Opinion The Great Roo Cull - 4 years on. How do you feel now?

[Gasometer]

Ask me after next years Premiership.

 

[roos_fanatic08]

I would have preferred to keep Harvey on the list for another two years, he still had plenty of good footy left in him and he really deserved to go out on his own terms. The other 3 were cooked, especially Spud.

We wasted plenty of list spots in 2017/18 on the likes of Watson, Williams, Junker, Taylor, Fordham, Mullett and Wagner.

 

[Asifhe Givashe]

You forgot Farren Ray.

 

[Twinkletoes]

Drew lives in Perth and works for the Eagles alongside Simmo and Pratty. That makes it awkward for him to be part of the North cheer squad. He did come to the 150-anniversary dinner last year and was very popular and made to feel welcome. I'm sure he still loves the club.

Posted by Dish two days ago. Currently working as a FiFo worker during the downtime and not forgetting his North origins.

 

[SMaturin]

You forgot Farren Ray.

With all due respect to Farren, no I didn’t .

 

[Sillygit]

With all due respect to Farren, no I didn’t .

I definitely forgot Farren Ray.

 

[Seppb]

With all due respect to Farren, no I didn’t .

Farren Ray is the most forgettable player who's played for 3 teams

 

[Kanga Glory]

The club appears to be well placed now . The decisions are justified as it was always going to take a few years.
Really need to take emotions out of it.

 

[Luke72]

We haven’t had anyone look remotely like covering Boomer since and have seriously lacked line breaking/speed. If you can find list space for Dom Tyson you should have stuck with Boomer

 

[Only Forwards]

Boomer should have been the one to call time on his career. Not Scott or Joyce.

Boomer being cut by them is a factor that created the power vacuum that was ultimately filled with Brad's ego.

He couldn't make and sell the hard call on Dish (who let's face probably earned the right to call it himself as well) Spud and Dos Santos.

We look like we're now on the up but it's been rough to this point and there are still a shot load of unknowns.

I hope the kids come on enough so we're having a real crack at a flag before Goldy Cunners and Taz are on the way out.

 

[Gasometer]

Was Bread Mackenzie part of the cull ?

 

[Gasometer]

The timing was the worst aspect

...and the delivery

 

[Gasometer]

The thing that sucked most for me was that Brad Scott and Cameron Joyce had given up on the season after Round 20 despite the fact that we were going to play finals. And as it turned out, the ******* Bulldogs won it all. The cull was already in motion. These two clowns wrecked any chance we had of challenging for the flag.

What was almost as frustrating is that the board gave Scotts and Joyces the green light to rebuild, yet they squibbed it by not cutting deeper when they had the chance. They wanted a bit each way.

Who else should have gone Jab?

 

[Mav]

I was gutted they sacked Boomer but didn’t that free up the list spot to get Larkey?

In hindsight it was a good move!

 

[Passmore]

I reckon they got it right with all four.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[HongKongRoo]

Boomer should have played one more season.
Spud was done.
Dal Santo was done.
Petrie could have stayed on at minimum wage and match payments and I think it would not have hurt the list.

We really don't know what happened behind closed door but it certainly was ugly the way it played out in public

 

[north_lad]

While I do acknowledge that you need fresh blood and fresh eyes to rejuvenate a footy club, I think it's pretty important to keep some old heads around that have links to a winning team and as such a winning culture. Brent Harvey was a match-winner, was still playing good football, was competitive as all get our and was the last surviving link to arguably North's greatest ever teams. Should I stop living in the past? Perhaps. But like others have mentioned he had more than earned the right to go out on his own terms.

At the time with us chopping him, Dal Santo, McKenzie and Wells ******* off to Collingwood I did wonder if we had any players left that could kick the ball.

 

[north_lad]

I accidentally hit the 'post' button before I was finished. Since "the cull" we've also moved on guys like Gibbo, Hanners, Spitter, Mullet etc so you can't accuse the cuts of being half-arsed, but some of the stop-gap players we've brought in have been questionable at best (looking at you Dom Tyson, Billy Hartung, Tom Campbell, Nathan Horvath etc). For every diamond in the rough like Jasper Pittard we seem to wind up with two list cloggers.

 

[ferball]

Boomer should have played one more season.
Spud was done.
Dal Santo was done.
Petrie could have stayed on at minimum wage and match payments and I think it would not have hurt the list.

We really don't know what happened behind closed door but it certainly was ugly the way it played out in public

The biggest issue with Boomer being sacked was the hit to membership. We had thousands of new members sign on because of Boomers record. I know a couple, and they haven't resigned because they were disgusted by his sacking.

The club made a killing out of merchandising as well.

The people I'm thinking of felt ripped off but if Harvey had stayed one more year they would have still been members and "right now" we might be pushing toward 50k members ie before this virus hit.

It damaged the club.

On the flip side it might have netted us LDU. Boomer on his own would have won us a couple of games in 2017 cos we lost close ones due to composure issues. He may have made the difference.

The others were cooked, except Spud who was probably good for another year.

 

[Gotta_Bea_Hero]

The right call was made back then, and I still believe the right call was made. Boomer could have gone on, but I like to see our champion players go out when they are still playing good footy and go out whilst they are still on top of their game. I would've hate to see him struggling for form, and cop criticism from the supporters for it.

 

[AGC]

Turn it up mate. The reason Boomer was moved on was for the development of the kids coming through. The fact that Hrovat was recruited that off-season and played 22 games in Boomer's position is irrelevant.

Hrovat was 23 at the time we recruited him. Not like we picked up Kasey Green to fill his spot...

 

[Shermanator]

I moved on 4 years ago and I'm sure all those players have too.

Bring on the rest of 2020..

 

[Hearts to hearts]

The shock and emotion have well and truly passed, but I haven't changed my views. It was time for Petrie, Spud and Dal Santo. Boomer could easily have played another year and I would really have loved to see him do it cement his grip on most games played, but I understand the symbolic impact of adding him to the group. Turned it from a run of the mill list tweak (with due respect to the other three) into a list rebirth. And the club pretty much went on with it by playing more young guys regularly in the seniors from then on.

The part that I thought and still think was poor was how the club communicated. "I had to delist them so I'd stop playing them" WTF was that. And the mixed messages about list management made it more of a shock than it needed to be - although that year was such a roller coaster, off a very strong 2015 into 9-0 before falling in a heap - it would have been hard to strike the right, consistent note about how close or far off we were, and I'm not sure how I'd have advised them.

 

[Snake_Baker]

I moved on 4 years ago and I'm sure all those players have too.

Bring on the rest of 2020..

THis is what I though the thread was about, and not about 3-4 players.

Do people think the list is better off for the moves that were made?

My guess is "probably", but there were flags there to be won in 2017, so maybe if we topped up and had a good run with injury we could have won it?

I definitely believe that was the case in 2016 except for our horrendous injury list, and I think that toll gets overlooked in the analysis to reshape the list.

Sammy Wright was done, Spitta was going at half pace, Waitey was getting injured every few games, Dal Santo was still getting the pill but was becoming less effective and Dish was just about done, so the writing was definitely on the wall.

 

[DunderHead]

Hrovat was 23 at the time we recruited him. Not like we picked up Kasey Green to fill his spot...

I agree. I also think they needed to move him on so that other players could grow into leadership maturity not just one guy who plays the same position.

When boomer was out there he wanted the ball and we kicked it to him. Whose to say where Zurharr Larkey Ziebell would be if he hadn’t moved on. It was the right choice, and a tough choice to make.