Have there been any players who haven't shined until they got to their third club?

Ron The Bear

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Steven Taubert finished fourth in a Brownlow at Sydney after playing without distinction at Essendon and Richmond.

Craig Davis kicked 251 of his 360 goals at Collingwood (Carlton, North then on to Sydney afterwards).

Darren Jolly was AA squad and premiership ruck at Collingwood (Melbourne, Sydney)

John Barker played his best footy at Hawthorn (Fitzroy, Brisbane) and won their goalkicking in 2001.

Jarrod Molloy was runner-up in a Collingwood b&f (Fitzroy, Brisbane). Tony Woods similar at Hawthorn (Fitzroy, Collingwood).

Peter Schofield won North's goalkicking in 1959 after 22 games at Richmond and Melbourne.
 

Ron The Bear

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Max Hislop played 10 games at Collingwood and Melbourne, then 128 at Richmond including two premiership BOG's and regular Victorian guernseys.
 
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Greg Williams?

Edit: he did shine at Sydney, I just think his best footy was with the blues.
The best display of footy by an individual I've ever seen was the 1995 GF.

Sublime by hand and foot. Pure genius that day.

Still gives me goosebumps thinking of it.
 
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Came to post Spangher (not quite a star, but cult hero).

Caven, Leigh Brown both pretty good nominations (although to be fair, 1/8 of Brown's Brownlow votes were at Collingwood)
 
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Steven Taubert finished fourth in a Brownlow at Sydney after playing without distinction at Essendon and Richmond.

Craig Davis kicked 251 of his 360 goals at Collingwood (Carlton, North then on to Sydney afterwards).

Darren Jolly was AA squad and premiership ruck at Collingwood (Melbourne, Sydney)

John Barker played his best footy at Hawthorn (Fitzroy, Brisbane) and won their goalkicking in 2001.

Jarrod Molloy was runner-up in a Collingwood b&f (Fitzroy, Brisbane). Tony Woods similar at Hawthorn (Fitzroy, Collingwood).

Peter Schofield won North's goalkicking in 1959 after 22 games at Richmond and Melbourne.
Darren Jolly's best was at Sydney in the late 00s
Jarrod Molloy is more of a Lions player, although his first season at the Pies was alright.
 

Ron The Bear

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Darren Jolly's best was at Sydney in the late 00s
Jarrod Molloy is more of a Lions player, although his first season at the Pies was alright.

Not that I feel like debating it, but Molloy's best finish in the b&f in four years at Brisbane was 13th. 2nd at a side that won 11 games was a big jump up.
 
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Not that I feel like debating it, but Molloy's best finish in the b&f in four years at Brisbane was 13th. 2nd at a side that won 11 games was a big jump up.
It was a good season, however I find his Fitzroy/Brisbane (Lions) days more memorable personally. Brisbane in his fuller seasons (1999-2000) were also a much superior side overflowing with star players, whereas Collingwood circa 2001 didn't have many elite or AA squad worthy players.

Between Gavin Brown ('94) and Tarrant ('03), Buckley was their only player to make AA in an 8 year span.
 
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1999 Merrett-Murray Medal:

=1. Jason Akermanis (club great, 300+ games)
=1. Justin Leppitsch (club great, 200+ games)
3. Marcus Ashcroft (club great, 300+ games)
4. Chris Scott (club great, 200+ games)
=5. Adam Heuskes (1st AA player for Port)
=5. Darryl White (club great, 250+ games)
=7. Nigel Lappin (club great, 250+ games)
=7. Michael Voss (club great, 250+ games)
9. Craig McRae (club great, 195 games, leading goalkicker with 40 going into finals)
10. Simon Black (club great, 300+ games)

11. Shaun Hart (club great, 250+ games)
12. Steven Lawrence
=13. Jarrod Molloy (leading goalkicker after finals)

10 of that top 11 played 200+ games.

In retrospect, getting rid of off-field miscreants like Adam Heuskes and Steve Lawrence might have proved the cultural difference between winning a flag and not quite getting there.

2000 wasn't any easier:
1. Voss
2. Lappin
3. Leppitsch
4. White
5. Hart
6. Power
=7. Aker
=7. Black
9. Lynch
=10. Chris Johnson
=10. Chris Scott

Daniel Bradshaw kicked 56 goals that year, picked up 8 Brownlow votes, and only finished 16th, behind Molloy.
 
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Bit of a messy one but worthy of note. Mark Jackson.

Started at Richmond where he didn’t play a senior game>on to Melbourne where you could possibly argue he played as well as anywhere>St Kilda very short stint but highest goal average in his 10 games there and it won him their goalkicking award despite being sacked mid season for disciplinary reasons.

Then went on to Geelong where he played 31 games.

Derek Kickett arguably played as well at the Swans as anywhere after stints at North and Essendon.
 

Ron The Bear

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Bit of a messy one but worthy of note. Mark Jackson.

Started at Richmond where he didn’t play a senior game>on to Melbourne where you could possibly argue he played as well as anywhere>St Kilda very short stint but highest goal average in his 10 games there and it won him their goalkicking award despite being sacked mid season for disciplinary reasons.

Then went on to Geelong where he played 31 games.

Looked at Jacko but didn't mention him on account of his two 76-goal seasons at Melbourne where had the same goal average (3.71) as Geelong. He does however have the highest goal average of any player at a third club, including players who returned to their original club.
 
In the modern era and not mentioned in this thread:

Jeremy Laidler: 2 games for Geelong, 24 games for Carlton, 64 games for Sydney

Jonathan Simpkin: 2 years on Sydney's list, 2 years on Geelong's list for 2 games 3 years later, 33 games for Hawthorn including a premiership. Later played four games as a top-up player for Essendon.

And a few more marginal cases:

Daniel Pratt was on North's books for two years, no games, delisted, West Coast for two years, three games, delisted, picked up by North again, 116 games. So only two clubs, but played good footy after swapping clubs twice through delistings.

Matt Spangher arguably in a similar vein to Simpkin. Arguable that he played worse footy at his third club, but a premiership can shine. 26 games in five years at West Coast, 6 for Sydney, 24 and a flag for Hawks as well as cult hero status.

Calling Jed Lamb "shining" given his performances at Carlton is a stretch, but he did play 44 games there against 12 for Sydney and 10 for GWS

A few others arguably played their best footy at a third club (Troy Simmons, Lachie Henderson, Andrejs Everitt, and funnily enough, Zac Dawson) but weren't significantly better at their second club.

I'd say that covers all the bases in the modern era.

With the obvious ones that people have mentioned (Menegola, Guerra etc.) it's not a very long list.
 

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Shane Mumford? Not sure how good he really was in 2012 (although he did play in the premiership).

I'd say he's probably been at his best whilst at the Giants.
 

Saint

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If Lachie Henderson wins a flag at Geelong, I reckon he'd "shine" more than he did at Carlton (and certainly his 15 games at Brisbane as a pup).

His first and second years at Geelong might have been the best of his career.

I bet he's glad he's been at Geelong rather than Carlton over the past 5 seasons (He spent 6 at Carlton). Though he did get de-listed last year, didn't he?
 
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Daniel Pratt was on North's books for two years, no games, delisted, West Coast for two years, three games, delisted, picked up by North again, 116 games. So only two clubs, but played good footy after swapping clubs twice through delistings.

Pratt was picked up by Brisbane.

He wasn’t a 3 club player.
 
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