Two Ruckmen in 2019

[Crossy66]

The player that stings the most is s actually Lynch in my mind. He has turned into a key player for Adelaide and only left because Ross wouldn' t give him a shot.

Yep thats a good one, although tbh he didnt show much with us, but RTB has a below par record developing players

[Dave McNamara]

McEvoy - Had lost all form at the time. Took a couple of seasons, but has improved again. Still is a marking ruckman, not a great tap ruckman.

Jamie Cripps - Traitor! And I agree with Big Mart. The bloke takes the soft option.

Mark Hutchings - GOP, and good on him, has worked hard with what he's got.

Luke Ball - Great player, very little between him and Chickenwing, ahead of Hodge (all IMHO)... till was hobbled by OP. Then, couldn't run, could barely kick over a jam jar. The way he left us, a party to the Skunk's unpunished draft manipulation - traitor!

Brent Guerra - Sniper. But when the ball had to be won on its merit, he always fell over rather than risk taking a hit himself. (Which cost us playing in a GF. Should have kicked that last goal against the Teal Turkies, but no, he 'fell over'. ) Good riddance!

Matty Lappin - Mistake by us!

Dean Rice - Mistake by our doctors - said he'd never recover from his knee injury. He did.

Joel Smith - Traitor!

Spider - Great player. Could have been an all-time great. A disruptive influence. Best he went.

Hall - I was sad when he wanted out, for whatever reasons. But we got Nicky Dal as compo'.

Russell Greene - Major stuff-up by the club.

Ian Stewart - Sitting in his care outside a primary school and... that was the final straw. Yabby had had enough. That said, very probably cost us two flags... at the least.

Val Perovich - We had to let him go. We were broke and selling the furniture. Dark times.

[Sombersainter]

While Billy does quite well at ruck taps, we have to take the hit and accept that is all he does.
I've seen nothing in his around the ground game to suggest any other potential.

[samuraisaint]

This was the topic of discussion on this afternoon's 'Drive' program on SEN.
Our weakness in this area was raised and debated as our massive Achilles heel for this season, and the main reason why we are struggling so badly.
I think our forward line structure and inability to capitalise on inside forward 50s is the biggest issue in 2019 for mine, but not everyone agrees obviously.

[saintbob]

Marshall and Pierce for mine, Longer can take Pierce’s spot @ Frankston and Alabakis can develop his craft @ Sandy.

[stonecold]

Marshall and Pierce for mine, Longer can take Pierce’s spot @ Frankston and Alabakis can develop his craft @ Sandy.

Good on ya Bob!!!!!

[saynta]

McEvoy - Had lost all form at the time. Took a couple of seasons, but has improved again. Still is a marking ruckman, not a great tap ruckman.

Jamie Cripps - Traitor! And I agree with Big Mart. The bloke takes the soft option.

Mark Hutchings - GOP, and good on him, has worked hard with what he's got.

Luke Ball - Great player, very little between him and Chickenwing, ahead of Hodge (all IMHO)... till was hobbled by OP. Then, couldn't run, could barely kick over a jam jar. The way he left us, a party to the Skunk's unpunished draft manipulation - traitor!

Brent Guerra - Sniper. But when the ball had to be won on its merit, he always fell over rather than risk taking a hit himself. (Which cost us playing in a GF. Should have kicked that last goal against the Teal Turkies, but no, he 'fell over'. ) Good riddance!

Matty Lappin - Mistake by us!

Dean Rice - Mistake by our doctors - said he'd never recover from his knee injury. He did.

Joel Smith - Traitor!

Spider - Great player. Could have been an all-time great. A disruptive influence. Best he went.

Hall - I was sad when he wanted out, for whatever reasons. But we got Nicky Dal as compo'.

Russell Greene - Major stuff-up by the club.

Ian Stewart - Sitting in his care outside a primary school and... that was the final straw. Yabby had had enough. That said, very probably cost us two flags... at the least.

Val Perovich - We had to let him go. We were broke and selling the furniture. Dark times.

Hi mate, do you have any evidence to back up your claims about Stewart?

[Premium89]

The club had a crack at Lycett,

Am I on the only one that thinks this shows that the club is pretty clueless about rating ruckman?

