On 8/27/2020 at 12:12 PM, Axis of Bob said:

The problem with Polec is that he looks good to spectators but terrible to coaches. That's because coaches know a lot more about what things a player does away from the ball (they have vision, GPS data etc), especially this year when spectators can only watch the game on TV. Spectators only watch the player with the football or in the direct contest, often yelling "kick the bloody thing!" without realising that there's nobody to kick to (which is either outside of screen or they just don't notice). 

Polec is not a team first footballer, and he's not good enough or impactful enough for coaches to tolerate that. Especially new coaches rebuilding a club that requires good habits to be instilled first (like Shaw is trying to do at North). Polec gets good numbers, but but there's a reason why teams haven't tried especially hard to keep him.

Think about it this way: In round 8 he had 25 touches (16 contested) and a goal in a close loss to Carlton where he will probably poll 3 Brownlow votes. He was immediately dropped, and North beat Adelaide by 10 goals!! He came back in, played two ordinary games,  was dropped and was has been out of the side since. The overwhelming likelihood is that he is not following the coach's instructions (probably defensively) and that is a massive red flag in an AFL environment that requires team defence and attack more than ever. Clearly the coaches don't trust him to play his part in that.

I don't want him because he's doesn't bring enough to the team to outweigh the many red flags that his career has raised to this point. 

That game against Carlton he was meant to be tagging Cripps apparently....it is why he got dropped.

He is an outside player and i think he would actually compliment our side pretty well on the other wing.  i can imagine him having a fallout with Shaw if he is asking him to tag inside midfield bulls, it is not his thing.

Will be his last chance at a 4th AFL club.  He will be desperate to make it work.  Easily in our best 22, massive upgrade for our wing opposite Langdon.  Be silly not to interview him especially if North are going to pay fair portion of his wage.

33 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

That game against Carlton he was meant to be tagging Cripps apparently....it is why he got dropped.

He is an outside player and i think he would actually compliment our side pretty well on the other wing.  i can imagine him having a fallout with Shaw if he is asking him to tag inside midfield bulls, it is not his thing.

This is pretty bizarre coaching if true?

North has a seemingly endless supply of bigger bodied mids, why on earth would having Polec run with him help anyone?

5 minutes ago, BW511 said:

This is pretty bizarre coaching if true?

North has a seemingly endless supply of bigger bodied mids, why on earth would having Polec run with him help anyone?

It's pretty laughable but there are rumours out there that he was meant to be tagging Cripps lol.  Shaw might be another Goodwin, trying to put certain players in unfamiliar position is my only reasonable explanation.

 Other rumour that Harmes is asking his manager to look at options.  If true i would say in both cases it is clear the player is not happy out of their best position.  I could see it in both cases, both are somewhat out of favour!

I'd have him. Watched him last night. He is very outside and waits in space to get used as Landgon does. Fit perfectly for us. 

4th club is a red flag but I believe Port very much wanted to keep him just North came up with a massive offer as they missed on everyone else they chased prior. Left Brisbane with not much form to return home. 

20 minutes ago, Pulp Fritschon said:

I'd have him. Watched him last night. He is very outside and waits in space to get used as Landgon does. Fit perfectly for us. 

4th club is a red flag but I believe Port very much wanted to keep him just North came up with a massive offer as they missed on everyone else they chased prior. Left Brisbane with not much form to return home. 

Martin Pike says hello :) ? 

30 minutes ago, Pulp Fritschon said:

I'd have him. Watched him last night. He is very outside and waits in space to get used as Landgon does. Fit perfectly for us. 

4th club is a red flag but I believe Port very much wanted to keep him just North came up with a massive offer as they missed on everyone else they chased prior. Left Brisbane with not much form to return home. 

He is on big money, would pass for that reason prefer Langdon especially if he cleans up his kicking.

2 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

Martin Pike says hello :) ? 

One swallow

10 hours ago, Moonshadow said:

One swallow

my point is - that outcomes are not preordained.

Selections from an article in the Herald Sun...

The Demons have shown some interest but are unlikely to part with more than a late draft pick to nab the speedster.

Melbourne is also not prepared to overpay for Polec who signed a bumper deal to move from Port Adelaide to North Melbourne at the end of 2018.

