Nathan Vardy

[Jon Douglas]

For me Pods will be ahead of Vards this season. Simply Vrads has not had enough senior games and enough preseasons to push Pods out.

As some have mentioned on this thread it does not sem to work having 3 talls in the forward line - so I reckon Hawk and Pods are the two we play.

Can Vardy play second ruck then ? Well it depends on wher GFC see that as a role Vardy can play, contribute and not get injured. It seems more likely we play HMac and West/Blitz.

So for me if Vardy does play in the senior side come finals it will be a bonus because he has come on in leaps and bounds. If he does not then there is next season for him to get match fit, some touch and look at pushing Pods out of the team.

Vardy is not best 22 IMO - he may yet surprise me and be so by the end of the season but he has long way to go. Potential and talent come behind effectiveness on the field for me.

 

[HappyChappy35]

Agree with all that Jon Douglas.

Whether he is an option for 2nd ruck going forward or not will largely depend on the time he receives rucking in the VFL. To date this year he's only rucked once there, and so to develop his confidence and skills in that area he'll probably need to play as a 2nd ruck in a large percentage of his VFL games.

Also, it probably depends on how the club feel about this- once HMac is back out on the park we really won't need another ruckman, unless of course West or Blitz happen to go down with an injury at some point.

As for best 22, Pods' great form is keeping him out ATM. And unfortunately for Vardy, that will continue to happen until he gets some experience under his belt and (if) Podsiadly happens to drop off in form at some point. Having Pods, Vardy, and Hawkins as our forward setup would be going too tall, and as we've seen in recent weeks going with 3 talls in there isn't the best idea.

Hope Vardy can really start to challenge Pods for his position sooner rather than later, which I think will be the case.

 

[kicksome]

didnt expect the party boy vardy to light it up against GWS, he done something similar last year; played in the last round and looked impressive, 2nd week in against freo in the first final and looked flat.

 

[Partridge]

didnt expect the party boy vardy to light it up against GWS, he done something similar last year; played in the last round and looked impressive, 2nd week in against freo in the first final and looked flat.

He's still only played 13 games. It's the same as with Murdoch, or Brown, or Horlin-Smith, or Smedts, or Stringer, or Blicavs. He needs time. He's a long way from the finished product, no matter how good fans might want him to be right now.

They've got him playing footy again, which is great. Next step is working out where he fits in the puzzle and letting him develop and contribute there.