News No Cloke: Hardwick

[Grockadoc]

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has all but ruled the Tigers out of joining the race for Collingwood key forward Travis Cloke, saying the club would be unable to justify the outlay that would be required to recruit him.

Hardwick said that while Cloke's financial demands were unknown, the salaries being spoken about were out of the Tigers' range.

Fair enough I say. Wouldn't of minded if we had Cloke, having two of the three best key forwards in the game in Cloke and Riewoldt, but for his price, he is totally not worth it. Would cause quite a stir in the group who are pretty close to have someone who has never been at the club automatically be the highest paid player. Considering we were hesitant to give Lids more than $600k when he was coming out of contract, it would have been quite a slap in the face if we paid Cloke $1 million.



The second half of the article was good though

Meanwhile, Hardwick has compared Tigers midfielder Trent Cotchin with one of the greatest players of the modern era, former Essendon champion James Hird, for his ability to take the ball below his knees.

Hardwick was a teammate of Hird's at Essendon for eight seasons, from 1994 to 2001.

Hardwick told Access All Areas Cotchin has the potential to become one of the competition's best players.

"Defensively he's got some areas we'd like him to be a little bit better at," Hardwick said.

"But I don't think I've seen a better player - it's a big comment, I know - as clean below his knees and then have the ability to distribute as cleanly as he does."

 

[tugga]

Good riddance to the Cloke notion.
And only now are people starting to realise how good our No 9 is. I firmly believe he will be in the top 3 players in the comp before too long.

 

[Tzatziki_Man]

No need for Cloke, so I agree.

We need role players, by paying overs for someone like Cloke, we're creating a weakness somewhere else on the field.

I wouldn't mind more midfield depth, in 10 years everyone on the field will be a midfielder, and Grigg will play in the ruck haha.

 

[Wacky Tiger]

Yeah pretty spot on OP & Dimma. Would love to have him but for the price he is probably not for us.

Listening to the AAA video where Dimma made these comments i thought it was piss funny when they spoke about how good a season Stanton is having to which Dimma replied that he was heavily tagged last year and the difference being he has only been tagged once or twice this year in which hes been quiet in those games. Reckon we will have someone run with him for sure.

 

[Dave Stevens]

Wise call.

Cloke is likely at the peak of his powers right now.
To get him would probably mean a 4-5 year deal, which means the recipient probably gets 2 good years and 3 declining ones.
Not great value.

With the exception of the great man*, KPF's don't get better with age, and are more likely to decline after 150 games or so...

* The great man being Richo.

 

[Waltz17]

good. I hate Cloke.

 

[IDGAF]

Needs to be written into the clubs by-laws .

Paragraph 2/ sub clause B -No Cloke shall ever enter into Punt Rd. again in an official capacity what soever .

Can you even begin to imagine doing business with Damir ???

 

[Cotchin 9]

He didn't want to come in the first place anyway, didn't he?

 

[Bojangles17]

Id be happy if were not contributing to a more favourable deal for him to remain at collingwood, then again....nahh, after what we did throwing cloke a lifeline in the twilight of his career, youd think he would have been forever grateful. Not likely, so **** the cloke family

 

[_RT_]

If we have truly ruled ourselves out, I hope that we have done so after fully exploring the idea. For all the crap that gets thrown up about the old man being a pain in the arse the chance to recruit a 25/26 yr old AA premiership winning CHF doesn't come around everyday.

 

[IDGAF]

If we have truly ruled ourselves out, I hope that we have done so after fully exploring the idea. For all the crap that gets thrown up about the old man being a pain in the arse the chance to recruit a 25/26 yr old AA premiership winning CHF doesn't come around everyday.

Romantic notion ... but at what cost ?

Thats the point

 

[captain blood 17]

I would love him at Richmond, but, i also believe in rewarding your best and loyal players first. Sets a very strong culture. I have no issue with Dimmas directive.

 

[tugga]

I would love him at Richmond, but, i also believe in rewarding your best and loyal players first. Sets a very strong culture. I have no issue with Dimmas directive.

This
I could sit and think for hours of a better way to word it, but I couldn't so I won't.
Leave Melbourne to splash cash around like they are millionaires while continuing to draft spuds. They are already the new Richmond.

 

[NZ_Tiger]

I don't think we need to be involved in the Cloke deal. Fremantle will make sure it screws Collingwood to keep him and at the same time we're not going to get on the wrong side of Collingwood early.

If they do give Cloke a bigger contract then another player will be forced out you'd think and the pies might be easier to deal with if we haven't poked our nose into this mess.

Beams, Sidebottom, Reid, are all showing a lot and are going to want a slice as well.

 

[_RT_]

Romantic notion ... but at what cost ?

Thats the point

Again I hope it wasn't just the cost that saw us rule ourselves out of chasing him. Given that all it was going to cost us in reality was cap space, surely we have plenty available to go after someone of Clokes quality.

