Big boy

[saynta]

McEvoy was magnificant today. BOG in my book.
Would be now our captain and no 1 ruck only for that pelican s*** who obviously was still looking after his previous employer Hawthorn, even though we were playing his wages.

Worst f****** decision ever.

[The Barometer]

Was clear he was always going to develop into a solid ruck and had leadership qualities. Particularly disappointing given the two we replaced him with- Hickey and Longer.

[Bruce G McAbee]

Would be a pretty good combination of McEvoy and Marshall.

[Spinner]

McEvoy was magnificant today. BOG in my book.
Would be now our captain and no 1 ruck only for that pelican s*** who obviously was still looking after his previous employer Hawthorn, even though we were playing his wages.

Worst f****** decision ever.

I didn’t mind this trade... it was the Hickey and Lee trades that were disgusting.

[shanegrambeau]

It was a trade I didn’t understand. He was our no.1 ruck for just one season, he was good, I guessed they sensed his value had peaked and when he went to the Hawks he was probably back to his status with us in ‘09-‘10 even tho (thanks wiki) they got his as a number 1. He was not their gun ruckman they’d hoped for. But boy did big Boys loss come to haunt us! I wonder what we have learnt and what they teach them at ‘trade school’ about that one!

[Sainter_Dad]

Would be a pretty good combination of McEvoy and Marshall.

I agree in terms of the combination, however - this raises 2 points (aside from hindsight being 20/20 vision)

- Would McEvoy have developed into the player he is today at St Kilda?
- Would we have recruited Marshall if McEvoy had developed due to being happy with the ruck stocks?

I like Ben - and I think he is fantastic - always have - but Marshall could be anything - I think we will be talking about Marshall for the next 10 years as a match winner!!!

I would do the McEvoy trade over and over - if by not doing it we did not select Marshall

Marshall will be more than Ben - and odds are - this combination would never happen in terms of where they both are (career-wise) today!

[Sainternist]

Yeah it’s difficult not to bemoan that decision the club made. Were there any positives that came from the Pelican’s service? I just hate this philosophy of what work’s for some other club with so-and-so calling the shots, will work for us. There are no quick fixes when a team’s list and salary cap is in a complete mess, like ours was after Ro$$y left us in disrepair.

On a brighter note, the two guys we got from the McEvoy trade (Savage and Dunstan), have shown some pretty good form this season.

[Ghost Like]

I'm neither here or there about that trade. McEvoy was perfect for Hawthorn and suited their game plan and use of him. St Kilda were no where near to get the best of him, we had many deficiencies requiring filling & patch work.

What sticks in my claw is we chose him before Cyril who would have been much better value for 09 / 10. Then Hawthorn end up with McEvoy anyway.

Talk about sliding doors.

[aaron82]

The main issue IMO is Big Boy was 1 year off becoming a free agent at a time we were about to rebuild and at that time not a lot of cap space.

Hawthorn most likely would have been in the premiership window & would come at him with a huge offer.

We likely cashed our chips in early before free agency as we would have received a poor compensation pick.

The problem as someone stated we drafter horrendously with Tom Lee & to a lesser extent Hickey coming in.

We received Savage & the pick used on Dunstan for Big Boy.

[takeaway]

The main issue IMO is Big Boy was 1 year off becoming a free agent at a time we were about to rebuild and at that time not a lot of cap space.

Hawthorn most likely would have been in the premiership window & would come at him with a huge offer.

We likely cashed our chips in early before free agency as we would have received a poor compensation pick.

The problem as someone stated we drafter horrendously with Tom Lee & to a lesser extent Hickey coming in.

We received Savage & the pick used on Dunstan for Big Boy.

And the Franklin compensation pick (19) was part of the deal - Acres. So Dunstan, Acres and Savage for McEvoy & picks 24 & 59. Still a good deal for Saints imo.

[B.M]

Everyone, almost to a man on here lauded the trade and believed in Pelchen. After one year, where Ben had played some VFL and Dunstan had a good first year, it was seen as a great trade.

McEvoy is now the third best ruckman in the AFL. And is the Captain that should have been.

How we let go our consecutive first round draft picks from 2007/2008 (McEvoy, Lynch) after a few years of development is mind blowing.

