I'm in favour of offering Jamar a one year contract while he oversees Gach's development.
He has proved useful at AFL level and seems to be fully hitting his straps now in the VFL. After time out of the game and a late start this year, if he can hold up as the no.1 ruck in the VFL finals, he would provide high class ruck back up next year, I believe, while providing in game coaching for Gach and excellent protection for our precious young developers.
We’ll know a lot more about Gach and Belly at the end of next year, and we may have 3 genuine rucks for 2018 to go on with, post AFL Jamar.
Say that again? Jamar is absolutely cooked. Yes, he can take a good contested grab, but he has zero fitness and pace to make it with the modern game. He is a starting VFL ruckman and an unnecessary third string ruckman who we do not need. Will waste a senior list spot on someone with more potential. Getting Jamar would mean someone like a Jackson Merrett or a McKernan will need to be delisted.
I'm in favour of offering Jamar a one year contract while he oversees Gach's development.
He has proved useful at AFL level and seems to be fully hitting his straps now in the VFL. After time out of the game and a late start this year, if he can hold up as the no.1 ruck in the VFL finals, he would provide high class ruck back up next year, I believe, while providing in game coaching for Gach and excellent protection for our precious young developers.
We’ll know a lot more about Gach and Belly at the end of next year, and we may have 3 genuine rucks for 2018 to go on with, post AFL Jamar.
Say that again? Jamar is absolutely cooked. Yes, he can take a good contested grab, but he has zero fitness and pace to make it with the modern game. He is a starting VFL ruckman and an unnecessary third string ruckman who we do not need. Will waste a senior list spot on someone with more potential. Getting Jamar would mean someone like a Jackson Merrett or a McKernan will need to be delisted.
I think he’s explicitly saying Jamar over McKernan in that “spare senior ruck” we need because Leuy and Belly have terrible injury histories.
Don’t see it myself. More likely to keep McKernan.
I'm in favour of offering Jamar a one year contract while he oversees Gach's development.
He has proved useful at AFL level and seems to be fully hitting his straps now in the VFL. After time out of the game and a late start this year, if he can hold up as the no.1 ruck in the VFL finals, he would provide high class ruck back up next year, I believe, while providing in game coaching for Gach and excellent protection for our precious young developers.
We’ll know a lot more about Gach and Belly at the end of next year, and we may have 3 genuine rucks for 2018 to go on with, post AFL Jamar.
Say that again? Jamar is absolutely cooked. Yes, he can take a good contested grab, but he has zero fitness and pace to make it with the modern game. He is a starting VFL ruckman and an unnecessary third string ruckman who we do not need. Will waste a senior list spot on someone with more potential. Getting Jamar would mean someone like a Jackson Merrett or a McKernan will need to be delisted.
Last Saturday against Geelong in the VFL elimination final -
Jamar - 10 possessions, 53 hitouts, and 2 goals from some monster (in the literal sense) contested marks in the 3rd quarter when we were struggling to stay in the game.
I don’t see Smack offering as much as Jamar does in the AFL, and to not cut Jamar some slack as a player coming out of retirement and back into the AFL on short notice is to not be really paying attention to how much he has been improving. Jamar was a lone ruckman against Geelong in the VFL on Saturday, and if you didn’t like his ruck work and his physical presence, you are missing something.
I know people are saying McKernan is likely to be kept as a back up ruck, but we all know he will never be more than a hard tryer as an AFL ruckman and I am backing Gach to make the transition to the AFL, but not realistically before 2018, so having a one year quality 3rd back up ruckman is not easy to achieve (but Jamar’s circumstances make it achievable). To have your ruck coach on the field with you when you are still learning the game is a great advantage. And if you saw Jamar in action against Geelong, you would see that he is getting better and fitter and he provides enormous presence that you have to love.
I know we have him as a ruck coach already, and we could offer him a VFL list spot to go with this and achieve a similar outcome, but if Jamar, as our only serious VFL ruckman available, keeps carrying the load into a Grand Final getting 50 plus taps and making everyone walk a foot taller around him, as well as imposing himself on the game with contested marks and goals at critical times like he did on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else got the idea to offer him a one year AFL contract as fantastic ruck insurance, which at his quality is hard to come by.
I'm in favour of offering Jamar a one year contract while he oversees Gach's development.
