Rumour 2024 Rumours and Speculation Part 3

[George CantStandYa]

You seen a lot of him?



Discussed this already. You focus on the 4 games he has missed over the past 3 seasons. I focus on the 64 games where the majority of them he was fine.



What an oddly specific example you keep going to try and prove a point. There are only 18 ruckman. 3 got dropped last year. One was 35 years old. One lost his spot to a better ruckman and ROB got a kick up the arse and came back and was just fine.

ROB can play at a very high level. He doesn't do it enough, but look at his game where he destroyed Tim English in RD 22 and he got the better of Grundy in the last round.



And I am beginning to think that you are the reason poor Marco left the Crows and the State.

I’ve seen him more than you Amusing you’re commenting on a player you haven’t seen play.

Wrong, you’re focusing on the games dropped, a leader of the club in a position isn’t being dropped for one poor game, he’s dropped for a number of poor games. For them to pull the trigger when they’ve got an average alternative and the fact he hasn’t finished top 10 in the B&F for 3 years says it all.

To quote Trump “it’s a perfect example”. Because as per my comment above, it shows that we have a ruck our coaches aren’t happy with and we’ve done nothing about it. Now an alternative has landed in our laps and we can’t do anything about it. No other club is in this position. Which given you like to compare us to other clubs a lot, I’m surprised you’re not getting it.

 

[AFC979810]

I’ve seen him more than you Amusing you’re commenting on a player you haven’t seen play.

What a weird flex. Feels like we are in a boxing match rather than having a discussion.

How much have you seen him? Genuinely interested. Of his 49 VFL games and 2 AFL games - how many have you seen?

Your first post mentioning him was January 15th.

Why is it amusing that I am having discussing a potential crows player I haven't seen play? I wouldn't think many people on here have seen him play.

Wrong, you’re focusing on the games dropped, a leader of the club in a position isn’t being dropped for one poor game, he’s dropped for a number of poor games. For them to pull the trigger when they’ve got an average alternative and the fact he hasn’t finished top 10 in the B&F for 3 years says it all.

He has still managed to play 20+ games across the last 4 years. He played all the 2023 games after he was dropped for a game in 2022. He is just fine.

To quote Trump “it’s a perfect example”.

What in the world ?

Because as per my comment above, it shows that we have a ruck our coaches aren’t happy with and we’ve done nothing about it. Now an alternative has landed in our laps and we can’t do anything about it. No other club is in this position. Which given you like to compare us to other clubs a lot, I’m surprised you’re not getting it.

It shows that he had a couple of form slumps and they dropped him to give him a kick up the arse.

We dropped Crouch 3 times in 2023 and he worked his way back into our best 22 in 2024 and 2025. Because a player is dropped - it doesn't mean the coaches don't like the player.

No other club is in this position because no other club has a long term injury to their backup ruckman.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Why are people getting excited with McAndrew ?

SYD delisted him, and they have a 30yo Grundy, with only a 19yo Will Green and Ladhams as backup .....so Ladhams was preferred over McAndrew ?

Judge him on his ruck contests .....but has he demonstrated any around the ground prowess that's superior to ROB

My take is, he was viewed by the Club only as a break glass backup for Strachan

 

[Gtowncrow]

They will appear on the home and also away jumper.

So does that mean that Port will now be playing in Crow's colours?
RB take their branding pretty seriously.

Us on the other hand, our colours would have given awesome branding opportunities. Missed opportunity by our marketing Dept? Wider exposure and benefits than simply a badge on a jumper.

 

[Crow till I die]

TBH, if ROB gets injured, i'd actually like to see Toby Murray get the nod. Now while he might be very raw and not a true ruck, he would compete but it would be his mobility around the ground that would help us.

strangely, i don't think he would let us down in the competitive stakes in the shorter term while he adapts

 

[George CantStandYa]

What a weird flex. Feels like we are in a boxing match rather than having a discussion.

How much have you seen him? Genuinely interested. Of his 49 VFL games and 2 AFL games - how many have you seen?

Your first post mentioning him was January 15th.

Why is it amusing that I am having discussing a potential crows player I haven't seen play? I wouldn't think many people on here have seen him play.



He has still managed to play 20+ games across the last 4 years. He played all the 2023 games after he was dropped for a game in 2022. He is just fine.



What in the world ?



It shows that he had a couple of form slumps and they dropped him to give him a kick up the arse.

We dropped Crouch 3 times in 2023 and he worked his way back into our best 22 in 2024 and 2025. Because a player is dropped - it doesn't mean the coaches don't like the player.

No other club is in this position because no other club has a long term injury to their backup ruckman.

