rpfc

If I am oversimplifying ruckmen in 2014, you are overestimating them. I just don't see many ruckmen out there that this limited footballer couldn't compete with.

Heads up - Redden selected for one of my keepers ahead of Sidebottom. I am reactionary, what can I say.

How is that?

I can see where he is coming from. We are asked to give as a direct result of getting better, what have we been doing when we have donated in the past? But incentivising winning is a good way to go, and people are happy to fork over cash when they are, well, happy...

Your idea of 'use of the ball' includes spoiling? I think you have pushed the parameters of the word 'skills' so far off the mark that you have rendered the term useless.

Mumford didn't impress me last year, and apart from Ryder, I can see Spencer being able to nullify all of those other names. I really think you overrate some of those ruckmen, remember, all I said was Spencer would be able to compete with them, give us some clean footy, and follow them around the ground.

That's fine. My aside was innocuous too, I am not about to judge people on their use of well trodden cliche.

This is why it is such a low mark to be a competent ruckman. Unless he comes up against a Sandliands et al. he will hold his own against ruckman as limited as he. If Spencer wins his spot by being the best of a bad lot, so be it - he won't be a weak link. Until we play Freo or WCE...

Leaving war analogies to one side - we have seen Georgiou once against AFL competition. We are discussing some very limited footballers here. Garland, Frawley, McDonald, and Grimes are the solid foundation. Dunn is there on form and competence. Strauss, Terlich, Clisby, Georgiou, and Nicholson are fighting one or possibly two spots depending on match ups, injury, and midfield rotation. There are question marks on all 5 at the moment, good luck to them in the couple of weeks.

McDonald can be a terrible kick, certainly worse than Dunn. The premise is wrong - McDonald importance has nothing to do with his terrible foot skills, it is in spite of it. That is how good his one on one work is and that is how good his endurance running is - you can't just line up and pick players based on their foot skills. Generalisations are easy to poke holes in.

Shaun Hampson was their ruckman and he was meant to dominate Spencer. He didn't, and has copped flak because of it. And skills are a distant third desirable for a ruckman behind how one uses their body in contested situations and tap work around the ground. Getting riled up because he screws up half of his 4 kicks a game is pointless. Compete in the middle, give us some footy around the ground, follow your man and you are a competent to good ruckman.

I wrote the above in May 2011. Things didn't change...

He always relied on others to get him the ball, and when you are built like that you are meant to get it yourself or have the ability to get on the end of plays - this he struggled to do because of the aforementioned limited running capacity. So, yeah, a great ten years... Fun.

Spencer will be first ruck. That is the only conclusion one can draw from what we have seen so far in Pre-Season. And while there is a month to go - Jamar hasn't suited up, Gawn has been playing forward, Fitzpatrick is a forward, Clark is looking at a Rd 6 start, and King is a baby.

As long as Spencer competes well in the ruck and doesn't let his opposite number rack up the touches - he will be fine. The gameplan can survive a ruckman with kicking limitations. He is a big bloke who uses his body well. I think he will surprise a few people this year. He will get plenty of time to establish himself with Jamar, Clark, and Gawn not being ready to play ruck - as far as I can see - for the first few weeks of the season. He is not a world beater, but he is a solid ruckman.

Spencer just played an intra club as first ruck against our beanpole toddler King. Gawn played but was predominantly forward and Jamar hasn't suited up yet. Spencer is winning this race to be first ruck in a canter at the moment - the others haven't left their gate.

Just on this 'Hogan not ready for Rd 1' stuff... We do have over a month to go and practice games against Geelong and Hawthorn... This period we are in now - this period is the 'getting ready for Rd 1 period.' If he is playing in this period, he is going to be a chance for Rd 1.

I have wondered this myself, and I think he may benefit from the possible inability of a ruckman to stamp their claims. If Clark comes back it seems he may be used as first ruck, at the moment Spencer has that spot but if he doesn't impress, Roos has the opportunity to give it to Clark and that will free up Fitzpatrick to play his role in the forward line. Dawes, Hogan, Fitz/Clark and Howe can work but I don't think all five can work.

Yeah, I have little problem with the 'taking out the legs rule' I don't think the fact that one has the ball a split second before another should allow them to essentially (and dangerously) trip another player. There are some grey areas and marking the ball in that situation is different but I have not seen that rule applied to a mark so it probably is irrelevant here. But there is merit to it, and the rule should stay.

Dom Barry?

Yeah, and Watts has plausible deniability if any reporter is stupid or bored enough to ask about it. 'You are asking me about what an anonymous poster on a fan site said about some comments I supposedly made?' 'Are there any real questions?'

Spencer and worry about it in 3 years time are my answers.

That's not a shock...

You have to remember that as a player - the bloke taking training for a few months of a season is remembered as a coach. Frawley would have had 7 of those voices.

The gameplan is protection of the football. The players that live up to that ethos will play. Both Bail and McKenzie lived up to that on Friday. Their form will dictate their presence in the team, not our preconceived notions about how they would play based on how they played prior to this year.