his peak, but still, I can't fault the way it was handled by the club.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Melbourne have our B'n'F tonight and we invited Alex Neal-Bullen

30

Alex Neal-bullen

Age

28

Ht

182cm

Wt

80kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.3

4star

K

8.7

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

4.1

5star

G

0.8

4star

D

10.5

3star

K

6.0

2star

HB

4.5

3star

M

2.0

2star

T

1.5

2star

G

1.5

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.4

2star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.0

4star

despite him going off to play for the Crows next year. Because he at least deserve it. Dude has played for a decade under us.

 

[IKnowtheDog]

Maybe the person in charge of sending out invites had a cold and misinterpreted. No invite to Rattle as no invite to Battle

 

[mightymouse75]

Jessie Hogan had to be taken home by the players manager at his last Freo best and fairest

 

[Mat Mann]

for such a minnow club, we sure do cause a stir, whats this, 4 threads on the main page sooking, whinging or potting us.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I thought the Richmond speech was directed at Bolton and Rioli TBH.

Baker and Graham are both out of contract.

I can understand clubs being aggrieved at highly paid players who recently sign, only to want to jump ship when things go bad.

I think this is a good point. Player out of contract, wants a fresh start somewhere, someone else is keen to provide that for them: invite them along, hopefully they accept, shake hands, no hard feelings, best wishes for the future. Loyalty is a two-way street and teams cut numerous players who are out of contract every year without blinking.

The ones who force a trade when they still have 3/4/5 years left on a contract though... that's a bit different. You signed the thing, the club can't just cut ties with you a year or two in if you can't get on the park or your form's in the toilet: they're expected to honour it. Of course sometimes there's exceptional circumstances, but in a few of these cases it seems like: guy signed lifetime contract when team was flying, now team is crap and he'd rather jump ship to a premiership contender/club on the rise than take the responsibility of leading his current club back to contention.