Eade backs Martin
JACK Martin’s former coach Rodney Eade says he will provide a crucial point of difference in Carlton’s forward line as Gold Coast prepares to let him walk for free.
The 24-year-old will get to the Blues without losing a draft pick at 10am on Friday in the pre-season draft, with the Suns not prepared to re-draft a player who is so desperate to get to an AFL rival.
Gold Coast had its own win last week when it secured Jack Lukosius on top of its re-contracting of Ben King and will enter 2020 with momentum rather than dealing with a year of speculation over Martin’s ongoing future.
But it means Carlton list boss Steve Silvagni’s parting gift to the Blues will be orchestrating a deal that secures the talented but inconsistent Sun without handing over a draft pick.
Tasmanian Eade coached Martin when he finished third in the best-and-fairest in successive seasons in 2016 and 2017, kicking 24 goals to go with 410 possessions in 2017.
He says that not only is Martin a versatile player who can easily take his turn at half back, he is capable of 30 goals a year as a marking halfforward who pinch-hits in the midfield.
“He is a different type of player to what they have got. Forward lines need a different look,” he said.
“He can mark it overhead, he is very good on the ground, he’s a different player to [Tom] Papley because he can take a mark. He is 186cm and he has got good speed and agility. He is as good on the ground as he is in the air and he does add a different dynamic. He can go into the midfield and win the ball out of the centre square, so he gives the Carlton coaching group a real flexible player who can go to half back and set the game up if he needs to.
“He is really super tough, can win a really hard ball, tackles well, can do some exciting stuff even if he floats in and out of the game.
“If there is enough ball coming down there, he certainly could kick 30 goals, no doubt.”
There is a window for delisted free agents between 8am and 9am on Friday, only an hour before the preseason and rookie drafts.
But the Suns are unlikely to delist Martin before the pre-season draft and Essendon’s Michael Hartley does not fit into that window on his way to Hawthorn because he delisted himself and isn’t eligible as a free agent delisted by a club.