Great to see him training. Has he grown?
The boy is still only 22. His flexibility is a good assist for a reserve play. He can cover injury to forwards or defenders.
hes an ideal size for his height as he was last yr. its not all about the figures though its about maturity and for a better way to say it developing core strength thru maturity.. kids can have the size but lack in a big way the core strength.
not being a smart arse but i dont look upon him as a reserve player but a developing player who we need to step up and take a spot of the likes of vickery and mcguane. but hey thats not likely to happen as they seem hell bent on playing him back no matter what.
most of us harp on about the need for a hit up forward / chf. go and watch this kid as a junior. with the insistence of griffiths playing back surely we need to find key forwards if for no other reason than when injury hits. but the numbers and quality says we really have to develop more key forwards.
break it down and look at it from purely a list perspective.
tall defenders or those regularly being played and groomed there.
griffiths, darrou, mcintosh, rance, chaplin, grimes, astbury, not even i can complain about those numbers. simply put theres at the least one too many.
tall forwards or those regularly being developed or played as forwards.
riewoldt, elton. imo these are the only two who are being played developed purely as forwards. and are natural forwards.
then theres the compromised ones or those with genuine questions about what role they will ultimately play.
vickery. supposed to become our first ruck in time and that looks a pipe dream. atm and i repeat ATM his overhead work and aggresion in a contest is miles away.the question remains is he to be our first ruck or a kpp. if hes to be a kpp we need to have other options just in case.
mcguane, okay credit to him. in his two games thus far this yr. thing is a blind man can see the limitations.
derickx im not even sure he should be here but we sure as hell have not developed him as a ruckman. but he aint no forward.
mcbean - he like vickery is supposed to in time become a #1 ruckman instead hes more likely to become a kpp but where ? forward or back.
its a shame when our second best tall forward atm is a very limited mcguane. he at least competes seems we love the few we do have that do this despite a total lack of skills.
the point being made is we have reasonably well established tall defenders in rance grimes chaplin with a few development types in mcintosh and darrou.
we dont have ant decent tall forwards out side of riewoldt and we are only developing for the near future the next yr or two elton. i say agian plain old common sense dictates that we must start developing one of griffiths or astbury as a forward if not both.
when dave astbury is fit enough to play lets develop him as a kpf ffs.
