Port Adelaide ruckman Dean Brogan announced today that he will retire at season's end. His retirement will be a huge loss for the rebuilding side & makes it more imperative that the club pulls out all stops to recruit an experienced ruckman from another club to fill the void whilst the younger ruckmen on the list continue to develop. Even though Matt Lobbe played a decent game against North Melbourne on the weekend, he is still very green in terms of experience & needs a more experienced ruckman to improve his development. Brogan, who holds the distinction of being the only person to ever win an NBL Championship ring & an AFL Premiership medal, has declared an interest in remaining involved in footy in a coaching capacity. A possibility is for him to join the Port Adelaide coaching staff as Ruck coach - hopefully this happens because he is a very passionate clubman who would be a big loss if he left.
Some nice tributes to Broges on the PA Facebook page. McIntosh and Graham might be looking for a job next year, but we never should have let J. Giles slip.
Fairwell Dean Brogan. Good servant for Port Adelaide over 11 years. But in 2011 I’m amazed that after playing at AFL level for more than a decade you never worked out what is and isn’t legal in a ruck contest. If only I had a $ for every free that you’ve given away and then argued with the umpire as to why it occurred.
Thanks to a great career Broges. This guy would bleed for our club and was not prepared to take shit from anyone. My favourite memory of Broges (apart from hitting the Crows nutter at the airport) was at the first bounce of the 2004 grand final when he ran through Keating without looking at the ball. This immediately told Brisbane that we were not going to be intimidated on the day and he was a pivotal part of win on that day.