The art of the ruck, and its role in modern footy, is sometimes a little hard to pin down. While some sides have a lot of importance placed on the position, others use it as nearly an afterthought. The Western Bulldogs have probably led the latter trend more than any
Continue reading »Author: Sean
GIANT Braydon dons orange and heads to his third club
More than any other position in football, the path to senior football for a ruckman might be the hardest to achieve. There are about 18 slots for full-time rucks in the league at any one time, stepping aside from the dual ruck issue. At the same time, most teams carry
Continue reading »Mitch Hannan goes where he’s needed
Melbourne’s evolving forward setup looks to have pushed Mitch Hannan out of the picture. The space for Melbourne’s mid-sized forward options is shrinking, and even in that role, Bailey Fritsch is direct competition for Hannan. Instead, Hannan heads to the Bulldogs where there’s a clearer need for his type. The
Continue reading »Are the Demons betting on the weirdest draft ever?
For a long time, the public view of the 2020 AFL Draft is that it is the “most compromised draft ever“. With a number of players projected to be inside the top 40 either available for pre-selection or tied to clubs, the consensus media view is that the “free talent”
Continue reading »Have Essendon made the Wright move?
Regardless of prior pedigree, when a player is clearly left out of a club’s plans, not being selected in an entire season, it’s really difficult to expect much in exchange if they are then traded. Especially when the club in question has a committed contract to manage within the salary
Continue reading »Hawthorn try to plug holes with Hartigan
With Hawthorn staring down a hard rebuild as success catches up with them, they’ve seen a number of their numerous over-30 players depart this off-season. The exodus includes defenders Ben Stratton and Danny Frawley, as well as the return to Ireland of Conor Glass and a mid-August ACL injury ruling
Continue reading »Hulking Hogan becomes a Giant
GWS have essentially turned small forward Zac Langdon into large forward Jesse Hogan by swapping the draft pick they got back to Fremantle. Hogan represents a potential direct replacement for presumably departing matched free agent Jeremy Cameron; a big forward whose mobility can be used with the right game plan
Continue reading »The Markov chain leads to the Suns
With Jarrod Harbrow nearing the end of his career and Pearce Hanley out of the picture, the Suns looked to need a similar type of rebounding defender. They’ve found one at the fringes of a stacked premiership team, in Richmond’s Oleg Markov. While perhaps not as athletic as his World
Continue reading »Langdon lands at Lathlain
The first officially declared trade of the year sees a mature age draftee small forward move back to Perth. Drafted out of the WAFL at age 22, Zac Langdon is a genuine pressure small forward. Langdon has rated inside the top 10 for tackles inside 50 per game in 2018
Continue reading »So how does free agency work (sort of)?
Usually the start of the player movement period is more stalling than roaring in nature. With deadline deals normally the order of the day, player movement often lacks a lot of movement (pardon the pun) until deadlines get tight. Already in the 2020 Free Agency period there have been offers
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