#19 Cameron Wood

[Brenny]

[WarrenerraW]

and we all know how he's turned out.

[TurkishPie]

was actually pretty clean with his hands considering the conditions.. whilst he wasn't a gamebreaker, he was quite handy

[Monco Matt]

Wood was again OK. Not great but not diabolical. The problem was he allowed a complete spud like Minson pick up 56 hitouts, 20-odd posessions and 100+ DT points. He has never done that in his whole career. Much to learn he still has.

Who is next in line after Wood? Not sure who our 3rd string ruck option is. Whatever the cost we must ensure Jolly doesn't break down at the pointy end.

[Tannin]

Monco, I reckon you need to update your opinion of Minson. He has improved a lot over the last year or two, and has played a fair part in making life difficult for us in previous games. Why the Scraggers had him running around in the twos till this week, I have no idea.

Ignoring Brown, our third best ruckman is probably Chris Dawes. Yes! - but obviously he has other tasks. Cloke has taken hitout duty now and again too, and he's certainly built for it, but you wuildn't waste Trav in a ruck role. I suppose that leaves Keefe, though he is more of a giant KPP.

[woftam]

Minson may have won the hit outs but we won the clearances easy so he certainly didn't hit the ball to his midfielders advantage. Around the ground I thought Wood was the better player comfortably. Wasn't a bad effort I thought from Wood.

[Pies4shaw]

Wood has rucked in games this year where the team has kicked 9 goals and 8 goals, respectively, in the last quarters. He is plainly doing enough to enable the 'Pies to get their hands on the football and win clearances.

Very difficult conditions for a man his size last night and he performed creditably (as I thought he did against the Tiges).

[Brenny]

[Duff Soviet Union]

[Brenny]

I believe the centre tap outs are more vital.

I believe it was 12/12 or something along those lines?

[Magpie Jack]

For the first time in decades we don't have a problem in the ruck. Wood is a capable backup to Jolly. We have some great young players at the club which is where we should focus our salary cap at the moment. No new ruckman required !!

[Tannin]

[Tannin]

^ and another thing - ruck hitouts are a bit like kicks to a goal-hungry forward. It's one thing to get first hands to the ball, it's another thing entirely to do anything useful with it. (Like shove it down you rover's throat.) First hands to the ball without actually controlling where it goes in any meaningful way is like marking in the goal square and kicking at random - goal? point? OOF? For a ruckman, they all count as "hitouts".

[lanstro]

Would've thought the years with Guy Richards and Chris Brian and a frequently injured Josh would've given us some perspective on what to expect from ruckmen.

Sure, Wood's no Jolly or Cox, but how many ruckmen are? Give the guy some time: he's hardly the worst ruckman we've had in recent memory, and he'd be seriously considered as the first ruckman at several other clubs.

[Monco Matt]