There are only 3 chances... on our list...

Aisake
Setanta as the ruckroving ruckman...

And Deluca if he gets stronger... (running out of time)

Dylan Mclaren.. lacks mobility and height.
Chris Bryan lacks intensity and height and maybe some mobility for KP
Cain Ackland.. lacks height and heart

Batson
French
Smith
Mathews
Hedge
Mott
Angwin

Gone

Unlucky on Knobel.. the AFL scuttlebutted us...

Gardiner.. the members spoke...


Fair dinkum draft picks used for a ruckman ??? ZERO

_________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Unlucky on Knoebel?

Geez Synners, at least you retain a sense of humour in the dark times...

_________________
This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

Okay Synbad

Current situation at the Blues we have number 1 Pick PSD so ideally need to use and target a player

You have suggested we dont use this pick or use on a late draft prospect

Well i have to disagree we need to use the pick on what we will feel is the best uncontracted player available.

not using the number #1 pick in the PSD would look pretty stupid to me and if we where to pick up a late draft pick that wasnt picked up in the National Draft umm why dont we just pick up another pick in the Nat Draft ???
Different if we had pick 5+ in the PSD but we have Pick #1

Okay Our ruck stocks
Maclaren - Prob our best ruck option but a back up at best
Deluca - Not a ruckman (the Mckernon of Ruckmans) at 202cm both Maclaren and Bryan are better options
Bryan - Back up Ruckman at best and agreed could be a mobile Back option / Part-time ruck

Aisake - with developement culd be a great future prospect if he improves at similar rate to Santanta
Santanta - Starting to get his confidence in Defence and believe we should let him develope there rather than trying him to learn mutliple positions aroudn the ground.

Ackland - Prob best option out of the above list - Has played fulltime Ruck for 2 years not part time. Mobile for a ruckman ... best prospect out of the current options we have.

Ideally delist Bryan - replaced by Santanta / delist Deluca not a ruckman and we have better forward options
Find a few prospects in the National draft that we can bring up while Ackland is number #1 ruck.
ALso maybe traget a key ruck in next years draft which has apparently got a few good options already

_________________
CFC TAC Squad everyone over 25 must be traded sounds like Loguns Run

Fair call that.

ADL could become Mr Universe and he still wont be good enough! He is barely VFL standard. He wont ever be an AFL ruckman

We are losing perspective here. People are talking about developing our own rucks. We will still be able to achieve this when the club selects a young ruck prospect in the ND in November. They will aim for one. Otherwise, we really only have Aisake for the future and there is no definite that he will make it one day. Developing rucks takes time and what we have or will have will not be ready for at least 2 years.

We lost our leading ruckman this year to retirement. Do people seriously advocate going into next year with Mclaren and ADL as our ruck combo??!!??
Ackland is not the best signing we could make but it ain't the worst either. It addresses a desperate need on our list and is the most we could do with a pick in the PSD. Do people expect we would land a Cox, or Lade? Get real!

Essentially, we should be asking what else should the club do with that pick? What are the options? And dont say a Betts either because if we want we can choose late in the ND or rookie.

_________________
C'mon Blueboys!

Amazing that Synbad still manages to find a negative out of everything that Carlton does. Over the past few weeks we have managed to retain two players who were looking at leaving - we did this without having to use the #1 pick in the PSD. We have now managed to secure a ruckman - something that we desperately needed, Ackland is equal to or better then French - the player who retired, he is young and should have a future with us.

Try and be positive for once or do us all a favour and support Collingwood - it would be nice to think of you giving them as much of a hard time as you give us.

_________________
Between our dreams and actions lies this world

Why go for Ackland when he has been tried and failed....why did the Saints put Rix in the team?, whey did they recruit Gardiner?....because Ackland cant cut it...and why a three year contract ?..

Why wouldnt you try Michael Griffiths, or another WAFL/SANFL/VFL ruckman...they may not be proven but they are not proven failures like Ackland is....

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

The aints recruited Gardiner to work in tandem with Ackland

_________________
Between our dreams and actions lies this world

They were planning on moving Ackland into defence

_________________
"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Yep agreed Marciblue on the same page

ADL is 202 cm should be a good tall mobile Ruckman but in reality has shown nothing in 3 years that he can even ruck as a back up let alone as a number #1 ruck.

