deeps said:
if you know anythig about footy... about watching for player potential etc. (something that i doubt the recruiters at freo do), you would see immediately paul medhurst is extremely talented, and is blessed with the perfect body for a midfielder. Extremely powerful for his size.
Now, if you cannot see that, then get ur eyes checked.
If you can see that, then tell me why is this guy struggling so much? Something is obviously wrong with your coaching staff/player management if players like Medhurst are simply not performing.
You have alot of talented youngsters that can be excellent but simply look disinterested.
Medhurst and Polak especially.
Sure, you can come up with a handful of players that left the club and didn't do as well as they'd have liked. But ANY club in the AFL can come up with those...the measure of a good club, is to look at the ratio, of good players given away, compared to bad players given away. Freo would have to have one of the worst ratio's, which is my point.
But you're completely missing the point. The fact is that while White, McPhee, Clement, Sinclair and Croad are all playing reasonable to fantastic footy now; they displayed the exact opposite for us. Leigh B is the sole exception, and I was never happy with that trade.
White was an average ruckman, played ordinary, disinterested footy (I think his best return for the year was something like 139 hitouts, 130 odd disposals ,30 odd marks and 2 goals in 1997). Took a bribe from Gutnick and did his best to root us on the way out the door.
McPhee was an injury prone small backman who was superceded in his time with OP by Woods and Hayden, who at the time were playing far better footy. We ****ed up on the Headland trade, but thems the breaks.
We all know how Croad went, we needed him to play forward to provide us with a decent marking target after Modra's retirement. He had one good season, then bitched, moaned, whiteanted and put in ******** performances for the rest of the time he was here.
I'm not downplaying what they have achieved at their new clubs, but it's complete and utter mythology to suggest that McPhee, Croad, White, Clement and Sinclair were playing as well back then as they are now.