Is Tom McDonald tradable at the end of 2016?

[junk 342]

What is this crap?

[Cheap Seats 3,310]

On 08/05/2016 at 9:40 AM, Clint Bizkit said:

McDonald's best is as good as any defender, the problem is he needs good players around him to limit the brain fades and skill errors.

Agreed and just add in a bit of perspective Rance had the same issues that T Mac is having.

We'd be nuts to trade him. A keeper for mine

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

Gerard Healy and Dunstall just gave this guy a bit of a bake on, 'On the Couch.'

got into him about his form (or lack there of), in comparison to last year (I personally don't think he has been that bad and he is very important to us).

they also got into him about not signing a contract yet, because as he (tom) has supposedly stated, he wanted to see where Melbourne were heading (to which Gerard said "sign up now!") and also to see what Hogan would do (to which Gerard said "forget about it tom, as he is contracted until next year")

interesting 

Edited May 23, 2016 by The Song Formerly Known As

[dazzledavey36 54,806]

Agree with Gerard on this too. Whats the hold up Tom? You wanted to see where the club is going, well even Stevie Wonder could see the direction the club is going.

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

3 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Agree with Gerard on this too. Whats the hold up Tom? You wanted to see where the club is going, well even Stevie Wonder could see the direction the club is going.

Gerard has changed his tune massively on us this year. 

[Wiseblood 24,637]

Just now, The Song Formerly Known As said:

Gerard has changed his tune massively on us this year. 

And when you think about how bad we've been, you can see that Gerard has been right for most of that time.

He's right on Tom, too.  It would send an even bigger signal of the faith in the club if he signed up for another 3-4 years.

[Flemo56 396]

 

The way he's play'n would seem his mind is not on the job, maybe the Viney dumping at training and following grow up has upset him?

Edited May 23, 2016 by Flemo56

[P-man 13,366]

Looked a bit flat singing the song this week. Categorise it alongside Hogansmiling-gate.

 

[Adam The God 30,212]

41 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

And when you think about how bad we've been, you can see that Gerard has been right for most of that time.

He's right on Tom, too.  It would send an even bigger signal of the faith in the club if he signed up for another 3-4 years.

I wonder if our original offer will still be the same. I just wonder whether he's decreasing his value in the eyes of our club at the moment. He's struggling to adjust to our new-look zone defence, something Goody is clearly keen on pursuing into the future. Tom might be 23 (24 in September), but he'll play his 100th game this year. I expect more, so should the club.

[Adzman 2,154]

The dees have been keen to lock up players. Not sure what is going on with Tom. His good mate Grimes could be in another jumper next season which doesn't help.

 

[Members' Wing 1,106]

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Stuff him, tell him this is our offer take it Or Hopefully leave IT !! And rack off!

Dreadful post.

[Guest]

On 5/21/2016 at 8:02 PM, Macca said:

Frost ... he's got pace but is not good overhead and doesn't read the play all that well (on what we've seen)  Not sure he's much of a kick either and he doesn't get it enough to be able to judge his decision making.  Doesn't get to enough contests.

However, it's still early doors and he should be given more opportunities, all the same.  We won't have much choice - we're going to be coming up against some tall forward lines so Frost & O-Mac will get their chances.  Dunn needs to lift big time and there's no one else apart from Garland.  Aside from all that, the match committee haven't been all that interested in using Frost down back anyway.  Perhaps Pedersen could be tried down back but the off-season may provide more of the answers.

The MC are probably hoping the Diamond zone defence will cure our ills but again, it remains to be seen whether that can work or whether we can make it work with the personnel that we have.  If we get to 10+ wins it will tell us a story in terms of what we need and who we no longer need.  Those wins will answer some questions but the losses will pose other questions. 

I wouldn't be trading out T-Mac ... he's the only decent proven KPD that is on the list.  And we need at least 2 more.  Perhaps it's best to have 4 decent tall defenders on a list (given the injury factor and loss of form factor)  We really need Dunn to get back to his best form.

 

The difference between Frost and TMac in defence, is in the limited time I watched him play at GWS he doesn't overestimate his own ability. TMac tries to hit precision kicks over and over which hurt us, and he also just straight up isn't concentrating sometimes.

 

I'd be more than happy to trade out TMac provided we picked up a replacement and had Frost also in our best 22 as a defender.

[whatwhat say what 22,732]

He is still clearly our best tall defender.

[Macca 16,957]

16 hours ago, schmuttt said:

 

The difference between Frost and TMac in defence, is in the limited time I watched him play at GWS he doesn't overestimate his own ability. TMac tries to hit precision kicks over and over which hurt us, and he also just straight up isn't concentrating sometimes.

