At his best he is an an A Grader but he is injury prone and we might have dodged a bullet
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I never wanted Wingard. he was awful at Port for the last year but in form he is magnificent.
The second I heard he takes his gaming rig on interstate trips with him, insists on a room alone and skips all the team meals etc to play games I went right off him. From a mile away he is a downhill skier IMO and the last personality type we’d be after given the type of person we’ve targeted lately
Wingard has been excellent since he's come back from injury in the last few weeks. Slow start but I think he will recapture his best form over time - he is an elite midfielder when given the opportunity to play in there, which Hawthorn have been doing lately. With a full pre-season under his belt next year, I think he can return to a top 25 player in the comp.
Neale has been an absolute jet for Brisbane this season, even going up a notch from his previously elite Freo form. He is easily the best of the 4 big name recruits. Beams has been a complete disaster and Shiel has not improved Essendon's midfield clearance work one iota - he is simply another nice addition to their outside midfield stocks who has kicking deficiencies. Essendon have needed a big inside bull midfielder ever since Jobe Watson stopped becoming an elite player after the drugs wore off - some of the hyperbole about the Bomber's rise with Shiel's inclusion was complete hot air.
He's an a-grader, but hasn't consistently reached that level. His talent is without question. If he was a stock I'd be buying in 2020.
I would not swap Wingard for Bailey Smith though - I got that wrong last year. Smith is one of the most complete inside-outside midfielders to enter the AFL in many years. Imagine how good he will be when he has a full pre-season under his belt.
Read an article in the Hun about Clarko forcing out Burton so that the Hawks could get the player Clarko was demanding.
Given our interest in him as well I thought it might be worth revisiting.
He is a snippet from the article:
The senior coach was hellbent on Wingard, after coaching him in the 2014 International Rules series, and Hawthorn’s list management committee, rightly or wrongly, backed him.
Wingard was a heck of a player, and Clarkson fell in love with the then 25-year-old’s mesmerising talent and polish.
It was the way he could burst out of congestion, slice through the opposition defence and slot goals from anywhere.
Wingard was an All-Australian in his second season in 2013 and that year became the youngest player at Port Adelaide to win the best and fairest in 30 years. He won the mark of the year the following season.
Wingard was a finisher. A matchwinner. One of the best forward-midfielders in the competition.
And at a meeting at the home of footy manager Graham Wright in late 2018, Clarkson told Wingard how bad the Hawks needed him.
Cyril Rioli, the four-time premiership hero, had just retired in dramatic fashion amid a fallout with president Jeff Kennett.
Meanwhile, Port Adelaide had gone a bit cold on Wingard, after some up-and-down form, and Clarkson knew that too.
But the only way the Power was doing a deal on Wingard was if it received Burton plus a first-round draft pick in the deal.
Hawthorn faced a fight to snare Wingard, as there was another club in the mix.
Western Bulldogs also had a keen interest, and arranged a dinner for Wingard and Dogs’ coach Luke Beveridge.
But in one of those massive sliding doors moments, Wingard chose Waverley over Whitten Oval.
It meant the Dogs kept pick seven, and at the draft snaffled one of the best young players in the game, jet midfielder Bailey Smith.
For Hawthorn, the protracted negotiations with Port on Wingard dragged on until the final day of the trade period when about midmorning the club gave up pick 15, 35 and a future-fourth round pick and Burton in exchange for Wingard and a future third.
So nearly 4 years have gone by since Wingard arrived at the Hawks how would you rate the deal?
He's had a few struggles with injuries this year but he was a very good performer last year.
He's certainly a match winner when he is on song but from our perspective picking up Bailey Smith makes up for missing out on Wingard.
I think Wingard has been a pretty woeful trade for them. He's a cream on the cake type player, they didn't even have a cake baked. It was a waste.
As a player he promised a lot in his early days and I don't think he's delivered. Those first few seasons at Port were electric - perhaps it's more a case of he didn't choose the right club to flourish.
Would he have been better with us? I'd say undoubtedly, but I'm glad we got Smith instead.
We're way ahead, and I was an advocate for giving them pick 7 for Wingard.
I never rated him :D
Wingard been ok this season.
17 goals in 10 games reasonable return.
He's certainly not the same player he was at Port.
Yeah that's a bad trade for Hawthorn all round. Despite the success he brought the club in the years preceding this trade many Hawks supporters were at a loss re. Clarko's motives on this one.