big ivan easily. cant win against good sides without him imo. dominates thr stoppages, in the centre as well and gets back to help out in defense. he doesnt just compete in the ruck when he hits the ground hes throwing his weight around creating space and making opposition think. hes also taking contested marks all over the ground. he is the aa ruckman atm thats how good hes been.
imo i think the greatest need we have is to find a bloody good young ruckman because atm i cant see any of browne derickx graham or vickery performing anywhere near this bloke.two very good ruckmen should be the aim.
also i think we would struggle big time if cotchin got hurt but hes just one of a group of 6 who are all travelling well atm. the quality does fall away after these 6 and lose two or three and we can kiss the season goodbye.
for sure we need another 4 mids in our system to go with arnot and helbig who both show promise. two of the four should be quality we should use our first rounder and the port pick on the best available. lets get ourselves to the situation if injury does happen we arent knocked from pillar to post. like so many sides are atm.
we have played some damn good footy but the real key to any future success will be our depth and how we cope with injuries.
we have used just 27 players this yr. the least of all clubs the average is 32 the most 38.
have a look at those 27 players, 9 or 10 are battlers and im sure over the next few yrs we will be looking to phase them out.
its what happens when have to find another 5 or 6 outside of that 27. as far as genuine mids go there is only arnot and helbig and helbig is injured. as far as ruckmen go theres only really graham sheesh its a big step up for him to give even half of what ivan has atm.
look at the defense we were forced to play griffiths when grimes got hurt a 10 game player into a key post what happens if rance goes down?
what happens if jack gets hurt hes had a poor season but hes so far in front of anything else we have its not funny.thing is hes reliant on others getting the ball down there.
nope i think we could name 3 or 4 players as being our most important. but for me ivan is the least replaceable who is having the most influence on our team.
depth is the real key to this footy club if we want to get anywhere. we have to add to the 16 or so good players we have and get it up to around 30 32 or so. we probably have another 6 or so on the list with kids like ellis, griffiths astbury, dea elton arnot helbig. all show potetential but arent really there yet one or two may fail.
so i take you no longer think we paid overs for an average, at best, stop gap ruckman?
hindsights a wonderful thing but if we are talking the process without hindsight then no i would be against useing pick 35 a second rounder on an inconsistent 26 yr old who stryggled to get a game.
i would hate for us to go thru that process time and time again because i reckon we would get most wrong. if we cant value 2nd round picks imo in the long term we will go nowhere.
finally it would be real churlish of me to not acknowledge just how good ivan has been id say hes far exceeded even hartleys expectations, or acknowledge that blair hartley nailed this trade. kudos to them both.
