It's a bit of a worry that a mod is threatening, even if joking ( is he joking?), to card people for having a contrary opinion on a player and others are cracking the sads because a topic has been bought up again. Isn't part of the point of this board to have debate about the direction and play of our club and its players?
Personally, I'd move Stanton if a 'fair' offer was around, and would have done so 2 years ago.
Yeah, he's been a great clubman and I'm appreciative of his efforts in the red and black, but he's been well compensated for his time here and I'm sure the club could and would find a role for him in the future if he was interested. Money isn't everything, sure, but the club doesn't necessarily owe him either.
I don't think it's a coincidence that him sitting so high on the all time games played list coincides with one of our poorest on field periods in a while. That's not his fault, but if we had of had a side in the last decade that looked remotely like challenging for a flag I question just how many games he would have played.
He has very good endurance, but other than that is just an average AFL player (there's nothing wrong with that). His disposal hasn't improved at all (witness some of his terrible inside 50 attempts last season) and nor really has his decision making. he gets a lot of the ball (especially calling for it from our young guys) but often puts himself in a terrible position to receive it, either because he is too close to another player or is unaware of where an opponent is.
I assume he'll be best 22 this season, but i'm not sure how long past this one.
It doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but for a senior player his effort in the dying seconds of the Melbourne debacle last year was one of the worst you'll ever see. A first year player would have been dropped for a month for the effort he showed on the wing, for a senior player it was pretty much unforgivable.