Have we actually ruled Dustin Martin out?

[35forever]

Yeah, my point (above) was that really great sides are full of individuals, and Dustin is a player who can turn games. There is room for him at Collingwood. He's not Daisies equal in my book, but he's certainly a gun, and would be a perfect replacement for Kraks. If the worst happened and we did lose Thomas (but god I hope not!) someone like Martin becomes even more necessary.

Individuals are not only tolerable they are necessary. Name a great side, one which strung premierships together, who didn't have them.

The great Hawthorn sides of the 70's, 80's & 90's had Dermie, Lethal, Dunstall, Dipper, Parko, and more. Does it GET more individual? The likely Premiers - the ones who knocked the 'perfect' leading teams proteges Geelong out in '08 and 2013, has Buddy, an individual who they are hanging to keep. The triple flag Brisbane (however they got their flags!) had Acker, Brown, Leppitsch, and other individuals. North Melbourne went back to back in the 90's with the ultimate individual in Carey, although it must be said that "The Duck" probably took it too far!
Even the much lauded (and incredibly overrated) Geelong team had guys like Scarlett and Ablett who were told through the Leading Teams model to pull their heads in! how did that turn out!? One left, the other exploded!

When I was a kid the best team was Hawthorn, with guys like Don Scott (Pink Boots and a handbag!) and Leigh Matthews, incredibly individual but very great players who had to be handled properly, although off-field a lot more was tolerated back then, but the second they took the field they were a single unit because they had great coaches like Kennedy and Jeans.

Are we going to try to turn our stars into automatons simply because the coach doesn’t have the temperament to manage them? How great a coach would Kennedy have been without Matthews Knights, Ayers, Brereton, Langford, Eade, etc?
Under Mick new guys could come into the side and immediately love it at Collingwood, guys like Jolly and Kraks and Leigh Brown gave us great service because they loved it at Collingwood, and the guys who have left still keep in close touch with our guys. Bucks needs to learn to deal with individuals, he needs to learn that perfect, disciplined players like he was are very rare.

Chase Dusty, and get Jess White. He would turn into an absolute star at Collingwood!