Excerpt from an article in The Australian by Michael Davis
Wednesday, October 06, 1999
A FEW days ago a young bloke sitting on our table at Collingwood's best and fairest award paid $525 at a "silent" auction for Clinton King's jumper.
The pony-tailed King had become a bit of a cult figure at Victoria Park after being traded to the Magpies from Sydney at the end of the 1997 season.
Now he's gone to Richmond in a pre-draft trade for promising young Tiger ruckman Steve McKee. Suddenly King's Magpie jumper is worth little more than the $39.99 you pay for it at K-mart and the Magpie fan who forked out for it less than a week ago is entitled to feel duped.
Then again, so are long-suffering Richmond fans. With no disrespect to King, McKee is the same age but almost 20 centimetres bigger than the man he's replacing at Victoria Park.
McKee's admirers say all he needs is senior games under his belt and he'll be the best ruckman in the game.
The Tigers -- most notably their new coach Danny Frawley who coached the Magpie reserves last season -- will argue they need a man of King's "in and under ability" and are well-served for big men like McKee. They'll roll out the names of Holland, Ottens and Brendon Gale. But it's a short-sighted view given Gale's clearly limited lifespan at the elite level.
Richmond will rue yesterday -- the day they broke one of footy's cardinal rules and swapped a tall for a small.
Excerpt from an article in The Australian
Moderator: bbmods
