BL v StK · WB v FRE · RIC v HAW · ADE v SYD · NM v COL · GWS v PA ·
Read the wrap-up and post your "Liked, Learned, Hated" right here.
Actually think this might be a decent game - Hawks playing some alright football, Brisbane aren't the same team away from home.Hawks and Lions to kick off Bumper Sunday(according to the AFL site).
North Melbournes big problem is they delist or trade players from their top 15 rather than their bottom 4.
5 ACLs and 6 players with under 25 games on the field.
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Excellent article in today's Age about how North throwing around mega offers to attract players from other clubs hasn't resulted in them improving their list but simply made the stars of other clubs mega rich.
“I played with Josh Kelly who got some of the most ridiculous offers from North ... his dad played for North, and he was still able to say no.”
Former GWS captain Phil Davis, on SEN’s Whateley on Thursday.
In 2017, North Melbourne simultaneously made staggering long-term offers to Dustin Martin and Josh Kelly that would have made either the game’s best paid footballer at the time.
The immediate impact of those offers was that they enabled Martin to be close to first on the rich list for AFL players even at Richmond and for Kelly to secure a 10-year commitment from the Giants worth around $1 million a season in 2019.
That the Kangaroos could pay both players an aggregate approaching $3 million per season – without ruining their salary cap – is a measure of the “war chest” that they possessed at Arden St.
Today, as Dusty reaches the end of the seven-year deal he extracted after delivering incredible value to Richmond, North Melbourne’s war chest remains as intact as Trent Cotchin’s hair. The space they had then was spent, in parts, on journeymen – Jared Polec one fortunate beneficiary – or it simply went unspent and disappeared.
Consider the contract that Harley Reid would have commanded had North not beaten the Suns in the final round last season, or that Zak Butters would be given if he were willing to leave Port Adelaide in 2026 as a free agent and chose North. Reid can virtually name his price at West Coast.
Why some AFL clubs’ recruiting ‘war chest’ won’t deliver guns
The AFL’s new pay deal has created space everywhere, and smaller clubs have to offer more than money when competing against the powerhouses for signatures.www.theage.com.au
North's failure as a club on and off field over many years now and offering mega $$$ to attract top line players in an effort to fix the mess is impacting adversely on all other clubs including Port. It is upsetting the balance of payer payments across the league at a time when top tier talent is being spread even more thinly across an increasing number of clubs.
When Tasmania enters the comp and siphons off top tier draft picks for several years as part of their concessions, North (and to a lesser extent St Kilda) will have to become even more desperate to appease their fan base. But that of course will not result in those players being attracted to or staying at North but to demand more from their existing and more professionally managed clubs
Shit 5. It wasnt too long ago it was 3.
Gil did say 18 is an even number, mid way between his 18 month fairwell tour.
His metres gained in his last AFL game was negative, not surprised they dropped him. Even the Camry Crows have only so much patience with a once in a generation talent like McNeddy.
He's their best talent since Sam Siggins
.
Good post.A pathetic echo of their club history in the failed cash splash of recent years. At the start of the 1970s they splashed cash around to buy star players and star coach Barassi, netting 5 grand finals and 2 flags to 1978, but also launched a mad VFL-wide spiral towards near insolvency**
Times have changed, sources of cash have certainly changed, that club hasn't.
Yes they're mostly irrelevant, but they're not broke so IMO we're stuck with them unless the AFL distribution tap gets "tightened", or their cost base "inflated" via some revised Marvel deal. Which clubs does their behaviour really hurt? If it's legacy VFL clubs, expect vultures to poke once Tassie enters, but is the AFL vicious enough to deliberately kill a club that isn't broke? Just not wanting to manage another bye isn't enough to trigger that IMO. Maybe the AFL are deluded enough to imagine a 20th team in the decade post Tassie, who knows? Who else cares? In theory AFLPA should care if they thought star salaries were being inflated at the expense of the majority of members, but their appointed reps tend towards a conflict of interest on that point.
** and look where that eventually got us
Nah - has had a calf issue all year. Nothing new.
2 in 1 games well. McCarthy and Gardiner. (Against GC from memory)
