My view on Xavier Clarke

[Con Gorozidis]

my plan for X - if he cant squat 180kg by xmas let him go.

he has one glearing weakness. he gets pushed of every contested ball situation way too easily. hes always on the turf and just cant win his own ball.

he has skill, endeavour, some running ability and guts - yes. but seems to lack core/hip/quad strength so always gets pushed over. it drives me nuts that he is so uncompetitive in one-on -nes.

the weights/conditioning coach needs to really put the onus on X. set some serious strength goals. it cant go on year in year out him being weak in that area.

[JeffDunne]

What would be the point of dropping him after Xmas?

[Richter]

Eh?

A fully fit X is a great in and under player, tackler, pacey with great disposal. Could still be anything........

That's the key for him though..... being fully fit. Clearly was not when he came back against the Cats.

Look at his brother, seems to have just "clicked". I'm expecting the same for X next year.

[brown-coat]

He should be squatting 200kg.

Benching at minimum 150kg.

Pump him full of creatine.

[Con Gorozidis]

What would be the point of dropping him after Xmas?

none. trying to make the point he needs strength goals.
and he needs some kind of mtivation to reach them. weak as piss in contests. always falling over. always.

[Con Gorozidis]

Eh?

A fully fit X is a great in and under player, tackler, pacey with great disposal. Could still be anything........

That's the key for him though..... being fully fit. Clearly was not when he came back against the Cats.

Look at his brother, seems to have just "clicked". I'm expecting the same for X next year.

still weak as piss in contests.

[Con Gorozidis]

He should be squatting 200kg.

Benching at minimum 150kg.

Pump him full of creatine.

agree. thats what im talking about.

akers max bench is 130kg. id reckon x would be lucky to break 110kg. i bet his squat is very low as well.

[mad saint guy]

akers max bench is 130kg. id reckon x would be lucky to break 110kg. i bet his squat is very low as well.

I reckon X would be lucky to squat 110kg let alone bench it. The guy is skin and bones.

They tried to get him to bulk-up in '04-'05 but it just ended up hurting his endurance and causing more soft tissue injuries.

I think X has plenty of skill but he's just not genetically up to the physicality of AFL football.

[Ralphy]

trade X is my opinion.... he would be so much better if he had the chance at another club straight swap Lovett for X

[bethb7]

trade X is my opinion.... he would be so much better if he had the chance at another club straight swap Lovett for X

Yeah I would trade him too, but not for Lovett more trouble than good in my opinon.

[spiral2]

trade X is my opinion.... he would be so much better if he had the chance at another club straight swap Lovett for X

why trade for a similar style player with a poor attitude and less ticker?

big fan of X, so disappointing that he can't get his body right. maybe he never will, I hope that's not true.
he looked to be really flying over the 08 preseason, real shame he had such an injury riddled year.
he's a gutsy player with good pace and top shelf foot skills (except in front of goals) - hmmm, isn't that what we're crying out for?

great to see Raph kick on this year, huge congrats to him.
maybe a bit of sibling rivalry will kick in and X will tear it up next year...

[WinnersOnly]

If the SAINTS are to go shopping at trade week then Xavier should be our trade bait. The guy has had his chances and hasn't done anything abut his body - admittedly the past fitness teams have probably let him down but we need to improve our list and he is the obvious with some trade value!

[Mr Magic]

How do we trade an uncontracted player?
AFAIK he was on a 1 year deal this year so what do we have to trade?

[Armoooo]

I hope he stays, he would have absolutely no value elsewhere IMO...

Like Maguire, too big an upside to trade him away for virtually nothing...

[mad saint guy]

How do we trade an uncontracted player?
AFAIK he was on a 1 year deal this year so what do we have to trade?

What do you mean?

We can either re-sign him, not offer him another contract, trade him or he can walk out and enter the PSD.

[True Blue Sainter]

How do we trade an uncontracted player?
AFAIK he was on a 1 year deal this year so what do we have to trade?

Contract doesn't run out till after the end of the trade period - so he is still a tradeable commodity. However, because he is coming out of contract, his value will have significantly declined, and we won't be able to obtain as much in return as we would if he was contracted for season 2009.

[Otiman]

He should be squatting 200kg.

Benching at minimum 150kg.

Pump him full of creatine.

You want his hamstrings to explode in a shower of muscle tissue, don't you?

[Mr Magic]

How do we trade an uncontracted player?
AFAIK he was on a 1 year deal this year so what do we have to trade?

What do you mean?

We can either re-sign him, not offer him another contract, trade him or he can walk out and enter the PSD.

At this point in time he is uncontracted with us and we have no control over him unless we sign him to a new deal?
What do the Club who he is going to use as his salary in their 'cap'. He would have to have a discussion with the other Club and come to terms with them over his salary and length of contract.
If he wanted to he could just wait to be delisted and nominate for the PSD, in which case we get nothing for him.
What happens if we re-sign him on the basis that we want to reade him and he refuses the trade?

All I'm trying to say is that all these calls for us to trade X assume that we are actually able to do a trade, when in fact we may very well not be able to.
What do you reckon his managment (Flying Start) will be telling him to do? Sign some contract that will allow StKilda to do what they like with you without them having any say on the matter - sure they will.