Lycett simply put is a pretty average ruckman. A long term deal on good money made no sense.


I do understand the Saints had to lose Hickey as he was the only player that we could lose that another club wanted that would give us the pic to get But getting Lycett in even if he wasa free agent made little sense to me.

PS: Personally I am not that phased about not having a good ruckman ready to go for 2019 as

1/ I see 20019 as a building year. And with King and Bytel recruited injured I am sure the club does too

2/History that if you get good enough to be a flag contender that you can land a ruckman for your 22 from another club pretty easily. Indeed rare has been the Premiership Team in recent years who did not have a ruckman who had previously played at another AFL Club in it.

Bar hawks in 08, all premiership winning teams had a formidable ruck division.

My point was that clubs who have won flags in recent years have mainly done so with a ruck on the day who was recruited from another club not long before they won the flag.

Hawks have had a stream of rucks from other clubs.
Tigers
Dogs...even if they did buy him in as an overpriced FF
WC last year had their second ruck from the Cats
Pies Jolly
Swans Mumford and Jolly
Cats Ottens
et etc..

It has been a lot more fruitful than the draft your own approach. So build the rest of you team and worry about the ruck division last. We are not going to win the flag in 2019 and so again I am not fussed at all that our ruck division is not flash. It has some possibles and that is ok by me while we get the rest of the team right. Who know maybe in several years big Sam and Marshall may come good, and if so good as that may be when the rest of the team is right too.


Now the Saints have of course picked up Hickey, Longer etc. But we made the mistake of getting them too early. We would have IMO been better to build our midfield class and then go out and get a ready made ruck. History shows that this has worked time and time again.

Agree about poaching your ruckmen...
2009/2010 we had Steven King and Michael Gardiner!

[kosifantutti]

Alabakis to play at Frankston.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-02-15/ ... rival-club

[Bernard Shakey]

Alabakis to play at Frankston.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-02-15/ ... rival-club

Good move!

[Dave McNamara]

McEvoy - Had lost all form at the time. Took a couple of seasons, but has improved again. Still is a marking ruckman, not a great tap ruckman.

Jamie Cripps - Traitor! And I agree with Big Mart. The bloke takes the soft option.

Mark Hutchings - GOP, and good on him, has worked hard with what he's got. Kudos!

Luke Ball - Great player, very little between him and Chickenwing, ahead of Hodge (all IMHO)... till was hobbled by OP. Then, couldn't run, could barely kick over a jam jar. The way he left us, a party to the Skunk's unpunished draft manipulation - traitor!

Brent Guerra - Sniper. But when the ball had to be won on its merit, he always fell over rather than risk taking a hit himself. (Which cost us playing in a GF. Should have kicked that last goal against the Teal Turkeys, but no, he 'fell over'. ) Good riddance!

Matty Lappin - Mistake by us!

Dean Rice - Mistake by our doctors - said he'd never recover from his knee injury. He did.

Joel Smith - Traitor!

Spider - Great player. Could/should have been an all-time great. But a disruptive influence. Best he went.

Hall - I was sad when he wanted out, for whatever reasons. But we did get Nicky Dal as compo'.

Russell Greene - Major stuff-up by the club.

Ian Stewart - Sitting in his car outside a primary school channelling Jon Dorotich... that was the final straw. Yabby had had enough. That said, very probably cost us two flags... at the least.

Val Perovic - We had to let him go. We were broke and selling the furniture. Dark, dark times.

Hi mate, do you have any evidence to back up your claims about Stewart?

That would depend on the definition of 'evidence'. I have a mixture of what is on the public record, and what I was told by a source.


Public record:
- Stewie had 'issues'. Including liking to cross-dress.
- Yabby was an old-school police senior sergeant. So whilst I don't know his thoughts re these matters if they were kept behind closed doors, public displays, didn't go down well. Ilegal public ones... even less so.
- When (briefly) coach of Carlscum, Stewie in his car dragged a copper a short(?) distance through the CBD when the copper tried to stop him driving off.


