Is Cloke overpaid based on his contribution to the team?

[SteveH67]

Not wanting to constantly rag on the guy, but I feel we got forced into paying him what he wanted because we had no other Key Position Forward coming through and there was nothing else out in the market.

It's meant he takes too much of a chunk, out of our Salary Cap, therefore we cannot chase another top dollar Key Position Forward who comes up in the Free Agency.

I love Clokey, I just think he isn't worth they money we have invested in him.

[rocketronnie]

[Wokko]

Cloke has three things that mess him up.

1. Piss poor midfield delivery, constantly kicking it to his feet, over his head or a dinky little lob/bomb onto his head when there are 2-3 defenders on him.

2. Playing an ineffective loose man. This leads to the opposition coach able to play their spare man on Cloke.

3. An obsession with wrestling the defender instead of leading.

When he's able to lead into space, he's unstoppable. When he's 1 on 1 and bodied up, he's great but still struggles a bit. That's my inexpert analysis anyway.

[roar]

Hasn't had it easy this year due to crappy delivery and the usual hard deal from umps, but he's been way down on form regardless. Unfortunately he ain't the only one that falls into that category.

[WarrenerraW]

I actually feel sorry for him even though he's not always great in front of goal. He will always give a contest and 9/10 will mark it, but fact is the delivery to him is a national disgrace so what hope does he have when it's kicked at his feet, over his head or to his side? I would love it if he could execute a bit better but our midfield need to step up and take responsibility too. It's not all him. I can understand Cloke dropping his head and wanting to give up. He also gets a right royal shafting from the scumps too which doesn't help his cause.

[rand corp]

The main problem with Travis this year has been the lack of other genuine goal kicking threats in the forward line. Seriously, no Cloke, no Elliot then no goals Collingwood.

White has been very poor

Reid can't get on the park

Trav has played deep and is not being used as the lead up forward

Blair, Goldy, Caff are defensive forwards who do not even threaten to kick bags when forward.

No genuine crumbing silk

No tall threats other than one man Cloke

Broomhead is a breath of fresh air and he and Elliot could be the makings of a formidable pair of forward flankers.

I would have liked to have seen Kennedy given more opportunity in the FP running in at the front of Cloke's feet to the contest.

Karnezis and Fasolo have not been able to reach elite fitness all year and play a hand.

Cloke has been the lone tall forward option to goal, nothing from White, nothing from Reid. Gault and Moore might be our future as the tall forwards and at the moment that looks a long way off.

[eddiesmith]

But we are getting so much more value out of Dane Swan this year who is on more money...

[Prometheus]

They should try playing Cloke at Centre Half Back !

[Big T]

I am with Eddiesmith on this one. We may have the regular stoush over Cloke and his goal kicking, Maxy and sideys value, but i would never question his pay. He took unders to stay, fact. He gets screwed by the umpires every week, fact. He does it all alone because those other talks around him are either soft or broken, fact.

Cloke is worth every cent.

Reid, on the other hand, if that boy can't get his body right, there's a huge investment that we should be worrying about.

But Eddie, why the cheap shot on one of our greatest ever players? Swanny is well above your pitiful cheap shots.

[SuperStar Beams]

He would be getting paid about right or to me even unders.

1. Delivery to him is rubbish majority of the time never putting it into a dangerous position for him to mark it rather than to the advantage of his opponent.

2. Not having 3 talls in fwd killed him, he always had 2-3 on him, when Reid came back a fwd line of him, Reid and White made Cloke more dangerous and we saw that, kicked a cpl bags of 3.

3. He will create a contest 9/10 times when the ball comes his way, meaning if he wont mark it he will bring the ball to ground, unfortunately we dont have smart crumbers at the bottom of the pack

4. This is where he is massively underrated he is the general of our forward. He helps marshall the troops in the fwd line and when his on fire more often than not the players around him stand taller.

These are 4 things you want in a key forward, if he was at a current top 4 team he would be killing teams

[Dr Pie]

Just to endorse others comments. Two things in particular have undermined Travis. First, he has been our only tall forward for most of the last three seasons. In 2010 and 2011, Cloke was supported up forward by Dawes and Leroy. Dawes didn't kick a huge number of goals but he was a good mark and the opponents had to put a tall defender on him so Cloke was rarely double teamed. Then Dawes injured his hand (finger) and Bucks tried to turn him into a second ruck and one way or another Dawes' form and confidence declined and he was gone by the end of the season. Then followed the failed experiments with Lynch and White and also an attempt to Reid as a forward which would have worked if Reid could have played more than five games in a row without injury. For the last three years Cloke has been double teamed in the majority of games.

The second thing that undermined Cloke was the injuries and loss of form and ultimately delisting (Krak) and defection (Daisy) of our two best deliverers of the ball, Andrew Krakouer and Daisy Thomas. Apart from Pendlebury these two were the most reliable sources of ball to Cloke.

If we had a quality second tall forward and if some of our midfielders could improve their passing Travis would again be the weapon he used to be.

[watt price tully]

[Dr Pie]

[derkd]

[derkd]

I will say this, i agree, the delivery too him has been awful. He is also now in a younge team still learning the ropes. The problem is he is now..28? even if the sides learn the ropes quick...he will be 30...almost past it. Take the emotive argum,ents aiside and look at the pure 'value' aspect. Would it be worth tradeing him while he has currency freeing up the cash/picks to go after someone who will be in the age catogry to go with the youngsters in our team?