I'm lukewarm on the idea of recruiting another ruck. Horse likes rucks but we have moved to playing one rather than two rucks which means we don't need anywhere so many of them. And we still have a number of them. There's Sinclair, there's Naismith (assuming he is going to recover from his injury which I am expecting he will) and there's Cameron. Although Cameron is untried at senior level, they are all legitimate senior options. Beyond that we have Amartey who is a bit undersized but very athletic and who may yet grow a little more. He's a project, but then so will be a ruck we pick up in the draft. I wouldn't quite suggest that Pink would be a candidate to one day ruck at senior level, but stranger things have happened. Anyway, yes, maybe another ruck for depth in the draft or else another journey man but not a high priority from my point of view (provided Naismith is on track to make a full recovery). I'm not sure why Preuss would come to us unless we indicated he was going to be playing seniors. He's not going to tip out Sinclair and so that would require us to revert to playing two rucks which seems unnecessary given that we are going well playing only one.
Subject to what is happening with Naismith's injury, I'm confident we will give him another contract, whether as a rookie or senior. We've invested too much in him, and he hasn't disappointed, not to. Why is it being said he won't play next year? I thought he was out for this season only? Is it just because typical recovery times from ACLs are over a year and he will need time to get match fit again? When will he be able to resume training? Is there a chance he'll be able to do the pre-season?
I think that if we are looking anywhere apart from the draft, possibly the targeting of KPDs is a story with legs. I believe the club did confirm they had made inquiries about Darcy Moore. Jeremy McGovern would be great but probably too expensive. We might have to de-list Reg to make room, which would be pretty rough! I trust our list managers but don't see why we can't stick with what we've got. Maybe get another promising KPD at the draft.
The other area that was until recently a strength of ours but which now perhaps needs bolstering, is inside midfielders. Hanners isn't in great form and is not strictly an inside mid anyway, JPK is getting on, we traded Titch, and most of the excellent young talent are more outside prospects like Jones, Hayward, Stoddart, and Ling (although who knows with Ronke, Florent, Papley). Probably we'd go to the draft but Will Brodie was a name being thrown around as a trade target (here: Mid-year trade table: Who your club should target - AFL.com.au) who isn't getting games at Gold Coast (only 2 this year so far) and he's a promising inside mid. Given our excellent track record in developing youth I think we'd be a pretty appealing destination for him. On the other hand he is Victorian and might want to go 'home' rather than stay interstate, especially if it doesn't work out at the Suns - but he's only just Victorian because he grew up in Shep, in the border region. He was very highly rated as a junior (touted as #1 pick at some stages) and is a big boy (JPK size - not Cripps/Bont size). Given he hasn't been going well enough to get a game at the Suns - the SUNS!!! - you'd think they couldn't ask more than a second rounder for him even though he's still only 19 years old and was a top 10 pick less than 2 years ago. Scrimshaw is another top 10 pick from the same draft languishing playing reserves footy at the Suns (no games this year so far). Then again they may not be getting games for a good reason that might tell against recruiting them but I'll leave it to Kin and co to figure that out. Maybe the main problem is that both of these players have another 2 years on their contracts after this season and so it may not be realistic to winkle them out of the Gold Coast. The Suns would surely be better off keeping them than taking a 2nd round pick so why would they do the trade?
Bookmarks