According to the AFL site we are looking at another ruckman Scott Jones (interestingly so are Richmond)
Surely not another ruckman
According to the AFL site we are looking at another ruckman Scott Jones (interestingly so are Richmond)
Surely not another ruckman
I was going to write that we should get another ruckman in the draft - as a joke.
Are there any Academy prospects this year that we would be considering?
Ruckman - Liam Maze. We need another one........
I don't rate Buckenara's draft analysis or his evaluation of team lists. I don't think he does any real research and just banks on his reputation.
Emma Quayle was very sharp with her draft evaluation, but now she's got a regular recruiting job. Cal Twomey, Kevin Sheehan and Brett Anderson have access to players and recruiters and generally have the best information on what to expect from the draft. A few amateurs do their own research and have some good knowledge. I think Chris Doerre, for instance, goes to lots of games and views video of the draft prospects as well.
A lot of pundits look at a club and see they like to play a certain way and look for players of the same ilk. The Swans like playing a contested brand of footy with powerful inside mids, so let's give them more of that type of player. None of these draft experts know our playing list like we do on RWO. You wouldn't expect that they would, as they have to cover 18 clubs, so it's hard to have a deep familiarity with them all.
You have to be forward looking when it comes to the draft and observe the direction the game is going and find players suited to that style of game. I don't think we will see many ruckmen drafted this year; maybe only Sam Hayes, who is as much a forward as a ruckman. Clubs will trim down to 2 ruckmen and perhaps a rookie to develop for the long term. True power forwards are being replaced by mobile agile forwards. Tall, mobile players are now playing in the midfield, not just at the scoring ends of the ground.
I wouldn't argue about Balta being raw and a project player, but I interpret this as a positive, in that he has a lot of upside. I back our development team to get the best out of players. We don't need a draftee to play footy next year. We actually need to give opportunities to players already on our list when we have few spots available.
We drafted 9 players last year and only Shane Edwards is gone. Our annual intake and development is far greater than we can use at the club, so we are really doing player development for other clubs as well as our own. It's paid off with the Sam Murray trade in that we got such good compensation for a player who would struggle to get a shot at senior footy with us. And this in turn increases our chances of drafting players that will go on to play AFL football.
All this is key to rebuilding on the run. We are just about there now. We have a lot of good young players who will continue to improve over the coming years.
We had a fair number of academy players as top ups in the NEAFL, but none looked quite up to AFL footy imo. We still have 19 yo Jake Brown as a possibility as well as James Bell and Jack Hardman, who have some prospects of being drafted. It's hard to say if we will draft any of them. I don't think any are worth a pick in the ND.
There's no reason to draft Liam Maze. Besides already having more than enough depth in this area, there will be plenty of proven ruckmen available as DFAs over the coming years.
Last edited by Ludwig; 23rd October 2017 at 01:14 PM.
All this talk of recruiting another ruckman is making me nervous. Surely not!
So how does academy player selection work in the rookie draft (if we dont take them in the preseason draft)
Any academy player not taken in the ND can be prelisted as a Cat B rookie. We can also prelist players from GWS if they are not taken by GWS as Cat B rookies (Harry Cunningham, Sam Fisher) and we also have access to non-drafted NSW zone players like Sam Murray, but I'm not sure how that works. He may have been in the GWS zone and not taken by them.
You can see the trend for how clubs will list manage ruckmen. St Kilda have gone the way of 2 on the main list plus a rookie.
From STK website:
We might evolve to rotating 3 mobile KPPs through the ruck. For the Swans we might see something like Reid, Aliir and Toby Pink as such a trio. All are mobile and can play in the ruck and both in the forward and defensive lines. Certainly dual position players like Darcy Cameron will be part of the picture. It's another reason I like tall utilities, as it gives the team more flexibility. It's like having a built in Plan B by just rotating the tall utilities to different positions if things aren't going well during the game.St Kilda can confirm the following list changes ahead of the 2017 AFL Draft.
American-born ruckman Jason Holmes has been informed he will not be offered a new contract for 2018.
Fellow ruckman Lewis Pierce has also been delisted, however, the Saints have committed to re-drafting the 22-year-old in the 2017 Rookie Draft.
Both Holmes and Pierce struggled for opportunity this season with Billy Longer preferred as the number 1 ruck option and Tom Hickey the next in line
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