11 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Ruck is a merry-go-round and having the best is not a problem. We may yet be extremely lucky to have Heath doing the big target 70-30 fwd-ruck role.

I have my own suspicion that Gawn will often drop back to provide some intercepting height, which we know he does well, and that Heath will be a continuously present ruck for the forward portion of the ground. Saves Max a ton of running, supports our vulnerable tall defenders, and is also very appropriate with the new faster ball ups.

Agree with this, and it might even get another year or 2 from Max, turn him into a floating backman. Ensure we've got a good enough competitor in the ruck (Heath or other) to do all ruck contests in the forward 60, then have Max poistioned 40-50 meters from that contest. Try to have Lever or Disco on the other side of the feild so we stop any quick movement out of the opposition defense.

Having said that I wouldn't start Heath in that role, wait until he has confidence in doing a full game (like the Nth practice game), then get him working in with Max from then on.

46 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Why would he care about that? He was already a Sydney Swan in every way except physically.

In my view, him (Grundy) risking injury was also a big factor as he had all but signed with the Swans

He'd checked out and the club had no real hold on him as we'd dumped him down to Casey without a promise of him being picked for the seniors again

He was surplus to needs and both him and the MC would have known that. So the Swans come knocking (in season)

Let's not forget that Grundy wasn't playing badly when he got dropped. It's just that we went in a different direction (One Ruckman only)

Having a rash of injuries to most of our forwards didn't change anything either (obviously)

Schashe was on the bench to cover for Gawn (who played with an injured big toe)

Hardly ideal but that's my take on it

Watching T-Mac struggle to get into a jog in that SF against Carlton kind of summed things up

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Macca

5 minutes ago, Macca said:

In my view, him (Grundy) risking injury was also a big factor as he had all but signed with the Swans

He'd checked out and the club had no real hold on him as we'd dumped him down to Casey without a promise of him being picked for the seniors again

Having a rash of injuries to most of our forwards didn't change anything either (obviously)

Schashe was on the bench to cover for Gawn (who played with an injured big toe)

Hardly ideal but that's my take on it

Watching T-Mac struggle to get into a jog in that SF against Carlton kind of summed things up

Exactly. He would’ve been foolish to have played. By that stage he didn’t care how we fared. His mind was in Sydney with his body following as soon as possible thereafter.

1 minute ago, Ghostwriter said:

Exactly. He would’ve been foolish to have played. By that stage he didn’t care how we fared. His mind was in Sydney with his body following as soon as possible thereafter.

When we dumped Grundy to the 2nds that was it, as we had decided to go with just the one ruckman

The experiment was over and everyone at the club knew it

The fact that we needed him back because of all the injuries and suspensions to our talls (Petty, JVR, Brown & T-Mac) was irrelevant (unfortunately)

Other 3rd tall marking targets like Melksham & Fritsch were both injured (Melk out and Fritsch proppy)

In the end, we had a D Grade forward line and that's the big reason why we didn't advance in 2023

Not an excuse, but a reason

A fit and firing forward line and we win the flag in 2023

However, 2022 was a different story. We really did blow that chance - the one that got away

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Macca

8 minutes ago, Macca said:

When we dumped Grundy to the 2nds that was it, as we had decided to go with just the one ruckman

The experiment was over and everyone at the club knew it

The fact that we needed him back because of all the injuries and suspensions to our talls (Petty, JVR, Brown & T-Mac) was irrelevant (unfortunately)

Other 3rd tall marking targets like Melksham & Fritsch were both injured (Melk out and Fritsch proppy)

In the end, we had a D Grade forward line and that's the big reason why we didn't advance in 2023

Not an excuse, but a reason

A fit and firing forward line and we win the flag in 2023

However, 2022 was a different story. We really did blow that chance - the one that got away

It was doomed before it even started IMHO

We'd be stuffed if we didn't have max out there. We don't have any obvious leaders coming through & he is an outstanding player on field.

It's going to be a sad day when he finishes

6 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

It was doomed before it even started IMHO

Did you say that at the time?

Hindsight tells us that but Grundy came relatively cheap and we had gone with a 2 Ruck combo in 2020, 2021 & 2022

So the pattern had been set

Like mist here I agreed with the decision at the time as we had visions of a type of Max/LJ combo

It didn't work but it was worth a try

The far bigger issue was losing all our forward line to injury or suspension. That cost us a premiership and there was nothing we could do about it

The fact that we got so close in both finals backs up that argument

D Grade forward lines don't win premierships

Edited 38 minutes ago38 min by Macca

6 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

We'd be stuffed if we didn't have max out there. We don't have any obvious leaders coming through & he is an outstanding player on field.

It's going to be a sad day when he finishes

it's not often that the greatest player in his position, ever, retires

we've been so lucky to have him as a player and a leader

3 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

We'd be stuffed if we didn't have max out there. We don't have any obvious leaders coming through & he is an outstanding player on field.

It's going to be a sad day when he finishes

This isn’t the case. There are several players that are worthy of consideration

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Ghostwriter

3 hours ago, waynewussell said:

Heath played against North in the unofficial practice match. He did very well, matching it with Xerri and eclipsing him at centre re-starts. This was the week before Kentfield got injured.

Sure and as stated it was a single practice match, basically a glorified training session. As we saw this weekend the form from those games is a meaningless proxy for the real thing. We would need to see a lot more from Heath before anyone should be talking about sacrificing Max’s game. If he has the talent it will be evident without Max needing to change anything just as it was with Jackson.

Edited 9 minutes ago9 min by Garbo