Vickery??! Vickery's spot is not at risk. Until his form is an issue rather than his health, he is crucial to our team structure. We don't have another player who can cover him effectively in his role as CHF/2nd Ruck.
i constantly have issue with this thinking.
chf is almost the key [position on the ground yet we want to play a bloke there part time. no other team actually does this. they play two genuine kpfs and a tall player who is the second ruck.
to me vickery should start in a pocket, jack at ff, and griffiths/elton at chf. when ivan has a break vickery goes into the ruck, our structure is not lost. this then allows us to say bring a very good smaller marking player on to the ground whos excellent and quick on the lead like Aaron Edwards. its an ideal change up.
if vickery is to play chf we need to find a for/ruck
as for form well as far as i can see vickery has one half decent yr behind him form to me is very much an issue. from what ive seen elton to me already looks a better marking player.
Collingwood? FF CHF Dawes, Dawes pinch hits.
Adelaide? Tippet CHF FF and pinch hits (well used to haha)
Calrton had Hampton play CHF FF and pinch hit
Essendon and Ryder?
Hawks and Roughy?
Saints and Kosi
Theres a lot of teams that have their second ruckman playing KP
dawes is kp not a ruckman he went there when brown retired. in his place they played both tarrant and goldsackk as stay at home kpfs. one reason dawes wanted out was he did not want to be used as a pinch hitter.
adelaide i agree mainly because they had no one else. towards the end of the yr josh jenkins did get the second ruck role leaving both walker and tippett at home. tippett going leaves a big hole.
carlton use hampson as a second ruck he is a ruckman first and foremost.waite when fit plays kp henderson plays kp probably casboult now and hampson as the ruck/for with kruezer going forward at times as well.
hawks have used roughy everywhere.and they have used their kpf as a second ruckman out of neccesity. who else is there. imo they went and got hale to play as a for ruck but have had no luck injury wise with their other ruckmen. even then they still go with franklin and gunston still undersized but looks a player.
last yr stkilda went with riewoldt wilkes and kosi they have added lee to this mix. perhaps they have learnt what most other sides have.
essendon dont rely on ryder to be their key forward at times they rotated all three of ryder bellchambers and hille thru the forward line. ryder to me is our vickery just a lot better atm.
when fit they have used three talls and ryder. hurley crameri gumbleton ryder with the arrival of daniher this will only get stronger.
just two questions. 1/ do you think it wise to go into games with just vickery and riewoldt as tall options.
2/ what is preferable have your chf play chf and maintain structure or have him go off in the ruck leaving just one tall forward.
in fairness to hardwick he did realise the importance of structure with miller. unfortunately miller was never good enough. we played miller because of where griffiths astbury and post were at injured or not ready. its time to go back to that strategy.