Once again, I'll buck the trend. I think we dodged another bullet here. Prior to Hooker being a possible Freo recruit, my only memory of him was him chasing Buddy for 50m down the wing only to see Buddy kick goal of the year in 2010.
Run Hooker Run
Reports suggest Freo were offering around $1million per year for 5 years. That would put Hooker, a player who barely makes the top50 AFL players (as voted by his peers), in the top 5 or so highest paid players in the competition (about the same or more than Fyfe).
And what would that $5million plus give Freo? ... a KPP unlikely to give 100 Home and Away games.
He will be about 28 and a half years old if he plays Round 1 2017. To give you some idea of what that age means. McPharlin played 92 Home and Away games after that age before retiring. Dawson has played 15 and Johnson has played 56.
I don't even know if we would be getting him as a defender or a forward.
His forward stats are nothing special (he simply played deep in the forward zone ... with few i50s and only 1 Goal Assist during his 10 or so games in 2015 playing forward. He kicked 20goals 19points). His best defensive stats are good, but I would select other Key Defenders in front of him.
Once again, you can attempt to understand the details ... or just take the general simpler more popular approach and blame Bondy.