Geelong: Where ruckmen go to die?

Peter Street, Steven Hooper, Dawson Simpson..3 strikes and you’re out? :D
Dawson Simpson was our project ruckman , and showed briefly, he could have been IT. But injuries cruelled that one.
Smith was a RS nomination at GC, and looked really good until again, serious injuries.
Stanley has always been a tease, but certainly capable of having us competitive.
I think you're a bit harsh overall
 

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Dawson Simpson was our project ruckman , and showed briefly, he could have been IT. But injuries cruelled that one.
Smith was a RS nomination at GC, and looked really good until again, serious injuries.
Stanley has always been a tease, but certainly capable of having us competitive.
I think you're a bit harsh overall

From memory Simpson actually played reasonably well towards the later part of the 2013 season before he did his knee. I still remember how my heart sank at the time and I knew not having him would bugger us up for finals.
 
From memory Simpson actually played reasonably well towards the later part of the 2013 season before he did his knee. I still remember how my heart sank at the time and I knew not having him would bugger us up for finals.
Exactly my memories. During 13 we looked like the best team when he was firing.
 
Peter Street, Steven Hooper, Dawson Simpson..3 strikes and you’re out? :D
You didn't mention the worst ever recruit, from Hawthorn as well, lasted about 1 game, came across injured, left worse.
David Loats.

Hamish McIntosh had seen better days before we landed him.
 
From memory Simpson actually played reasonably well towards the later part of the 2013 season before he did his knee. I still remember how my heart sank at the time and I knew not having him would bugger us up for finals.

I think that St Kilda wasn't it - at the centre bounce, he was out of position for the way the ball bounced but he tried to get to the ball or impact the contest and all he did was hurt his knee - the was silence throughout the crowd was very telling
 
I think that St Kilda wasn't it - at the centre bounce, he was out of position for the way the ball bounced but he tried to get to the ball or impact the contest and all he did was hurt his knee - the was silence throughout the crowd was very telling
"There goes our finals chances", many said and thought.
 
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Exactly my memories. During 13 we looked like the best team when he was firing.

We were.
Add to Simpson's injury Hawkins continued problem with his back then during finals losing Enright to injury and Chapman to suspension....
I stand up the opinion we were the best team in 2013, comfortably.
 
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I'll never know for the life of me why they didn't pick Grundy in that draft. We had the pick before Collingwood. That was a colossal * up.


The problem with picking so-so ruckmen is they might get you through a H&A season, but under finals pressure their weaknesses will be exposed and exploited.

I feel the club has been working the list into the "making finals" type, and not the "Winning Finals" type.
 
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Story in the hun
2013 mummy was headed to the hawks, yes the hawks for 450k
It was only after the giants offered an additional 200k he landed there

So seriously wtf have we been thinking, Wells has ffffd this ruck suitation
 

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Gotta laugh at some of these posts. Let’s clear up one thing when it comes to trading for players particularly Ruckman... good ones anyway. There has to be a seller (none I can recall of in the past 5-6 years) and you have pay the club if contracted their asking price not what you are prepared to pay. And the most important part (Free Agents especially)is he has to be willing to move to Geelong and get paid what he is asking not what you want to pay. Seems to me too many NFL NBA MLB Fantasy players who think wheeling and dealing is like a click of yes or no on the keyboard. Also before I go ... it’s up to the list manager and recruiting staff to assemble a team list. Chris Scott is neither of them he just puts in requirements and those boys do the best they can... unfortunately the market dictates what & when it can be done in most cases. Cheers Boys.


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I'll never know for the life of me why they didn't pick Grundy in that draft. We had the pick before Collingwood. That was a colossal fu** up.


The problem with picking so-so ruckmen is they might get you through a H&A season, but under finals pressure their weaknesses will be exposed and exploited.

I feel the club has been working the list into the "making finals" type, and not the "Winning Finals" type.

I agree, although it was as close to draft tampering as we'll get, Grundy was a complete campaigner to all recruiters other than the pies (by his own want and the pies direction).
Nobody wanted to touch him, he should have gone top 5.
 
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Gotta laugh at some of these posts. Let’s clear up one thing when it comes to trading for players particularly Ruckman... good ones anyway. There has to be a seller (none I can recall of in the past 5-6 years) and you have pay the club if contracted their asking price not what you are prepared to pay. And the most important part (Free Agents especially)is he has to be willing to move to Geelong and get paid what he is asking not what you want to pay. Seems to me too many NFL NBA MLB Fantasy players who think wheeling and dealing is like a click of yes or no on the keyboard. Also before I go ... it’s up to the list manager and recruiting staff to assemble a team list. Chris Scott is neither of them he just puts in requirements and those boys do the best they can... unfortunately the market dictates what & when it can be done in most cases. Cheers Boys.


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We have had plenty of solid ruckman on the list and currently do. Scott hasnt played them in key games.
 

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I think it’s the lack of a proper ruck coach that is half the problem. No disrespect to otto, loved him as a player, but we need someone who is there full time and knows how to develop the ruck craft.

Had we got Dean Cox when we after him I think things might be a little different.
 
