Don’t let the Dawes (insert pun)

Fellow Knackers,

Am I missing something regarding Chris Dawes. I would have thought the recruitment of Lynch would work in his favour. Lynch takes the 2010 Leigh Brown role (which Dawes couldn’t execute this year) and Dawes gets to lounge around in the forward line as the second forward. Why is his nose out of joint?

The club played him all year (except for one game) and he didn’t find form. Now he’s upset with them? Is he being petulant, or is there more to it?

And why I’m banging on – do you think anyone in the AFL boardroom stood up when the one month “trade week” was proposed and said, “are you joking?! One month! Keep it to five days.” Clearly not. There are big salaries involved and once you have them you want to keep them I suppose.

If I could have some answers, it would be greatly appreciated.

Cookie

About Stephen Cooke

Cumbersome ruckman of the garden variety

Comments

  1. Cookie,
    i have no idea why he wants out…
    Maybe something happened on the inner sanctum that we dont know about or maybe he’s just had enough of being bridesmaid to Cloke.
    But i assure you nobody is more devo about it than my mum lol

  2. Skip of Skipton says

    Dawes should follow the lead of West Coast’s Tom Swift. I’d be taking Melbourne’s pick 20 quicksmart if I was Eddie/FIGJAM/Derek Hine etc.

  3. Danielle, I reckon you’re on the money. Something must have happened in Dawes’ chat with Buckley the morning after the Q-stick deal was done. Maybe he was told Cloke & Lynch were lock-ins each week and he’d have to fight for the 3rd tall spot with the up-and-coming youngsters next year (Paine etc). Other than that…. buggered if I know what’s going on.

  4. Jeff Dowsing says

    I haven’t heard of any other conspiracy theories Cookie, so taken on face value it does seem a rather hasty dummy spit. If Dawes can’t cop working for a spot in the 22 then he’s well suited to the Dees.

    His greater competition for a spot in the team going forward is Paine anyway – a far better mark and kick for goal who would have played a lot more this year but for Dawes’ (limited) ability to provide ruck relief.

    Having said that, I was a Dawes fan – and part of me will be sad to see him go.

  5. Surely the fact that they went and got the Q stick was a fair indication of a lack of faith in Dawes going forward. He has rightly seen the writing on the wall and looked for other options of getting a regular game.

  6. Skip of Skipton says

    Budge, Dawes has another two years in contract to Collingwood! I doubt it is the arrival of Big Q that is driving him away. As Cookie says, Dawes can go back to playing no.2 key forward without the pressure of having to be the relief ruckman.

    Jeff Dowsing above says he was a Dawes fan!?

    I’ve got no idea really.

  7. Cookie,

    I think you’re onto something there.

    Why would any smart young lad from a ‘cranial’ family want to leave Collingwood?

  8. Cookie

    My beef is that this 3 week trade and Free Agency period is a sponsored event, the Gilette Trade Week.

    What a lot of rubbish. There’s so much sponsored stuff in commentary, with every scoreboard, injury or round the grounds check being sponsored or named in radio commentary, as well as every goal/mark of the day contender and even goals outside 50.

    Now the trade period has a link to a shaver??

    Give me a freakin break

    Sean

  9. Now Sean, commercial realities dictate…(blah blah blah)

  10. Rumours I’ve heard, and I stress they’re just rumours, is that Dawes was told by Buckley that Paine would be getting more game time next year as they look to develop him further. A gameplan of having Cloke one-out more was also alluded to.

  11. Cookie – as Harry Whoo used to say in Get Smart – we have two possibirities:

    1 – Dawes left because another one opened
    2 – he was simply cut during the Gilette trade week.

    Sorry……………I’ll go back to work now.

  12. Andrew Starkie says

    maybe he likes Knox City

  13. Mark Doyle says

    Most of the comments about the reasons that Chris Dawes has requested a transfer are ignorant and naive. Dawes is a B grade player who is contracted to Collingwood and the only reason that he would leave Collingwood is money. If it is correct that he has requested a transfer to the garbage club Melbourne, he is making a financial decision to maximise his income over the next few years.

  14. Glad that’s sorted out. Any further questions?

  15. Yes. We need an immediate leadership group meeting to discuss these ‘ignorant and naive’ comments. They are giving the entire Knackery a spiffingly good reputation.

  16. Dave Nadel says

    Chris Dawes was not originally fussed by Lynch’s recruitment. Then he talked to Coach Buckley and announced he wanted to move. Either Buckley suggested that he would like to continue this year’s policy where the third tall forward plays a semi defensive role in which case Tyson Goldsack is a certain selection while Dawes competes with Lynch, or, as Simon and Jeff D suggested, Bucks expressed a preference for Paine. Dawes’ skill was that he crashed packs – but Lynch has being doing that for years at West Coast. Paine is not as tall or heavy as Dawes but, as Jeff said, he is a more reliable kick, and if Lynch is there it doesn’t matter that Paine can’t crash packs.

    I would be sorry to see Chris go. He seemed a nice young man and he tried very hard. On the other hand Chris has not played consistantly well since he broke his knuckle in Round 15 of 2011. He seems to be wary of marking and is possibly still suffering from some level of hand pain. When the Pies won the flag in 2010 we had three forwards who could take pack marks. This season we had one, and when Cloke lost form we had none.

    Mark D is overstating his case (as he often does) Dawes is not moving for money; he is moving for more game time. He has concluded (with perhaps some encouragement from Bucks) that he is more likely to get regular game at a weaker side than he is at Collingwood. This is probably true and good luck to him but I will be sorry to lose him.

  17. and he’s goooonnne…get two picks for him not bad.
    so far we have picks 17,18 and now for Dawesy 20 and 45, no complaints here!

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