Originally Posted by
BSA5
I won't be booing him. Well, I won't be there, nor will I be watching it on TV (I believe this is the first live game I haven't caught live in one form or another in almost 3 years, a pretty decent achievement given I sometimes worked weekends for a large chunk of that), but when I watch a replay, I'll be hoping he has a shocker, but only as far as I hope any important Dogs player has a shocker. I still have a soft spot for Baz, and I do get a bit of a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see him kicking bags, along with a hint of jealousy: if only he was still doing it for us! But then I remember how one-dimensional we were with Baz, how unreliable he was in our team setup towards the end, and I know it was for the best.
Really, the Barry Hall situation was win-win-win. We won by ridding ourselves of a volatile and unreliable forward who was frustrated and had stagnated in his current environment, and who was costing us as many games as he was winning, creating room in our forwardline for Bradshaw to slot in (not that he's had that much opportunity this year due to injury), our forwardline has become multi-focal, allowing Ben McGlynn and more recently TDL to come to the fore, and we got a decent pick for him that helped facilitate the trade for McGlynn and Kennedy, alongside Mumford the biggest steal of the draft period, and in combination possibly one of the best of all time (though it's perhaps a bit early to judge that far).
Meanwhile, Hall is now happy, he's in the form of his life, he's getting good delivery, he's probably added another 2 years, maybe more, to his career, he's a contender for the Coleman, while the Dogs are relishing the potency a power forward gives them as they look to have secured a top 4 spot.
Hall had stagnated with us, it happens to the best and most professional of players sometimes, though Hall had fairly "special" way of expressing it! I honestly don't think there is nearly as much bad blood between Hall and Roos/Kirk as has been read into at times on this board, it was a decision that benefited everybody, and Hall, Kirk and Roos have all been vindicated by how it has turned out.
I have been and will be cheering for Baz all year and through the finals, just not when he plays us. After the game, however, he's the bloke that lifted up the cup with Roos. He's our only living Premiership captain. That counts for a lot.
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