Not so public record:
- The Jon D 'channelling' (or was Jon D channelling Stewie?) was the last straw for Yabby. Hence the football world being shocked by the (seemingly) out of the blue (arguably) biggest player swap ever in the history of our game. A player swap that on-field at least, we lost out on big time. This stuff would have gotten Stewie into huge trouble today. Everyone has camera phones... connected to the internetty. But things as we all know were different back then, and (just as with Big 'your Nicked' at Carlscum) much more was covered up then, than now.
- The CBD incident reports didn't include that Stewie 'may not have been wearing traditional male attire' at the time of the offence.


My source(s):
A hubby and wife I knew, who are mad saintas, spent a lot of time at the club, and knew a lot of the club players and officials reasonably well. Their daughter was in the cheer squad, and she was part of the team that prepared the banner each week. (I hope that isn't narrowing down the possibilities too much for those 'in the know'. And no, I'm not referring to a prominent former, and very prolific in his day, colourful Saintsational identity. )

Another supporter I knew (who claimed) to have quite a few contacts at the club also back this independently.

Do I believe these source(s)? Yes I do. Are the as good as Teddy's sources? Who knows? Regardless, whether others choose to believe them or not, is their choice. Of course.

Possibly others on here can corroborate some of the above(?)

[samuraisaint]

The player that stings the most is s actually Lynch in my mind. He has turned into a key player for Adelaide and only left because Ross wouldn' t give him a shot.

Yep thats a good one, although tbh he didnt show much with us, but RTB has a below par record developing players.

Yep, the jury is certainly out on Lyon's ability to develop players, but his ability to get teams to the big dance is beyond doubt. He also gets teams performing at an elite level for an extended period of time - based on us and Freo both finishing miles away on top of the ladder. All the teams he has coached, including Sydney, stuck to the tried and true, and became, I believe, too predictable. It was only sheer talent at the Saints and Freo (and Sydney) that basically made them hard to beat.

I think his weakness is that he is too inflexible - and this has cost him three premierships. He could have gone down in history as one of the all-time greats if we had won 2 Grand Finals (which we could've) and Freo had managed to kick two more goals and change against the perennially powerful Hawks unit in 2013. But goals and where to find them has always been Rossy's Achilles heel - and this ultimately cost the Swans going back to back in 2006 too.

[SydneySainter]

Interesting listening to Clarkson talking on MMM radio this morning about the new rule changes and in particular the 6-6-6 set up.
In Hawks trialling, he observed that it really opened the game and expects really fast goals coming out of the centre. Ruckman can also grab the ball out of the ruck.
Clarkson flagged that he expects we will likely go back to two ruckman and that the ruck role will be more important than in recent years.
Probably great news for Marshall if thats the case

You’d hope so but we havent found found a way to fit two rucks into the same team for 5 years.

And we’ve just traded away our most consistently played ruck of that time with no replacement.

My concern is that we go back to a one ruck set up

I expect two rucks will be the norm this year so i reckon that gives Marshall a great opportunity thereby allowing us to fit in two rucks. I think the change in the game a few years ago have dictated us and many others only playing one ruck.
Trading Hickey was the right move for club and player. I dont think we'll miss him and, as a fringe player, he certainly wasnt worth the $650k we were paying him.

I expect Billy will step up this year. If not a 2020 contract looks shaky.

Similar justification used for the McEvoy trade.

[samuraisaint]

Interesting listening to Clarkson talking on MMM radio this morning about the new rule changes and in particular the 6-6-6 set up.
In Hawks trialling, he observed that it really opened the game and expects really fast goals coming out of the centre. Ruckman can also grab the ball out of the ruck.
Clarkson flagged that he expects we will likely go back to two ruckman and that the ruck role will be more important than in recent years.
Probably great news for Marshall if thats the case

You’d hope so but we havent found found a way to fit two rucks into the same team for 5 years.

And we’ve just traded away our most consistently played ruck of that time with no replacement.

My concern is that we go back to a one ruck set up

I expect two rucks will be the norm this year so i reckon that gives Marshall a great opportunity thereby allowing us to fit in two rucks. I think the change in the game a few years ago have dictated us and many others only playing one ruck.
Trading Hickey was the right move for club and player. I dont think we'll miss him and, as a fringe player, he certainly wasnt worth the $650k we were paying him.

I expect Billy will step up this year. If not a 2020 contract looks shaky.

Similar justification used for the McEvoy trade.

+1