Thank God for Port Power's pigheadedness

[PrideOf]

Late in 2005 we chased Damon White's signature. After some negotiation, we offered pick 17 - a first-rounder - but we also held pick 16 so we were still in the hunt for a quality first-round draftee.

Port wanted pick 16 and wouldn't budge. They wanted to be before us in the draft. Pick 17 wasn't enough. They wanted one better.

Many people said at the time that Port would have done the deal for pick 17 if they were trading with anyone apart from us (and maybe Collingwood). So the deal was scuttled and Damon stayed on the dark side.

After watching Saturday's win, I'd like to send a shout out to Choco and the boys for their pigheadedness. Watching Damon White run around like an Ian Downsborough clone made me feel great about the fact he was wearing teal and not our colours. Especially when the kid we used pick 16 on - Richard Douglas - continues to blossom into a gun.

So thanks Mark and the boys. Appreciate it.

[fightingdreamer88]

Adelaide's gun youngster list:

Porps
VB
Douglas
Knights
Griff
BV

Adelaide's untried-yet-highly-likely-to-be-guns list:

Mackay
Sellar
Tippett
McIntyre
Pfeiffer
Campbell


Port Adelaide's gun youngster list:

*crickets chirping*

:D


EDIT: For the benefit of Crow-mo(ustache) and other users, this was intended as a joke. As in, a jocular post, i.e. reeking of jocularity. ;)

[relapse]

Port most probably could have gotten Douglas because Adelaide were very keen Pfeiffer and if we only had one pick they might have chosen Pfeiffer over Douglas, but thankfully it didnt happen so we ended up with Dougie.

White might have done okay at Adelaide, but Port are too Wazza orientated for him to ever blossom.

[fightingdreamer88]

Port most probably could have gotten Douglas because Adelaide were very keen Pfeiffer and if we only had one pick they might have chosen Pfeiffer over Douglas, but thankfully it didnt happen so we ended up with Dougie.

White might have done okay at Adelaide, but Port are too Wazza orientated for him to ever blossom.

I'm still laughing over this "revolution" bizzo, "best youngsters in the comp" according to many sources...and ours outclassed theirs. Btw the average age of the Power side on the weekend was the same as Adelaide's. Port Adelaide is giving its supporters false hopes imo.

[RoosterLad]

Gotta agree with that relapse, White has done alright this season without Wazzaaaaaaaaaaa there, same goes for Ebert. As soon as Captain Ego is in the team their whole forward line structure falls apart, serves them right as well. White would have been handy this season but now Bock, Stevens, Sarge and Welshy are starting to gel.

[relapse]

I'm still laughing over this "revolution" bizzo, "best youngsters in the comp" according to many sources...and ours outclassed theirs. Btw the average age of the Power side on the weekend was the same as Adelaide's. Port Adelaide is giving its supporters false hopes imo.

Port's adgenda has always been living in the future. I dont agree at all with the best youngsters in the comp tag. Some of their best players are close to retiring Wazza, Lade, Wakelin, P Burgoyne and Wilson all only have a 2-3 of years left in them.

Shaun Burgoyne has turned that team on its ear performance wise, but the rest of the players are being massively overrated at the moment and I also think that Salopek will be a guy that will go back to melbourne as he was close last time, but because he had not made an impact there wasnt much interest.

[johnnypanther]

i think most of us did think at the time that pick 17 or 16 was way too high for White. Port's pigheadedness not only cost them pick 17 (Douglas) but of the top of my head it also has cost them pick(s) ?? for N Stephens and pick ? for Thurstans. And as for the argument that they got nothing for Stephens in order to make future players think twice about leaving.....well thats just spin doctoring because they were outplayed by their pigheadedness. i mean Josh Carr soon after left for example.

Back to White:
IMO Perrie>White and Stevens>White

For those statistically minded, in regards to the age v youth that took the field on saturday, the Crows average age was 25.70 v Power 25.35 - a negligible difference

Both sides had 6 players each under 23yo

Furthermore, the Crows had 3 players under 21 (Van Berlo,Knights,Douglas)
and the Power only 2 (Bentley, Krakouer).

[jmorg1]

Adelaide's gun youngster list:

Porps
VB
Douglas
Knights
Griff
BV

Adelaide's untried-yet-highly-likely-to-be-guns list:

Mackay
Sellar
Tippett
McIntyre
Pfeiffer
Campbell


Port Adelaide's gun youngster list:

*crickets chirping*

:D

Port's dud youngster list:
White
Deluca
Symes
Surjan
Willits
Cockshell
Carlisle
Lower
Logan
Pettigrew
Bentley

Port's untried-yet-highly-likely-to-be-duds list:
Batsanis
Giles
Gray
Grose
Hardy
Lee
Minson
Stewart
Westhoff
Williams

[Crowked]

Lets not get too carried away with it lads.

