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Injury Orren Stephenson - broken hand

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Rellik666

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West will be rushed back but if he does not come up who do we have?
No one
This has to be addressed at the end of the year.
I am sure everyone knows I have been carrying on about this from the start of the season and it might bite us on the bum.

We have Walker who can pinch hit and is nowhere near ready and is unproven
Vardy who is really a forward and has not played all year and is unproven
Simpson who can not get on the ground and is unproven
Orren who may be injured and is unproven

I am sure you get my drift
 

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You would think we'd rush West back now, even if he probably needs an extra week on the sidelines. Such a shame we aren't playing the Dogs this week and Saints next. That Herald Sun article mentions Simpson will return to the VFL this week - I suppose we could throw him into the seniors if need be even if his fitness wouldn't be there after not playing at any level for three weeks.
 
Gogeelong said:
West will be rushed back but if he does not come up who do we have?
No one
This has to be addressed at the end of the year.
I am sure everyone knows I have been carrying on about this from the start of the season and it might bite us on the bum.

We have Walker who can pinch hit and is nowhere near ready and is unproven
Vardy who is really a forward and has not played all year and is unproven
Simpson who can not get on the ground and is unproven
Orren who may be injured and is unproven

I am sure you get my drift
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You know what is really biting them know, easy to say in hindsight - getting rid of Blake. Whatever his faults, and there were plenty of them, he was a good tap ruckman and was durable. Sub rule or not, he had a mature body, wouldn't get pushed aside by any ruckman and gave good service to midfielders. At least until West and Simpson got more experience. Anyway it's immaterial now.

We just have to hope and pray West is fit.
 
Partridge said:
You know what is really biting them know, easy to say in hindsight - getting rid of Blake. Whatever his faults, and there were plenty of them, he was a good tap ruckman and was durable. Sub rule or not, he had a mature body, wouldn't get pushed aside by any ruckman and gave good service to midfielders. At least until West and Simpson got more experience. Anyway it's immaterial now.

We just have to hope and pray West is fit.
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Partridge, everything you say here is true.

Especially the part in bold.

Keeping Blakey on the list simply to deal with the possibility of this current catastrophic series of injuries to our ruck options would not have been regarded by many as effective list management.
 
Partridge said:
You know what is really biting them know, easy to say in hindsight - getting rid of Blake. Whatever his faults, and there were plenty of them, he was a good tap ruckman and was durable. Sub rule or not, he had a mature body, wouldn't get pushed aside by any ruckman and gave good service to midfielders. At least until West and Simpson got more experience. Anyway it's immaterial now.

We just have to hope and pray West is fit.
Click to expand...

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Supporters would have accepted the drafting of a ruckman out of the under 18s, along with Stephenson, but I doubt they would have been accepting of Blake getting another year on the list as a fifth string ruckman. Four senior options in the ruck and one development ruckman on your senior list is ok. Five senior options in the ruck is too many, in my opinion. Look at the amount of exposure West (prior to late 2011) and Simpson have had, as the third/fourth string ruckman for the majority of their careers. You can't allow for freak occurances; you've just got to make the best of what you've got. Certainly I wouldn't want us to take up another spot on the list, to allow for the possibility that four ruckmen will all be injured at the same time.

West and potentially Simpson are options, to go along with Walker (who will have to shoulder more of the load with an underdone West/Simpson). Yeah, Simpson needs a week (at least) in the VFL, but our hands are tied. If West doesn't come up, I think Simpson has to play half a game, with Walker and either/both Taylor and Hawkins making up the rest. It will be McEvoy (who's no slouch, but isn't exactly Dean Cox) and Koschitzke, so hopefully they can hold their own.
 
goyoucatters said:
Partridge, everything you say here is true.

Especially the part in bold.

Keeping Blakey on the list simply to deal with the possibility of this current catastrophic series of injuries to our ruck options would not have been regarded by many as effective list management.
Click to expand...

Understand that. I guess it was the risk of placing so much trust in young and inexperienced ruckmen. Just hope we've got all on deck for pre-season training.
 
catters078 said:
walker just has to ruck all over the ground..

taylor pinch hits on the throw ins down back. hawkins on the throw ins up forward.

A lot of bartel and Corey going thierd man up
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i always find it funny when Bartel goes up for the hit out - he does surpisingly well though
 
Gogeelong said:
West will be rushed back but if he does not come up who do we have?
No one
This has to be addressed at the end of the year.
I am sure everyone knows I have been carrying on about this from the start of the season and it might bite us on the bum.

We have Walker who can pinch hit and is nowhere near ready and is unproven
Vardy who is really a forward and has not played all year and is unproven
Simpson who can not get on the ground and is unproven
Orren who may be injured and is unproven

I am sure you get my drift
Click to expand...