Both parties took a risk last season when we offered and he accepted a 12 month contract.
The only thing we (the Club) can guarantee is that we can delist him for nothing at the end of his contract. Flying Start is free to negotiate with any CLub on the basis that they can draft him without having to give us anything in return, if that's what he wants to do.

[True Blue Sainter]

How do we trade an uncontracted player?
AFAIK he was on a 1 year deal this year so what do we have to trade?

What do you mean?

We can either re-sign him, not offer him another contract, trade him or he can walk out and enter the PSD.

At this point in time he is uncontracted with us and we have no control over him unless we sign him to a new deal?
What do the Club who he is going to use as his salary in their 'cap'. He would have to have a discussion with the other Club and come to terms with them over his salary and length of contract.
If he wanted to he could just wait to be delisted and nominate for the PSD, in which case we get nothing for him.
What happens if we re-sign him on the basis that we want to reade him and he refuses the trade?

All I'm trying to say is that all these calls for us to trade X assume that we are actually able to do a trade, when in fact we may very well not be able to.
What do you reckon his managment (Flying Start) will be telling him to do? Sign some contract that will allow StKilda to do what they like with you without them having any say on the matter - sure they will.

Both parties took a risk last season when we offered and he accepted a 12 month contract.
The only thing we (the Club) can guarantee is that we can delist him for nothing at the end of his contract. Flying Start is free to negotiate with any CLub on the basis that they can draft him without having to give us anything in return, if that's what he wants to do.

Look at my post MM!

[Mr Magic]

TBS,
Even though his contract runs out in the days after the trade week, how do you trade a player who you don't have under contract? How much salary do the Cub taking him put into their own Salary Cap?

If I run a retail shop with a lease that finishes on October 31, 2009 how do I 'sell' the business in its current location to anybody when there is no guarantee that the landlord will give tehm a lease. Why would a purchasor buy the business when all he has to do is wait until November 1 and he can negotiate directly with the landlord?

The point I am trying to make (not very well) is that the only way we can trade X is if he is a willing party to it and I am sure his management will do teh best deal for X which may not necessarily be the best deal (or even a good deal) for us. And quite rightly so.

I'm just bemused that everyone is happy to 'trade him' without taking into consideration his current contract situation.

IMHO he has almost zero trade value for us and therefore will most probably kept or delisted.

[LTN16]

I reckon X would be lucky to squat 110kg let alone bench it. The guy is skin and bones.

Cameron Ling's max bench is 112.5kgs.

You would think he would be able to do more than that..

[True Blue Sainter]

TBS,
Even though his contract runs out in the days after the trade week, how do you trade a player who you don't have under contract? How much salary do the Cub taking him put into their own Salary Cap?

If I run a retail shop with a lease that finishes on October 31, 2009 how do I 'sell' the business in its current location to anybody when there is no guarantee that the landlord will give tehm a lease. Why would a purchasor buy the business when all he has to do is wait until November 1 and he can negotiate directly with the landlord?

The point I am trying to make (not very well) is that the only way we can trade X is if he is a willing party to it and I am sure his management will do teh best deal for X which may not necessarily be the best deal (or even a good deal) for us. And quite rightly so.

I'm just bemused that everyone is happy to 'trade him' without taking into consideration his current contract situation.

IMHO he has almost zero trade value for us and therefore will most probably kept or delisted.

Yeah, I do see what you're saying Mr. Magic... The fact that his contract runs out soon after trade week does mean we can not get much for him. Generally though, if the club has no intentions of keeping a player whose contract is due to expire, then the metaphorical gun is held to their head - basically, they must be forced to take whatever they can get, as the clubs competing for his signature hold the bargaining power, as they have the option of selecting him in the drafts if no deal is negotiated....

Damn it's a complicated world out there, and I do like your analogy about the lease and the store...

[Otiman]

If I run a retail shop with a lease that finishes on October 31, 2009 how do I 'sell' the business in its current location to anybody when there is no guarantee that the landlord will give tehm a lease. Why would a purchasor buy the business when all he has to do is wait until November 1 and he can negotiate directly with the landlord?

Because the government has stated that you can only buy or sell businesses for one week in October.

The other alternative is that the shop is placed on the open market, but the lease is ONLY able to be picked up by the worst run retail shop in the country, and if they don't want it, then it will be up to the second worst, and so on.

There's a reason contracts expire on October 31st, and it isn't Halloween.

[GrumpyOne]

He should be squatting 200kg.

Benching at minimum 150kg.

Pump him full of creatine.

Have we learnt nothing from the days when Matty Lappin played for us?

We built him up, had him pumping iron constantly, and his legs couldn't carry the extra load.

Delisted him, Carlton grabbed him, thinned him down, and he had a long and decent career there.

Some blokes are meant to be skinny, you just have to use them in the right places on the field.

[Moccha]

He should be squatting 200kg.

Benching at minimum 150kg.

Pump him full of creatine.

agree. thats what im talking about.

akers max bench is 130kg. id reckon x would be lucky to break 110kg. i bet his squat is very low as well.

Can you bench press 80 kg?

What about squatting 100kg?

C'mon now!