White is OK, very similar to Perrie and Stevens in quality and would do the same jobs at an equal level if he were with us IMO.

Our young guys are going OK, and so were Ports until last week. I wouldnt be writing off too many of them just yet.

We need to keep it in perspective because while our young guys are looking good, they are still young and inexperienced, and some of them will no doubt fail to reach the heights it seems some are now expecting.

Besides Karma the vengeful elephant is just waiting for us to get ahead of ourselves.

Steady as she goes captain.

[maximus]

I was worried before the game that Port Power had one too many talls for us to man up on. White should have been able to exploit that on the much smaller Torney who did a great job. White should be delivering much better results with his size and skills but oh well...that is not our problem

[Coopers]

I swear the "adelaide has no good youth" junk comes out of interstate media outlets who basically don't know anything about the crows, so the names are unfamiliar, so obviously they aren't a "big deal".

I mean if you're living in geelong, and every second word is "hawkins" it's unlikely you have heard much about Douglass, so one can come up with a random opinion like that.

I'm cool with it though, you interstate nutters keep predicting bad things for the crows, and we'll just casually kick your ass and win games.

[oporto]

Lets not get too carried away with it lads.

White is OK, very similar to Perrie and Stevens in quality and would do the same jobs at an equal level if he were with us IMO.

Our young guys are going OK, and so were Ports until last week. I wouldnt be writing off too many of them just yet.

We need to keep it in perspective because while our young guys are looking good, they are still young and inexperienced, and some of them will no doubt fail to reach the heights it seems some are now expecting.

Besides Karma the vengeful elephant is just waiting for us to get ahead of ourselves.

Steady as she goes captain.

Good comments cos we never know when things can come back to bite us on the arse

[CrowHop]

Ah yes Karma. Just like when we were cocky as anything 3 weeks when we thought we'd thump Essendon.

Our kids are looking ok, but they're just that ... kids.

[rufus_afc]

Gotta agree with that relapse, White has done alright this season without Wazzaaaaaaaaaaa there, same goes for Ebert. As soon as Captain Ego is in the team their whole forward line structure falls apart, serves them right as well. White would have been handy this season but now Bock, Stevens, Sarge and Welshy are starting to gel.

lolololol

Captain Ego only forward I have ever seen who marks on the wing passes to a team mate and then runs inside 50 screaming kick it back to me.

[Crow-mo]

Late in 2005 we chased Damon White's signature. After some negotiation, we offered pick 17 - a first-rounder - but we also held pick 16 so we were still in the hunt for a quality first-round draftee.

Port wanted pick 16 and wouldn't budge. They wanted to be before us in the draft. Pick 17 wasn't enough. They wanted one better.



You realise this is unsubstantiated?

it was never more than a rumour, oddly enough, eminently from alberton way.

might be true, might not.

[Crow-mo]

Adelaide's gun youngster list:

Porps
VB
Douglas
Knights
Griff
BV

Adelaide's untried-yet-highly-likely-to-be-guns list:

Mackay
Sellar
Tippett
McIntyre
Pfeiffer
Campbell


Port Adelaide's gun youngster list:

*crickets chirping*

:D

ffs :rolleyes:

[Jumbo]

This is bay 13 (isn't it?)

[Crow-mo]

This is bay 13 (isn't it?)

Soon, Jumbo, soon ;)

[Ported]

Gotta agree with that relapse, White has done alright this season without Wazzaaaaaaaaaaa there, same goes for Ebert. As soon as Captain Ego is in the team their whole forward line structure falls apart, serves them right as well. White would have been handy this season but now Bock, Stevens, Sarge and Welshy are starting to gel.

Heh, he's been back 1 game. Even when we did kick to Ebert and White they couldn't hold grabs on saturday. When our midfielders finally decided to target a forward they had to beat 3 opponents.

Also, White was terrible against the Kangaroos and in the first half at Subi.

[RoosterLad]

Yeah Ported but he's the greatest ever CHF and SA's best player in the past 20 years, he should have come back and dominated.
Some guy named Roo kicked 6 first game back last year :p

[raikkonen]

White is terrible full stop. Ive been saying that for ages and people only starting to see that??? Symes and Ezard have been the ones that have made the most impact on me out of PA's young guys, the rest are just hacks....excluding Pearce, good player that boy :)

[CrowHop]

'Adelaide's untried-yet-highly-likely-to-be-guns list:'

Hehe, talk about ever being the optimist. Highly likely to be guns but havent played a game ? Doesn't even warrant a response.

[dyertribe]

I also think that Salopek will be a guy that will go back to melbourne as he was close last time, but because he had not made an impact there wasnt much interest.

It's hard to say. IIRC he recently got engaged/married to his girlfriend who moved over in 2005. He's also now firmly entrenched in Port's A-midfield.