It wasn’t a flex, it was a statement of fact. You havent watched our trial games and yet you’re passing judgement on a player you haven’t seen play. Thats odd.

ROB worked his way back in as we didn’t have an alternative, Strachan showed he isn’t one. That’s the whole point of this discussion are ruck stocks woeful.

For one, Crouch isn’t a leader and we had other mids. Crouch has performed very well since he’s been back in. Not a relevant comparison at all.

No, no other club is in the position of dropping their ruck and now he’s leading them into 2025. Plus our back up ruck sucks.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Why are people getting excited with McAndrew ?

SYD delisted him, and they have a 30yo Grundy, with only a 19yo Will Green and Ladhams as backup .....so Ladhams was preferred over McAndrew ?

Judge him on his ruck contests .....but has he demonstrated any around the ground prowess that's superior to ROB

My take is, he was viewed by the Club only as a break glass backup for Strachan

Because we have ROB and Strachan.

The club might have viewed him as that to begin with, but looks to be more than that now. I’m sure they would prefer him on the list over Strachan for starters and to have someone at a minimum who can put selection pressure on ROB.

 

[jenny61_99]

Strachan can't be cut until the end of the year. The only way a player can be delisted mid-season is if they are sacked for cause, as happened with Stengle. Doing it because you ****ed up your list management is not an excuse that the AFL would agree to.

Recruiting a backup or replacement for Strachan (i.e. McAndrew) can't happen until the MSD, and requires a player to suffer a season-ending injury between now & then. This would allow us to put the injured player on the Inactive List, allowing us to draft McAndrew in the MSD. That player doesn't have to be Strachan.

Or… he retires.

 

[Vader]

Or… he retires.

Why would he do that?

 

[Peter Doherty]

So does that mean that Port will now be playing in Crow's colours?
RB take their branding pretty seriously.

Us on the other hand, our colours would have given awesome branding opportunities. Missed opportunity by our marketing Dept? Wider exposure and benefits than simply a badge on a jumper.

I was just trolling the Power fans.

 

[AFC979810]

It wasn’t a flex, it was a statement of fact. You havent watched our trial games and yet you’re passing judgement on a player you haven’t seen play. Thats odd.

So how much McAndrew have you watched?

The 3 centre bounces he attended against Port and 1 internal trial?

And I haven't really passed judgement on McAndrew as a player.

 

[skam85]

I doubt we get McAndrew at all now, even with the MSD.
We've got a fairly nice start to the season, so there may be at least 8 clubs ahead of us.

Prior to our list mis-management and drafting a ruckman, SSP was our only option and that boat has sailed.

 

[AFC979810]

I doubt we get McAndrew at all now, even with the MSD.
We've got a fairly nice start to the season, so there may be at least 8 clubs ahead of us.

Prior to our list mis-management and drafting a ruckman, SSP was our only option and that boat has sailed.

Fascinating insight.

Love to know all of the 8 clubs ahead of us that will prioritize a ruckman in the MSD.

And here I was thinking that we were the only club that had a problem at the ruck position?!?! But now 8 other clubs are gonna snatch up undrafted McAndrew!

 

[Mutineer]

I doubt we get McAndrew at all now, even with the MSD.
We've got a fairly nice start to the season, so there may be at least 8 clubs ahead of us.

Prior to our list mis-management and drafting a ruckman, SSP was our only option and that boat has sailed.

There could very well be other options come to light by the MSD and then there's the option to shake loose an up and coming ruckman from one of the AFL clubs. Would still like to see us draft a youngster to develop behind them with a low cost draft/rookie pick unless we develop Turray as a ruckman even when Strachan becomes available because surely he's not getting another extension?

 

[skam85]

There could very well be other options come to light by the MSD and then there's the option to shake loose an up and coming ruckman from one of the AFL clubs. Would still like to see us draft a youngster to develop behind them with a low cost draft/rookie pick unless we develop Turray as a ruckman even when Strachan becomes available because surely he's not getting another extension?

Turray seems the likliest.

Would have loved Dodson. Jury is well and truly out but he has promise and would have loved to stay in SA.

 

[skam85]

Fascinating insight.

Love to know all of the 8 clubs ahead of us that will prioritize a ruckman in the MSD.

And here I was thinking that we were the only club that had a problem at the ruck position?!?! But now 8 other clubs are gonna snatch up undrafted McAndrew!

You say dumb things about ruckmen all the time, I'm allowed to as well

 

[huludicidal]

So, let me get this straight, you see a team as well ran as Collingwood knocking the door down for a player and you say trade him.

Berry just got unlucky that we won the Peatling sweepstakes (otherwise, highly likely he's a starting mid). Not much you can do about that from a list management POV.