He has proved useful at AFL level and seems to be fully hitting his straps now in the VFL. After time out of the game and a late start this year, if he can hold up as the no.1 ruck in the VFL finals, he would provide high class ruck back up next year, I believe, while providing in game coaching for Gach and excellent protection for our precious young developers.
We’ll know a lot more about Gach and Belly at the end of next year, and we may have 3 genuine rucks for 2018 to go on with, post AFL Jamar.
Say that again? Jamar is absolutely cooked. Yes, he can take a good contested grab, but he has zero fitness and pace to make it with the modern game. He is a starting VFL ruckman and an unnecessary third string ruckman who we do not need. Will waste a senior list spot on someone with more potential. Getting Jamar would mean someone like a Jackson Merrett or a McKernan will need to be delisted.
Last Saturday against Geelong in the VFL elimination final -
Jamar - 10 possessions, 53 hitouts, and 2 goals from some monster (in the literal sense) contested marks in the 3rd quarter when we were struggling to stay in the game.
I don’t see Smack offering as much as Jamar does in the AFL, and to not cut Jamar some slack as a player coming out of retirement and back into the AFL on short notice is to not be really paying attention to how much he has been improving. Jamar was a lone ruckman against Geelong in the VFL on Saturday, and if you didn’t like his ruck work and his physical presence, you are missing something.
I know people are saying McKernan is likely to be kept as a back up ruck, but we all know he will never be more than a hard tryer as an AFL ruckman and I am backing Gach to make the transition to the AFL, but not realistically before 2018, so having a one year quality 3rd back up ruckman is not easy to achieve (but Jamar’s circumstances make it achievable). To have your ruck coach on the field with you when you are still learning the game is a great advantage. And if you saw Jamar in action against Geelong, you would see that he is getting better and fitter and he provides enormous presence that you have to love.
I know we have him as a ruck coach already, and we could offer him a VFL list spot to go with this and achieve a similar outcome, but if Jamar, as our only serious VFL ruckman available, keeps carrying the load into a Grand Final getting 50 plus taps and making everyone walk a foot taller around him, as well as imposing himself on the game with contested marks and goals at critical times like he did on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else got the idea to offer him a one year AFL contract as fantastic ruck insurance, which at his quality is hard to come by.
I'm in favour of offering Jamar a one year contract while he oversees Gach's development.
He has proved useful at AFL level and seems to be fully hitting his straps now in the VFL. After time out of the game and a late start this year, if he can hold up as the no.1 ruck in the VFL finals, he would provide high class ruck back up next year, I believe, while providing in game coaching for Gach and excellent protection for our precious young developers.
We’ll know a lot more about Gach and Belly at the end of next year, and we may have 3 genuine rucks for 2018 to go on with, post AFL Jamar.
Say that again? Jamar is absolutely cooked. Yes, he can take a good contested grab, but he has zero fitness and pace to make it with the modern game. He is a starting VFL ruckman and an unnecessary third string ruckman who we do not need. Will waste a senior list spot on someone with more potential. Getting Jamar would mean someone like a Jackson Merrett or a McKernan will need to be delisted.
Last Saturday against Geelong in the VFL elimination final -
Jamar - 10 possessions, 53 hitouts, and 2 goals from some monster (in the literal sense) contested marks in the 3rd quarter when we were struggling to stay in the game.
I don’t see Smack offering as much as Jamar does in the AFL, and to not cut Jamar some slack as a player coming out of retirement and back into the AFL on short notice is to not be really paying attention to how much he has been improving. Jamar was a lone ruckman against Geelong in the VFL on Saturday, and if you didn’t like his ruck work and his physical presence, you are missing something.
I know people are saying McKernan is likely to be kept as a back up ruck, but we all know he will never be more than a hard tryer as an AFL ruckman and I am backing Gach to make the transition to the AFL, but not realistically before 2018, so having a one year quality 3rd back up ruckman is not easy to achieve (but Jamar’s circumstances make it achievable). To have your ruck coach on the field with you when you are still learning the game is a great advantage. And if you saw Jamar in action against Geelong, you would see that he is getting better and fitter and he provides enormous presence that you have to love.
I know we have him as a ruck coach already, and we could offer him a VFL list spot to go with this and achieve a similar outcome, but if Jamar, as our only serious VFL ruckman available, keeps carrying the load into a Grand Final getting 50 plus taps and making everyone walk a foot taller around him, as well as imposing himself on the game with contested marks and goals at critical times like he did on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else got the idea to offer him a one year AFL contract as fantastic ruck insurance, which at his quality is hard to come by.
