Player Watch Lachlan McAndrew - Re-Signed to End of 2027

[Eddie Murphy]

Yes and no

A navicular stress fracture followed by a calcaneal stress fracture at age 29 who has never been afl fit is an extreme longshot to play AFL ever again

This is one of those moments that Strachan or the club really couldn’t have done anything else , yes it’s sensible but it’s also obvious

Yeah didn’t see that part when I posted. Still, do we know the exact timeline of Strachan’s recovery? Wasn’t he originally aiming to return for round 1 of SANFL? Could’ve ultimately missed a month of reserves footy no?

Fair to say any club in our silly ruck predicament should do what we did, but I’m not convinced that in previous seasons we would’ve done it. Refreshing to see us do what we should’ve.

 

[Pugsley]

Reilly O'Brien sweating bullets

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for your service, Kieran.
You have been a great servant.

 

[1970crow]

Bravo guys, finally some hard calls in list management. Incredibly selfless by Strachan I hope the club looks after him in whatever capacity they can.

Fantastic pick up, would have loved WCE to take McAndrew had he been available well done.

Strachany will be fully paid and I'd imagine free to do what he wants this year and continue to use the club medical and rehab resources. It's a nice long lead into retirement from the top level, he'll still be around the place and his teammates and has a season to start thinking about what's next.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

My perspective as a Swans ressies watcher.

To state the blindingly obvious he's tall which does assist at the centre bounces and it's that area at which he probably 'excels'.

Coming into last season I thought he was progressing well, but IMO he dropped away last season.
He's never been a big possession winner (double figures in the VFL is a rarity for him), but 2023 was his best year in that regard and I thought even his ruckwork wasn't as good in 2024 as it was in '23.

He comes from a rugby union background, been on the Swans list inc 2021 and will shortly turn 25, so 2024 needed to be a big year for him and in truth it wasn't.

We have a young first rounder (2023) in Will Green as well as Grundy and Ladhams so no surprise for Swan fans he was let go at the end of 2024.

So handy centre bounce ruck, competitive at throw ins/ball up, kicking/handballing skills meh and not a particularly strong mark.
If he plays it has to be as first ruck, he doesn't offer enough a a second/relief ruck.

I realise there's relief for Crows fans that Strachan is off the list, but I wouldn't pin too many hopes on Lachie.

Nailed it

We will have a competitive ruck in ruck duels if ROB goes down

Not likely to do much around the ground

 

[Pugsley]

Pretty ruthless by us to bully Strachan. We''ll see how it goes.

Who was the poster who rumoured this last week? His sources are obviously very good.

He probably wants to go home anyway.

 

[BRL121]

Another great decision by the club this off season.

THe wheel has turned, and its a far king big one.

Its been a very good few months off field.

Just up the the boys onfield now. And that includes Nicks etc

Asolutely. One could almost say that, if we fail this season, it has to be the coaches' fault.

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Yeah didn’t see that part when I posted. Still, do we know the exact timeline of Strachan’s recovery? Wasn’t he originally aiming to return for round 1 of SANFL? Could’ve ultimately missed a month of reserves footy no?

Fair to say any club in our silly ruck predicament should do what we did, but I’m not convinced that in previous seasons we would’ve done it. Refreshing to see us do what we should’ve.

So with a heel stress fracture there’s another 6 weeks off legs then slow build up to getting fit which has never been a strength

So maybe he could play competent sanfl footy by round 8-12 but then he’s going to to be less fit than last year where he couldn’t get thru a full afl game

And that’s without set backs from here

 

[n4sir]

Apart from Pods, I can only really think of Otten that genuinely retired of his own accord. There must be more.

Luke Brown, Matty Jaensch... I reckon there's been more than a few others

 

[FR0GGY]

Seen quite a bit of him , my impression of him is he will be highly competitive in ruck duels and be a workhorse that gets through 4 quarters

Bit of a statue in general play and definitely a back up type

Our club website has it wrong , he’s not 201cm he’s actually 210cm and that’s how he can get on top of most rucks in ruck duels

210?!! Oh boy wowee

 

[Carn The Texan]

With time to reflect, I'm unsure what a non-redhead ruck option brings to our club. We have a tradition to uphold here.

 

[1970crow]

Luke Brown, Matty Jaensch... I reckon there's been more than a few others

Luke was tapped on the shoulder and paid out and Jaensch left courtesy of off-field stuff from memory. I think he was injured at the time, but there were some rumours??

 

[Geoffa32]

Finally an actual young back up Ruckman.

 

[Coopers]

Absolute scenes

go on then AFC97981025262728 have at me, I was wrong

how long until people skulk in here calling out the people who raised the legitimate ruck concerns as being bedwetters

Now we can spend the next 3 weeks debating who the best starting ruck is. Will be awesome fun

 

[Gtowncrow]

The lesson is that if you go to the media, you get another year. Talia, Douglas and Lynch all wanted to play on but made the mistake of not using the media to leverage their desire. Apart from Pods, I can only really think of Otten that genuinely retired of his own accord. There must be more.

Brown

 

[1970crow]

Yeah didn’t see that part when I posted. Still, do we know the exact timeline of Strachan’s recovery? Wasn’t he originally aiming to return for round 1 of SANFL? Could’ve ultimately missed a month of reserves footy no?

Fair to say any club in our silly ruck predicament should do what we did, but I’m not convinced that in previous seasons we would’ve done it. Refreshing to see us do what we should’ve.

Injury story was second week in december and said 10 weeks before he starts running and 4 months before being fit to play. So that puts return to play in early April.

 

[50BC]

Finally an actual young back up Ruckman.

Would have been madness not to sign him in the SSP period, Strachan will never play for us at AFL level again

 

[crows dude]

He has been training with the Crows since December when he signed on as a SANFL player.

Hang on George Kramer, did Norwood not even sign him?

The info I had from Norwood that there was an agreement that he could train with Adelaide and if not selected by them in the SPP then he would go back to Norwood an play for them. Not sure if there was anything signed.

 

[Slime Roy]

They begged David McKay to stay..
but he was the bigger man.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

How are Norwood fans taking this news?

 

[Brenton Davy]

Your list management (team) know what they are doing

You’re not from around here are you…

 

[Pugsley]

How are Norwood fans taking this news?

We have Luke Surman. We will be fine.

 

[MRB37]

It was BACCS. Although his rumour was pressuring retirement so we could get MacAndrew in the MSD. I've never really understood the view that you can't do things like this because it will upset the players. If the players aren't on board with this kind of decision, then they're not geared heavily enough to ultimate success and they can head off elsewhere.

It's probably the best decision for Strachan anyway. He'd know he's not getting another contract here, but this will allow him to take his time with recovery, make sure he gets back to 100%, still get paid, we'll probably have him helping out coaching SANFL on the weekends and then if he decides, he's free and hopefully healthy to sign with a SANFL or other state league club for next year.

We both get what we want, so no reason for either party not to work on a deal.

 

[Fax]

Can't really complain about that, we've got a younger backup ruck to challenge for the number one spot. Respect to Strachan, I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision.

 

[dude316]

team man of the year award already sewn up.

Can’t win Team man of the year when AFL isn’t a team sport.

 

[Golumless]

Eh, if the trial match against Port was any indication, this just means we a fit back up ruck with no scope whatsoever to win a best 22 spot for a year or so. Which is better than not having a fit back up ruck, but still, firmly in the ~shrugs~ category.

We'll see if McAndrews has anything different, but I'm not holding out any hope here.