16 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Are you seriously suggesting that even with a lot of work, Jake could play consistently near the level of Gawn? 

One is the best ruckman in the game and the other an honest battler. 

I will be happy if Jake can compete and do the odd nice thing. 

Without wanting to be too pedantic Mr Leg...one "was" the best ruckman and well....yeh

2 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

And that's supposed to make me feel better?

Umm

Think where we'd be otherwise 

32 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I'm not sure there is any evidence at all to suggest he got the injury because he played 90% of the game as the number 1 ruck.

It was something we always had to prepare for regardless of how we use him. 

I see what you mean about it being a blessing in disguise but Spencer has a lot of work to do to play consistently near the level Gawn usually gets to.

Is there any chance of that extra work getting him near the level of Maxy by next Saturday Titan?

5 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Umm

Think where we'd be otherwise 

Up Ship Creek BB! Without even a pencil....i mean..spencil

So @Rusty Nails has gone and lost his marbles over the injury.  Am I close... ?

34 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Not ideal, but it is what it is.   Spencer is at his peak age and will break even in hitouts with most rucks.  The Dogs won a flag last year without a recognised ruckman.

I'm far from writing off the season. 

You're right , I mustn't panic , Spencer will be able to do a job and he will step up , deep breaths !

23 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

It's gonna hurt us badly. Max is obviously dominant in the hit outs, but he gives us a good marking target all around the ground. Half the time the kick out is bombed to him as at worst it will come to ground. Spencer doesn't have that same marking power. Max is also smart enough to read the play and get behind the ball to take goal saving marks etc

It also means we'll become less aggressive at centre bounces as we were backing ourselves to win the tap most of time. Now we'll have to become less agggrasive and more traditional which is disappointing as it was one of the things that separated us from other teams.

Hope Maxy makes a speedy recovery and can return for finals action later this year!

This year Gawn's contested marking has been poor.   It's the only area of his game that hasn't matched 2016.

2 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

So @Rusty Nails has gone and lost his marbles over the injury.  Am I close... ?

If that thingy up there has anything to do with me i can assure you wise i have never been more at ease with the world, what with yesterday's amazing kicking at goal and now Maxy Gaaawn....i couldn't be better

 

Glad we've got a heap of inside ball winners coz we are going to need them without Maxy giving first use. As long as Pencil doesn't get completely smashed in the ruck we should still be very competitive in midfield.

Massive blow for us and Maxy

Great it's not another knee injury, but this is the second worst outcome imaginable. 

Time for Spence to grow a pair 

Losing Gawn isn't great.  There is no denying that.

But our midfield is strong, Spencer can at least hold his own at the stoppages and sides have gone deep into September without a decent ruckman.  I'm not saying we'll do that, and of course we would rather have Max, but we can certainly overcome this set back.

As chook says above me, it's time for Spencer to grow a pair, take the bull by the horns and make the most of this terrific opportunity.

One would make the assumption that the back issues which plagued him in round 1 & in the lead up to round 2 have caused the hammy injury.. Lets hope no surgery, as a guideline Jordan Roughead did some tendon damage to the hamstring against us in JLT one, had surgery & is still 5-6 weeks away, so fingers crossed it's not that bad

2 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

And apparently some bastard stomped on Bernie's toe and he has lost a toe nail but is still likely to play next week. 

Without doubt the integrity blessed MRP will have a good unbiased look at that ?

1 hour ago, Sylvia Saint said:

Kent did a similar injury at a similar time in 2015 and wasn't seen again until the following season. With a 12 week injury, you've got to hope for no hiccups AND an additional 2-3 weeks of match practice. I don't think we'll be seeing big Max for a long time.

Plenty of successful teams have had a plodder in the ruck so I don't think our finals chances are as bad as one might fear. 

How about waiting for the full medical report before writing off Max and our year?

35 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Without doubt the integrity blessed MRP will have a good unbiased look at that ?

How about waiting for the full medical report before writing off Max and our year?

A sensible statement in a howling storm.

On a positive note it gives Spencer an opportunity to show us all what he can do with the knowledge he will have a good run at it. 

Who knows he could be another great ruckman we have and didn't know it. (Maybe another Strawbs and Stynes combo in the making). 

Good luck Spencer. 

1 hour ago, Rusty Nails said:

And that's supposed to make me feel better?

Ha! Hard to find a positive out of this

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

Massive blow for us and Maxy

Great it's not another knee injury, but this is the second worst outcome imaginable. 

Prior to the season, I had thought we'd definitely play finals this year if Gawn played every game.

2.5 games in, and he's out for possibly 12 weeks. This absolutely sucks.

Pouring a scotch right now.

 

16 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Ha! Hard to find a positive out of this

That was a very positive way of looking at it Moon I'll give you that. You might want to take up something speculative like gold prospecting.

I'm going to make the huge call and say I don't think we will notice the loss as much as people think. 

I think jake spencer is a capable ruckman who lives in the shadow of the best ruck in the game and an extended group of games will see him rise to the occasion and prove he is a capable afl ruckman, and it will help our mids not expect to win every single tap and play the ball 

For all of this weeks' misfortunes, I'm still feeling strangely calm and confident. 

We showed yesterday that we are a team worthy of playing finals, IMO. 

Hogan and Lewis were missed and their actions stupid, but we were well competitive in their absence. 

Reading about Hoges on the fags doesn't worry me too much; not a great look but he's a bloody kid.

Treebeard going down really sucks, but we have a solid enough replacement to work with our gun mids. Plus Treebeard will be cherry ripe just in time for finals! ?

 

Oh, and Whorethorn are 0-3. 

 

We have the most solid base in many, many years and I really believe we can overcome these challenges a have a damn good crack this year - we already are. 

Next week the Shitfish at the G. 

Go you Dees

34 minutes ago, Abe said:

I'm going to make the huge call and say I don't think we will notice the loss as much as people think. 

I think jake spencer is a capable ruckman who lives in the shadow of the best ruck in the game and an extended group of games will see him rise to the occasion and prove he is a capable afl ruckman, and it will help our mids not expect to win every single tap and play the ball 

I have always been very hopefull that Jake would become a very competent player. He is aggressive, has good second and even third efforts and can even tackle effectively with one hand. His downsides are, can't read the ball, hardly ever have I seen him even win a tap, let alone get it to our advantage and his marking is not a strength. But his biggest weakness is a propensity to injury.  Look at his history, it has been ravaged by injuries. We'll be lucky to get 4 weeks in a row out of him. But I'll keep fingers crossed.

it's all about the hair. so long as Spencil keeps his wild-man hair-do he will be a gun. no doubt about it!

 

8 minutes ago, wretched.sylph said:

it's all about the hair. so long as Spencil keeps his wild-man hair-do he will be a gun. no doubt about it!

 

 

The next couple of months will be a wild ride, its Spencll time!!

 

l

Spencer isn't worse than a dozen other opposition starting ruckman... 

We will just end up coming back to the pack in the center and around the grounds. Real test for our mids