Regarding Grundy, there was an interesting article a couple of days ago that had more of a focus towards GWS not drafting him - they had 5 draft picks prior to his selection, while in total 11 teams passed on Grundy before the Pies took him.

But this may be why a few teams were turned off him:
Grundy — with a dyed a blond streak through his long locks that were flanked by earrings — interviewed differently, too.
When ‘SOS’ spoke to Grundy, the deep-thinking teen turned the tables by asking Silvagni what a one-year-old football club could offer him.

Be interesting to see what questions he asked of other clubs, but if he was deemed to think highly of himself & asking questions like, "what can you offer me", then that could be off putting for clubs who may be questioning his attitude.

 
Stop changing things so much and have a bit of consistency. Delist Smith and trade Abbott to St Kilda or whoever wanted him.

Go with Stanley every week, Fort as a backup. Blics and Sav/Hawk to pinch hit in the B50 or F50 when Stanley needs a chop out. Draft a young ruck and develop him. Stop going for mature age rucks, we have such a long history of failed older ruckmen! The last successful drafted ruckman was Steven King :oops:
 
From the article above - this is a comment from Luke Darcy and may go part of the way to explaining why our MC made the call to go with Blicavs over Stanley:

Former ruckman Luke Darcy reckons Mumford would be such a liability against Grundy that Cameron should drop him and instead use tag Grundy with “aerobic animal” Adam Tomlinson.

So seems the suggestion is if you don't have a ruckman who is going to match it with Grundy then don't try, instead select a player who can match it with him around the ground & try to limit his impact that way.
 
Stop changing things so much and have a bit of consistency. Delist Smith and trade Abbott to St Kilda or whoever wanted him.

Go with Stanley every week, Fort as a backup. Blics and Sav/Hawk to pinch hit in the B50 or F50 when Stanley needs a chop out. Draft a young ruck and develop him. Stop going for mature age rucks, we have such a long history of failed older ruckmen! The last successful drafted ruckman was Steven King :oops:

Don't think anyone wanted Abbott - closest to another team wanting Abbott was WCE showing interest in him during his draft year and we got in first

The whole thing linking Abbott to St Kilda is that apparently both Abbott & Geelong are happy to look at a trade & the connection to St Kilda is because apparently him & Constable could be used to trade for Steven - nothing about St Kilda actually being interested in him. And when we consider St Kilda is going to get Ryder & GWS is getting Jacobs, not sure of other teams looking at rucks, maybe Essendon unless their only interest in Ryder is because it was Ryder & not necessarily that they are after a ruck
 
Scotts failure to rate ruckman has cost us at least a couple of flags.

Does Matthew Knights, our midfield coach rate rucks? Because wouldn't rucks fall under his area and thus he would have a say on the selection of them
 
Does Matthew Knights, our midfield coach rate rucks? Because wouldn't rucks fall under his area and thus he would have a say on the selection of them

Wasn't Knights coaching Essendon when they went into a final with Lovett-Murray in the ruck? I think that answers your question...
 
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Does Matthew Knights, our midfield coach rate rucks? Because wouldn't rucks fall under his area and thus he would have a say on the selection of them
It falls under both. Scott is ultimately responsible for all coaching decisions as the other coaches work for him. He is their boss. Also the lack of respect for ruckman began before knights was even at geelong. Its not something that began with knights.

Edit - knights was at geelong in 2013 when we started showng disdain for ruckman but was vfl coach.
 
It falls under both. Scott is ultimately responsible for all coaching decisions as the other coaches work for him. He is their boss. Also the lack of respect for ruckman began before knights was even at geelong. Its not something that began with knights.

Edit - knights was at geelong in 2013 when we started showng disdain for ruckman but was vfl coach.

Disagree that we were showing disdain for rucks - seems an easy line to sprout out but not sure it's exactly right

We traded in McIntosh ahead of the 2013 season - so straight up we were addressing our ruck issues and looking at options. He didn't play that year because of injury, not because we didn't want him out on the field

Dawson Simpson stepped up and looked likely to be our new #1 ruck, he was doing everything right until he injured himself against St Kilda late in the season and was then out due to injury

We had Vardy who actually played in the last 8 games that year, including all finals

The other guy on our list was West who fell out of favour with the the coaches and watching him in the VFL finals I don't blame the MC for not selecting him for the finals. I know the VFL grand final between us & Hawthorn was played after we got knocked out in the preliminary finals, but West was playing as a guy who had already checked out of the club - I remember one passage of play during the VFL gf, the ball was kicked long to the wing & West was the closest player at about 15/20m from where the ball bounced. He was beaten to the ball by a Hawks opponent who would have run from double the distance, who showed more urgency & want. His attitude may have been a contributing factor in his non-selection late in the season

It's not like we had 4 healthy, A-Grade ruckman at our disposal in 2013 and decided to not play them - it's a case that the club played the best available options and had Simpson not been hurt then no doubt he would have still been in the team come finals

And as for Stanley not playing against Collingwood in week 1 of the finals just gone - an article late last week about GWS not drafting Grundy has a line from Luke Darcy who actually said he would drop Mumford against Grundy and go a more athletic option to tag Grundy around the ground, such as Tomlinson. So for all the criticism we coped for doing just that, it was a serious suggestion for GWS to do the same thing.
 
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