Tom Lee re-signed?

[loris]

Can't see a post on it here. Out for breakkie in a cafe this morning and read the local rag (The West Australian). There is an article on Tom Lee, says he has re- signed with the Saints for a further 2 years. Any news on that in your neck of the woods?
Richo has hopes for him to have his body right. Richo rates him article says.

[BigMart]

Interesting

[damienc]

This is what Richo said in his post season review on Tom.Pretty positive:

"Tommy Lee is a bit similar to Eli Templeton. You look at his year in terms of how many senior games he played and you may say that’s a bit disappointing, but I think Tommy’s improved and developed as a player. His whole pre-season was about playing in defence. Our plan was to play [Paddy] McCartin, [Tim] Membrey and [Josh] Bruce and [Nick] Riewoldt from time to time in attack, so opportunity was limited there. And we did have opportunity down back, given the age of some of our defenders, and whilst not this year, we need to make sure he’s potentially ready to go next year and the year after when the opportunity arises.

“With that in mind, he worked hard with Rohan Welsh and with Danny Frawley in particular – ‘Spud’ worked with our key defenders closely. Tom was as committed as anyone in improving. He played some really strong footy at VFL level and he had a reasonably solid game against the Hawks down in Tassie. Like all of the team he wasn’t as strong the week after against GWS and found himself out of the team. But overall I think his improvement has been quite significant this year, albeit at the level below.

“The most important thing for Tom is to have some luck with his body. A couple of games when he’s been in the AFL side, he’s ended up coming off with an injury. With his shoulders and legs he hasn’t been able to do quite the amount of work that he’s needed to do to be as strong and as physical as you need to be playing key position. We’re pretty confident that he’s been able to turn that around this year. Certainly our conditioning staff are confident that Tom’s going to be able to do the work this pre-season. He’s a good runner and a good athlete, it’s just about getting his body to the state where it can cope with the physicality of playing a key position.”

[loris]

Big Mart it was buried in an article about Claremont (though) there was a large photo of Tom in Saints jumper.
Article was how Claremont was hoping to have him in their forward line next season, but seeing he has re-signed with Saints they are considering other players.
Article then goes on to say how Richo rates him as an athlete and skills wise. It's just his body, shoulders ankles and wrist that have hindered him getting able to stand up to AFL seniors footy. However Rich says our fitness people say with a good pre season he should begin to show something next season & the year after.
Sounds like Lee (or his manager) have told Claremont he won't be coming to them next season, and someone at Claremont has been speaking to a WA journo before it's been announced by Saints. Or that is my take on it.

[Bluthy]

https://www.pressreader.com/australia/t ... 4607193576

[Bluthy]

I don't know if they are basing this purely on what Richo says in damien's post above where Richo talks about Lee next and year after etc. That may just be a working assumption for the purposes of the review.

I was sure he was gone. Last year was the perfect oppo to really test him out at senior level. He had a full year in defense in the VFL the previous year and by most accounts exceeded expectations. With Carlisle and Goddard out for the year, there was a spot there to give him a really good go. Instead we preferred to play our 2009 grand final backline. It was weird.

I like his good kicking and marking from the back that he's shown this year. His problem is he's a very stiff footballer and even tall backs need that agility now - so much footy is played off the deck needing quick hands to beat forward pressure and get it out to clean air. I don't know if his injuries (shoulders) have curtailed his movement a bit and the club thinks if he can get that right he can be mobile enough as a big back or forward.

Clubs do tend to have at least one project player they keep on their list they think they can see something in that takes some long-term developing. You wouldn't think he would be on a big salary and being able to play as a key back or a key forward increases his utility value. You could imagine him as a handy back up if one of our forwards went down throughout the year. And we just don't know how Goddard and Coughlan will develop so again he gives the club depth in that area.

Wait to see if this is true or not I guess.

[saintsRrising]

Missing out on Marchbank may well have saved Lee.

One thing about Lee is that he can play forward (as he showed in the VFL finals again) or back. So as a cheap back up depth player he covers both forward and back.

However as the article states he needs to get stronger. In the second VFL final he was often pushed out of the contest for that very reason.

Fisher may well have been our back up player for 2017, but his soft tissue injuries in the second half of the season after many bad seasons in recent years will probably see him delisted. Yes he could be rookied, but we are short on rookie places with one already going to an Irish lad and NOK while showing great promise still needs to build his body for another year before deciding in whether to promote him to the senior list. Ditto for Coughlan who looks likely, but is not yet wotha senior list place.

If another club does sniff around for Lee then being contracted means that he can be used as steak knives as opposed to becoming a DFA where we get SFA.

There are enough players that can be delisted this year as well. Murdoch must be feeling nervous now though.

[busso mick]

Here is the link to the Tom Lee article.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport ... lee/#page1

Sorry Bluthy - didn't notice your link before

[dragit]

Well if this true, I am shocked… and pleased, but I was sure his papers were stamped long ago.

I still think he might have more chance playing as a forward in a Gunstan type role, but he certainly needed to improve his defensive game either way.

[WellardSaint]

i, like some others, thought that his lack of games in a poor backline, meant that he is gone.
Happy to see he is still in contention as I hate it when players put in several years of hard slog, and end up as an archived webpage. Sad.
Players pump iron in the gym, do all the hard running, tackling, etc, they are not soft at all,
and to know they've cleared out the locker and handed back the key...

[shrodes]

Surely not two years... though I don't have a problem giving him another year as a backup in defence

[saynta]

Surely not two years... though I don't have a problem giving him another year as a backup in defence

Think he has a year to go.

The reporter got it wrong as did the perth club.

[saint6709]

I would like to see a straight swap Tom Lee for Tom Lamb ....from what I've read Lamb is out of favour in the west and a potential delisting - maybe Roo can turn him around and show him how to gut run

[saintbob]

I would like to see a straight swap Tom Lee for Tom Lamb ....from what I've read Lamb is out of favour in the west and a potential delisting - maybe Roo can turn him around and show him how to gut run

This swap or just delist