I thought Barry Hall played well on Friday night.
Pity we couldn’t get him as a top up this year, wonder why we didn’t?
Port didn’t even complain they couldn’t pick him up as a top up. Go figure.
I'm in favour of offering Jamar a one year contract while he oversees Gach's development.
He has proved useful at AFL level and seems to be fully hitting his straps now in the VFL. After time out of the game and a late start this year, if he can hold up as the no.1 ruck in the VFL finals, he would provide high class ruck back up next year, I believe, while providing in game coaching for Gach and excellent protection for our precious young developers.
We’ll know a lot more about Gach and Belly at the end of next year, and we may have 3 genuine rucks for 2018 to go on with, post AFL Jamar.
Say that again? Jamar is absolutely cooked. Yes, he can take a good contested grab, but he has zero fitness and pace to make it with the modern game. He is a starting VFL ruckman and an unnecessary third string ruckman who we do not need. Will waste a senior list spot on someone with more potential. Getting Jamar would mean someone like a Jackson Merrett or a McKernan will need to be delisted.
Last Saturday against Geelong in the VFL elimination final -
Jamar - 10 possessions, 53 hitouts, and 2 goals from some monster (in the literal sense) contested marks in the 3rd quarter when we were struggling to stay in the game.
I don’t see Smack offering as much as Jamar does in the AFL, and to not cut Jamar some slack as a player coming out of retirement and back into the AFL on short notice is to not be really paying attention to how much he has been improving. Jamar was a lone ruckman against Geelong in the VFL on Saturday, and if you didn’t like his ruck work and his physical presence, you are missing something.
I know people are saying McKernan is likely to be kept as a back up ruck, but we all know he will never be more than a hard tryer as an AFL ruckman and I am backing Gach to make the transition to the AFL, but not realistically before 2018, so having a one year quality 3rd back up ruckman is not easy to achieve (but Jamar’s circumstances make it achievable). To have your ruck coach on the field with you when you are still learning the game is a great advantage. And if you saw Jamar in action against Geelong, you would see that he is getting better and fitter and he provides enormous presence that you have to love.
I know we have him as a ruck coach already, and we could offer him a VFL list spot to go with this and achieve a similar outcome, but if Jamar, as our only serious VFL ruckman available, keeps carrying the load into a Grand Final getting 50 plus taps and making everyone walk a foot taller around him, as well as imposing himself on the game with contested marks and goals at critical times like he did on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else got the idea to offer him a one year AFL contract as fantastic ruck insurance, which at his quality is hard to come by.
I have some time for this.
If they’re ready to make the call on Smack, they don’t see a decent mature ruck waiting to be picked up, and he’s our ruck coach anyway…
Wouldn't be the first ruck who'd taken a ruck job but been selected as a rookie.
And in our scenario he doesn’t have to go through draft, we can just put him on the list (same goes for rookie list I assume).
Absolutely better genuine ruck insurance than Smack if Belly or Leuey went down. Gach is still not ready by might be at end of next year.
■■■■ Giles got selected by WC as insurance to NicNat and their other ruck and Jamar is better than Giles.
It doesn’t. You can only offer someone a contract as a delisted free agent onto the main list (which is why, for example, Jed Adcock was taken in the rookie draft by the Dogs last year rather than just being put on the list).
Think it’s moot anyway, seem to recall he was all about doing it to help out for the year and that’s it. For which we’re massively grateful and hope he can come away with a Vfl flag for his troubles. Will be coaching next year
Any chance that we'll delist Eades and then rookie him?
We've obviously done it plenty of other times in recent years. He seems a long way off it especially if he's just been dropped from the VFL team. I'd certainly prefer Irish or Long on the main list instead
I have heard theres a chance he will be delisted. Purely because he is not meeting standards and getting lazy. Was punching darts the other week at a club function too.
Any chance that we'll delist Eades and then rookie him?
We've obviously done it plenty of other times in recent years. He seems a long way off it especially if he's just been dropped from the VFL team. I'd certainly prefer Irish or Long on the main list instead
I have heard theres a chance he will be delisted. Purely because he is not meeting standards and getting lazy. Was punching darts the other week at a club function too.
thats a shame, considering his fitness was elite for afl last year.
Any chance that we'll delist Eades and then rookie him?
