It's gotten to the point I honestly do not care if he stays or goes. I'm sick of hearing about it, I'm tired of my friends texting me about it. I'm tired of media speculation that's swung from gone, to unsure to staying back to unsure.
I'm sick of hearing from buddy himself. I get no enjoyment watching him play while this goes on, he's really turned me off of him. Sure it's the world of free agency and he's entitled to see what's out there, and ultimately take the best offer. But one thing I've always hated is players saying they love a club months before leaving. You're an afl player, and in buddy's situation making boat loads of cash outside football from Adidas, his stupid buddy ball, Mack boots, his fashion. So if you really love the football club, the people there and the fans, then a few extra million dollars from GWS shouldn't play such a big role.
I just really find it patronizing when players say it and up and leave. Our media is pathetic at covering the story too, he's not going to give you a quote for a headline. He's said he will leave it until the end of the year, why after all this time will he just blab to a journo what he's doing?
Buddy if you stay, there's a lot he has to do to win me back over. If he's gone he's just another bloke out for the dollar (like a lot of his mates who sell out to the highest bidders) and he can go **** himself tbh. You're just another footballer who can go down a club legend or someone who is forgettable and left for money.
WOW!
It's not just you mate - you are but one of the majority - but glory be me........do we have some serious double standards that we apply to our footballers that we would never accept ourselves?
Consider - if you still work for your first employer, are with the girl you first ever kissed, living in the first home you shared together and driving your first car - and absolutely still love it with no aspirations to explore alternatives for your life going forward to any of that - feel free to cast not only stones, but rocks, at the man.
That's what we DEMAND of our footy players and 'they are nothing to me' if they ply their trade elsewhere. It seems the only way you can transfer to another club and be seen as a 'great servant' is if infact you have frailties in your game and are therefore dispensable with the aim of getting something else, something better (reminds me of childhood days in the playground swapping footy cards) - even though those players are often the real 'heart and soul' of the playing group - go figure huh?
So the way I see it - the Buddwah has played at our club for 9 seasons for what has been universally acclaimed as unders - he owes us nothing, we owe him much. He is entitled to explore all of his options regarding this, his biggest football contract, and how that ties in with his future on many fronts. So this may, or may not, be his final year at Hawthorn - I for one am going to enjoy it either way. Certainly much of the whinging which has gone on has been about 'people's omnipresent right to know' whilst carping about the media for asking in regard to it - people are funny.
If he goes or stays, he does so with my best wishes, and FWIW, you can still love an experience, your mates, your club, et al and move onto something else - it doesn't become null and void.