Delisted North Melbourne defender Sam Durdin has provided some insight into what occurred between the club and midfielder Jared Polec during the 2020 season.
Polec was omitted on multiple occasions by the Kangaroos, despite consistently being among their highest ball-winners.
He was even dropped the week he received coaches votes from the opposition side – the Round 8 loss to Carlton.
The former Brisbane and Port Adelaide player was also reportedly put on the trade table, though no suitors emerged.
Durdin believes Polec’s offensive style of footy didn’t suit the direction Rhyce Shaw wished to take the club in the second half of the season.
“It’s an interesting one. Polec’s got his elite strengths and when he’s playing his best footy he’s probably one of the best players in the league,” Durdin told Sportsday SA.
“I think North, when things kind of went pear-shaped, I reckon we just went to more basic footy, more structured footy.
“Polec is a player when he’s playing his best footy he’s an outside player and doing a lot of things, but defensively I reckon it’s just something he’s always had hovering over his head and not his strength, but I think the club kind of relied on him to do a bit more defensively and he wasn’t really doing that so it got to the point where he got dropped there for a few weeks.
“It was a very interesting situation, but I reckon once the team has got confidence up and they allow players to play with their own freedom and guys like Polec can really dominate, but it wasn’t to be the case this year.”
Durdin was one of 11 Roos cut by the club in the initial batch of delistings and admits he was surprised by the news.
“We had our last game of the last round on the Thursday night and Friday morning was D-Day pretty much,” he said.
“I went into the meeting at about 11:30am and I think I was number 10 to get delisted so going into the meeting I was quietly confident, but Brady Rawlings and Rhyce were the only two in the meeting and dropped the news.
“It was quite a shock, but that’s footy unfortunately.
“I’ll be honest I was pretty angry and still a bit dirty, but that’s just the industry, it’s a cutthroat industry and nothing this year went my way I thought.
“It was just a very bad position to be in, but that’s footy and I’m sure I’ll get on with it and move onto other things.”