40 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Yes she is extremely wrong. 
it is about winning Flags

Ben will do very nicely from now on, could get another Flag before he retires. 
Sets up many opportunities for later…

 

Players put a lot of work in to win flags but if that was the sole aim the top 22 would all take base wages and join up at a super team.

Playing with your mates is a huge part of it too. That’s why guys stay loyal at struggling clubs as long as they get offered a fair wage.

Ben got a fair wage from North and his manager turned it down even though he was carrying a bung knee.

So if Ben turned down the offer based on finances he made a mistake. If he wanted to leave north for success and other reasons he made the right call. My guess is he turned it down for cash but ended up eventually leaving when the North situation became untenable. 

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

Wasn’t incorrect though. Brown is on far less than that deal he turned down. He is probably happier than he would be if he sign that deal with NM but still a lot less cash.

Great for us tho. $1.8m over 4 years I think it is. Bargain.

Sure, if you’re driven purely by money, which Caro obviously is. 

I’m thinking Ben will be aiming at a career in media. He should. That open mike he did was brilliant. 
Now being a premiership player, will more than cover the $ he lost.

Just a note on North;

They didn’t learn from Harvey, Petrie ect.

Terrible way to treat a player, especially the face of tassie when they are trying to make inroads.

Compare that to the way we dealt with Weid, Tmac and Nibbler.

Ben is one of my favourites at the club. When there was talk about him joining us I thought he'd fit right in and that has shown to be the case thankfully. He might also be our first carbon neutral signing. 

37 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Players put a lot of work in to win flags but if that was the sole aim the top 22 would all take base wages and join up at a super team.

Playing with your mates is a huge part of it too. That’s why guys stay loyal at struggling clubs as long as they get offered a fair wage.

Ben got a fair wage from North and his manager turned it down even though he was carrying a bung knee.

So if Ben turned down the offer based on finances he made a mistake. If he wanted to leave north for success and other reasons he made the right call. My guess is he turned it down for cash but ended up eventually leaving when the North situation became untenable. 

If North had really wanted Brown, they would have renegotiated and kept him. They didn’t. Simple as that

He had kicked 60+ goals each year, over 3 seasons between 2017-19, which in todays game is high Currency 

Yes his knee needed some work, but as we saw, once it was right, he was good to go. 
Brown moved all over the ground this year, he was no longer a stay at home Full Forward 

He made a very shrewd decision 

I have on very good authority his partner was very divisive. North wanted her out more than him.

We just won the premiership but that is why we got him in a fire sale. 

 

46 minutes ago, Marty said:

I’m thinking Ben will be aiming at a career in media. He should. That open mike he did was brilliant. 
Now being a premiership player, will more than cover the $ he lost.

Just a note on North;

They didn’t learn from Harvey, Petrie ect.

Terrible way to treat a player, especially the face of tassie when they are trying to make inroads.

Compare that to the way we dealt with Weid, Tmac and Nibbler.

We tried to boot out T Mac and Nibbler whilst they were contracted and no one wanted them. If another team had come for Tom McDonald last year we would've gladly paid some of his wage for him to play elsewhere.

We seemed happy to let Weid go but no one wanted him either.

Harvey was 38, Petrie was 34. I don't really see the link.

Ben Brown they offered a decent deal to given his injury history. He declined as is his right. The relationship broke down for a number of reasons, they pulled their offer as is their right, and sent him to a team that wanted him for a fair trade/contract. 

There's questions for North to answer about their medical management of Benny. And in ways that relationship between club and player broke down and family dynamics. I'd suggest it's clear North in 2020 wasn't going all that well with coaching, fitness and a whole raft of issues. But when it came time for Ben to move on I don't think the way they handled that was wrong. Fortunately for them they've invested a fair bit to changing their coaching and management over the last year.

I can't be bothered finding it, but when I opened this thread I assumed it would be about Caro's opinion about half-way through the season that we couldn't win the premiership.  She was wrong on that too!

