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

[Gasometer]

Listening to ABC Radio this afternoon and Mick Malthouse and Luke Ball slammed the Darling trade

MM was particularly pointed

Was on around 1:55pm giantroo if you can be stuffed

 

[Gasometer]

Post 5 times a day about how pissed you are about the decision.

Stand on the fence and boo 5 times a Quarter while cutting a slice off your Membership and waving it back up to Clarko in the Box?

 

[Grogg]

Post 5 times a day about how pissed you are about the decision.

It's strange behaviour reserved for an unbalanced mind. **** that.

 

[Horizons_00]

Thing is our forwards are ****ing lazy. Everytime the midfield look up, no one leads, no one creates space, so they just dump it in and hope for the best

Darling if anything knows what a functioning forward line looks like and seems to work hard

He isn’t going to make a huge impact on the scoreboard. I think just by having an experienced veteran up there will make the group stand a bit taller?

 

[Devington]

He isn’t going to make a huge impact on the scoreboard. I think just by having an experienced veteran up there will make the group stand a bit taller?

If 2 years of coaching hasn't changed that, then they have to try something.

I think Darling isn't a shade of his old self, but if his job is to just lead, chase, and yell at the bludgers sharing a forwardline with him to do the same... it might pay off. On the other end of the spectrum I don't think the worst case scenario is that bad (assuming we haven't gone coco for cocopuffs and offered him 3 years or something).

I suspect our recruitment of him is more an indictment on our current forwards, and the fact that we aren't an attractive destination for other players, than it is on the recruiters themselves (although if you want to say the REASON we need an experience forward is their fault then go ahead). We wouldn't have identified Darling as our number one forward target, the names on the list before him would have just hung up the phone on us when we came ringing or something to that effect.

 

[The Nostradamus]

Thing is our forwards are ****ing lazy. Everytime the midfield look up, no one leads, no one creates space, so they just dump it in and hope for the best

Darling if anything knows what a functioning forward line looks like and seems to work hard

He isn’t going to make a huge impact on the scoreboard. I think just by having an experienced veteran up there will make the group stand a bit taller?

He will at least provide an aerial contest and also chase and apply tackle pressure inside 50

2 key things we lack he provides, and the goals are a bonus

 

[giantroo]

Listening to ABC Radio this afternoon and Mick Malthouse and Luke Ball slammed the Darling trade

MM was particularly pointed

Was on around 1:55pm giantroo if you can be stuffed

AFL: AFL Saturday - 'We've got one more to go' - ABC listen

AFL Saturday with Corbin Middlemas, Mick Malthouse and Luke Ball. Sydney Midfielder James Rowbottom joins the team after the Swans booked their place in the Grand Final, defeating Port Adelaide by 36 points.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Gasometer]

AFL: AFL Saturday - 'We've got one more to go' - ABC listen

AFL Saturday with Corbin Middlemas, Mick Malthouse and Luke Ball. Sydney Midfielder James Rowbottom joins the team after the Swans booked their place in the Grand Final, defeating Port Adelaide by 36 points.

www.abc.net.au

It’s right at the end

MM “terrible, absolutely terrible the last 2-3 years”…”poor decision”

 

[Shagga is all Class]

Listening to ABC Radio this afternoon and Mick Malthouse and Luke Ball slammed the Darling trade

MM was particularly pointed

Was on around 1:55pm giantroo if you can be stuffed

As opposed to giving Daisy Thomas and his busted ankle a 5 year big money deal and letting Eddie Betts go at the same time?

Betts only kicked another 350 goals, Mick.

 

[shinboner magic]

Stand on the fence and boo 5 times a Quarter while cutting a slice off your Membership and waving it back up to Clarko in the Box?

Sit here darling and don’t move

 

[Sillygit]

It’s right at the end

MM “terrible, absolutely terrible the last 2-3 years”…”poor decision”

Awesome, now i know its a good move

 

[Tas]

It’s right at the end

MM “terrible, absolutely terrible the last 2-3 years”…”poor decision”

I think this is similar to the Tom Lynch recruitment, came on the list to give some on-field support and to transition into coaching.

 

[big_e]

I think this is similar to the Tom Lynch recruitment, came on the list to give some on-field support and to transition into coaching.

Lynch was never going to play. That was an effort to get another coach in whilst circumventing the soft cap rules.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

I've come around to "if it happens, it happens"

But still think it's absurd we need to give anything up (even a pick as low as 64) when we're taking 800k off their books, and a 32 yr old who their coaches basically publicly said is cooked. They should be paying us for doing them a favour

 

[StiffArm]

You're very entertaining Duckster, but what I don't get with you and the other posters who are up to their 35th post about how bad the move is, is why do you feel the need to keep repeating it?

I mean, it's pretty clear he's coming, it's pretty clear what your opinion is, isn't there just a small part of you that thinks "maybe this will actually work out ok and I can probably relax for 6 or 7 months until we find out if I'm right or not."?

