TheSheik wrote:
Came to the club in that infamous & ongoing mass stocktake sale of mature age players we embarked upon. Scotland, Martyn, Harford, Johnson, Bannister, Morrell, Kenna, DeLuca, Mott, Bowyer etc all had varied success onfield but only three of them are still at the club. As a consequence, I believe that McGrath is going to be viewed in a somewhat tarnished light just like a number of those others and would be considered only as a back-up player.
I've only seen him play 3-4 games and he didn't do anything terribly wrong but he didn't do anything to make me sit up and go 'wow' either. We have now moved on to a solid youth policy and it for this reason alone that I believe his place on the playing list will come under heavy scrutiny at the end of the 2006 season.
It's not like he a gun matchwinner too, he's just your run-of-the-mill 181cm utility player who has to play at his best every game to ensure his career goes the distance. I'd lump him in with Livingston, Longmuir, Davies, Bannister, Prendergast, Sporn, Wiggins & Chambers as those who will be playing for their career in 2006. A shabby end of season report will see him (and any of those others listed) shown the door pretty quickly. The club is going to have to make room for 5-6 boom draftees next year and IMO, those places will more than likely be freed up from those guys including McGrath.
Not everyone in a team is going to make you go "wow". If they did you'd win a premiership every year. Some are solid foot soldiers that fill a role, don't stand out but have good, long decent careers. McGrath has played some solid footy from mid-2004 on, nothing spectatular but filled a role. Just the unobtrusive type that may, for example, sit in a back pocket and play a number of years before anyone realises he's there. All sides have them. I rate him more highly than the one's you mention above. Who's to say we'll get 5-6 boom draftees. By the 4th pick you're pushing not much short of pick 60. No guarantees there.