AFL Player # 1: Andrew "Pidge" McGrath (VC)

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2030
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 13, Vindicater

 

[Vindicater]

What is the jogging about? Is that just poor overall team standards, or a fitness issue, or something else?

Fitness is my guess. He looks absolutely gassed.

 

[citizen-erased]

What can I say ? His form has fallen away . He jogs around a lot. We spent pick one on a converted half back flank who did play some good footy as a defender in the first half of the year but has lost all form. The fail for me is not that we picked a B grade player with pick one. The fail was actually picking a 179cm bloke to play in the midfield with two other 180cm blokes. At the time I thought I could see their reasoning in that they where picking a guy that had some dash to break the lines but then the next confusing phase was they tried to turn him into an inside midfielder.

Big year next year
Off contract. Hits free agency. Still has some hype about him. There'd be clubs who could see him as a missing link (lions as a rich/zorko replacement).

Do we have the spine to swallow letting a pick one walk out the door for the betterment of the rebuild though.

 

[Nicholas61]

Bio: Andrew uses his elite pace

Lies make baby jesus cry

Remember the AFL videos at the time - I think Clug was the Rolls Royce, Marshall the Spearhead and Andy was the Jet.

They all lied to us.

 

[citizen-erased]

Remember the AFL videos at the time - I think Clug was the Rolls Royce, Marshall the Spearhead and Andy was the Jet.

They all lied to us.

And taranto just your run of the mill inside mid.

 

[doug85]

Big year next year
Off contract. Hits free agency. Still has some hype about him. There'd be clubs who could see him as a missing link (lions as a rich/zorko replacement).

Do we have the spine to swallow letting a pick one walk out the door for the betterment of the rebuild though.

I wonder if we put him on the table this year.

 

[yodellinhank]

Fitness is my guess. He looks absolutely gassed.

Been gassed for a while then. I remember Redman running past him against Port after he had a fair head start.

 

[TurnOnTheBrightLights]

I wonder if we put him on the table this year.

Would love it - cant see Brad putting up the VC, talk about your all time shock and awe tactics.

 

[doug85]

Would love it - cant see Brad putting up the VC, talk about your all time shock and awe tactics.

Would send a strong message

 

[jdstorm]

I wonder if we put him on the table this year.

I’d be interested to see what other teams think he’s worth.

One of the hard parts about performing poorly on the field is it tends to make a players poor qualities very obvious to the point where they might be worth more to you then to anyone else.

A free list spot and a 2nd round pick probably isn’t enough for him to be worth moving . Don’t think anyone else will offer more

 

[MightyDon]

I’d take a packet of chips

 

[Milanista28]

He's playing another 150 games for this club, no question about it.

ffs

 

[doug85]

I’d be interested to see what other teams think he’s worth.

One of the hard parts about performing poorly on the field is it tends to make a players poor qualities very obvious to the point where they might be worth more to you then to anyone else.

A free list spot and a 2nd round pick probably isn’t enough for him to be worth moving . Don’t think anyone else will offer more

Something in the early 20s would be nice. Maybe I’m dreaming

 

[jdstorm]

Something in the early 20s would be nice. Maybe I’m dreaming

Given his value is mostly to good teams I’d suspect it would be in the 30s rather then 20s but I’m not sure who has those pics

If anything you’d be better off seeing if paying a chunk of his contract could get you into the late first but still don’t see much of a market for a small defender who can’t kick

 

[P Money]

I mentioned this a week or two ago. Hoping Scott drops him moving forward.

Scott dropping a senior player who offers 'leadership'? flipping lol

 

[doug85]

Given his value is mostly to good teams I’d suspect it would be in the 30s rather then 20s but I’m not sure who has those pics

If anything you’d be better off seeing if paying a chunk of his contract could get you into the late first but still don’t see much of a market for a small defender who can’t kick

He’s under contract so I guess we could play a bit of hardball in getting those teams to trade up?

 

[MiguelM]

I doubt they put the feelers out as he is in the leadership group.

Though Daniher & Fantasia were also, but they wanted out.

 

[doug85]

I doubt they put the feelers out as he is in the leadership group.

Though Daniher & Fantasia were also, but they wanted out.

I’m not sure this time. Apparently Vozzo and Scott are making the calls this time around. If it was dodo I’d say there’s zero chance he’s out due to the sunk cost. Not sure Vozzo or Scott will GAF.

 

[eth-dog]

I think trading him would be stupid tbh. How quickly everyone forgets how his form pre-bye (where we actually had midfield and forward pressure) was excellent.

Yes he's had a bad second half of the year, but that's also due to the fact that we've had no pressure up the field.

 

[Burzum]

McGrath puts on zero pressure.

 

[thebigboy]

Might just be me being still dirty from the weekend, but has anyone seen the post on Instagram? Last one is him & Setterfield thanking us for the support and it looks like he's trying to be goofy with it.

Call me a miserable pr**k but maybe just pretend to show that you give a shit by being a bit serious, especially if you're the VC.

 

[MightyDon]

Drop him from VC, he needs to get his own game in order, if next year is much the same gotta see if any other clubs are interested. If this is his ceiling what an absolute flop

 

[bombreys]

I’m not sure this time. Apparently Vozzo and Scott are making the calls this time around. If it was dodo I’d say there’s zero chance he’s out due to the sunk cost. Not sure Vozzo or Scott will GAF.

If they want Heppell to stick around, I’d dare say McGrath’s here for at least another decade

 

[P Money]

Don't want to pile on this guy and I'm probably repeating myself on this thread but geez he just epitomises Essendon at the moment. Such a nice kid, private school captain, 'good family' - must be a great leader! Mark my words he'll be a one club player, get picked every week regardless of form, probably be our next captain and get gifted contracts for 2-3 years after he's clearly fallen off a cliff because of his amazing leadership. He really is Heppell 2.0

 

[doug85]

Don't want to pile on this guy and I'm probably repeating myself on this thread but geez he just epitomises Essendon at the moment. Such a nice kid, private school captain, 'good family' - must be a great leader! Mark my words he'll be a one club player, get picked every week regardless of form, probably be our next captain and get gifted contracts for 2-3 years after he's clearly fallen off a cliff because of his amazing leadership. He really is Heppell 2.0

Not sure about the second half of the rant, but can definitely see the analogy. Middling player that was hyped to do great things. Very Essendon.

 

[ant555]

Don't want to pile on this guy and I'm probably repeating myself on this thread but geez he just epitomises Essendon at the moment. Such a nice kid, private school captain, 'good family' - must be a great leader! Mark my words he'll be a one club player, get picked every week regardless of form, probably be our next captain and get gifted contracts for 2-3 years after he's clearly fallen off a cliff because of his amazing leadership. He really is Heppell 2.0

I think it may be impossible for them to ignore Hobbs as captain once Merrett is done .
Agree with what you say. McGrath is just too nice and we have too many nice players.