I’m ok with a two year deal on a decent rate. He’s at worst back-up for both ruck and defence, and damn our defence needs backup. I’d be a little annoyed if he’s getting too much for more than two years though.
The other thing this contract might do is give him some breathing room to focus on developing this year, not just playing with a mindset of trying to nail down another contract.
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Sorry but why were we in such a rush to hand him a 3 year deal?
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I really do not understand some of the list decisions lately.
We dont even know if this blokes any good and we’ve handed him a 3 year contract?
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He’s got an extra two years after showing plenty. Ridiculous level of whining from some. They are watching him every day. They know what he’s capable of. Our ruck stocks are stupidly thin. This is an easy common sense decision.
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It’s a 2 year extension (not a 3 year deal) but still makes absolutely no sense to me before round 1.
2 years is fine will be on stuff all money anyway if they signed him for like 4 years then that’s a different story
Goldy would have a say too if he thinks Blaksiton is capable i back the clubs decision re-sign him
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Premature to say the very least.
Hes not a world beater, why the fk would we commit to another 2, he hasnt even shown if hes good enough to ruck at AFL level.
And I thought it was all Dodoro, I was wrong.
Some of the list management decisions the past year are perplexing.
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He’s probably taken a bit less for the security, would have cost a fair bit more if he has a decent first half of the year and then at that point his manager is incentivized to stall for end of year. Can’t imagine it really matters on minimal chips though
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Stops him signing elsewhere. Likely other clubs were getting in contact.
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Sliding doors moment really. St Kilda were seriously looking at Blaki in the '24-'25 off season and ended up picking up Harry Boyd instead.
They’ve since picked up TDK for $1.8m a year, whilst we’ve picked up Blaki who looked every bit his equal last week for a quarter of the price. Not saying he beat TDK, but at worst broke even with him.
It perfectly fits my personal team building philosphy. Cheap, under the radar ruckman thats difficult to beat. Really like the signing, personally.
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Blackiston to make the all Australian squad 2026.
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No issue with this one. I think your ruck position is something that’s treated a little differently. I think we’ve already seen that he has the athleticism and rate of improvement to warrant recontracting him on modest coin for a couple of years.
It’s not guaranteeing that he’ll be the number one ruck. If he makes himself that, then brilliant. If not, clubs all around the league have back up rucks on their list who would be of equal quality, and I’d argue in many cases, inferior to him, who are just there to call upon when required. If that’s what he is, that’s fine too.
It’s not even in the same stratosphere as the Harry Jones and Matt Guelfi extensions.
Or the Jye Menzie one in late 2024 after he’d played out a season that saw him rsted the worst player in the competition, yet we saw fit to give him another year lol.
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I did wonder what was appeeling about a pear specifically?
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His 2 practice games were great. Let’s hope he keeps it up in the season.
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We are talking about our backup mature ruck. His role is to play when required and to not cost much. If he develops beyond that then great.
With the ruck rule changes, Blakiston types are in demand across the league. We have seen enough to make an informed decision.
The risk we need to manage here is that Blakiston gets poached by another club and we are then facing either poaching from a 3rd club or hitting the draft and burning draft picks. Both likely give us a poorer result.
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Harry Jones and Guelfi extensions keep me up most nights. I can imagine the list management team whipping up those contracts with the ‘Curb your enthusiasm’ music in the background.
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Defo a grapefruit
Yeah, hit the nail on the head.
At the very least wait 3-4 months, before making this call.
Signing him now is completely unnecessary. There was no concern about him being poached by another club, so why would you not wait.
This is a silly thing that Rosa has gotten into the habit of.