To insinuate that any player who doesn't reach the level of James Hird is to be laughed at.
It is ridiculous because, when he signed his contract, he was one of out best players. As an off-shoot of that, he was one of our highest paid. As a further extension, given the nature of the salary cap season, he will then naturally be amongst the top 50 or so paid of all clubs (top 3 of each).
It becomes even more skewed when top clubs (the Geelongs etc.) need to spread the same coin amongst more players, meaning their top players are paid less. It irks me to say that a player such as Bruce has underperformed because of the money he was paid - he was paid what he was worth to the club, and a B&F and very consistent output would IMO justify that.
Now, the fact that Bruce was one of our best players of the past few years highlights why we haven't made finals in that time, but that's beside the point. To claim that a player picked up at pick 64 and played over 200 games, vice captained the club and won a B&F disappointed or underperformed is ludicrous IMO.
He got the best out of himself and his ability. To do less than this would be underperforming or disappointing.