Cook and Strachan were the big errors if we were looking for a draft spot.

It was widely discussed that Collingwood were interested in Berry in the 2024 trade period (by both Crows and Pies sources), and you’re talking about a club that jumped on the likes of Billy Frampton and Oleg Markov when they became available (and inexplicably still has Ash Johnson on their list), so it’s not like “well-run” clubs don’t have trash on their lists. Every club has different depth needs. “Knocking on our door” and “knocking the door down” are two very different implications too, I said the former, not the latter.

Even if you don’t believe the Pies had interest - Berry was out of contract and nobody forced us to re-sign him. Maybe waiting until the end of the trade period to make a decision on him would’ve been wise (ie if we get Peatling, we let Berry go, if we miss on Peatling, we re-sign Berry). If no other clubs had interest in Berry, surely that would’ve been doable?

Regarding Berry being a starting mid if we didn’t acquire Peatling - you’d be happy with that would you? Berry spent a large chunk of 2023 and 2024 either as the sub or in the SANFL, and has proven time and again incapable of accumulating enough ball at AFL level to be effective (and when he does get it, he’s a poor user). He averages 13 disposals per game for his career (closer to 16 per game when the sub games are removed). If that’s a starting mid, no wonder we finished 15th. Berry wouldn’t be a starting mid for any team in the AFL IMO. He’s a tackling specialist who is probably best utilised as a tagger or sub, or just a straight up depth player who is break glass in case of emergency.

When there’s a blatant and critical need for a ruckman, I think letting Berry go to make room for such an acquisition made sense, especially with Peatling and the inevitable mid at Pick 4 coming aboard.


Now, would we have received a massive haul in a trade for an uncontracted Sam Berry? Absolutely not and I’m not implying that. Pick 50ish in all likelihood and it was more about freeing up a list spot to take a ruckman than anything.

In the end, Pick 50 odd would have netted the much hyped Alex Dodson if we wanted him. Go figure.


Having said all of that, the re-signing of Berry was nowhere near the worst list management decision of the 5 I listed. In fact, it’s probably the least terrible of all of them which is saying something.

 

[Golumless]

It was widely discussed that Collingwood were interested in Berry in the 2024 trade period (by both Crows and Pies sources), and you’re talking about a club that jumped on the likes of Billy Frampton and Oleg Markov when they became available (and inexplicably still has Ash Johnson on their list), so it’s not like “well-run” clubs don’t have trash on their lists. Every club has different depth needs. “Knocking on our door” and “knocking the door down” are two very different implications too, I said the former, not the latter.

Even if you don’t believe the Pies had interest - Berry was out of contract and nobody forced us to re-sign him. Maybe waiting until the end of the trade period to make a decision on him would’ve been wise (ie if we get Peatling, we let Berry go, if we miss on Peatling, we re-sign Berry). If no other clubs had interest in Berry, surely that would’ve been doable?

Regarding Berry being a starting mid if we didn’t acquire Peatling - you’d be happy with that would you? Berry spent a large chunk of 2023 and 2024 either as the sub or in the SANFL, and has proven time and again incapable of accumulating enough ball at AFL level to be effective (and when he does get it, he’s a poor user). He averages 13 disposals per game for his career (closer to 16 per game when the sub games are removed). If that’s a starting mid, no wonder we finished 15th. Berry wouldn’t be a starting mid for any team in the AFL IMO. He’s a tackling specialist who is probably best utilised as a tagger or sub, or just a straight up depth player who is break glass in case of emergency.

When there’s a blatant and critical need for a ruckman, I think letting Berry go to make room for such an acquisition made sense, especially with Peatling and the inevitable mid at Pick 4 coming aboard.


Now, would we have received a massive haul in a trade for an uncontracted Sam Berry? Absolutely not and I’m not implying that. Pick 50ish in all likelihood and it was more about freeing up a list spot to take a ruckman than anything.

In the end, Pick 50 odd would have netted the much hyped Alex Dodson if we wanted him. Go figure.


Having said all of that, the re-signing of Berry was nowhere near the worst list management decision of the 5 I listed. In fact, it’s probably the least terrible of all of them which is saying something.

And if you run into the scenario where another club wants Berry and Peatling goes elsewhere? That's just shooting yourself in the foot by giving away a midfielder you can use in 2025 for no return. Equally, every team has trash players, it's a consequence of the salary cap, however there are teams where you should have alarm bells ringing if they're interested in one of your kids that is stuck in the middle of your lineup.

