Toast The Curious Case of Jack Darling

[Avalor]

He’s 3 goals away from drawing level with Sumich for career goals so will soon become our second highest goal scorer

Is comfortably our third best ever KPF behind Kennedy and Sumich despite being the size of a modern day midfielder

Yet for some reason he’s never been truly appreciated

That said, he will come under serious pressure to hold his spot once Flynn returns and Bailey Williams reverts back to a forward/ruck

And Archie Reid gets going. I am excited by what he will bring, at 203 cm, he will be a proper menace at FF.

 

[bzparkes]

His issue is that, at 192cm, he is no longer a Key forward. He has also lost his spring in the air. The games changed and keys are all north of 196, so he has 200cm defenders who have no issue dominating the air.

What simmo should do is put him in the midfield. Remember 2015 GF and hawks throwing roughy in the midfield. Darling would've been a perfect blunt to that

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

What is the consensus on what we could have gotten for Darling had we traded him last year or the year before? Maybe pick 30 if we agreed to eat some of his monster salary and found a club who considers themselves to be flag mode but is short of a second key forward option? Or is that being too optimistic? And if it did prove to be optimistic and no club in the comp was prepared to even offer a pick less than pick 60 for him then we would have to ask ourselves the question why are we, a club in rebuilding mode, picking a 32 year old who no other club will even offer a bid in our best 22?

I think we should have maybe still should try and flog him off. And given how overpaid he has been and how long long has been overpaid relative it his output i don't think he has much of a right to complain about the club exploring it's options with him.

 

[Luuuc]

I'm not going to knock JD, as despite his flaws he has given us so much over a lot of years.
But when you are in an obvious deep rebuild, and have an excess of older guys who clearly aren't going to be around for the next period of success, then the logical move is to get some value for a few if you can.
Probably too late to get much now though.
(Probably also too early to write him off as being useless to us in 2024 based on one bad game)

 

[Doashuey]

What is the consensus on what we could have gotten for Darling had we traded him last year or the year before? Maybe pick 30 if we agreed to eat some of his monster salary and found a club who considers themselves to be flag mode but is short of a second key forward option? Or is that being too optimistic? And if it did prove to be optimistic and no club in the comp was prepared to even offer a pick less than pick 60 for him then we would have to ask ourselves the question why are we, a club in rebuilding mode, picking a 32 year old who no other club will even offer a bid in our best 22?

I think we should have maybe still should try and flog him off. And given how overpaid he has been and how long long has been overpaid relative it his output i don't think he has much of a right to complain about the club exploring it's options with him.

Based on the end of his 2022 campaign, pick 30 would have been generous. Then consider that actual pick 30 last year was still in the first round, that pick probably gets pushed to high 40s, low 50s. So I dont think we would have seen much value anyhow in trading him.

 

[Westend]

Well done Jack to be equal 2nd on the all time goal kicking list behind JK...and equal with Sumich on 514

Hopefully he breaks it this weekend

He has been much maligned but thats a fantastic effort ....great work Darling

 

[DanWCE]

JD is on a podcast. I'm not even a third of the way through and he's already touched on how he inadvertently played with a fractured arm the whole season which wasn't discovered until post season, and the surgeon botched the first attempt to fix it

 

[THE A5]

Who cares? Are they wearing undies or are they two lads with their fruits out doing a poddy?

 

[DanWCE]

Who cares? Are they wearing undies or are they two lads with their fruits out doing a poddy?

Worth a listen if you'd like some context to JDs last season, off season and this pre season. Gives me some hope he is on an upward trajectory

 

[donpyke92]

Worth a listen if you'd like some context to JDs last season, off season and this pre season. Gives me some hope he is on an upward trajectory

It is a good listen.
Thanks for posting that.

 

[DanWCE]

It is a good listen.
Thanks for posting that.

Might have cooked my algorithm watching it, and potentially missed an opportunity to excite the missus with me listening to it at work not at home on the big screen