How do you know this?
Of course, we don’t know the other way either. But I’m sure they love their footy broadly, and it seems like a pretty good pathway. Travel the world, play elite College Football, get a degree, and then parachute into a Rookie B spot at your club back home when Zach Reid gives the game away next year.
I’m not holding my breath, but Mason trained with the club, he must somewhat like the sport/club.
By 200 POINTS? You worthless hunk of junk… ngwhey
As far as I’m aware, neither have trained at the club since prior to covid (that was 4 years ago - time flies).
I was at a talk that Fletch did and spoke to him afterwards.
He basically said that Mason was hating football and wasn’t sure what to get in to. So Fletch knew someone who was a kicker / coach and he tried out for a scholarship. He actually missed out, but the guy who got the scholarship didn’t take up the offer so it went to Mason.
Max then followed Mason.
It would be highly unusual for a player to find his way back to AFL footy after getting into the college system in USA. I’d say they are more likely to find work there within their system than come back.
For memory, the kids have barely been back in Australia since the scholarship and Fletch and wife head up there once a year.
Max is the youngest and is 22 and he’s likely to stay in USA for another year. His pathway back onto a list would be very different.
In the past, we would have definitely given both of them shots as a rookie B spot. But I don’t think it even needs to get to that point. They could train on through a pre-season and then make a decision on them if need be.
We’re judging this rather emotionally. If you do it subjectively, you would need to invest in them much like Collingwood did with Mason Cox. I don’t think we have the patience (both fans and club). And in Cox’s case, if they come out as an ‘average’ player, most fans wouldn’t be happy with that result. A Fletcher is held up against the father and grand father. Just like Richards, Reynolds and Watson before hand. Mentally, not everyone is up to being compared to such greats and I suspect (which knowing for sure) is one reason why the Fletcher kids weren’t enjoying playing junior footy.
More often than not, you just have to give teenagers the space to just enjoy playing footy without the outside noise / expectations getting to you. But that’s easier said than done. Most father sons hate the grind that comes with the name.
I’m guessing the saga had a lot to do with it too… the club was toxic during that period and it is apparent we aren’t all entirely convinced it has recovered yet.
If he can get into the NFL he’ll have it made. All Big XII probably won’t get him drafted (only one or two punters get drafted each year AT MOST) but it will surely draw interest in free agency from multiple teams.
Every training camp there are a half dozen or so teams with questions over their punting position and there will always be competition. Unfortunately form can be very volatile at that level; consistency is the biggest thing.
All fair enough, appreciate the intel!
Another tidbit I learned…
One of his kids had the same back problems that Reid / Gumby had. The growth spurts, etc. When he had it checked out, they asked him how much cricket he plays. I think he was able to manage his way through it. So that’s another reason why they probably didn’t enjoy their footy as much. The game requires far more than just to rock up with your boots and just play like it used to.
I recall Fletch saying he didn’t feel comfortable at all during the 1993 season and felt he didn’t deserve the games he got. But Sheeds was always going to give him a shot at it and give him more rope to fail.
The next year he spent a lot of time in the gymnasium doing weights which he sorely needed.
He felt his age creeping up on him once we were back to Tullamarine and there was a need to get km into his legs at training which he just wasn’t naturally good at doing. He could get himself up for games, just not so much training sessions but in order to keep up with the speed of the game there was a need to keep the km up. I think for memory he switched GPS with Zaka one training session just to get his up.
Interestingly, he highly rates Jones and Reid. He thought they were going to be really good players. He rated BZT too. He liked the size of Baldwin and Voss, but wasn’t too sold on them. Still wanted to give them a shot at it to see more.
I actually got a tad lucky because he explained to me what they do at training and how the rehab stuff happens. He’d explain that it wasn’t such a big deal when players have a tough game the week before that they aren’t in main training by the Wednesday (especially nowadays). It’s more important that they recover as best as possible. He also mentioned that by the Wednesday, the match sim is more purposeful towards setting up against what the opposition usually set up to. So you’ll see certain players in and out of groups because those players are closest to playing the style the opposition do, so they try and target practise to combat that style. It’s more about midfield setup than anything else.
He’s such a different character to any other footballers I’ve spoken to. Much more down to earth, friendly and laid back.
He is a gem.
Have met him a few times and actually have a jumper signed by his dad and himself.
If his sons do ever play, then I’ll be adding their sigs to it too.
Good to see the Law firm leading the punters
He’ll hang around there for the whole year.
I’m surprised Nebraska’s punter is in there.
He was so happy he wrote his name on my jumper last night.
What a kind man.
How much did he look like Dustin there…
I know little to nothing about Gridiron other than a few rules, what are Mason’s chances of getting into a team in the NFL looking like?
I know little to nothing, but it feels like it’s a long shot. Not because of any lack of quality, just because there are so few jobs and no one really gives a thought to their punters, so it would likely be a post draft signing
Mason is quite solid, but the level of punting seems higher than ever (thanks to lots of Australians).
But as frosty says, there’s few vacancies, so I think the chances are slim.
What are the chances they both come home and have a crack as a cat b rookie
I’d suggest that is close to zero.
Could end up in Canada or The Rocks league if thats still a thing
Mason still seems a passionate bombers man often comments about the games etc
