A VFL Premiership Skipper Finds His Next Home – And It’s Got Me Thinking

Another decorated VFL skipper has packed up the boots and found himself a new address. It’s the kind of move that barely rates a mention on the back pages but means everything if you actually love this competition properly.

Because let’s be honest – who actually follows the VFL properly anymore? I do. I reckon every true Collingwood supporter should, given how many Pies futures get written in Jolimont and at Victoria Park on a wet Saturday arvo in front of three hundred diehards and a dog.

Why this one caught my eye

A premiership-winning captain doesn’t just fall off a club’s books for no reason. These blokes are the heartbeat of a list. They’re the ones dragging teammates through the guts running in July when the siren feels a million miles away.

So when a bloke like that comes out of contract and finds himself a new home, you’d want to know the full story before you judge it. Was he squeezed out? Did he want a fresh test somewhere else? Or is this just footy doing what footy does – moving good players around until somebody gets the best of them?

I don’t pretend to have the inside word on his exact thinking. But I’d argue any club landing a bloke with a flag and leadership runs on the board is getting themselves a bargain, not a project.

The pathway nobody talks about enough

Carn the Pies – but also carn the VFL, because without it half our list wouldn’t exist. Everyone loves banging on about the national draft and the big names getting plucked out of the under 18s. Fair enough too.

But the state leagues are where blokes actually get made. Where they learn to captain a side under real pressure, not just in a development squad photo op. A VFL flag isn’t a participation trophy. You earn that thing the hard way, usually through a finals series where everybody’s underpaid, half the side’s carrying niggles, and the changerooms smell like Dencorub and desperation.

Should this bloke’s premiership pedigree count for something when a new club assesses him? Of course it should. It already has, clearly, given he’s found himself a fresh home.

What clubs are actually buying

You’re not just buying output here. You’re buying standards.

A genuine VFL captain, one who’s actually lifted a cup, brings stuff you can’t measure on a stat sheet:

• He sets the tone at training when the coaches aren’t watching.
• He knows what it takes to win something, not just compete.
• Young blokes at the new club will watch how he prepares and copy it, whether they realise it or not.
• He’s been through finals pressure and come out the other side with silverware, which is rarer than people think.

That’s the sort of bloke who quietly changes a list’s culture without a single highlight reel moment.

Could this have been a Collingwood move?

I’ll ask the obvious question because somebody has to – should we of had a look at him ourselves?

Every time a decorated state league leader becomes available I reckon Collingwood should at least be doing the background work. We’ve got history chasing undervalued types and turning them into premiership-quality contributors. It’s practically part of our DNA at this point.

Did our recruiting staff run the numbers on this bloke? I’d love to think so. Maybe he didn’t fit what we needed right now, maybe the timing was off, maybe there’s a medical thing nobody’s talking about publicly. I’m not going to pretend I know the ins and outs of every list management conversation happening behind closed doors at Olympic Park.

But it’s a fair question for any Pies fan to ask, isn’t it? We’re definately not shy about picking up proven winners from the state league system when the opportunity’s right.

The bigger picture for the VFL

This whole saga – a captain finishing up his decorated run and landing somewhere new – is a decent reminder of how brutal the state league grind actually is.

These blokes aren’t full-time AFL footballers earning the big dollars. Plenty of them are working jobs during the week, training at night, then fronting up on weekends to play a brand of footy that’s genuinely tough and genuinely skilful. The ones who captain sides to flags in that environment deserve a hell of a lot more credit than they get from the mainstream footy media.

So when one of them gets picked up by a new club after his state league chapter closes, it should be celebrated, not buried as a footnote. It’s a bloke who did it the hard way finally getting a fresh crack somewhere else.

What happens next

The real test now is whether his new home actually uses him properly. Does he get thrown straight into senior assignments? Does he become part of the leadership group early, given what he’s already proven he can do? Or does he spend a year in the seconds again proving himself all over from scratch, which would frankly be a waste of a ready-made leader?

I reckon clubs that bring in proven VFL captains and then don’t use their experience properly are shooting themselves in the foot. You don’t recruit a bloke for his leadership runs on the board and then stick him on the sidelines of every important conversation.

Time will tell how this move actually plays out. But any club getting a genuine, battle-hardened, premiership-winning leader walking through the door should be rubbing their hands together, not wondering if they should of looked elsewhere.

Here’s hoping he gets the opportunity his state league career has earned him. Footy needs more stories like this getting proper attention, not just a one-line mention buried on page nine.

Carn the Pies – and carn to every bloke out there grinding it out in the VFL hoping for exactly this kind of break.