If we're not going after him I hope we have someone lined up, of similar quality and age, who can help us take the next step. Unfortunately I don't think there is anyone else around who fits the bill.

 

[Ancient Tiger]

Hardwick is no fool. Even if we were interested he'd give the same answer.

There would be no advantage in telling the world you were interested.

Having said that, there is no use spending more than 10% of your salary cap on one player, especially a mercenary!

 

[captain blood 17]

This
I could sit and think for hours of a better way to word it, but I couldn't so I won't.
Leave Melbourne to splash cash around like they are millionaires while continuing to draft spuds. They are already the new Richmond.

The other point that has been raised though which is a beauty, is that if the pies have to fork out big $ to keep him, it forces other players out of the club. The ol' game within a game. In reality, i can't see us landing a big name player, but then again, do we need to? Maric, Grigg and Houli weren't big names, but they are now playing some good, consistent footy. We have to think 2nd tier players, not the top level. Will be an interesting off season no doubt. Where is our Justin Charles?

 

[NZ_Tiger]

Best case for us would be a okeefe, Brown, Maccaffer, Fasolo, want out and we get them for change.

Though we could enquire what Sidebottom would cost if they are hurting for cap space. Would be fantastic for us.

 

[Grockadoc]

Agree CB17. The amount they are going to have to splurge on Cloke means less cash to sign Thomas, Sidebottom and co. If so, players like Fasolo, Beams, Buckley, Blair, Goldsack and Wellingham are less likely to get the money they want/deserve and would be open to offers. Would gladly take any of them. That being said, would love Sidebottom at the club. Imagine him doing the Cotch and Dusty rotation through the midfield. Could play two in the forward line and improve our forward potency immensely.

 

[tugga]

Best case for us would be a okeefe, Brown, Maccaffer, Fasolo, want out and we get them for change.

Though we could enquire what Sidebottom would cost if they are hurting for cap space. Would be fantastic for us.

Yes please.
Was astonishingly good tonight.
Would be more value than Cloke.
At some stage we have to trust that one, or maybe two, of Astbury, Griffiths, Elton, Post or Vickery will come good.
No point in holding onto these kids for five years without trying them while Cloke keeps them out of a game.
Would much rather see if we can grab a not-so-obvious gun such as Sidebottom who is in the right age bracket and is a 3rd stringer behind Swan and Pendlebury and probably behind a few others as well.

 

[The Rusty Trombone]

Hardwick is no fool. Even if we were interested he'd give the same answer.

There would be no advantage in telling the world you were interested.

Having said that, there is no use spending more than 10% of your salary cap on one player, especially a mercenary!

Correct it would be all Cloke and Daggar if we where interested in him. You guys are dreaming if you think Collingwood are going to let Sidebottom slip through their fingers.

Couple of picks after Vickery from memory. Kicked 10 in the TAC grand final in U18's . His car is green and he likes to drink soda.

 

[DerpWerls]

There is much more value in targeting more than one less hyped player which has been our strategy so far. His price is too high. Awesome player though.

On the topic of Steele well he is a gun - I think Reece Conca is a similar type player and is coming along very nicely.

 

[MightyTiger]

The thing that amuses me is that for some reason Melbourne keep targeting these high priced players thinking they will be the panacea to all there problems.

The Melbourne list is nowhere near finals quality, they have a handful of decent players and a lot of good drafting and wise trading ahead of them.

I for one am proud that our club seem to be going down the correct channels IE recruiting value for money players, Maric, Grigg and Houli, we need to stick to this model and keep going after value for money players, Cloke at 1M+ per year is a fair price to pay, especially for a team like Melbourne who has a long long way to go.

Anyway, better for us, they pay a hefty price for a CHF, and we can pick up the value for money type players, Moloney, Sidebottom etc.

 

[TOOs_Finest]

Correct it would be all Cloke and Daggar if we where interested in him. You guys are dreaming if you think Collingwood are going to let Sidebottom slip through their fingers.

Couple of picks after Vickery from memory. Kicked 10 in the TAC grand final in U18's . His car is green and he likes to drink soda.

[YOUTUBE]FeJSD5qWY5c[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Tiger2709]

Id be happy if were not contributing to a more favourable deal for him to remain at collingwood, then again....nahh, after what we did throwing cloke a lifeline in the twilight of his career, youd think he would have been forever grateful. Not likely, so **** the cloke family

I loved Cloke in his heyday with us, but he and his family have proven time and time again that they are in it for the money, I say let them get it somewhere else.

What we need is to build on what we have and add some quality depth across the board, if we were to spend that sort of money it would have to be for a Natanui or Ablett type player, I have faith that Jack will be back and at his best he is right up there with Cloke but a better kick.

We don't want to upset all he boys that have made a commitment to the Tigers for less money than they could have got elsewhere.