Jack McCrae

[Yorkeys]

Bevo may be eccentric or before his time, however if he doesn't rate Jack McCrea are we brave enough to second guess. Pass.

[SaintPav]

So we go to the draft.

[SteeleSaints]

I'm pretty confident McRae will be at the club next year. I am also confident he has plenty of good footy ahead of him, given the opportunity to play midfield minutes. If he gets a decent preseason he will be invaluable to the team until our kids can take the mantle.

[bigcarl]

Lots of players have moved clubs for more opportunities and have been successful

If he were to come … so long as he gets games on merit and form and not because he’s been promised games. Sounds like a fairly hefty contract though. How much and how long, do we know?

[Brunswicksainter]

Lots of players have moved clubs for more opportunities and have been successful

If he were to come … so long as he gets games on merit and form and not because he’s been promised games. Sounds like a fairly hefty contract though. How much and how long, do we know?

Reported two days ago in the Australian $2mil over 3 seasons, heavily front loaded. Not as bad as initially reported (3x $900k) but will pull in $900k+ next year which isn’t necessarily bad for us given we should have ample cap space.

[The_Dud]

So we'll happily give $2M to an over-the-hill 30 year old but tried to low-ball Battle?

#SaintsFooty

[B.M]

We didn’t low-ball Battle he was offered a massive contract

He chose to go to Hawthorn for less

Are AFL players done at 30??

[magnifisaint]

As long as the Bulldogs pay 2/3 of his wage.

[magnifisaint]

We didn’t low-ball Battle he was offered a massive contract

He chose to go to Hawthorn for less

Are AFL players done at 30??

If they can't run then yes.

[The_Dud]

We didn’t low-ball Battle he was offered a massive contract

He chose to go to Hawthorn for less

Are AFL players done at 30??

We did low-ball him initially, which left him open to being poached, then at the last minute we tried to rectify this but the horse had already bolted.

McCrae is definitely passed his prime, are you denying this? Players can fall off fast after 30, some do, some don't.

It's the exact same mistake we made with DH. Why so much money and so many years?? If he's desperate to leave then say "hey, we're happy to have you, $500k for 2 years and after that we can talk again", and if he says "no" then no skin off our nose, we don't need him. We have the advantage in the negotiations so we should use it.

[samoht]

If you do a series of footywire comparisons of Jackson Macrae vs his performance the year prior, over the following years .... namely:
comparing 2024 with 2023, 2023 with 2022, and 2022 with 2021 ... you will see a steady and progressive decline year after year.

You would logically expect this decline to continue ... so Windhager for example could soon be overtaking him?
Maybe as soon as next year?

[Otiman]

I believe we have a long term cap space strategy and a big hole in the next 2-3 years before our younger players start commanding higher wages.

It needs to be filled as we have to spend a percentage of the cap (90% or 95%??).

[samoht]

On the other hand (continuing on from my previous post) he's virtually the same age as Steele, and was used as a forward/midfielder last year and only given 67% game time.
So, I can see both sides.

[Brunswicksainter]

If you do a series of footywire comparisons of Jackson Macrae vs his performance the year prior, over the following years .... namely:
comparing 2024 with 2023, 2023 with 2022, and 2022 with 2021 ... you will see a steady and progressive decline year after year.

You would logically expect this decline to continue ... so Windhager for example could soon be overtaking him?
Maybe as soon as next year?

Windhager has already overtaken him would be picked over him any day if he was at the dogs.

[Sanctorum]

Our current mids are not good enough

Ross alludes to it constantly

That may be so BM, but do you really believe Macrae will make St Kilda's midfield all that much better?

It's not as though he's one of those intimidatory midfield bulls like Dustin Martin, Jordan de Goey, Patrick Dangerfield, Jason Horne-Francis or Harley Reid who can take on the game and by sheer force of pace and strength get their teams over the line.

The fact that Tom Liberatore, who is 2 years older than Macrae, is preferred to play every game is a dead giveaway that the latter has passed his use-by-date!

In recent years teams like Melbourne (Jordan Lewis) and Brisbane Lions (Luke Hodge) brought in ageing champs to provide that element of experienced leadership to improve their performance, and to a degree that has certainly worked out alright.

Those 2 former Hawks played at halfback at their new clubs, so it was more their leadership guiding the young fellas than their playing attributes.

I'm not sure if Jack Macrae is a strong on-field leader.

Conversely. all of the conversations so far about Macrae coming to Moorabbin has been about playing him in the engine room.

It all comes down to what the club has in mind when it talks about briging in a gun midfielder - is that for a short term fix or just an interim solution?

That's the three year $2,500,000 question....

Much better to stick with the draft and relying on the squad of youthful mids to improve exponentially in the next two years and maybe snag somene like Andrew Brayshaw to provide that extra bit of oomph!

[cwrcyn]

We saw how Seb Ross faded in the past two years. Would be be just swapping Seb Ross one for Seb Ross two?

[SaintPav]

He probably doesn’t want to come to St Kilda anyway.

Why do people think every available player wants to come to us? 95% of them are not interested in coming to a minnow Victorian club.

I remember a few years ago people actually believed that we were a good chance to get Nat Fyfe.

Total delusion.

[Teflon]

So we'll happily give $2M to an over-the-hill 30 year old but tried to low-ball Battle?

#SaintsFooty

For pick 8 yes
McRae cheap - yes for me
Big bodied mid for a year or 2 cover/Steel support
Yes tks

[saintbob]

I’d rather get Hugo’s cousin from the Dogs.

[D.B.Cooper]

We didn’t low-ball Battle he was offered a massive contract

He chose to go to Hawthorn for less

Are AFL players done at 30??

Is this fact, or just your opinion written as fact?
Surely you wouldn't be relying on Tom Morris' comments as proof?

[lewdogs]

Has nominated Saints.

[Otiman]

As long as we don't pay overs for him, we will be alright. We let them have Coffield last year for nothing so we have favours owed.

[older saint]

rumour is 3rd round pick if we take the salary. Front ended and have space so i would take that

[Scollop]

He's a list clogger. He looked slow in the matches I saw him play in 2024. He's not playing anywhere near the player that he was in 2019-2021.

What is the point of bringing in Mcrae when we already have Dow, Steele, Clark, Jones, Stocker, Phillipou, Owens and the youngster in Garcia?

This combination worked. Our last 8 games of the year proves it worked.

We beat Carlton who were challenging to secure a finals berth. We smashed Essendon when they were hot favourites to beat us. We beat Geelong who were challenging for top 4. We beat the Sydney Swans when no one was expecting us to.

We have other options with more leg speed that can assist in the middle including Liam Henry, Jack Sinclair and Wanganeen-Millera can also be used on the outside at stoppages. We have Hastie who is progressing.

We have depth through the existing list... especially if Zak Jones is given a one year deal.

I'd prefer a guy like Matthew Kennedy for his versatility. He can play the same role as Mich Owens and both are very good contested marks in the forward line.

[nostalgicsaint]

Because he has demonstrated the capability to be a genuine clearance player.

https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_ ... 2=S&type=A