Simmonds earmarked as number one ruckman next year

[mightytiges]

From the EOTT article on Simmo:


Simmonds has now been earmarked for the No. 1 ruck spot at Tigerland in 2006, and his pre-season training program will be designed accordingly.

“He’s got himself well covered off with speed and strength . . . he probably just needs to work on his endurance over the pre-season,” Armstrong said.

“If that means he ends up a bit slighter than he was this year, well, so be it. But there’s no reason why he couldn’t still have that upper-body strength and improve in the endurance component as well.”


I wonder where that leaves Knobel?

[Razorblade]

I see Knobel coming off the bench as a ruckmen.

They might also try and make him compotent playing as a deep FF/FP, at times this season he looked alright in the forward line but at other times he looked cumbersome and very awkward going for a mark.

He'll never be as good as forward as Staff, but a 203cm, tanky guy who can mark and kick a goal will always take a half-decent tall defender.

[mightytiges]

I see Knobel coming off the bench as a ruckmen.

They might also try and make him compotent playing as a deep FF/FP, at times this season he looked alright in the forward line but at other times he looked cumbersome and very awkward going for a mark.

He'll never be as good as forward as Staff, but a 203cm, tanky guy who can mark and kick a goal will always take a half-decent tall defender.

If that's the case then you'd reckon Staff will miss out most weeks. We don't want to end up with too big and immobile  forward line like the Eagles say.

[Razorblade]

I see Knobel coming off the bench as a ruckmen.

They might also try and make him compotent playing as a deep FF/FP, at times this season he looked alright in the forward line but at other times he looked cumbersome and very awkward going for a mark.

He'll never be as good as forward as Staff, but a 203cm, tanky guy who can mark and kick a goal will always take a half-decent tall defender.

If that's the case then you'd reckon Staff will miss out most weeks. We don't want to end up with too big and immobile  forward line like the Eagles say.

Not neccesarily.

Staff won't be able to play 120 minutes per game, and as we know Staff never usually plays more then 1/2 a season due to injuries and suspensions anyway!

You could have it so Staff is playing 90-100 minutes in the FP, and Knobel plays the other 20-30, althought that maybe stretching it a bit.

If/when (lol) Staff gets injured or suspended, Knobel can get sometime down in that deep FF/FP area, and see if he can do anything!

[mightytiges]

Not neccesarily.

Staff won't be able to play 120 minutes per game, and as we know Staff never usually plays more then 1/2 a season due to injuries and suspensions anyway!

You could have it so Staff is playing 90-100 minutes in the FP, and Knobel plays the other 20-30, althought that maybe stretching it a bit.

If/when (lol) Staff gets injured or suspended, Knobel can get sometime down in that deep FF/FP area, and see if he can do anything!

LOL that's so true .

I forgot about young Patto as well. He should crack a few more senior games next year as he can ruck as well as play up forward.