It takes quite a bit to baffle former Kangaroo hardman Glenn Archer. The only things that seem to baffle the hardest man to ever play the game are being able to hold an opinion on something other than North Melbourne when on Footy Classified and understanding why most people put locks on the toilet doors in their homes.
In fact, if that last conundrum hadn’t puzzled Archer, Wayne Carey would still be captain and Anthony Stevens’ access to his kids would be greater than every second weekend.
Another topic which has baffled Archer, as well as most of the general football public, is Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley’s proclamation that star young ruckman Hamish McIntosh was a potential trade option this week.
Adopting the “giving too much information away” trading strategy usually implemented by Fremantle, resulting in trades like Chris Groom for Andrew McLeod, Laidley accidentally read the part of his media brief with the heading NOT FOR THE MEDIA aloud to the media and mentioned the club were looking to dispose of McIntosh, forward Corey Jones and centreman Daniel Harris.
While stunned at the news, Archer doesn’t believe any deal involving McIntosh will go through.
“I can’t see them going through with it, if they do it would be pretty illogical, but you never know,” he said with a comment that rightly doesn’t rule anything stupid out when past trading and drafting history for North Melbourne shows acquisitions such as Ricky Olarenshaw (2000), Ben Davies (2008), Brad Plain (1996), Julian Kirzner (1997), David Bourke (2003), Jade Rawlings (2006), Joe McLaren (2001), David Calthorpe (2000), Lance Picioane (2005), Ben Robbins (2002) and the late Gary Dhurrkay (1999).
Given the state of North’s stuck-in-the-middle list, whereby they’re not good enough to win a premiership but not bad enough to bottom out for early draft picks, it is somewhat understandable that the club may want to cleanout some dead wood. Jones and Harris we could see.
The former is a flakey, soft, inconsistent forward who parlayed his way into a fat contract on the back of one good season, while the latter is a slightly worse version of Shane O’Bree, which makes him a slightly better version of Adam Bentick.
But trading a 203 cm stud with All-Australian potential seems ludicrous when the club doing the trading has so few valuable assets, whether on-field or off, that McIntosh comes in at number two on a list of most important Kangaroo resources behind that mini-bus Archer bought for the club a few years ago.
Upon hearing the news, McIntosh, as well as most Roos supporters, had that same feeling of disbelief and shock that punters at the annual Archer family barbecue had in 2002 when they opened up the toilet door. In both instances a faulty knob was to blame; although calling Laidley a knob may be an insult to knobs everywhere.
The worst aspect from a Kangaroos perspective, besides pissing off their best young player, is the fact that said best young player was re-signed to a three-year contract earlier this year after making the All-Australian final 40 list with a stellar 2007 season, meaning if a trade can’t be reached, they now have an unhappy player on their list for the next three years.
So, at the end of this debacle, here’s what we have:
A club with a dearth of talented youngsters wants to trade their most talented youngster, a man who wants to stay at the club, and who was re-signed on a fat new contract a matter of weeks ago.
Why would North want to trade this same player away?
Archer’s right, it is totally “illogical,” which makes Best Clubman wonder if there’s some sort of non-footballing issue at play.
Can anyone account for the whereabouts of Adam Simpson’s wife Nicky and McIntosh in the early hours of the morning after the Brownlow?
mark hurkmans
Guest
north have to look to trade some quality to get players that they need - or earlier draft picks. our big man department is one area where we have a number of good quality players; hale, mcintosh, petrie with goldsten looking okay as well. what we need is some pace and quality ball use in the mid-field - if having to get rid of a good player to try and improve our position on the ladder has to be accepted. additionally, hamish did not look fit at any time this year, perhaps his good 2007 went to his head and he didn't put in the same work - perhaps laidley's comments were an attempt to make hamish realise that his position at north, and his career in general, should not be taken for granted. l think that 2008 was positive in thata number of young kids showed some promise and that we made the finals with some injuries and a number of senior players having little impact. without taking chances we will continue to finish around midfield on the ladder without seriously threatening for a flag.
Michael C
Guest
The Rooboys suffered severely over a period of time for a minimal budget - - and even had a rookieless season one year - - it's not surprising that they've struggled in the area of draft success (as that requires workers on the ground - - talent spotting etc, and also requires player development). The 2002 draft probably says it all for North - 6 picks in the top 40 (38 to be exact) - - and out of that, what's still there, just 6 years on when these guys should all be around 50 games and ready to shine. D.Wells(2) - 123 games, H.McIntosh(9) 57 games and the subject of the trade embarrassment this year, Kris Shore(18) (no games, gone), Callum Urch(25) 8 games and gone, Joel Perry(31) 8 games and gone, and Blake Grima(38) 15 games and just hanging on (or has he been delisted?). The sad indictment being that most of these guys who got only a handful of games, would invariably get a single game in isolation.....and then dropped - - never backed in to gain some form of senior level momentum. With the inability to 'develop' talent, no wonder North often attempted recycling. btw - Ben Robbins was chosen at 54 in 2001 draft, immediately ahead of Brad Miller, Paul Medhurst, another 2 away was Dane Swan, another 2 away to Adam Schneider and another 2 away to Damon White. Actually, the bigger blunder was probably Ash Watson at pick 14. However, fair enough, all teams have the odd hit and miss and ARE forced via the draft system to 'churn' their list.