 

I'd be more than happy to trade out TMac provided we picked up a replacement and had Frost also in our best 22 as a defender.

Well Frost hasn't even been tried down back as yet but I hope all our players can do well to be perfectly honest.  Interesting that the MC up until now has preferred to use Frost in the forward line (in the seniors)

Right now, I'd rather see the positives.  The club is finally back on track and we're starting to win games.  Not all of our players are going to please all of our supporters all of the time but we're far from the finished product.  Mistakes happen all over the field, from all sorts of players.  Some get highlighted but many clangers/errors/mistakes fly under the radar.  We're a work in progress and we need to be patient. 

I wrote the following earlier in the thread and it best describes my reasoning with T-Mac ...

"Our smaller backs don't feed off T-Mac enough ... they should be either hovering around him for the quick handball or sprinting to position to create an easier transition out of defence.  We're often too static. 

A fast moving target can eliminate slow decision making - all our players (not just T-Mac) need to make quicker decisions but they all need to have more options who are on the move.  The best teams move the ball on instinctively at speed.  When our midfield is outpointed, our defence is then often under siege."

It's a credit to T-Mac that he so often creates a lot of time and space for himself but he often has seemingly too much time to think about what to do with the ball - that's where my possible solution (above) could help alleviate the issue of his turnovers. 

Anyway, if you want to trade Tom McDonald, so be it.  I'd much prefer to keep him.  Let's agree to disagree.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Macca

[demoniac 1,333]

Is generally terrible with ball in hand. Otherwise has all the attributes to be a good key defender. Reads the play well. Good overhead. Strong spoiler. Quick. Good endurance. But terrible with ball in hand. 

[mdemonski2 403]

Thought t Mac played really well against lions. Incredible athleticism and didn't try and do too much with ball in hand.

seems a pretty serious and unexcitable kind of a guy, so not sure I would read too much into how he sings the song post game

[Guest]

You can't say his best is elite when he gets smashed 1 on 1 by the best forwards. The only forwards he usually does well on are Cameron and J Riewoldt (Thought he beat Riewoldt this year, only one of the goals was his fault) and that is because they are more the athletic type, put him on someone with some muscle and he gets monstered.

[Soidee 1,496]

Hurley IN TMac OUT......just kidding, but Tom needs to get on his bike and sign 

[beelzebub 23,324]

Actually TMac needs to get  on his bike and pedal !!

[Atholwebb 110]

Gerard Healy recently said that Jason Dunstall has  a very good knowledge of what is going on with playing lists at football clubs. The fact that he asked Gerard about Tom Mac on Monday night in regard to him signing up has me now suspicious that the Hawks may be interested in him. I am sure other clubs will be as good tall, mobile defenders are hard to find. The Hawks have not replaced Lake and Gibson is now the wrong side of 30. Add to that the Melbourne contingent - Frawley, Fagan, Yze, Neitz, Bruce, Fitzpatrick and even Clarkson himself, a former player, then I think something could be on with the Hawks who will also have a lot of room in the salary cap. I hope we don’t lose him as he is too valuable a player and his mobility and one grab marks will be very hard to replace in defence. His weakness is his kicking at times.

 

[The Reverend 1,736]

Can't believe this thread still exists. The simple answer has always been NO!

Move on...nothing to see here.

 

Go DEES!

[MadAsHell 4,212]

We're  a key defender short as it is.

So the answer is no.

[KLV 1,765]

4 hours ago, Atholwebb said:

Gerard Healy recently said that Jason Dunstall has  a very good knowledge of what is going on with playing lists at football clubs. The fact that he asked Gerard about Tom Mac on Monday night in regard to him signing up has me now suspicious that the Hawks may be interested in him. I am sure other clubs will be as good tall, mobile defenders are hard to find. The Hawks have not replaced Lake and Gibson is now the wrong side of 30. Add to that the Melbourne contingent - Frawley, Fagan, Yze, Neitz, Bruce, Fitzpatrick and even Clarkson himself, a former player, then I think something could be on with the Hawks who will also have a lot of room in the salary cap. I hope we don’t lose him as he is too valuable a player and his mobility and one grab marks will be very hard to replace in defence. His weakness is his kicking at times.

 

Yeah, gotta love those Hawks.

[Left Field 313]

Most of his errors come from trying to create run from the back half. Unfortunately either his skill level or composure often seem to fail him when attacking.

But he is strong and good overhead so he would be a good one dimensional Gorilla- stopper if he stayed at home.

At 23 he is currently rated inside the top 100 players in the ratings which is good.

Frankly I don't care either way. The recruiters seem to be in a good space lately so I'd back them to trade well.

 

 

[ILLDieADemon 804]

When we sucked everyone loved this guy now we are winning games people want him gone?!

How does that work??