He’ll probably get in okay shape by R1, play some good footy, miss a bunch of games, but win a few too off his own boot. But he’ll never come close to realising his potential, which is a shame. I believe he could honestly be the best player in the league if he got super fit. But it’s not going to happen.
Can’t say I blame him. When you’ve got the talent to achieve what Stringer has without pushing yourself particularly hard, most people would do just that. Whether or not that attitude is corrosives to the team is up for debate and is probably why Beveridge pushed him out. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t lost any sleep over the decision.
I wouldn’t get too concerned about Stringer in the context of team success. He’s not going to be there for our next top four finish/premiership tilt. Just enjoy his last 8-10 match winning performances over the next maybe, three years before he gets carried off in his final game with an ice pack on his quad in a losing elim final in 2024.
Meanwhile the real excitement is with the list-build attempt from Merrett and under and all list management decisions shoud be made with this cohort in mind.
I don’t get the whole reset/rebuild/list build thing.
I think the club is selling us a lot of this to reduce expectations, not that that takes a lot of doing after last year.
Fact is we played finals 14 months ago (ok plural) and everyone to a man was bouncing around with genuine hope. Stringer was the missing link. Nick Hind was better than Saad.
And now suddenly none of that’s true? Choose your own adventure.
I think with a couple of list tweaks there is no reason those things can’t become fact again. And if Scott gets hold of Stringer and gives him the ultimatum, or preferably builds a relationship based on trust, you’ve got an experienced 30 year old match winner still at the top of his game.
Why you’d ignore an asset like that and not base or at least add to your calculations is bizarre.
Stringer’s ongoing fitness/ injury issues have persisted and Hind has been shown up a bit as being a bit (very) soft.
A lot can change over the course of a year. 2021 was meant to be a springboard for 2022, but the complete opposite happened. Coach got sacked and the leadership of the club gutted out. 2023 should be a hard reset.
Making finals in 2021 was a bit of a false dawn. I think it is now fair to assume that we arent really going to be a legitimate finals threat for a few more years, and then following on from that, question the value of more senior players contribution to our next finals push.
I actually disagree, it doesn’t take much to derail a season for ANY club. We had injuries to key play makers, a farked up game plan no-one but the coaches understood, and I would also say, several very good players that switched off to team oriented acts ( so selfish stats players).
With uninspiring Truck gone, a normal injury occurrence, a game plan built around our strengths and all players onboard…I can’t see why we shouldn’t be in the mix.
Our young blokes should rise, our new coach WILL call out BS umpiring and we will have a easier match schedule.
So, with the vacancy for whipping boy vacant for so long after Stants retired. We now have a dinky di, full on, right royal whipping boy and its all his own fault.
True but a whipping boy is a very good player who is just on the verge of being a champion, but is not because of maybe just one flaw that becomes frustrating.
Those 3 players are average at this point.
Absolutely nothing like Stanton, a player of (arguable, I thought he was a gun) mid-range talent who busted his gut and bled red & black. He was a whipping boy because he gave everything, had a great career but still was maligned for trivial reasons. Hepp probably in the same boat.
I don’t think you could find a bigger distance on a footy spectrum than Stringer and Stants. Stringer has given 5 minutes of his well compensated time to the Dons.
Hind is a good average player, but he is not soft at all. I watched him in the Ballarat League for a number of seasons, and I thought he was a quite crazy in his attack on the ball and on others.
Tend to agree. I was keen to see Mossie play in his first VFL game down at Sandringham. He lined up on Hind and as I was on Mossie watch, I noticed that Hind was mercilessly pummelling, jostling, bumping and harassing poor little farking Mossie behind play. It was actually awful.
As its probably a case of pick on someone your own size or smaller, because I have not seen Hind do this at AFL level.