Player Watch #?: Jack Darling - has officially requested to be traded to NM on a two-year deal. Pick 64 is expected to be tabled.

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Duck the GOAT said:
The only way this makes sense is if we get 2-3 talls through the draft, rookie draft and/or trade and tie a rope between them, goad, maley and Jack.

Need to make some tough calls on guys like biggie, pink, sellers etc.
Click to expand...
i think we definitely draft a KPF at pick 22
 

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Alastair Clarkson has pledged not to “sell our soul” to acquire veterans at the Kangaroos, as his club moves closer to securing an Eagles veteran to play up forward next to Nick Larkey.


@RalphyHeraldSun

2 min read
September 16, 2024 - 12:39PM
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/.../0636e54667ef37a7bcefd62453ee33f0#share-tools



Jack Darling is closing in on a two-year deal at North Melbourne after completing a medical at Arden Street on Monday morning.

But while coach Alastair Clarkson is adamant the club must replace the experience of departing pair Liam Shiels and Hugh Greenwood he has pledged not to “sell our soul” by giving up quality picks for trade targets.

North Melbourne’s bid to secure a handful of premiership players from rival clubs centres on securing the likes of Luke Parker and Darling to ensure their young kids thrive.

The Herald Sun reported last week the Roos were keen to sign Darling despite his age and relative lack of success at West Coast in recent seasons.

North Melbourne might hope to absorb most of his salary and spread it out over multiple seasons so they can hand over a late pick for the premiership player.

But even those close to Darling are aware he has lost much of his explosive power and has lost his leap, making it harder to get separation from opponents.

Clarkson said at the club’s best and fairest the Roos had to bring in more experienced types to support their mid-tier leadership.

“With ‘Pup’ (Liam Shiels) going out of the footy club and Hugh Greenwood, it’s just how important they were to the fabric of the footy club with their leadership off it,” he said.

“We have got to make sure we search for a couple of other guys who might be able to replace those guys in terms of really valuable leadership for us going forward, but the secret to our footy club is the youth of the club and getting regular games into those guys.

“We can’t afford to get too many of those guys in and suffocate opportunities for our young blokes at the same time but with the retirement of Hugh and Pup we have to get greater depth in that space so Luke (McDonald) and Jy (Simpkin) and Nick (Larkey) who have been around the block get support. We will look at that but we don’t want to sell our soul to do it. It is in Todd (Viney, Brady (Rawlings) and Will Thursfield’s wheelhouse and it will transpire in the first couple of weeks of October.”

West Coast’s Darling has played 298 games with the Eagles, who are open to moving on some of their older players if they can secure draft picks in exchange.

Darling has three children and while he is prepared to move across the country he would not do so unless he gets at least a two-year deal.

North Melbourne would love a second key forward to take the reliance off Nick Larkey, with Cam Zurhaar more of a mid-sized forward.

Ideally Callum Coleman-Jones would have provided that target but he has played only 22 senior games in his three seasons at the Roos despite being on a contract just short of $500,000 a year.

Jaidyn Stephenson also has another year on a contract worth $500,000, with the former Pie kicking eight goals from 12 senior games this year.

The Roos seem hopeful Sydney star Parker will consider their overtures, with the 31-year-old contracted for another year but not ruling out a move when interviewed on radio last week.

Luke Davies Uniacke won the club’s best and fairest ahead of Tristan Xerri over the weekend, with Harry Sheezel unlucky to only finish third.

But he did miss the final two games, with Sheezel second on 161 votes to Davies-Uniacke’s 176 votes with five rounds left when the final leaderboard was flashed up on the night.
 
Last edited:
Ichiro #51 said:
FF: Curtis Larkey Darling
HF: Teakle Comben Zurhaar

Looks good. Dynamic.
Click to expand...
Looks too tall and too slow.

Darling at Arden Street surely means Comben plays in defense.
 


 
 
trooroo4life said:
I’ve lost faith in the list management team.

And if it’s true this is a Clarko call, then he needs to be stripped of his list management powers too. Stephens looks like a shocking call which he pushed for 12 months ago.

Hate it.
Click to expand...

Darling is more about his transition into coaching than what we expect him to contribute to the scoreboard, it is similar to what we did with Tom Lynch. We have zero leadership on the forward line and we need someone there who can get Larkey to get off his arse and start leading instead of waving players to kick it on top of his head which he will never mark. We need some direction to get more out of Zurhaar, Curtis, Sheezle when he goes forward and Duursma in the future. We have a really poor connection at times with the midfield and there is only so much Clarko can do from the boundary line, you need on-field leaders to take control during games.

I think it can be difficult for players when they switch clubs, there is often a 12 month lag period unless you are recruiting a superstar and Stephens is far from that. I don't know if he will be any good or not, he needs a massive improvement from this year's output. I will see how he goes next year before he makes it onto my shit list.
 

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My Left Foote said:
We'll know in 12 months time whether this is a good decision in the meantime I'm going to keep an open mind. When we moved Pink forward we were much better structurally and whilst Pink was serviceable on a few occasions I think (hope) Darling will have more impact. If Darling's presence in our forward line means Larkey can return to being a 70+ goal forward then that's a good thing.
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Agree.

Dont love it but definitely has a better ring to it than Pink.

I’m sure oppo coaches would prefer a match up against Pink vs Darling.
 
Better Loosen Up said:
I'm happy to go on record and say this is a terrible idea that we will be regretting in 12 months time
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its low risk, there won't be much to regret
he won't be clogging the list for more than 2 years, really just need him to be a foil for 12 months

gives us the experience, strong body, training standards, can play his second year in the vfl
 
Multi year deal to a cooked 32 year old KPF?

Quality list management.

I suppose we have to replace the old guys who have been a part of the absolute shitshow this club has been for the last few years, with old guys who have been a part of a worse shitshow.
 
The Nostradamus said:
its low risk, there won't be much to regret
he won't be clogging the list for more than 2 years, really just need him to be a foil for 12 months

gives us the experience, strong body, training standards, can play his second year in the vfl
Click to expand...
He cut us to ribbons on a wing in one of our WC matches this year and would have been best at half time. He is 10x as effective as Pink who despite playing 15 games probably did less than 10 good things during the year.

The fact that despite this low base, Pink was crucial to our structure says pretty much everything about our list.
 
Not particularly inspiring but yeah not a huge amount of risk associated with this move. Hopefully it is in conjunction with other moves like Parker and maybe some more depth and consider getting anything meaningful out of Darling in the meantime as a bonus.
 

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Player Watch #?: Jack Darling - has officially requested to be traded to NM on a two-year deal. Pick 64 is expected to be tabled.

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