A Question?

[StingaArmstrong]

Does anybody think that having Nick Sautner in the Sandringham team is hindering the development of our forwards such as Smith, Newton, Dunn etc.
I was wanting people's thoughts on this, particular those who get to watch them play regularly. I have no doubt he is a great VFL player and would be welcome in any VFL team, but is the plus of having his experience and knowledge outweighed by the negative of him effectively not letting Melb develop another FF to take over from Neitz.

My opinion on this has changed a bit since seeing Dunn play the last couple of weeks.

 

[Canna7]

I suppose you could say that, but then again Sandringham has their own agenda to win football matches and premierships and Sautner has helped them to do that.

Obviously if he wasn't in the side it would free up full forward permanently for blokes like Smith, Johnson, Dunn, etc... But I wouldn't mind seeing him help the Zebras win a hat-trick this year.

 

[Bartram_Class]

Possibly, but Sandringham are there own club, there not going to get rid of there chances at a club solely for the development of our youngsters.

FWIW, I think they do a great job, Mark Williams and co, you only have to look at Bate and Dunn to see how great a year of VFL can be to a youngsters development.

 

[Deestroy]

Absolutely, it is holding Newton back from regular VFL senior games (he played his first one just last week). It is in our best interests if he retires in the next couple of years, but obviously that would cost Sandy.

 

[Supermercado]

If you were Sandy would you rely on our draft picks to help you win anything? Given the track record in recruiting talls over the last few years there were certainly no guarantee that Dunn or Bate were going to be any good, and they're not going to wait to find out whether they are or not when there's a 100 goal a year FF in the mix.

 

[Bartram_Class]

Did Sautner ever put himself up for the Draft?

Hes been a pretty consistant 80 goal a year VFL forward for a while now.

 

[Theseventhhamster]

I've been thinking this for years. But as others have said Sandy aren't our reserves so I guess we have to live with it.

 

[davey_magik]

Did Sautner ever put himself up for the Draft?

Hes been a pretty consistant 80 goal a year VFL forward for a while now.

Is only 188cm tall. It's Sandy's choice though and I understand it.

 

[StingaArmstrong]

Thanks for the replies, good to hear arguments both ways.

I tend to forget Sandringham are a stand alone club and not just our reserves, and they are justified to have whatever players they want there. It would still be good to see some of our guys getting the opportunity to play FF at some stage though.