Lynch has also gone on to become on of the best lead up forwards in the AFL

[Ghost Like]

Again with the "everyone". I remember it being divisive suggesting not everyone was on board.

The Lynch trade was an abomination, not given sufficient opportunity and (again) poorly developed. We lost not only a very good footballer but a well liked and respected clubman.

[B.M]

Well, I did say almost?

I should know because I was completely against it, and also argued against Pelchen from the moment he traded out champions and down graded the picks we got for them. I was driven out of this joint by copping continual abuse for daring question the club.

Not sure if you were here back in 2012/13 but that trade was definitely seen as a good one by the MAJORITY of supporters. And most got it wrong, thinking we got 3 players for Ben.
We got p17 Dunstan, Savage and an upgrade from pick 24 to 19 Acres.

Again, at the time, and particularly a year after, this trade was seen as positive.

Goes to show, you can’t judge a trade after a couple of years.

[takeaway]

Well, I did say almost?

I should know because I was completely against it, and also argued against Pelchen from the moment he traded out champions and down graded the picks we got for them. I was driven out of this joint by copping continual abuse for daring question the club.

Not sure if you were here back in 2012/13 but that trade was definitely seen as a good one by the MAJORITY of supporters. And most got it wrong, thinking we got 3 players for Ben.
We got p17 Dunstan, Savage and an upgrade from pick 24 to 19 Acres.

Again, at the time, and particularly a year after, this trade was seen as positive.

Goes to show, you can’t judge a trade after a couple of years.

Take more than a couple of years. Dunstan, Acres still young and hitting prime years. Savage has been pretty good. Acres would probably have been gone by pick 24, where Hawks picked Billy Hartung.
I would still do the trade, particularly based on where we were on the ladder at the time.

[B.M]

I wouldn’t

Ben McEvoy is a A Grade ruckman, three time premiership ruckman, absolute leader.

Good clubs don’t trade out good players about to enter their prime.

[Ghost Like]

There's still legs in that trade it seems. At least those players are still at the club and in the firsts.

[B.M]

They are

I consider Sav a GOP, Dunstan a GOP and Acres a tease.

None have set the world on fire, all have played VFL footy in the last 18 months. None have a top ten B&F result over the last few years.
McEvoy has finished top 5 at Hawthorn last two seasons

[Ghost Like]

Still time I guess, let's see how the new coach treats them or even if he retains all of them.

Sometimes teams make a ruckman. I certainly think Hawthorn made more of Big Boy than we could have. Good luck to him.

I believe we have a ruckman now who will make a team. As someone else alluded if we had kept him we may not have Marshall today.

[saintsRrising]

Goes to show, you can’t judge a trade after a couple of years.

Well how about your prediction that Longer would be better than him then?

McEvoy could do what most Ruckmen can't ...... Take a contested grab

He was also reportedly the best endurance runner at the club (source, Milney)

But he did have limitations.... He, like Armo is a B-Grade footballer.... Which is still pretty good

I think Longer will overtake him.

[saintsRrising]

Mc Evoy out, Longer in the same trade period. No doubt the club thought they were on a winner.
Hawks wanted Longer too, and so a number of people over-rated Longer.

Pelchen's plan did not work. Biggest reason was that the did not have the recruiters that were at the Hawks with him.

And that has been our biggest problem for basically a decide is that we have not been the best at identifying what talent to get whether by trade or draft.

Pelchen was with us for 3 years, Bains for much longer (arrived before and left after) which is just a slice of our poor picking period.

Even if Pelchen had never been at St Kilda we would most likely still be in a similar state list wise to where we are as we would still have been picking too many of the wrong players. Hopefully the last couple of years we have gotten better.

[silverhalo]

I'd classify Sav as better than a GOP, he is important to that team.

[Darth Vader]

1. No guarantee we’d have Marshall if we’d kept McEvoy and I’d def prefer Roma.
2. After 4 years training together with us, I reckon Big Boy would’ve been licking his chops at the thought of rucking against Rhys. He knew exactly what was required to smash Rhys. Physicality.

[The_Dud]

Would you swap Marshall for Big Boy? If not then it’s probably worked out in the end.