Melbourne is in the market for some more speed and polish to complement its hard nut midfield brigade as Simon Goodwin’s men attempt to break back into the top-eight next season.

Polec could help improve the Demons’ delivery and finishing skills in the forward half of the ground but Melbourne haven’t made any promises to him.

It means that while Polec is on the Dees’ radar, he is not seen as a must-have in the November exchange period.

The Demons are likely to try and meet with Polec and establish his intentions for next season and seek feedback on where things broke down at North Melbourne.

I'm going on nothing more than assumption, but our interest in Polec is probably directly related to if we can offload Tom McDonald's contract.

Do that, and have Norf pay for some of Polec's contract, and I can see it happening.  Otherwise I can't see us fitting him in our salary cap.

God I love the smell of trade napalm in the morninf

47 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

I'm going on nothing more than assumption, but our interest in Polec is probably directly related to if we can offload Tom McDonald's contract.

Do that, and have Norf pay for some of Polec's contract, and I can see it happening.  Otherwise I can't see us fitting him in our salary cap.

Exactly the same feeling i had reading that Wise.

Edited September 23, 20204 yr by dazzledavey36

I heard Polec's contract was heavily front-loaded - again it may not be right, but he might not be as expensive in terms of TPP as many assume.

2 hours ago, Lord Nev said:

The Demons are likely to try and meet with Polec and establish his intentions for next season and seek feedback on where things broke down at North Melbourne.

My understanding at North is that Shaw doesn't listen...

...even though it's Polec's 3rd club, he may not be fully to blame for being on the outer.

He is the type of player we could do with...leg speed, foot skills.

11 minutes ago, rjay said:

 

...even though it's Polec's 3rd club, he may not be fully to blame for being on the outer.

 

He left Brisbane in an exodus due to the culture.  Understandable.

He left Port because he got offered an insanely prosperous contract by North.  Understandable

He will leave North because they are now coached by a Shaw. Also understandable.

Edited September 23, 20204 yr by grazman

On 8/26/2020 at 1:31 PM, Demon3 said:

Salem is slow cant play on teh outside IMO.

 Can't tackle either. Nice left foot tho. 

On 9/18/2020 at 5:26 PM, Engorged Onion said:

Martin Pike says hello :) ? 

Hi Pikey. Wished they got rid of Jeff Hilton than you. Was probably his fault you punched him out too.

North 2019 - 7th (Ben Cunnington 242, Robbie Tarrant 227, Todd Goldstein 192*, Trent Dumont 192, Ben Brown 190*, Jack Ziebell 190, Jared Polec 184, Shaun Higgins 170, Jasper Pittard 169, Shaun Atley 158)

Port 2018 - 5th (1. Justin Westhoff 179 , 2. Tom Jonas 162, 2. Ollie Wines 162, 4. Robbie Gray 152, 5. Jared Polec 151, 6. Chad Wingard 143, 7. Darcy Byrne-Jones 139 8. Dan Houston 131, 9. Travis Boak 126, 10. Tom Clurey 110)

Port 2017 - 22 games, Not top 10

Port 2016 - 17 games, not top 10

Port 2015 - 5 games

Port 2014 - 24 games - not top 10

So he didn't get a lot of votes earlier in his career but the two years prior to his one he's been surrounded by very good footballers in the Port count and behind some handy names at North.

There's probably enough evidence to say he's not perfect but he does bring a fair bit to the table.

On 8/27/2020 at 12:12 PM, Axis of Bob said:

Polec is not a team first footballer, and he's not good enough or impactful enough for coaches to tolerate that. Especially new coaches rebuilding a club that requires good habits to be instilled first (like Shaw is trying to do at North). Polec gets good numbers, but but there's a reason why teams haven't tried especially hard to keep him.

Think about it this way: In round 8 he had 25 touches (16 contested) and a goal in a close loss to Carlton where he will probably poll 3 Brownlow votes. He was immediately dropped, and North beat Adelaide by 10 goals!! He came back in, played two ordinary games,  was dropped and was has been out of the side since. The overwhelming likelihood is that he is not following the coach's instructions (probably defensively) and that is a massive red flag in an AFL environment that requires team defence and attack more than ever. Clearly the coaches don't trust him to play his part in that.

Is Shaw attempting to build good habits or is he a desperate young coach preaching a mantra of contest and physicality because he doesn't have the ability to teach skills and ball movement?

