Cartledge

[davemills]

I believe the question up the top asked whether he was a worthwhile pick up?
I can confirm the answer is no. He is back up ruckman at very best. Soft as butter and hardly touches pill except for a few hit outs.

Which is exactly why he was rookied. The Brains Trust wanted some insurance against Simmo going down again, so used a PSD to do that on someone who, whilst not overly good, would provide immediate help where Angus, Patto may not be quite ready yet for the Ruck (and not to take away from Patto's herculian efforts last year. as good as he was, he got smashed at the hit outs most times.)

 

[Big Punt]

The bottom line is that Graham has never played a decent game of footy for Coburg. Even without ruckmen for most of last season the club refused to promote him going with Tuck instead.

He got some encouragement games at the end of the season and promoted because of his workrate.

In contrast while Graham could not find the footy in the VFL - Cartledge was the dominant ruckman for most of the first half of the season.

People can umm and ahh and speculate, but Cartledge is ahead of Graham and by a fair margin.

If Pattison or Simmonds get an 8 week injury. Cartledge will be promoted and play ahead of Graham.

If Ronaldson re-signs with Coburg - he and Cartledge will be an awesome ruck duo and Graham might get shunted back to the reserves.

So what was the logic of promoting Graham to the seniors?