31 minutes ago, Wrecker46 said:

I have on very good authority his partner was very divisive. North wanted her out more than him.

We just won the premiership but that is why we got him in a fire sale. 

 

They are fairly “alternative”. But once you cross the white line….

I'm always a little staggered whenever anyone makes a decision based on money after the point their income breaks $10,000/week.

All just seems a bit silly.

" I'm a 29 year old who has already paid off a lovely house and has a million dollars worth of other personal savings. I know I'll be coming home to my wife and kids miserable and distant every day, but the extra 10-15% on the contract makes it all worthwhile."

17 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

We tried to boot out T Mac and Nibbler whilst they were contracted and no one wanted them. If another team had come for Tom McDonald last year we would've gladly paid some of his wage for him to play elsewhere.

We seemed happy to let Weid go but no one wanted him either.

Harvey was 38, Petrie was 34. I don't really see the link.

Ben Brown they offered a decent deal to given his injury history. He declined as is his right. The relationship broke down for a number of reasons, they pulled their offer as is their right, and sent him to a team that wanted him for a fair trade/contract. 

There's questions for North to answer about their medical management of Benny. And in ways that relationship between club and player broke down and family dynamics. I'd suggest it's clear North in 2020 wasn't going all that well with coaching, fitness and a whole raft of issues. But when it came time for Ben to move on I don't think the way they handled that was wrong. Fortunately for them they've invested a fair bit to changing their coaching and management over the last year.

Good summary.

3 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Yeah, I'm really not a Caro fan, to put it politely.  Your second paragraph could sum up any given week for her.  More often than  not all about stiring up the dregs of rumor and innuendo of the AFL.

Brown to the MFC was such a winner for both these parties in my eyes from day dot.  Wow, imagine picking up the leading goal scorer across the previous 4 seasons for practically nothing?  The way he was clunking them in the last 3 or 4 games, you can tell he's got his mojo back again.

Now I'm just salivating at the thought of BBB kicking multiple huge bags over the next few seasons on every other week when it's not Fritta, Weid, T Mac or Kossie that does the damage!!!

Hopefully he continues to play his role: getting up and down the ground, competing and kicking 1 - 4 goals.

Anyone notice how he has quickened his goal kicking routine: still the same huge runup, but gets back quickly and runs in quickly?

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

That assumes Ben wanted to leave North, which I doubt early on in 2020 or definitely before that he didn’t want to. If he wanted to stay at North he turned down a contract that with time was more than fair.

He also joined Melbourne. Didn’t exact jump to Hawthorn post 2013 or Geelong post 2007.

Brian Lake 2.0

Didn't he decide to take the deal and North took it off the table. 

Caro generally gets more right than wrong. However, she has one substantial failing and that is an inability to acknowledge when she's got it wrong. Nevertheless, I can live with that because she's really the only journo who holds the AFL administration to account. 

47 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

We tried to boot out T Mac and Nibbler whilst they were contracted and no one wanted them. If another team had come for Tom McDonald last year we would've gladly paid some of his wage for him to play elsewhere.

We seemed happy to let Weid go but no one wanted him either.

Harvey was 38, Petrie was 34. I don't really see the link.

Ben Brown they offered a decent deal to given his injury history. He declined as is his right. The relationship broke down for a number of reasons, they pulled their offer as is their right, and sent him to a team that wanted him for a fair trade/contract. 

There's questions for North to answer about their medical management of Benny. And in ways that relationship between club and player broke down and family dynamics. I'd suggest it's clear North in 2020 wasn't going all that well with coaching, fitness and a whole raft of issues. But when it came time for Ben to move on I don't think the way they handled that was wrong. Fortunately for them they've invested a fair bit to changing their coaching and management over the last year.

Is this fact?

100% not!!

“We tried to boot Tmac and Nibbler out” ?

It was done respectfully and I believe offers were made but we wanted more and valued them in the team more than a packet of crisps!

Respect is Key! Show a little, gain a lot. Something our club didn’t do well in the past.

1 hour ago, Wrecker46 said:

I have on very good authority his partner was very divisive. North wanted her out more than him.

You leave Yoko Brown out of this.

14 minutes ago, Marty said:

Is this fact?

100% not!!

“We tried to boot Tmac and Nibbler out” ?

It was done respectfully and I believe offers were made but we wanted more and valued them in the team more than a packet of crisps!

Respect is Key! Show a little, gain a lot. Something our club didn’t do well in the past.

Neal-Bullen was told to explore his options, that's just about definitive to see if he can find a new home. We had more picks than we ended up using last year, I doubt we would've been haggling over the price.

Tommy there was clearly an imperative to move off some of his contract. I doubt we would've given him away if we had to pay for the full deal too but it wouldn't have taken much of a draft pick if someone would take on a share of the cash.

They were contracted so they stayed. The respectful thing we did was tell them upfront they might move on and welcome them back in to the club when nothing came about.

4 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Professional sportspeople play to win the ultimate prize. Of course she was wrong. Journalists love to go off early and make ridiculous statements, more should be called out when incorrect. 

If she was genuine, rather than seeking a good headline, she would have referred to the breakdwon in the Brown/Kangas relationship due to unreasonable demands made re: brown and Hub life in 2020.

He was always leaving. Just to whom , and we got him.

1 hour ago, Wrecker46 said:

I have on very good authority his partner was very divisive. North wanted her out more than him.

We just won the premiership but that is why we got him in a fire sale. 

 

She had every right to be. Kangas behaviour was less than sympathetic.

30 minutes ago, Marty said:

Is this fact?

100% not!!

“We tried to boot Tmac and Nibbler out” ?

It was done respectfully and I believe offers were made but we wanted more and valued them in the team more than a packet of crisps!

Respect is Key! Show a little, gain a lot. Something our club didn’t do well in the past.

"We respectfully tried to boot Tmac and Nibbler out"

And Tmac in particular said that no other club offered a realistic contract and that is why is he still here - we were going to pay a large proportion of his wage so we were giving him away.

No-one was serious in their interest and the rest is history.

A premiership sets you up for life.

Pie nights,Jumper nights,Speaking engagements,media ,"journalism",Ads etc.

So Caros figures were wrong.

 

12 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Neal-Bullen was told to explore his options, that's just about definitive to see if he can find a new home. We had more picks than we ended up using last year, I doubt we would've been haggling over the price.

Tommy there was clearly an imperative to move off some of his contract. I doubt we would've given him away if we had to pay for the full deal too but it wouldn't have taken much of a draft pick if someone would take on a share of the cash.

They were contracted so they stayed. The respectful thing we did was tell them upfront they might move on and welcome them back in to the club when nothing came about.

Where as Brown was told quite publicly to find another home. Your extension offer has been withdrawn.

Compare that to Weids!!

I could go on and on comparing Jones and Jetta retirements to Harvey and Petrie. But I won’t.

19 minutes ago, Marty said:

Where as Brown was told quite publicly to find another home. Your extension offer has been withdrawn.

Compare that to Weids!!

I could go on and on comparing Jones and Jetta retirements to Harvey and Petrie. But I won’t.

No one wanted Weids, we aren't rebuilding and the club relationship isn't fractured. There's no real comparison. It's completely apples and oranges.

Maybe Jeremy Howe or Lynden Dunn might compare with Ben Brown.

Jones was nursed to 300, then made the sub, then never seen from again. For all the positivity if we weren't winning it would've looked just as bad. Jetta fell out of the side and it was more than clear that he was done.

North may not have handled those veterans but they were both ancient declining players but still in the best 22 in a finals team. That's tricky. Clubs have to make tricky calls. We made a super harsh call a few years ago on Daniel Cross. It was correct, but it was tough as anything and I believe Crossy wasn't all that happy. The club patched it over and he got a gig in the fitness department and was great but purely from a footballing perspective it was hard. 

She is just typical of the sewer rats in the media