Our ruck conundrum

[Mofra]

So... we didn't get a ruck at the trade table last year, leaving us with Stef, Sweet and English.

How does this play out this year? Given Sweet is still 'developing' and Stef could call half of Geelong's list "junior", it seems a lot will fall onto Timmy's shoulders again with perhaps Schache providing a chop-out.
How do we think that effects our chances this year?

Additionally, West Coast are apparently going hard to Timmy. He's a WA boy, his GF has bought a house in Perth, and we have a cap squeeze while West Coast are about to get a heap of cash freed up so can outbid us.

As it stands, the rucks (or ruck/forwards) OOC this year are:
Tim English (duh)
Jordan Roughead (included for shits and giggles)
Darcy Fort
Rhys Stanley
Levi Casboult
Ben McEvoy
Luke Jackson
Todd Goldstein
Tristan Xerri
Samson Ryan
Paddy Ryder
Rohan Marshall
Tom Campbell
Callum Sinclair
Peter Ladhams
Nic Nat

It's a pretty uninspiring list of veterans, part-timers and untouchables.
What happens if English leaves? Zerri is probably gettable but he's meh (a small upgrade on Sweet).

[GVGjr]

I raised this during the trade period. We thinned the ranks a bit when we lost Young who was the preferred back up for English when Martin wasn't available and then failed to look for a contingency to cover the ageing and injured Steph Martin even when we knew English was coming out of contract.

At the very least West Coast will ensure we pay up to keep English.

There are a couple of decent back-up options on Mofra's list

[Axe Man]

So... we didn't get a ruck at the trade table last year, leaving us with Stef, Sweet and English.

How does this play out this year? Given Sweet is still 'developing' and Stef could call half of Geelong's list "junior", it seems a lot will fall onto Timmy's shoulders again with perhaps Schache providing a chop-out.
How do we think that effects our chances this year?

Additionally, West Coast are apparently going hard to Timmy. He's a WA boy, his GF has bought a house in Perth, and we have a cap squeeze while West Coast are about to get a heap of cash freed up so can outbid us.

As it stands, the rucks (or ruck/forwards) OOC this year are:
Tim English (duh)
Jordan Roughead (included for shits and giggles)
Darcy Fort
Rhys Stanley
Levi Casboult
Ben McEvoy
Luke Jackson
Todd Goldstein
Tristan Xerri
Samson Ryan
Paddy Ryder
Rohan Marshall
Tom Campbell
Callum Sinclair
Peter Ladhams
Nic Nat

It's a pretty uninspiring list of veterans, part-timers and untouchables.
What happens if English leaves? Zerri is probably gettable but he's meh (a small upgrade on Sweet).

Ladhams was just traded to Sydney and apparently has a 4 year contract.

[Mofra]

Ladhams was just traded to Sydney and apparently has a 4 year contract.

Cheers. I took the list off footywire but should have remembered the Ladhams trade.

It's also worth noting even if we lose English we'd likely sign all of our other OOC players so might not have too much cash to play with.
We might go young and target Samson Ryan (noting Soldo re-signed and Nank is their captain) but he'd not really the 'plug and play' type we'd look at as a first preference.

[bornadog]

Sam Darcy may have to come into calculations for next year if Tim leaves. I can't see Tim leaving us, but who knows.

This year will be similar to last, with us relying on Tim and Steph. I just hope Sweet can show something, as it is going to be important if we can develop him.

We really need an injury free year for our rucks, otherwise it will be a big struggle.

[Mofra]

Sam Darcy may have to come into calculations for next year if Tim leaves. I can't see Tim leaving us, but who knows.

This year will be similar to last, with us relying on Tim and Steph. I just hope Sweet can show something, as it is going to be important if we can develop him.

We really need an injury free year for our rucks, otherwise it will be a big struggle.

Some watchers think Darcy's best developed as KPD, others as a KPF who can chop out in the ruck. Considering he lost most of last year to Covid & injury and this year may well be a developmental wipe-out with his stress fractures, if he's rucking next year it will because 10 other players are unavailable.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

So... we didn't get a ruck at the trade table last year, leaving us with Stef, Sweet and English.

