John Bateman #268

Putting aside any views on Bateman's personality, small back rowers are legendarily bad uses of long-term contracts - they take so much punishment that by the time they hit 30 they're almost invariably physically broken. I remember that being said about Parra signing Anthony Watmough to a four-year deal in 2015 and it was a well-known reality even then.

It was more or less impossible that four years of John Bateman starting in 2023 was going to be a good idea, and in the end the fact that we got 16 mediocre games a season out of him and found someone to take him off our hands is probably about as good as that contract was going to get.

Just an all-round embarrassing signing that given the length of the contract puts it comfortably in our top 10 worst alongside Josh Reynolds, Chris McQueen and Matt Ballin.
 
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Co client or not, I wonder if Batemans frustration was directed at the insistence of giving Galvin the keys to the club over the Senior boys.
Maybe he knew through his management that Galvin was just buying his time?
 
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