blue4, body shape refers to the shape of the whole body, not just his height. We don't expect him to grow taller, but we can certainly expect him to undergo a significant change in muscle mass. Whether that is upper body, lower body, arms, etc, is entirely up to him and his conditioning staff.

Yes, there are physical limits to his being, but he has barely begun to touch upon them. As to your repeated chant of physical, technical, mental (which I again note are key headings to the stat categories in the game Football Manager), we all understand the concept, but know it to be a guide rather than a hard and fast rule. In an age of professional sport and sport science, the rules have changed somewhat.


Actually there's this surgeon in Singapore...







I wish I was joking

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Two things strike me about Warnock.

1. Yet to see him take a contested mark or even an uncontested overhead mark (total of 5 marks in 4 games).

2. Can someone tell our players to stop handballing to him.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

Do you take a guide dog to the footy?

1 in 3 games!

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C'mon Blueboys!

6 in 4, but yes, still 1 in the last three. This all matches up with the 'fitness' theory. He was taking in about 3 or 4 marks a game in the pre-season.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

I think there are two counter arguments being delivered in the same breath re his recruitment. One is that at the end of 2008 we had three very young developing ruckmen with serious potential and we needed immediate support to protect them from having to bash and crash too early and to give them time to develop. But we recruited another ruckman in exactly the same position. So instead of giving Big K and the others breathing/development space we now have four guys still developing. Big K is clearly the best and the other three are vying for second ruck. We are covered for injury certainly, but at the time I saw the recruitment as being a knock on Hammo's potential and perhaps the old Carlton method of recruiting guys who play well against us and seeing a tall ruckman and deciding it is Justin Madden.

I have no doubt that Warnock will improve and be a reasonable ruckman. I doubt he will be a star and at Carlton he won't have a lot of opportunity to star because Big K will be our numero uno till 2020. I also think Jacobs will be gone at years end due to lack of opportunity - the Hawks would love him on their list. And I can't see Hammo and Warnock still on the list in two years time. I just hope we don't lose a freakish athlete like Hammo because we invested so much in the recruitment of Warnock.

If we had drafted Warnock many of us would be far less judgemental but players we trade for inevitably (and reasonably) are marked much harder. Given the interest in his services it is very likely he is being paid well, better than Hammo and Jacobs, so greater scrutiny and expectation is reasonable.

He is certainly a young and developing ruckman who needs time. Personally I wish Barnaby had played another two years, tho much maligned I thought he was a good leader and provided solid contest in the dark days. Two or three more seasons would have taken a bit of pressure off Big K in his first year....and if French hadn't retired we never would have recruited Ackland. If Barnaby had of known Pagan only had 14 games to go rather than a season and a half he may have squeezed a couple more years out of his body.

We've really got to weed out these club officials who are so determined to recruit Justin Maddens'

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Warnock will be the new whipping boy.

I'm backing Warnock to become a really, really good ruckman. I think he'll be a better ruckman than both Hampson and Jacobs. And a better player.

I think it's great we've got 4 AFL quality ruckmen on our list. Could provide really good trade value. And it means we can concentrate on tall forwards and quick, skilful runners in the next 2-3 drafts.