scaryness
Premium Platinum
- Oct 19, 2008
- 14,849
- 23,291
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Other Teams
- Trail Blazers / Cowboys
McAndrew
McCartin
McDonald
McInerney
McLean
McCartin
McDonald
McInerney
McLean
Player Watch #46 Lachlan McAndrew
- Thread starter SwansProudly
- Start date
- Tagged users None
sataris
Chief Toastie Officer
- Feb 15, 2015
- 10,113
- 20,171
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Yay a ruck!
- May 9, 2011
- 2,943
- 5,872
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Other Teams
- SMU Mustangs, Matildas
Just need McDonald Tippinwudi to jump ship at season’s end.
Big Mac
grimlock
Hall of Famer
Wish him all the best but our recent record with drafting and developing rucks in the last 20 years hasn't been great, particularly with so-called "project players". Mike Pyke being the great exception and Naismith could have been if it wasn't for his injuries
(Number of Swans games in brackets)
Drafted
Traded in
(Number of Swans games in brackets)
Drafted
- Mike Pyke (110)
- Stephen Doyle (47)
- Sam Naismith (30*)
- Ricky Mott (17)
- Simon Feast (14)
- Toby Nankervis (12) - 81* games with RIC
- James Meiklejohn (6)
- Darcy Cameron (1)
- Daniel Currie (0) - 4 games with NM, 6 games with GC
- Andrew Ericksen (0)
- Kyle Galloway (0)
- Michael Knoll (0)
- Patrick Mitchell (0)
- Jake Orreal (0)
- Earl Shaw (0)
Traded in
- Darren Jolly (118)
- Callum Sinclair (89*)
- Shane Mumford (79)
- Peter Everitt (39)
- Mark Seaby (18)
- Tom Derickx (13)
- Paul Chambers (12)
- Tom Hickey (9*)
Bonz
🤺🤺🤺
Still wonder to this day what Doyle could have been without injuries.
Millky95
Starchild > You
No thanks
- Sep 10, 2006
- 19,725
- 19,493
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Other Teams
- Liverpool FC
Developing ruckmen is a waste of time and list space.
They clog up your list for years and years before you find out if they're any good and even then you usually only get 4-5 good seasons out of them at best. It's also extremely rare that you can turn them into decent players in another position.
If I was a list manager I would ban the development of rucks and simply cherry pick the surplus ones from other clubs. Given the limitations of the position there's usually at least 4 or 5 clubs that have a surplus of talent in this area (West Coast always seem to have a decent spare or 2 in the cupboard).
Jewelsbon
Premiership Player
- Aug 30, 2016
- 4,734
- 14,237
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Mr Tool you'd back me in over Ollie and I'm 5ft tall and 5ft wide!
SwansProudly
Moderator
- Sep 5, 2016
- 8,804
- 24,746
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Other Teams
- Sydney Swans AFLW
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #38
me too!
Great post sir
I agree it's very hit and miss, and every club goes through several rucks to find a decent one. That said, the Nic Nat, Gawn, Grundy, Sandi types that significantly enhance teams are often drafted and developed at the clubs that benefit the most. You do get the (lesser IMO) McEvoy, Stef Martin, Sam Jacobs that perform better at a 2nd club, but that 2nd club generally has to cough up big if they're already proven, there's injury/go home factors, or you're still taking a risk on someone to further develop (if you start bringing in a bunch of 2nd or 3rd choice rucks from elsewhere, they'll cotton on pretty quick that any talk of you seeing big things for them is BS). Plus those 2nd or 3rd stringers will come with increased salary demands in order to make a move.
It's something every club has to deal with, we just haven't hit gold recently. Unless we have a high pick sometime and there's a Luke Jackson type around with heaps of promise, or a gun wants to come to Sydney, we're probably better off to just keep going with pick 30+ or rookie draft types, and then bring in one or two mid-agers where they know they're depth players.
I think we've been unlucky twice recently - with Nankervis (favouring Naismith just before he was plagued with injury) and to a lesser extent Knoll (I was happy when we got him in the MSD, then injuries struck). Anyway, we've got another opportunity in McAndrew, so fingers crossed for another union-turned-AFL success like Pyke or LRT.
Last edited:
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
He is good. He is very agile. I think he will turn out OK if we can keep him on the park. At this stage he plays second fiddle to both Sinclair and Naismith. When they are not rucking he gets a go and Amartey plays second ruck. He has equitted himself quite well so far this season. I hope we can see a lot more of him soon.
On JAT-L29 using BigFooty.com mobile app
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
You also forgot Greg Stafford, who was a local product developed by us, who played 130 games. A fine Ruckman. He came from Western Suburbs Magpies
On JAT-L29 using BigFooty.com mobile app
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
If you cherry pick them from other clubs that does not guarantee they will be successful. If you look at that list it points that out very starkly. We developed Naismith and Stafford and they turned out pretty well. Unfortunately Naismith has had injuries but that can happen to trades as well. In fact it has happened.
Developing a Ruckman is a good idea because he is on minimal money therefore allowing more money to be spent on other areas. When a ruck becomes a star or regular player his value increases but not before. Mids and tall forwatds on the other hand can command much more money immediately, look at Mitchell.
On JAT-L29 using BigFooty.com mobile app
Wolftone
Cancelled
- Feb 1, 2012
- 6,415
- 5,732
- AFL Club
- Sydney
caesar88
Moderator
- Apr 26, 2016
- 35,737
- 70,497
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Moderator
- #49
TheMase your guy!!
Edit: Probably a bit unfair to say "your guy" as it insinuates you have had massive wraps on him, which you haven't. But you were the first to put him on this board's radar as someone we could draft I believe and I have liked what I've seen thus far, albeit from a small sample.
Edit: Probably a bit unfair to say "your guy" as it insinuates you have had massive wraps on him, which you haven't. But you were the first to put him on this board's radar as someone we could draft I believe and I have liked what I've seen thus far, albeit from a small sample.
TheMase
Brownlow Medallist
Haha!
If he succeeds in the future we can revisit me bringing him up and give my crystal ball credit, but good call not to tie me to him if he fails
You can’t teach super tall and he seems to move pretty well for his height. I’ve also been impressed, with limited vision of course (and knowing he doesn’t have a significant time playing the game), how he uses his body in ruck contests.
LOTS of work to do (for now a tall guy who can tap the ball) but obviously he has impressed the Swans enough for them to feel there is enough upside to move him from training with the twos a couple of nights and into the full training program. This is of course the difference between being a listed player and a VFL temp. They get you full time, get full oversight over the players diet and training programs and don’t need to compete for time with other employment.
Last edited:
