Two of our most talented young players.

Two ACLs.

Do we think these two will make successful comebacks? Most players tend to get back after ACLs these days, right?

Is Marchbank simply unlucky or is he made of glass and simply not cut out for the rigours of AFL?

Both have been extremely unlucky , a combination of injuries and lack of form will affect their ability to remain on our list.
Perhaps another year for Cuningham, but sadly I think Marchbank’s may be up.

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Go Blue Boys

No-one ever comes back the same.

Both of them too injury prone and need to be moved on and make room on the list for players that can actually get on the park.

Petracca and Max Gawn (2x ACLs from memory) ?

We are so smart, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we delisted them both, along with O’Brien, amongst others, traded Fisher, SPS, Setterfield, Williamson and didn’t offer Kennedy and JSoS appropriate contracts. Then go back to the draft to ‘reset’ the list.
That’s how we’ve been rolling for 20 years.....

I think both are hugely talented and need to be persisted with though Marchbank is running out of credits, by no fault of his own, but after a while the club need to view him as an asset that's not providing a return sadly.

Cuningham was starting to look like he was about to break out and be a consistent performer so fingers crossed he can get back there.

At some point you just need to cut bait.

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end

Both very talented . Somehow or other i would like to hang onto both . If it"s possible . Would"t be easy i know , but , i reckon there is a little left in the tank .

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All my dangerous friends

Imagine what they could have been?

I suspect even better without 12 months away and then another 24 to adapt.

Cunners has always looked like he was about to deliver but never has. I'd give him one more year.
Marchy, I can't even remember the last time I saw him on the park. I fear he is just one of those guys that will never get his body right. I think it's time to move on

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Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Saddens me a lot when I see these 2 names.

Marchbank should have been an elite prospect by now.
Reminded me, don't laugh you oldies, a bit of Geoff Southby in terms of athletic abilities: tall mobile athletically gifted.
Perfect intercept player. Fearless. Quick. Played wing at GWS.

Cuningham is super quick. Killed it as a TAC player.
Has the ability to be inside outside mid. Unique really.
Started showing his wares, and was improving before the knee.
I think he was gaining confidence and getting up to speed with the game before the ACL.

Would love to keep both.
Everything depends on salary cap, because they are going to be better than the 40th player on the list.

paying out their salaries still fall under the salary cap, unless AFL deems it OK to pay them out and not count.
They are too young to finish their careers, so I don't expect AFL to be too kind in that respect.

They will recover in time to get a few games under their belt before finals next year. I expect finals next year.
I doubt they will feature next year.

I guess we have to look at our rookies, whether they are worth pursuing with or promote to senior list to see if we can hide them in there for a year.
That way their salaries (or part of) don't count as rookies IIRC, as we get them fit to play on in 2022.
The conundrum is whether we want to keep 3 players next year on the rookie list: Betts, Cuningham, Marchbank.
Also, what to do with rookies Cottrell, Owies, Parks, Honey, Boyd and Betts. Mirkov is signed for another 2 years. Owies on his last at Cat B?

I'd have Marchbank and Cuningham ahead (despite on hold for 2022) of Betts, Parks, Cottrell ... don't know much about Boyd.

Find a way if Russell believe thay can come back as good as they were following tidy ACL surgery.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Marchbank gone, Cuningham retained is my guess.

Cuningham was always the one for me. The kind of 'B' mid who you are just waiting for to all of a sudden go bang and turn into a top tier player. Kind of like Jack Steele at St Kilda (different player but the same principle, one off-season goes from pretty good player to elite). Sadly I just don't see it happening. Some blokes just don't have the body with the resilience required.

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end

Keep both.

Marchbank had a broken neck - you can't plan for that. They took a conservative approach to his return (with good reason), and then he did his knee in the first quarter of his first game back. That's built-a-house-on-an-indian-burial-ground level cursed. He's never had the same injury twice.

At this stage we've invested so much time into him that you're duty bound to get him fit and see if he can play. What's the point of cutting him now? We don't desperately need the list space or the salary cap space.

As for Cunningham - why would you consider cutting him after doing an ACL? Are the Bulldogs currently considering cutting Bruce? He was in good form and he did a knee. Hopefully he recovers and in 18 months he's back to that form.

They're both 24 years old. Not 28. They have 100+ games in them if they can get fit.

Yep.

Plenty to go before them.

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dane's trolling again

Both are young enough to keep unless you're going to get significate upgrades

Yes and I believe both are contracted for next year anyway. I’d be surprised if the club were looking to pay them out

lions player on week end x geelong player nakia c ,he missed 2 years of footy playing well now.

agree.

there are others i would be delisting before these two, even with their injuries.