Kane and Kingy left scratching their heads over potential North Melbourne acquisition

Kane Cornes and David King have been left scratching their heads over North Melbourne’s potential link to West Coast veteran Jack Darling.

Darling, a decorated star for the Eagles now aged 32, had his worst statistical season on record, managing just 22 goals while floating in and out of the senior side.

With a rumoured $800,000 on his final year, the panel, accompanied by journalist Mitch Cleary, were baffled as to why the Kangaroos would seek out such a deal.

Cornes: “We’re scratching our head in the ad-break thinking ‘what are they doing, North?’”

Cleary: “It’s a bit of a salary dump.

“He’s got one year left on a pretty good wage at West Coast, so close to the 300-game mark. The Eagles are driving this as much as anyone.”

Cornes: “So why are North looking to solve an Eagles problem here?”

Cleary: “They have got the salary cap room to do it.”

Cornes: “But does he make them better?”

Cleary: “(Alastair Clarkson) has been big on trying to find experience and a key position player that can be the foil for Nick Larkey and allow Charlie Comben to play at either end.

“Is Jack Darling the best option out there at that age and can provide experience, trains the house down, they say he is an incredible professional, that could be the best option out there.”

Cornes: “Game had moved past him three years ago.”

Kane believes that Alastair Clarkson and the Kangaroos should be digging around the competition for out-of-favour key position talents, with he and Cleary citing two Giants that should be on the radar.

Cornes: “This is what I don’t get, someone like a Jake Riccardi, who can genuinely play at the level. Why wouldn’t North go ‘okay here’s a 22–23-year-old, out of favour at the Giants, let’s just go all there, before we go to Jack let’s just exhaust all of those options’, or is it not that simple?”

Cleary: “I think it’s simple enough, that you could throw the kitchen sink at someone like Jake Riccardi, he’s not playing this weekend for the Giants.

“I’m with you. Callum Brown at the Giants was in at the start of the year. It’s a headscratcher.

“I think Clarko has been big on looking for the ‘professional’, not to say Jake Riccardi is not a professional but is that leader, Jack Darling, the guy that they can look to in the locker room.”

King: “I don’t think they are necessarily looking for absolute on-field performance being the only parameter. They need to learn how to train, how to prepare and it sounds a silly thing to say at this stage.”