Are we though?
Two mature ruckman on the list who can play seniors now, irrespective of them not being great. 2 developing senior listed ruckman in Draper and Bryan. Adding to those 4 we’ve just brought in the mature age guy from the SANFL in the mid/pre season draft as a backup/project. We’ve got 5 rucks on our list all at varying stages of development. That’s a long way from all eggs in one basket. I’d be surprised if many clubs had 5 rucks on their list to be honest.
As to the quality of them… well there’s never been a better time to be a bog average ruckman, there ain’t many great ones so you’ll get contract after contract for not doing much.
Interesting stats. Tbell compares favorably on tap work and even intercept marks but not well on clearances, ground ball gets and score involvements. No surprise really.
Interesting observation that a lot of gawns taps to advantage come from chest height after out bodying an opponent. If nothing else, tbell isn’t the easiest bloke to shift but he can be out positioned by a more agile opponent.
Mick Hurley has presence.
Would take a good defender, but I’d worry about this wrists.
He can kick a goal. Just needs to compete.
If I was picking a defender to go forward it would be Hooker though.
Ultimately my best 22 we get Daniher back Francis fit enough to play on forward/mids and goes with them in midfield too. Would pick Ham as my winger due to his pace and endurance, by Zaka or Cutler or McKenna could play that role as well. Hoping Draper turns into number 1 ruck before the year end.
Draper definitely is the answer. But don’t expect him to come in and dominate. He’s a kid with a shittload of talent but limited experience. He will need time to find his feet at the top level. The end result will be well worth it though.
Yeah… Hurley’s wrists are a problem and I wouldn’t want to mess with Francis’ development by moving him forward. I think it has to be Hooker, although I worry whether he’s got enough speed left in his legs.
A left field thought - what about Ambrose? I think he played part of game at CHF last season and competed well. Crashed packs, brought the ball to ground, ran relentlessly. He’s our best one-on-on defender, so it’s not great from that perspective, but it might be an option…
He might even be able to takeover the 2nd ruck duties from Langford. He could certainly run with Gawn and would hurt him with a few rib-cage-smashing tackles?
The main point about this KPF “debate” is being missed, its not the targets, its the delivery. Better/smarter delivery will = more opportunities/goals. The more confident Pidge gets and hopefully when Dev finds his feet over next couple weeks we get some better passing to our forwards. last week was a tough one to judge, I say give it 2-3 more games to see how we are really going to play this year.
We should try get as many games into him as possible now.
Grundy played 7 games in 2013 at the age of 19. I know he will get beaten at times, but what better way to adapt to the game speed. We need to play the kids like Mozzie and Draper now, not in 2 years time.