Also got to remember he's still only 21 (22 in June) - if he has it in his mind to go back home eventually, as most interstate players everywhere do, he's got plenty of time on his side and might sign another contract or two yet (current one runs out this year).

Given he's clearly taken another step up this season his value will be high - but with the Victorian dominated PSD escape hatch in play you never can tell.

Port's pigheadedness ... off the top of my head it also has cost them pick(s) ?? for N Stephens. And as for the argument that they got nothing for Stephens in order to make future players think twice about leaving.....well thats just spin doctoring because they were outplayed by their pigheadedness. i mean Josh Carr soon after left for example.

Choco has always stated that the reasoning for not dealing with Collingwood was essentially three-fold.

1) Collingwood offered Port rubbish. Williams enquired after Didak and a first round pick* (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/13/1065917344274.html) OR Prestigiacomo and a first round pick OR Richard Cole and a first round pick* (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/16/1065917550798.html?from=storyrhs). All relatively fair demands that Collingwood weren't prepared to entertain.

In the end the final deal Collingwood put on the table was the Pies first round pick (#17) AND one of McGough OR Scotland OR Steven McKee.* (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/16/1065917549384.html), which Port obviously refused.

2) They wanted to prevent the Pies from receiving what could potentially be the final piece of the puzzle on the cheap - Collingwood went into the 2003 Grand Final as warm favourites after beating Brisbane comprehensively in the QF and flogging Port in the PF, remember.

With Stevens joining Buckley, Licuria, O'Bree, Woewodin and Burns in the guts the Pies would've had an extremely formidable midfield.

3) Lastly, they wanted to send a message to existing players and the rest of the league that the club would not under any circumstances be f#cked over in contract negotiations/trade week - not as you imply with your 'well that didn't work, Josh Carr left a year later anyway' comment, that they wouldn't be prepared to trade want-away players at all.

In Carr's case Port were adequately compensated with Freo's first, second and third round picks, because Carr and Freo didn't have the loaded dice of the PSD to play with.

Remember, Nick Stevens baulked at trades Port had agreed in principle with first Melbourne (pick #5)* (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/17/1066364488943.html) and then Carlton (pick #2 and Simon Beuamont)* (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/15/1065917485798.html?from=storyrhs) in the hope that a deal would be struck with Collingwood - which as we've seen, was never going to happen because the Pies were offering tripe.

As such no deals could be agreed and Stevens was released into the PSD, where the Dogs had first pick but ultimately couldn't afford his demands, but Carlton could and snapped him up for free.

Given the immediate outcome in 2004 - Port won the flag, Collingwood have been crap ever since and Nick Stevens has been rotting away in the cellar at Carlton - I still can't fathom why anyone could still say Port did the wrong thing.


Had they acquiesced to Stevens' demands to go to Collingwood and Collingwood only how does that benefit Port?

Had they acquiesced to Collingwood's demands in that the only compensation they received was Mark McGough/Heath Scotland/Steven McKee and a low first round pick, how does that possibly benefit Port?

As such, if Stevens did suit up for Collingwood in 2004 and they did take the next step as was expected in becoming an even stronger Premiership threat, how does that benefit Port?


The negatives for Port clearly, clearly, outweighed the positives if they had bent over to Stevens and Collingwood's demands - not only do they lose a prime onballer to a Premiership rival for fringe/dud players and a low pick but they also send a clear message to other clubs at subsequent tradeweeks that they're prepared to accept half-eaten pies for top talent.

It is also worth noting that Nick Stevens' agent is Max Stevens - the same guy who engineered the Fergus Watts saga...

[- PC -]

Who knows what NC would have got out of White.

[fightingdreamer88]

ffs :rolleyes:

It was a joke, Crow-moustache.

[rufus_afc]

Yeah Ported but he's the greatest ever CHF and SA's best player in the past 20 years, he should have come back and dominated.
Some guy named Roo kicked 6 first game back last year :p

Whoever originally made that comment must have typed it with one hand, cos obviously they had their other hand on something else at the same time.

[Crow-mo]

It was a joke, Crow-moustache.

your material sucks :)

[fightingdreamer88]

your material sucks :)

You're such a cheezel. :cool:

[Bresh]

I love the effort that DT puts into defending Port est. 1870 :) He is of course, quite right. And ruggedly handsome.

[Crow-mo]

You're such a cheezel. :cool:

that's meant to be an improvement? :D

[crows98]

You're such a cheezel. :cool:

Quit whist you are behind FD. :thumbsu:

[fightingdreamer88]

that's meant to be an improvement? :D

You better not question me again Crow-bar, or else I'll begin rampantly complimenting you.

[Crow-mo]

You better not question me again Crow-bar, or else I'll begin rampantly complimenting you.

Mostly I don't expect you to be able to answer, as the above babel fish translation attests to.

[fightingdreamer88]

Mostly I don't expect you to be able to answer, as the above babel fish translation attests to.

Explain. Been watching the tennis lately?