I'd also be comfortable with Berry as a starting midfielder in 2025. There is a growing trend in 2024 that you want a guy who is a defensive shitwrecker picking up lots of CBA's, even if they're not crash hot offensively, and Berry is that. After all, looking at the recent 2024 finalists, a good chunk ran a guy who was primarily there to produce defensively. Sydney had Rowbottom, GWS ran Daniels and Peatling, Port had Drew, Geelong had Atkins. This is the new "only good at clearances" midfielder where if you need to cheaply improve your inside midfield, you run a guy who picks up tackles and pressure acts like its candy. Really, Berry gave us equivalent performances in the back end of 2024 seeing it was 17.7 disp/6.3 tackles/21.1 PA.

It's not even a terrible list decision. It's just the equivalent of a player being resigned getting hit with the ACL stick in the next season. Right decision at the time, just things out of your control changed it.

As said, the two egregious decisions were resigning Strachan and Cook. However, I highly doubt we go for a ruck if we had a pick in the draft, after all, we've been very clear in the Reid/Hamish era that we place no value on developing a ruck.

 

[AFC979810]

As said, the two egregious decisions were resigning Strachan and Cook. However, I highly doubt we go for a ruck if we had a pick in the draft, after all, we've been very clear in the Reid/Hamish era that we place no value on developing a ruck.

We re-signed him in December of 2022 to a no doubt very cheap deal.

Hardly egregious.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

We re-signed him in December of 2022 to a no doubt very cheap deal.

Hardly egregious.

The issue with players like Strachan is we shouldn't be signing them up to multi year deals.

 

[Mutineer]

And if you run into the scenario where another club wants Berry and Peatling goes elsewhere? That's just shooting yourself in the foot by giving away a midfielder you can use in 2025 for no return. Equally, every team has trash players, it's a consequence of the salary cap, however there are teams where you should have alarm bells ringing if they're interested in one of your kids that is stuck in the middle of your lineup.

I'd also be comfortable with Berry as a starting midfielder in 2025. There is a growing trend in 2024 that you want a guy who is a defensive shitwrecker picking up lots of CBA's, even if they're not crash hot offensively, and Berry is that. After all, looking at the recent 2024 finalists, a good chunk ran a guy who was primarily there to produce defensively. Sydney had Rowbottom, GWS ran Daniels and Peatling, Port had Drew, Geelong had Atkins. This is the new "only good at clearances" midfielder where if you need to cheaply improve your inside midfield, you run a guy who picks up tackles and pressure acts like its candy. Really, Berry gave us equivalent performances in the back end of 2024 seeing it was 17.7 disp/6.3 tackles/21.1 PA.

It's not even a terrible list decision. It's just the equivalent of a player being resigned getting hit with the ACL stick in the next season. Right decision at the time, just things out of your control changed it.

As said, the two egregious decisions were resigning Strachan and Cook. However, I highly doubt we go for a ruck if we had a pick in the draft, after all, we've been very clear in the Reid/Hamish era that we place no value on developing a ruck.

That's not totally correct re rucks, the recruiting team had settled on Tim English as our guy before Don Pyke stuck his oar in with his need for speed and run resulting in Gallucci being the pick.

We were also heavily linked to Goad 2 years ago but North cut our lunch taking him the pick before ours eventually used to select Charlie Edwards

 

[1970crow]

Strachan can't be cut until the end of the year. The only way a player can be delisted mid-season is if they are sacked for cause, as happened with Stengle. Doing it because you ****ed up your list management is not an excuse that the AFL would agree to.

Recruiting a backup or replacement for Strachan (i.e. McAndrew) can't happen until the MSD, and requires a player to suffer a season-ending injury between now & then. This would allow us to put the injured player on the Inactive List, allowing us to draft McAndrew in the MSD. That player doesn't have to be Strachan.

Stengle wasn't sacked. We tried to sack him, but we had to settle for the full season suspension from the 1s. He chose the payout and release option to try and get picked up in the MSD.

 

[1970crow]

Fascinating insight.

Love to know all of the 8 clubs ahead of us that will prioritize a ruckman in the MSD.

And here I was thinking that we were the only club that had a problem at the ruck position?!?! But now 8 other clubs are gonna snatch up undrafted McAndrew!

It only takes 1.

 

[Mostyn]

That's not totally correct re rucks, the recruiting team had settled on Tim English as our guy before Don Pyke stuck his oar in with his need for speed and run resulting in Gallucci being the pick.

We were also heavily linked to Goad 2 years ago but North cut our lunch taking him the pick before ours eventually used to select Charlie Edwards

All reports were that we were deep into Barnett too, fwiw.

 

[Mostyn]

The issue with players like Strachan is we shouldn't be signing them up to multi year deals.

I think that's true, but it's also an example of how little we've always thought about that position - we seem to just be happy with a warm body as back up ruck, and it's been like that for 10+ years.