PLAY FOR THE LABRADOR TIGERS ... SURE, WHY NOT
QAFL club Labrador are on the verge of perhaps the biggest recruiting coup in the competition’s history with the signing of AFL premiership-winning star Barry Hall for the 2017 season.
Hall, 40, lives on the Gold Coast and is a specialist forwards coach with the Suns. The former Sydney Swans captain has indicated he is interested in having a run for the Labrador Tigers in the state competition, The Tigers are already well progressed with talks to lure another Swans premiership star and now-Suns coach Nick Malceski to play for them.
In 2015 Labrador broke their 20-year premiership drought when they managed to attract Suns coaches and former AFL stars Josh Fraser and Matthew Lappin to join their playing ranks.
LABRADOR officials are confident they are close to signing former AFL premiership pair Barry Hall and Nick Malceski to play state league this year.
In what would be one of the Queensland Australian Football League’s biggest recruiting coups, the Tigers are understood to be ready to seal the deal to get the former Sydney Swans pair playing at CookeMurphy Oval.
According to a Labrador club source, Malceski is the most likely of the two to be wearing the yellow and black this season although Hall, at 40, indicated he is keen to play and qualify for QAFL finals.
Hall has been taken on by the Suns as a forward line coach but Malceski is now a full-time development coach at Metricon Stadium after ending his AFL playing days last year.
If the audacious bid comes off, Hall and Malceski would join Labrador in much the same circumstances as Josh Fraser and Matty Lappin did in 2015 when they were assistant coaches with the Suns.
They played for Labrador around their AFL assistant coaching commitments and eventually qualified for finals and were key members of the side that broke the club’s 20year premiership drought.
The Labrador source said Hall had indicated to the club that he was not averse to having a kick with the Tigers and was “in discussions”.
Malceski, 32, would manage about six or seven games for Labrador around his AFL duties as a Suns player development coach.
New Labrador coach Aaron Shattock said he was unaware if Hall had any intentions of returning to the field but confirmed he had been to at least one training run.
“I understand he is trying to help out the brother of his partner Lauren Brant, who wants to play Aussie rules,” Shattock said.
Hall is one of the AFL’s legends and true characters of the code after 289 games with St Kilda (88), Sydney (162) and Western Bulldogs (39).
He kicked a total of 746 goals, was four times All-Australian and was captain of Sydney’s 2005 premiership side.
Suns coach Rodney Eade said there was nothing the club could do to stop Hall playing for Labrador – nor Malceski for that matter – and that the former tough spearhead has held his condition well.
“He looks a healthy, fit specimen,” Eade said of Hall.
“And we didn’t stop Josh or Matty when they played there.”
Malceski, also an All-Australian, played in Sydney’s premiership side in 2012.