Did Port Adelaide make the right call delisting teenage key forward while keeping Travis Boak?

Did Port Adelaide make a mistake delisting teenage key forward Thomas Scully while retaining 36-year-old veteran Travis Boak?

That was the question posed by Mark Bickley on SEN SA Breakfast on Tuesday morning.

The Power announced a slew of delistings on Monday, including Quinton Narkle and Francis Evans, who both featured in finals action in 2024. It came following the decision to re-sign Boak, who played 23 games this season.

Scully, a 19-year-old 203cm key forward did not debut for the Power, stuck behind the likes of Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall, Mitch Georgiades, Jeremy Finlayson and Ollie Lord.

He was also stuck in a SANFL team that went 4-14 and finished with a percentage of 40, making it tough for a key forward to develop and perform.

Bickley feels Scully had some potential and was caught off guard by his culling.

“I was a little bit surprised because he at different stages showed a little bit at SANFL level,” the two-time premiership skipper told SEN SA Breakfast.

“And that’s difficult when you’re a forward and there’s not a lot of ball coming in.

“He’s 200cm and it takes a little bit longer for big guys to develop.”

Bickley wonders whether the Power will come to regret delisting Scully in the coming years, potentially when they prioritised a 36-year-old.

“The fact that there was nine changes, you wonder if that influences the Travis Boak decision,” he said.

“There would be some people who would question it and say you’ve got a 200cm forward and yet you’re keeping on a 36-year-old midfielder. We’ll just have to see who’s right and wrong and you probably won’t know until the end of next year.

“If Scully goes back to the SANFL and has a great year and gets drafted by another club, you’d probably say Port Adelaide pulled the wrong lever, but if Travis Boak has another great year of footy and Port wins the flag, you’d say how smart was Port.

“The club said it’s Travis’ decision to make. I just feel like that’s dangerous because there are some players, and Rory Sloane was one, who would say you’d have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.

“I’m not saying Travis is like that, but sometimes when you get towards the end of your career you’re not the best person to judge.

“There’s always self-interest. If you’re getting paid half a million dollars and outside of footy you’re getting paid a quarter of that, that does cloud your judgement.

“The second part of it is it looks like Boak have quite rightly identified that they need to get better because they weren’t good enough in the finals. That’s why Narkle and Evans have been delisted.

“I would have thought if you were desperate to get better, you’re not going to get a whole heap of improvement out of Travis Boak on-field.

“I understand totally why you want quality people at your footy club. There’s no doubt about that. He makes people better Monday to Friday. Can you still get that without him taking up a list spot?

“But the counter is you’re bringing in six young players anyway, why not have Boak around and potentially still playing a lot of footy.”

Narkle, Evans, Scully, Kyle Marshall and Tom Clurey were the delistings announced by Port Adelaide.

Narkle is expected to receive a lifeline from Fremantle, while Clurey was cut with one-year left on his existing contract to explore opportunities elsewhere.

He has been linked with a move to West Coast.