Michael Gardiner

[WTTF]

Any Carlton supporter who would not consider picking up Gardiner is an ignoramus and does not have the best interests of the club at heart. The guy still have a handful of years left, and when right is a gun... lets not forget this guy kept Dean Cox out of the Eagles lineup for a long time.

Sometimes you have to take a risk and hope that a guy can pull his head in.... I think the risk may well be worth it, given the potential reward.

We have 2 second-stringers in the ruck, one of whom is about to retire. We'd be foolish not to look at him... of course you wouldn't give up an early draft pick. I reckon maybe a 3rd round draft pick might snare Gardiner. We picked up Barnaby French at the same age. Now Barn has never had issues with his character, has been serviceable and filled a gaping hole, but never done anything outstanding. Gardiner has the potential to be the premier ruckman in the comp.... something Barnaby never had the goods to do.

The other thing we need to consider is we will have a very good midfield in the coming years.... Imagine this guy giving Murphy, Gibbs, Stevens, Simpson etc an armchair ride. Murphy has already been super impressive with no support from his ruckmen... imagine when he's getting some decent supply!!!!!

ALL ABOARD THE GARDINER TRAIN!!!!!!

Go back to sleep.

 

[Snoozer]

Go back to sleep.

You're unreal.

 

[Hu$$ey]

Hopeless are you for real he's an AA.

Sorry my mistake I read something about AA but it turned out to be about Alcoholics something or other!

Jonathan Hay is also an All-Australian, would you like him too? Lance was also an AA when people were calling for his head. Mal Michael is not an All-Aus, would you not want him at the club? What is your point with AA selection? Does its selection automatically guarantee a player is a 'champion'? Gardiner, in my opinion, is a has-been who cannot ruck anymore. Hasn't done so for 2 years.

With my initial comment, I fell into the trap of actually judging him over his off-field behaviour, my immediate thoughts were "Oh if we can get his head right, he'll be great for us. He leaves W.A blah blah" BUT in doing that I forgot to actually judge him with his on-field performances, now I look back at it and he is not a good player at all. He was but isn't anymore. Two weeks ago I seen him get absolutely towelled up by Spida, who is not having a particularly good season himself, every tap of Spida's went straight down Hodge and Mitchell's throats. Ted Richards last week more than matched him - TED RICHARDS!!

I also think many others are falling into that same trap i.e. focussing on his off-field attitude. Try taking that out of your mind and see if you were given a chance to recruit Gardiner the player, would you want him? I wouldn't because he is past it.

 

[DIG]

Not a chance of hell. Aside from the obvious reasons, even if he was a model player attitude wise, his best football is years behind him and we won't be considering him.

 

[Dramoth]

Jonathan Hay is also an All-Australian, would you like him too? Lance was also an AA when people were calling for his head. Mal Michael is not an All-Aus, would you not want him at the club? What is your point with AA selection? Does its selection automatically guarantee a player is a 'champion'? Gardiner, in my opinion, is a has-been who cannot ruck anymore. Hasn't done so for 2 years.

With my initial comment, I fell into the trap of actually judging him over his off-field behaviour, my immediate thoughts were "Oh if we can get his head right, he'll be great for us. He leaves W.A blah blah" BUT in doing that I forgot to actually judge him with his on-field performances, now I look back at it and he is not a good player at all. He was but isn't anymore. Two weeks ago I seen him get absolutely towelled up by Spida, who is not having a particularly good season himself, every tap of Spida's went straight down Hodge and Mitchell's throats. Ted Richards last week more than matched him - TED RICHARDS!!

I also think many others are falling into that same trap i.e. focussing on his off-field attitude. Try taking that out of your mind and see if you were given a chance to recruit Gardiner the player, would you want him? I wouldn't because he is past it.

Yes, I agree with you that his onfield performances havent been the best for a while... he has been out injured a lot in the last couple of years and he has managed to come back from that...

However, I feel that the major reasons for his loss of form is being around being in a town where he is a home grown celeb. He goes down the pub for a quiet drink with a mate or two, he gets recognised by the locals and they start buying the guy drinks. He cant really say no all that often, because if he did, he would become known as a bit of a tosser...

He hangs around with the local crim elements because it seems like the celeb thing to do... a little notoriety... gets his name in the paper a few more times... in a two horse town like Perth where the local AFL boys are the heros... it goes to their heads and they believe the hype.

Get him out of Perth, give him a contract with all sorts of penalty clauses in it that gets the club out of jail if he screws up again...

There is a chance that he could be an asset for us in the long run...

 

[jj1978]

Don't really want him as I've mentioned in past post as he's a potential liability to a young list.

BUT we need to de-list French as the game has passed him by. Bryan/McClaren are better suited as an around the ground type ruckman as opposed to a centre square ruckman.

If we can't get hold of a good ruckman in the draft and the Gardiner is left in the PSD and we get him for min wage and major contract clauses I might sway a little, only a little!