Saints and a ruckman?

borderbarry

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Thread starter #1
Some time ago, I read where the Saints and another club were looking at a TAC Cup ruckman who was not one of the fancied ones. Does anyone remember who the article was about?
 

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#3
Stefan Martin 198cm 95kg 20y.o Versatile KKP/Ruckman

Newcomer to footy, basketball background. Started playing footy a yr ago in the under 19's amatuers and got best in the league after only playing 7games. Played for sandringham vfl firsts this yr and impressed kicking goals as well as winning in the ruck. Athletic, great leap, can play forward. Was also best on ground for Vic versus Allies last week. Would have been as good as Kreuzer if he had play from a young age. Will defiantly be rookied, or drafted from 30 onward. Ricky Nixon (player manager) gives him big raps.......will also be attending the Vic state screening today. He was in the herald sun last yr!
 
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#5
i think pick 9 should be either rance kp back, nc evoy good kp forward/ruck, arrowsmith forward or number 30 calder this year absolute freak forward forgot his name sorry. pick 27 i say martin looks the good we ned to draft tall they are the hardest to find. also kevin barlett think jayden allen who is a kp both ends more of a back could play full forward for us next year i am excited and the people that think we need more midfeilders we have armitage who is a skillful left footer not the fastest but has a good footy brain and good tackler and also howard speedy midfeilder both could be boarderline selection this year

I AM EXCITED GO THE MIGHTY SAINTS :D:D:D
 

ChrisFooty

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#6
Trade week will give us a few more clues. I have a feeling Ross will target Jolly very heavily, even more so with his sydney assistant background

We do need ruckman. What is the problem with having Kosi/Gardnier has our no.1 and no.2 ruck stocks? That could very easily be injured at the same time. Then we are forced to ruck with rix and Blake, and this is very weak point for us.

If we don't fill our ruck stocks through trade week, then this guy with our second pick, could easily become a reality.
 
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#7
I wonder about another ruckman, do we really need one? We have to assume that Gardiner will play in 2008 and he'll hold down our number 1 ruckmen position. The question is do we play Kosi in the ruck? If we do then I don't think we really need to draft another ruckman. You said if they were boh injured then we are left with Rix & blake doing the ruckwork which is a worry i agree, but you can't really draft based on your two best players in that position being injured. If any club lost their 2 best ruckmen they'd be fairly week in that position.

I'd prefer not to play Kosi in the ruck so in that case we'd need another ruckman to support Gardiner. I'd like it to be a young bloke if possible and develop him, maybe just pinch hit off the bench for 5-10 minutes per quarter.

So after all that I've convinced myself we do need another ruckman and this Martin sounds ok. As a project type tho we probably wouldn't want to use much more than a 3rd round pick but I guess thats depends on how strong the draft is and whats left at our round 2 pick.

One 'project' type ruckman that looks sure to get some interest is Joel Smouha. Ran the fastest 3km time trial at the draft camp and also 2nd in the beep test. 196cm and is obviously very mobile for his size, only been playing the game for 12 months.
 
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#8
with our first round pick i think we should get mc evoy absolute freak played in the tac gf shows alot as a forward ruck like kosi thats if he is around at pick 9 if he is i would take him because beveridge has big raps on allen as a back and can play forward so we don't need anymore backs midfeild looks good but we drafted more midfeilders last year and with second and third picks we are liely to pick up 2 more. so if the take a mc evoy and two mids we will be doing very well for ourselves and we would be challenging top four in two years onwards i am a massive optomist lol but our core group is young there is still hope
 

ChrisFooty

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#9
Mad Saint - I disagree a little. When was the last year Gardnier played a full season in the ruck, or even 3/4 of a season? Not in the last couple of years, thats for sure.

Gardnier is very injury prone, so we can never assume he will be our number one ruckmen. He didnt get on the park at all in 2007. Other clubs are different, as most of their ruckman aren't as injury prone.
 
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#10
I did in the end come to the conclusion we needed another ruckman! I still say we have to assume Gardiner will play a full season. I know he hasn't done this for sometime but I also think its been sometime since he has been able to do a full pre season. Atleast this year they got him in and got his operation done nice and early so he can hit the start of pre season running. I have a good feeling about him and I think we could see big things next season. Maybe I'm just an optimist.

Does anyone know much about the draft prospects? I've been doing a bit of reading but just wondered if McEvoy would be a ruckman in the AFL or a KPP? He may be a chance to slide as low as 9th and I think if he did we'd pick him up. Just wondering what sort of role we'd expect him to play? Genuine Ruckman?
 

borderbarry

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Thread starter #11
Re Ben McEvoy, as I have previously pointed out on other threads, he did play forward in the TAC Grand Final, but apparently he was soundly beaten by Travis Dulac.
I personally think at this stage we need to recruit a true ruckman, not a ruckman/forward, we have one of those already in Kosi, and even Brooks.
There are a number of true ruckman available this year, Bellchambers, Sullivan, Renton, Simpson, Martin, Shaw, Mulligan. We should try and get one of the best of these.
 

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#12
I agree thats why I was asking, if we go for a ruckman they need to be a genuine ruckman rather than a ruck/forward. Of the list of Ruckman you listed I can only comment on Bellchambers. Being a tassie boy i have seen him play a little bit. He was best on ground in the NTFL senior grand final a few weeks back and played really well. Looks like a good kid but whether he can be a ruckman of AFL standard I am unsure. Considering a few Hawthorn boys, Thorpe & Birchall, have both come from Tassie and played quiet a bit in the same comp (NTFL) I guess is an encouraging sign given their success.

I think we need a genuine 200+cm ruckman.
 
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