The great Travis Cloke debate

[burnsy17]

[Bob Sugar]

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

Damir Cloke is now prepared to accept a 10 year 20 million dollar contract.

[thompsoc]

[BEAMER09]

Sad part but all this is we are concentrating on Cloke yet hardly any mention of our leaky defence and game plan.

Let's see what we dish up Monday.

Cloke is not the problem!!!

[E]

[On the March]

Show us Travis why we should keep you - cause at the moment I can't see it - despite all that you have done before.

[E]

[qldmagpie67]

I've read through the various opinions here some really weird some really interesting and some really accurate.
For mine his mental fragility is the most damning stat.
When he's on he's great when he's not he's horrid simple and has been this way his whole career.
In saying that he was far from our worst last week. I actually thought it might be time to give Cox a break and play Cloke as a deep FF still gives Witts a game as second ruck and Grundy can play forward as required.
All this argument about his salary is irrelevant as it's already been mostly paid now. The only part of his salary that should concern anyone at the club is what he gets paid in 2017 and I think that's part of the issue as well. It's a known fact he had to trigger certain criteria to get the same dollars. I don't know what those criteria is/was (no part was games played though it was all about output on field) but he was only triggered part of the contract worth a reported $400k well short of he's current reported salary.
For a guy so mentally fragile as Cloke not being able to trigger the parts of his contract to ensure he got his full whack would be hard.
Couple that with his sensational decision to send dick pics to some strange woman he met online and the issues this would have created in his house and I'm guessing but pretty confident is saying his mother wouldn't have been overly happy seeing her sons penis splashed across the front pages of a national woman's magazine.
Personally I think the club was hoping by selecting him last week he would come out and really show he has that desire to be a senior player again. The teams performance didn't help him nor the weather but his level of desire wasn't visible either.
Do I believe for one second he's a better player for his time in the seconds no way do I think another stint will improve him again to be a senior player nope it won't.
This could be the sad end to a player who at his best was the king of CHF in the past several years.

[neil]

Lets see Travis has had problems kicking goals
Malthouse tried to fix it
Every forward coach under Malthouse tried to fix it
Specialist goal kickers were brought in
Buckley tried to fix it
Every forward coach under Buckley tried to fix it
Specialist goal kickers were brought in

Yet it is Buckleys fault

[themonk]

I don't believe the game has gone past him and physically he seems to be in good condition, however mentally he is shot at Collingwood, he is now too fragile and the pressure too great.

Clokey would be a decent pick up for an interstate club, I doubt he'd fetch a 1st round pick, maybe a late one but potentially 2 x 2nd round picks would be fair.

From a Collingwood perspective it would free up salary space and bring in some much needed early picks, we may not have a 1st round pick next year but 4 x 2nd round picks would be great (I assume we have 1 for Freeman?).

[chicken wing]

[yin-YANG]

I though Cloke was trying hard last week - but his form was poor. His confidence is shot and he almost cost us a precious goal when he was over zealous in his tackling.

It really is a pity it has come to this - I would have played him this week and used Daniher as an inspiration to help put his angsts in life in perspective. He probably has one more chance to do something right before the end of the year - he still might be traded though and that is a pity.

I would like to see Cloke lose some weight and get more run into his game - play him further up the ground and get him crashing into the mids at centre bounces now and then - even losing some weight he is still huge - but I am not sure after last weekend if he still has the hunger - he looks lost and his energy is all over the place. He has lost focus and I am not sure if he will get back on track?

Hope he rips it apart in the magoos!

[Pies4shaw]

Well, no he hasn't been a liability for two years. He was good until the middle of last season. This time last year, he'd kicked about 3 goals per game over 11 matches. He hasn't done much, since - but it is not that long ago that he was dominating his position. He has played 238 games. In his 226th, he kicked 7 goals against Melbourne (and received 3 Brownlow votes). In his 227th, he kicked 5.2 against GWS (and received a Brownlow vote). In his 229th, he had 16 kicks, 11 marks and 4 handballs against the team that has won the last three premierships - he kicked dreadfully for goal that day but his game was otherwise outstanding. He then had a poor game against Port. After that, he was injured very early in the West Coast game (he was on the ground for about 10 minutes). He then missed 3 matches with his injury and played under duress in rounds 21 and 22 before he succumbed to his injury and was done for 2015. You would also see that, eg, Elliott had 24 goals by round 10 last year and then managed only 11 goals in his last 10 games. Similarly, White had 18 goals by round 11 and then managed 9 in the second half of the season - mostly because he was dropped between rounds 17 and 22.

Cloke might be finished, he might not. I don't know and I Have nothing to say on that subject. What staggers me, though, is the way that posters continue to pretend that he's been useless for years. He really hasn't and pretending that he has been doesn't improve the quality of the discussion.

[matrix10]

[chicken wing]