We have been very unlucky with injuries to ruckman this season. Simpson and Vardy would be a great combo if they could get on/stay on the park.
We have Orren to backup Simpson and West if Vardy isnt available.
Turns out they are all injured. What can you do?

Do we get rid of Simpson as he simply cant go two games in a row without injury issues?
Do we start from scratch and draft another young ruck? Might help in the long run, but hardly next year.
Do we target a current playing ruck? Who? What are we prepared to give up and how much cash?
Do we go the Orren route again with a mature aged player?
 

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S for September said:
Do we get rid of Simpson as he simply cant go two games in a row without injury issues?
Do we start from scratch and draft another young ruck? Might help in the long run, but hardly next year.
Do we target a current playing ruck? Who? What are we prepared to give up and how much cash?
Do we go the Orren route again with a mature aged player?
Click to expand...

I'd say we keep what we have, take an 18 year old ruckman in the draft (if one is available) and rookie Banjanin, if further backup is needed. A mature ager on the rookie list is a much better option in my opinion, than taking up one of our precious spots on the list with a player in his mid 20s (or older), who is unlikely to play more than three games.
 
Partridge said:
You know what is really biting them know, easy to say in hindsight - getting rid of Blake. Whatever his faults, and there were plenty of them, he was a good tap ruckman and was durable. Sub rule or not, he had a mature body, wouldn't get pushed aside by any ruckman and gave good service to midfielders. At least until West and Simpson got more experience. Anyway it's immaterial now.

We just have to hope and pray West is fit.
Click to expand...
We didn't get rid of Blake.

He retired because he didn't want to play reserves footy. Which is what he'd be doing forever if we didn't have a ridiculous amount of injuries.
 
fpm84 said:
You would think we'd rush West back now, even if he probably needs an extra week on the sidelines. Such a shame we aren't playing the Dogs this week and Saints next. That Herald Sun article mentions Simpson will return to the VFL this week - I suppose we could throw him into the seniors if need be even if his fitness wouldn't be there after not playing at any level for three weeks.
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Games at Etihad tend to be quick end to end stuff though which won't suit Simpson with his lack of fitness.

Kelly did say on Sunday that West will be right (in his opinion) so we should be ok, if not I think they'll seriously consider Orren playing through it (after all he played through it for three quarters on friday) if they can put some sort of guard on it.

The good news is that either way Orren will be available for finals, if we had a worse result than this it would have been a disaster.
 
Latest update from training this morning:

http://www.gfc.com.au/geelongnews/newsarticle/tabid/3933/newsid/144540/default.aspx

West, who has missed Geelong's past two matches, trained with strapping on his knee but moved freely, and Scott is "very confident" he will line up against the Saints.

He is likely to replace fellow big man Orren Stephenson in the team.

Stephenson suffered a broken hand during the Cats' five-point loss to West Coast last Friday.
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Looks like Kelly, Corey, Hunt and West will return but Chapman remains in some doubt.
 
Pure_Ownage said:
Kelly did say on Sunday that West will be right (in his opinion) so we should be ok, if not I think they'll seriously consider Orren playing through it (after all he played through it for three quarters on friday) if they can put some sort of guard on it.
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I just think that if there was any chance of Stephenson playing, there wouldn't have been any confirmation of his injury by Geelong. On the other hand, McEvoy will risk suspension if he touches his hand, so we might be ok.
 
MC Extra Dollop said:
I just think that if there was any chance of Stephenson playing, there wouldn't have been any confirmation of his injury by Geelong. On the other hand, McEvoy will risk suspension if he touches his hand, so we might be ok.
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True, probably would have kept it quiet.

Sounds like they will give Orren the week off now as they seem confident West will be right.

Great effort by Orren to ruck three quarters in pain against those Giants, hope he is back next week as I want to have a look at an Orren/West combo leading up to finals.
 

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I think a few people here forget how bad blake was and how good ablet et al made him look!
 
Big effort from Orren to get through the game after injuring his hand in the first quarter. Hopefully West comes up and it looks like Walker will keep his spot because we'll need somebody to jump in the ruck. The ruck work doesn't really worry me. The bigger issue is if McEvoy can dominate around the ground and take contested marks like Natanui and Cox did last week.
 
fpm84 said:
You would think we'd rush West back now, even if he probably needs an extra week on the sidelines. Such a shame we aren't playing the Dogs this week and Saints next. That Herald Sun article mentions Simpson will return to the VFL this week - I suppose we could throw him into the seniors if need be even if his fitness wouldn't be there after not playing at any level for three weeks.
Click to expand...

We did alright sharking the ball v WCE, at least for 3 quarters. Saints rucks are not as agile around the ground as NicNat and Cox.
 

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