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#1
This is a message to all those people who have got caught up in the quest for a ruckman either through the trading period (like my beloved Tigers) or in one of three top ruckmen possible to go in the top 15 of the national draft.
If you look back over the past few years, you will struggle to find a premiership team (or for that matter a top two team) that had a week-in week-out dominant ruckman on their list.
Ruckman just aren't that important to a team. For sure, some teams benefit from a strong ruckman (Melbourne this year a case in point) but most teams benefit more from an extremely strong midfield backed up by a number of "quality talls."
The three-time Brisbane premiership squad had the "september specialist" Clark Keating, but does anyone really think he was crucial to their success. They would have won the grand finals with me as their ruckman (and I'm 5"9).
Their opponents Collingwood had the unimpressive Josh Fraser and Essendon had John Barnes and Steven Allesio in 2000 and Peter Somerville in 1993. Before that, the Kangaroos won a premiership with (I think) Matthew Capuano. The Adelaide premiership team DID have a quality tall in Shaun Rehn (but I think David Pittman played on premierhsip day), but I don't remember him being a so-called 'dominant big man." And go back earlier to Hawthorn with Greg Dear, Collingwood with Damian Monkhorst and West Coast with Paul Harding and David Hynes.
None of those names are anywhwere near what many of you are hoping the names Meesen, DeLuca and Wood turn into. (Or what Richmond supporters hope Troy Simmonds will do for our team.)
Just a thought. Over to you...
If you look back over the past few years, you will struggle to find a premiership team (or for that matter a top two team) that had a week-in week-out dominant ruckman on their list.
Ruckman just aren't that important to a team. For sure, some teams benefit from a strong ruckman (Melbourne this year a case in point) but most teams benefit more from an extremely strong midfield backed up by a number of "quality talls."
The three-time Brisbane premiership squad had the "september specialist" Clark Keating, but does anyone really think he was crucial to their success. They would have won the grand finals with me as their ruckman (and I'm 5"9).
Their opponents Collingwood had the unimpressive Josh Fraser and Essendon had John Barnes and Steven Allesio in 2000 and Peter Somerville in 1993. Before that, the Kangaroos won a premiership with (I think) Matthew Capuano. The Adelaide premiership team DID have a quality tall in Shaun Rehn (but I think David Pittman played on premierhsip day), but I don't remember him being a so-called 'dominant big man." And go back earlier to Hawthorn with Greg Dear, Collingwood with Damian Monkhorst and West Coast with Paul Harding and David Hynes.
None of those names are anywhwere near what many of you are hoping the names Meesen, DeLuca and Wood turn into. (Or what Richmond supporters hope Troy Simmonds will do for our team.)
Just a thought. Over to you...

