07-11-2024, 02:01 AM
(07-11-2024, 12:52 AM)LP link Wrote:How do you take someone who is not quite up to fulltime AFL standards, but has the leadership quality you need, and keep them happy playing VFL?Making the Club somewhere you don't want to leave helps, but these guys are professionals so it is very difficult if there are weaker teams out there that could offer them a regular run in the firsts. However if they are genuinely not quite up to fulltime AFL such that they don't have those sorts of offers they may be prepared to hang around for the prospect of injury or somesuch opening up a spot. In another thread I just mentioned Scott Howell, 39 games in 6 years but a last-minute injury call up in 1981 makes him the only player in VFL/AFL history to be the third generation to play in a premiership (his father Carlton Hall of Famer Jack "Chooka" Howell Jnr winning one in 1947 and Jack senior being BOG for the Swans when they downed Collingwood (God bless them) in 1918). So just maybe if regular seniors service isn't on offer back-up in a flag-contending team might be preferred.