Discussion Most hearbreaking player departures

[Procrastinator35]

Buddy obviously....But more for the treacherous manner in the way he did it....Pick 19 for compo was highway ******* robbery on the AFL's behalf.

 

[OPsaints]

Ian Stewart leaving St Kilda in 1971 cost us a premiership. Best centre man in the VFL when he left and picked up his third Brownlow at Richmond. Losing big Plugger really hurt and seeing Winmar in a Dogs guernsey was just wrong. I think that Everitt may have been the difference between a prelim final heartbreak and a premiership in 2004. I am not sure why he left.

 

[just_kick_it]

Not heart breaking but I was disappointed when Dean Brogan moved to GWS and when Jackson Trengove was traded to the Dogs.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[TheJanuaryMan]

Modra hurt us had about 2 good years left and we got peanuts for him
Bock and Davis two KPD gone one in his last 4 or so years and one that will be a gun
Shaun Rehn in a hawthorn top just wasn't right
while i think adelaide are actually better without paddy he's still a draw card

The Modra departure was a funny one - not in a good way - but I reckon it was almost vindicated. Don't forget that he cracked the sads in the 1998 QF against Melbourne when Blight threw him into defence to get him into the game and he simply didn't chase or be accountable at all for his opponent. Rightly or wrongly Blight expected his players to follow team instructions and Modra''s body language that day was terrible. He was dropped to West and told to find some form there but he didn't at all and was rightly left out of the 1998 GF team on form.

The best part of all of it is that he made full amends with the club in later years and is now involved with them in promotions and match day. Has buried the hatchet with Blight and speaks really highly of his time at the club.

The Open Mike interview dropped one fascinating gem - he bumped in Neil Craig at an airport late in his Fremantle days and in hindsight had the impression Craig was sounding him out about returning to Adelaide. He said he couldn't do that to Fremantle after they had given him the opportunity - showing what a quality bloke he was over the years.

 

[Gordon Farkas]

Leigh Colbert leaving Geelong as captain when the club was at a low ebb in 1999. Not "heartbreaking" as he wasn't one of the more loved players, but real anger and a sense of betrayal that he would nick off when the club was at its weakest, because he "wanted to play in premierships".

Here's how it was recounted in the book "Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong" by James Button:

"In the middle of the year Colbert's manager, Ron Joseph, spoke to Cook. Describing Colbert as 'a wise head beyond his years', Joseph says that three years earlier he had spoken to Ayres about wanting to play in a premiership side; he now felt Geelong was a lot further from that goal. 'I'm between a rock and a hard place,' Cook told Joseph. 'The team can't win a premiership in its current state, but it needs Leigh in order to win one.'
But Colbert 'didn't seem happy at Geelong,' Joseph says. 'He didn't speak proudly of the club. He thought there were players who were selfish, who never acknowledged the volunteer workers, the boot studders and trainers.'
But to quit the club? Joseph says he told Colbert, 'Leigh, if you leave you're on a hiding to nothing. The club's in trouble and you're the captain.' He predicted twelve months of terrible publicity. He recalls Colbert's father nodding at him encouragingly as he spoke until Colbert turned on them both: 'Don't you blokes understand? I want out of this place!' Joseph says 'it was the resolve I saw in his eyes. It almost shocked me.'
At the end of the season, Colbert left for North Melbourne."

(emphases added)

 

[AuntyBlindEye]

Brad Ottens
Chris Newman
Richo

 

[Cold Sober]

Roger Merrett and Merv Neagle, as bad as it gets.

 

[Tarkyn_24]

Shattered that Ottens left. He was my favourite player at the time.

Wish you’d kept him. We probably win 2007

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Brad Ottens
Chris Newman
Richo

Definitely returned the favour with caddy though far less heartbreaking for us than a few.

I'd have thought lids at the time, though everyone would have forgotten within 12 months.

GAJ for us surely. Lost the coach, being written off as too old, then the 2nd coming bails on us. Mumford was also a kick in the spleen because we lost him trying to make cash available to keep GAJ.

 

[AuntyBlindEye]

Definitely returned the favour with caddy though far less heartbreaking for us than a few.

I'd have thought lids at the time, though everyone would have forgotten within 12 months.

GAJ for us surely. Lost the coach, being written off as too old, then the 2nd coming bails on us. Mumford was also a kick in the spleen because we lost him trying to make cash available to keep GAJ.

Lids was hard, but Ottens was my favourite player when he left and it was my first experience at having a player I loved leave.

Newman just retired, but he was a heart and soul player through the bad times.

Richo needs no explaining.

Lids would be in the top 5 probably.