How does this play out this year? Given Sweet is still 'developing' and Stef could call half of Geelong's list "junior", it seems a lot will fall onto Timmy's shoulders again with perhaps Schache providing a chop-out.
How do we think that effects our chances this year?

Additionally, West Coast are apparently going hard to Timmy. He's a WA boy, his GF has bought a house in Perth, and we have a cap squeeze while West Coast are about to get a heap of cash freed up so can outbid us.

As it stands, the rucks (or ruck/forwards) OOC this year are:
Tim English (duh)
Jordan Roughead (included for shits and giggles)
Darcy Fort
Rhys Stanley
Levi Casboult
Ben McEvoy
Luke Jackson
Todd Goldstein
Tristan Xerri
Samson Ryan
Paddy Ryder
Rohan Marshall
Tom Campbell
Callum Sinclair
Peter Ladhams
Nic Nat

It's a pretty uninspiring list of veterans, part-timers and untouchables.
What happens if English leaves? Zerri is probably gettable but he's meh (a small upgrade on Sweet).

It makes you appreciate how far Melbourne have advanced with both Gawn and Jackson now. A lot of pressure on Sweet to improve and probably we would be better placed if he was given more opportunities in 2021.

[Mofra]

It makes you appreciate how far Melbourne have advanced with both Gawn and Jackson now. A lot of pressure on Sweet to improve and probably we would be better placed if he was given more opportunities in 2021.

I wonder how much we actually rate Sweet given we had a one-year deal on the table until West Coast made a two-year offer.

He looked quite good at VFL level in the early part of last season, and faded badly as the year wore on (carrying a niggle?)

[Mantis]

It makes you appreciate how far Melbourne have advanced with both Gawn and Jackson now. A lot of pressure on Sweet to improve and probably we would be better placed if he was given more opportunities in 2021.

Did he actually deserve further opportunities? His form in his last few VFL games (when they were a thing) were disappointing to say the least.

[jeemak]

Did he actually deserve further opportunities? His form in his last few VFL games (when they were a thing) were disappointing to say the least.

Yeah, it seems we have issues with gifting players games when they don't deserve them and also not gifting players games when they don't deserve them.

Not sure Sweet is equipped with the talent/ potential to justify receiving games for games sake irrespective to how important he could be to us.

[bornadog]

Yeah, it seems we have issues with gifting players games when they don't deserve them and also not gifting players games when they don't deserve them.

Not sure Sweet is equipped with the talent/ potential to justify receiving games for games sake irrespective to how important he could be to us.

His last AFL game against Melbourne, he had 3 disposals

[soupman]

It was a weakness going into each of the last two years and barring English suddenly figuring it all out (which is a strategy of hope) we have a worse ruck set up than both those seasons.

It's an uninspiring OOC list, although both Lloyd Meek and Kieran Strachan had some promising gametime last year, are behind very good young rucks at their current clubs and should be gettable for medium money (although I assumed that going into last trade period and here we are with neither).

[Mofra]

It was a weakness going into each of the last two years and barring English suddenly figuring it all out (which is a strategy of hope) we have a worse ruck set up than both those seasons.

It's an uninspiring OOC list, although both Lloyd Meek and Kieran Strachan had some promising gametime last year, are behind very good young rucks at their current clubs and should be gettable for medium money (although I assumed that going into last trade period and here we are with neither).

Strachan re-signed late last year sadly. He was the guy I wanted us to target.

[Go_Dogs]

English remains key to our ruck solution and that hasn’t changed. He was tracking very well until his concussion and I think he’s primed for another career year. Is it going to be enough against the best, perhaps not, but he should start closing the gap a little more and we need to find ways to keep playing to his strengths.

Get forward, rack up possessions around the ground, more confidence in him down the line marking etc

[Axe Man]

John Ralph mentioned last night on Fox when summarising team selections and Soldo being dropped that we offered him an attractive deal last off season but he obviously chose to stay at Richmond. Not sure I was previously aware of that?