As for Ackland he is a replacement #1 ruck option who has played the rolde of Number #1 ruck for 2 Seasons which if i look at what we have at moment our current options have probabaly played 10 games between them as the first ruck option as French was always the number #1 ruck

_________________
CFC TAC Squad everyone over 25 must be traded sounds like Loguns Run

Wolfe I agree with the recruitment of Ackland for the reasons you have argued, but only on the condition that we finally bite the bullant and draft one or more ruck prospects of our own this year. If he is just the new Mott or Mclaren, a stop gap so we don't have to address our ruck problems in the draft, then what is the point?

The problem I see in this draft is that it's quite possible that the non-Leuenberger ruckman are not worthy of picks 17 & 19, but too good for pick 35. So if we draft Tippet or Renouf at 17 or 19 then we may be passing on substantially better options - the ultimate drafting faux pas - but if we leave it till pick 35 they may not be there.

This is going to be a fascinating draft for the Blues, but gee we better get it right this year.

Agree with both Wolfe and Marci. Would love to have had better options available in the PSD but with McPhee saying no we don't. We need a ruckman for next year and at least he isn't injury prone like Gardiner. For all the criticism Ackland is still better than McLaren, Bryan (should be delisted for his reported sh!t attitude) and Deluca (played as a forward all his career even in the VFL).

We DO desperately need to draft some ruck prospects ... we should have done it in 2004 with Maric, Wood and F De Luca all available ... lets hope we get something in this year's draft to develop.

_________________
In WADA we trust

They may yet do that Elwood. There are a number of issues here...

Firstly, no doubt, Carlton's recruiting of ruckmen over the last 6 or 8 years has been hopelessly ineffective. However, that is past, and nothing we can do to change that now.

So what do we do about that now? We have PSD pick 1, we look for the best player available. If what is written in these pages is true, we offered a deal to McPhee, who turned us down. Maybe they then looked at the rest of the options and thought that there is no one availiable who is better than Ackland? So they offered him a 3 year deal because that was the only way they could get him to come. (I don't know this for sure, of course, I'm just hypothesising). In effect, we have replaced one back-up-standard ruckman for another.

Secondly, what do we do in the ND? I'm no expert in these matters, but I want to see what the Club does here before criticising the selection of Ackland. I would like to see us pick up 2 ruckmen in the ND. If they go for Leuenberger, then maybe use 51 or 67 on a punt for someone like Griffiths. If they go Gibbs with pick 1 (or Hansen), then we would probably need to use pick 17 or 19 on Renouf or Tippet, and still maybe a late speculative pick on Griffiths or someone like him.

Just to be clear, I know nothing about any of these players, other than what I have read here. But as many on here have said, it is time we selected some ruckmen and allowed them to develop for 4 years at the Club.

I would leave Aisake on the International Rookie List, he only played Bullants' seconds last year, let's not rush him. Likelyhood is anyway we will have long term injuries that will allow us to promote a rookie if someone deserves it. This also allows us an extra pick in the ND for someone like a Griffiths.

If all this happens, then we have picked up someone who can hopefully allow us to be competitive in the ruck this year, whilst having 3 young ruckmen (2 from the ND, and Aisake) who we can develop over the next 3-4 years.

_________________
Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

If we wanna get anymore ruckmen, we need to start delisting the crap ones i.e. all of them, but mostly deluca.

_________________
dane's trolling again

the reality check is that if he was shit at St Kilda (and he was, why do you think they ruined Kosi?) then he will be shit at Carlton. he is not a long term solution, Not even a good short term one, he is a clutched straw.

Time for us to stop clutching, recruit well and be patient.

For @#$%&!'s sake I hope the board tumbles soon!

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

(hang on! you sound like me!)

_________________
Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Agree....

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Whilst I have made my comments known in the Ackland thread with his 3 year signing - - on the flip side, it may cost the aints going that next step, by not having another ruckman

_________________
For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

As I said in the other thread, one less backup ruckman means more (Telstra Dome surface) ground time for Gardiner.

Why then were they offering him a 2 year deal and told him he was an integral part of the team?

It is funny, I have now read that Ackland is too blame for the Saints not winning the flag, and now indirectly for ruining Kosi? Hysteria is a funny thing.