Shaw has decided that at age 27 despite playing the same way for his career Polec needs to add hardness and contested ball winning. So he sends him to tag Cripps. A move that pretty much anyone would suggest isn't smart. It's a disaster. He then frees up Polec from the tag - but still has him play on ball - and he gets 25 touches and is key part to North's comeback.

David Teague gave Polec the 4 coaches votes in that game. So he was clearly aware of his value.

Polec is nearly 28 and on a fat contract for 3 more years that will likely still be chunky no matter which was you slice it, so that's a concern. And whether it's the defensive running, lack of hardness at the contest of very left sided-ness there's certainly some concerns. But it's also an opportunity where you've got a coach putting his foot down for whatever reason and very much devaluing an asset. 

If we're smart we down play it and don't show any more interest than the possibility of doing North a favour and taking a bit of cash from their books. Like the Cats with Josh Jenkins. Have it all happen late and with a minimum of interest. But if we get him stuff all there's no way he's not a huge improvement on what we have.

1 hour ago, rjay said:

My understanding at North is that Shaw doesn't listen...

...even though it's Polec's 3rd club, he may not be fully to blame for being on the outer.

He is the type of player we could do with...leg speed, foot skills.

Would definintely want North to pay a chunk of his contract 

1 hour ago, 4_Kent_Watts said:

Hi Pikey. Wished they got rid of Jeff Hilton than you. Was probably his fault you punched him out too.

Was it Jeff's fault Pike punched out the young woman who was the coach's PA when she said he wasn't in the office?

9 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Is Shaw attempting to build good habits or is he a desperate young coach preaching a mantra of contest and physicality because he doesn't have the ability to teach skills and ball movement?

Shaw has decided that at age 27 despite playing the same way for his career Polec needs to add hardness and contested ball winning. So he sends him to tag Cripps. A move that pretty much anyone would suggest isn't smart. It's a disaster. He then frees up Polec from the tag - but still has him play on ball - and he gets 25 touches and is key part to North's comeback.

David Teague gave Polec the 4 coaches votes in that game. So he was clearly aware of his value.

Polec is nearly 28 and on a fat contract for 3 more years that will likely still be chunky no matter which was you slice it, so that's a concern. And whether it's the defensive running, lack of hardness at the contest of very left sided-ness there's certainly some concerns. But it's also an opportunity where you've got a coach putting his foot down for whatever reason and very much devaluing an asset. 

If we're smart we down play it and don't show any more interest than the possibility of doing North a favour and taking a bit of cash from their books. Like the Cats with Josh Jenkins. Have it all happen late and with a minimum of interest. But if we get him stuff all there's no way he's not a huge improvement on what we have.

Get him in ! CAN Play!

On 8/26/2020 at 1:29 PM, Lord Travis said:

He's obviously not worth what he's being paid, but on talent and output he's better than a ton of players running around in the league.

Round 8 he was BOG, had 25 disposals, 16 contested, 6 tackles, 1 goal... he got dropped. He's not being judged fairly on his output as North are a basketcase with poor culture. 

I'd wanna know if there's bad off-field issues. Moving to a fourth AFL club rings alarm bells there. If there are no off-field issues causing these moves, then I'd gladly take him for the right price. On talent and output he's a better player than half our 22 and he'd own a wing and pair nicely with Langdon in that regard.

He is that outside mid-fielder with class that would really suit us. Not sure about the coin but in the right team he could be a match winner. It compliments our midfield and I think we could become a very dangerous midfield with his addition. There is a spot waiting for him that we are sorely missing. I don't understand our desire to pick up another backman. Midfielders and half forwards with class. Yes please.

Just on North, I reckon the coach can't coach and they are all gettable. In a terrible, terrible place. Like at the beginning of our decade of bottom four results. Hope we get to play them twice next year.

He’s soft and doesn’t tackle. Can’t get a game at north. 
where do we sign??

I am not sold in him, but, we need outside run and skill, he has both.

And he want missing a game at north because he is no good, he was missing a game as they were trying to send a message, playing him in the wrong spot and didn’t give a crap about him playing or them winning.

Sounds a bit like Harmes for me this season. Playing poorly in the wrong position, and then people forget what he can actually do.

I would take Polec, on a reduced salary and I wouldn’t be giving north much if possible.