We've obviously done it plenty of other times in recent years. He seems a long way off it especially if he's just been dropped from the VFL team. I'd certainly prefer Irish or Long on the main list instead
I have heard theres a chance he will be delisted. Purely because he is not meeting standards and getting lazy. Was punching darts the other week at a club function too.
thats a shame, considering his fitness was elite for afl last year.
You would think if he was delisted he would be a monty to get a go on the rookie list, from both a financial perspective and a motivational one for the group.
I'll play
We’re currently at 39 main list and 6 Rookies (including McKenna)
I’d go:
Trade out:
Hibberd
Retire:
Cooney
Delist:
…McKernan
…
…
Take pick 1, 19, 26 (Hibberd) & 37
1 Rookie pick
That leaves us at 39 & 4
I’d go back to 40 & 4 next year and take either O’Meara if we can get him or pick 55 on a project tall.
Rookie list I’d be looking at AHep or Holmes
If we lost Pears I would use that spot to upgrade Long and take the other of AHep & Holmes on the Rookie list
I just can't see us going into next year with only rookie rucks + Belly & Leuy. They're both historically injury prone.
Any chance that we'll delist Eades and then rookie him?
We've obviously done it plenty of other times in recent years. He seems a long way off it especially if he's just been dropped from the VFL team. I'd certainly prefer Irish or Long on the main list instead
I have heard theres a chance he will be delisted. Purely because he is not meeting standards and getting lazy. Was punching darts the other week at a club function too.
Fark me. If true that is one of the most stupid things ever. Smoking as an AFL footballer is one thing, doing it in your first year in the system is another, doing it as an AFL footballer in your first year in the system at a CLUB FUNCTION where others will see you is a whole new level of stupid.
The bloke has some pretty hard family troubles so I feel for the odds stacked against him but if true this kind of behaviour is not helpful.
Heavy tags brought Zaka down in his possession rate, not his work rate. He is a gun outside mid, and very likely not going to be tagged at all next year. Look for 25-30 possession, 2-3 goal games on the regular next year.
tick tock. been waiting about 5 years for this to magically happen. hasnt even gotten close
Any chance that we'll delist Eades and then rookie him?
We've obviously done it plenty of other times in recent years. He seems a long way off it especially if he's just been dropped from the VFL team. I'd certainly prefer Irish or Long on the main list instead
I have heard theres a chance he will be delisted. Purely because he is not meeting standards and getting lazy. Was punching darts the other week at a club function too.
thats a shame, considering his fitness was elite for afl last year.
You would think if he was delisted he would be a monty to get a go on the rookie list, from both a financial perspective and a motivational one for the group.
I'll play
We’re currently at 39 main list and 6 Rookies (including McKenna)
I’d go:
Trade out:
Hibberd
Retire:
Cooney
Delist:
…McKernan
…
…
Take pick 1, 19, 26 (Hibberd) & 37
1 Rookie pick
That leaves us at 39 & 4
I’d go back to 40 & 4 next year and take either O’Meara if we can get him or pick 55 on a project tall.
Rookie list I’d be looking at AHep or Holmes
If we lost Pears I would use that spot to upgrade Long and take the other of AHep & Holmes on the Rookie list
I just can't see us going into next year with only rookie rucks + Belly & Leuy. They're both historically injury prone.
He’d only be on 60 or 70k. We’d have the cap space to cycle him out, pay him out and have a punt on another kid in the 4/5th round if we think Eades is truly going to be wasting our time on the list next year.
I didn’t realise he didn’t play in the final. Did he legit get dropped from the VFL?
Any chance that we'll delist Eades and then rookie him?
We've obviously done it plenty of other times in recent years. He seems a long way off it especially if he's just been dropped from the VFL team. I'd certainly prefer Irish or Long on the main list instead
I have heard theres a chance he will be delisted. Purely because he is not meeting standards and getting lazy. Was punching darts the other week at a club function too.
thats a shame, considering his fitness was elite for afl last year.
Eades was standing next to me with his GF/partner/chaperone/friend/whatever in the early part of the weekend’s VFL game (he’s difficult to miss with the “Eades” tatt on his neck). Struck me as odd at the time, considering the most of the other non-playing Essendon players were on the hill at the city end.
At qtr time he vanished, but his GF/partner/chaperone/friend/whatever was still there until some stage during the half-time break, regularly checking her phone. Not sure she knew where he was.
Did he end up with the rest of the crew on the hill?