Yep...

People are entitled to their opinions. People are entitled to be wrong with their opinions. But even if your opinion is right, why the f#*@ would you keep repeating it ad nauseum over and over again?

Someone's joining Nostradamus on a very exclusive list.

 

[koshari]

Thing is our forwards are ****ing lazy. Everytime the midfield look up, no one leads, no one creates space, so they just dump it in and hope for the best

Darling if anything knows what a functioning forward line looks like and seems to work hard

He isn’t going to make a huge impact on the scoreboard. I think just by having an experienced veteran up there will make the group stand a bit taller?

Even the mids can be smarter here, kick low into space and away from interceptors and make them run onto it.

Sheezel is the best at this, some of his entried are un defendable.

 

[Heaps of fun]

I think it's only fair when pointing out the guys on here who are repetitiously critical of the club's list decisions that there are just as many posters who respond to them with rationalisations for the club's list decisions. This is despite the evidence that shows when it comes to recruiting mature players the club has had absolutely no idea what it is doing, going all the way back to 2018.

 

[Themanbun]

Darling of 5 years ago was but this guy is done.
Let’s see if he gets much attention from the opposition

I'm more referring to what Nick does rather than what the opposition to do him.

He wasn't able to gel with Brown, he and Comben trip over each other when Chom is there, and he hasn't clicked with any of the others in our forward line, noting that none of them have the forward nous and experience of Darling.

If he can't gel with a bloke who has been second fiddle his entire career then we might have a problem.

 

[fusion]

I think this is similar to the Tom Lynch recruitment, came on the list to give some on-field support and to transition into coaching.

That’s how I’m seeing it. Our forward line structure is appalling, and at least Darling has had a career knowing how to position himself, lead, tackle etc with another key forward in the team in Josh Kennedy.

He’s going to be better than Sellars who was completely lost on the ground in his two games. Yes, he’s close to being finished, and won’t be as good as Waite, Rocca or Nathan Thompson who came across as forwards, but he’s a better forward than Pink, and at least allows Comben to stay in the backline.

It’s hardly like he’s stopping some exciting young player from getting a list spot. Two years, spread his $800k that he was due in 2025 to $1.1M over two years, and he stays as a forward coach after he retires. Needs to be an offer to make him move his family across. Maybe it’s the reverse Drew Petrie.

 

[desie]

We’re building a two year bridge for whoever we draft this year, people should get over it.

 

[perplexed]

Thing is our forwards are ****ing lazy. Everytime the midfield look up, no one leads, no one creates space, so they just dump it in and hope for the best

Darling if anything knows what a functioning forward line looks like and seems to work hard

He isn’t going to make a huge impact on the scoreboard. I think just by having an experienced veteran up there will make the group stand a bit taller?

We have coaches that are supposed to teach the forwards how to create space for each other. The recruitment of Darling seems to suggest the coaches think our players' are not capable of doing this. But if this is the case, why were Cam and Nick offered such generous contracts? You don't need star forwards or even experienced ones to run to the right spots. Sydney's three tall forwards, Amartey, McDonald and McLean, are far from stars but seem to manage fine.

 

[koshari]

We have coaches that are supposed to teach the forwards how to create space for each other. The recruitment of Darling seems to suggest the coaches think our players' are not capable of doing this. But if this is the case, why were Cam and Nick offered such generous contracts? You don't need star forwards or even experienced ones to run to the right spots. Sydney's three tall forwards, Amartey, McDonald and McLean, are far from stars but seem to manage fine.

hawks forwards in Mitchell, dear and their duo of smalls that play taller in ginni and the wizzard also manage, then there is freo with amiss and treacy that have no problems finding separation, even joe the goose and hipwood have oodles of space with Cameron on the move as well and they have mcarthy to come back. i could go on for ever but watching our statue brigade flatfooted is downright frustrating,

 

[Masked Avenger]

Lynch was never going to play. That was an effort to get another coach in whilst circumventing the soft cap rules.

Yep and Lynch came for a song.

If we think about paying even half of Darling's salary - we're crazy.

 

[shinboner magic]

We have coaches that are supposed to teach the forwards how to create space for each other. The recruitment of Darling seems to suggest the coaches think our players' are not capable of doing this. But if this is the case, why were Cam and Nick offered such generous contracts? You don't need star forwards or even experienced ones to run to the right spots. Sydney's three tall forwards, Amartey, McDonald and McLean, are far from stars but seem to manage fine.

Watching how other teams forward lines play compared to ours - it’s like we’re playing a different sport

 

[gokangas]

Hard to find many who think this is a good move by us. Darling will only have to break a finger nail or fart upwind of a journo and they will come at us hard. I don't like the trade - again it is hard to find anyone who thinks he has good footy left in him or the fitness level to be a competitive forward. But it is happening so let's hope me (and many others) have to eat our words. I'm sure that Clarko and Co know what they are buying and that they believe he can deliver what they want. Fingers crossed.