Steele Sidebottom - Rusty

[LaurieHolden]

Sidey turned 32 today.

- Needs 44 disposals to move past Dane Swan for total disposals at Collingwood. (1st - S.Pendlebury, 2nd - T.Shaw, 3rd - D.Swan, 4th - Sidey)
- Needs 2 Brownlow votes to become only the 5th Collingwood player to poll 100 career votes ever.
- Has played 289 games in the #22, Sidey had 22 disposals on debut, has given 222 free kicks away in his career & recorded 2222 contested possessions in his career.

[BazBoy]

So this year if a good one can get those Brownlow votes a become a 300 gamer
22 # has been significant at Pies the great Bob Rose was wearing it when I first started following Pies

[BazBoy]

These are the words of Rusty aka Steele Sidebottom when the chance of new blood breaking into the 23

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

He won't 'step aside' I wouldn't have said...he may well not be best 23 if other players develop......seems unlikely though

[BazBoy]

This was in the context of Ed Allen being spoke highly of by Howe & McStay
both suggesting he could break into the first game 23

Steele mentioned that he would to allow aspiring players make AFL career

[lazzadesilva]

Pre season nonsense

[BazBoy]

I agree it’s a touch of blah blah At 32 he has a lot more mileage

[Brown26]

Great noise to have coming from the club, and senior players, though. Even if it is rubbish - he will play round one and probably 2 and if his form is no good he'll be dropped like anyone else! We don't need or want to blood new players for the sake of blooding them - we need to win a premiership!

Still, good to hear the senior players buying in or at least talking the talk!

- Ben

[RudeBoy]

Sidey is still a great player, so if he is not in our best 22 by season's end, then without doubt we are a monty for the flag.

[Pies2016]

There’s a lot more chance of a side step from Sidebottom than him stepping aside. You don’t do a six month gut busting physical slog just to hand your spot to a kid who has his whole career in front of him.

[Pies4shaw]

He's plainly nearing the end. I don't think he's probably got more than about another 120 A-grade games in him.

[watt price tully]

He's plainly nearing the end. I don't think he's probably got more than about another 120 A-grade games in him.

[WhyPhilWhy?]

Maybe he's recalling veteran players at the time like Paul Medhurst, Shane Obree, Tarkyn Lockyer and Josh Fraser that didn't make the 2010 Premiership team he was a part of.

[qldmagpie67]

I think his comments need to be taken in context
I doubt he meant handing his spot to a younger player just because he can
I think he meant he’s happy to sacrifice minutes (as he did last year) to fast track younger players development
His average game time last year was down around 8/9% on the average game time from previous 2 seasons
He may well be happy to have that drop down another 5/10% allowing for younger guys to play those extra minutes
I think its more important when the more experienced players are on the field than how long there on the field
It can’t be underestimated how important we keep a core of experienced players around the developing younger players
He may not be the same player he was a few years ago but he and Pendles and Howe still play vital roles in on field direction and pseudo coaching
I think (personally) this is clearly his last year his wife has a budding law career waiting and his legs have racked up lord knows how many miles
He seems content in what he’s achieved in the game and his off field life has certainly changed over the last couple years
I pointed out last year at after a close game (I think it was after the Essendon after the siren goal) he was on bench for last 5 minutes
Whether that was because he couldn’t get back on or whether the coach wanted to see younger players take responsibility we will never know
But it happened like 4 weeks in a row he finished the game on the bench
It may have just been part of the cycling of game time among the older players

[hermie]

i was one calling for him to be dropped or traded for the last couple of years but last season he was awesome, he said himself he was enjoying it again, let the kids earn their spots