Carlton Supporters Club

I'm still not sure why Harry shouldn't be played in the ruck 

Apparently he has bulked up to 100kg and most of the top ruckmen in the competition began rucking at 19 years of age.

I think that is too simplistic, you are looking at it from a chasing perspective which is only a very small part of AFL pressure acts. Most teams, even the fastest, wouldn't effect more than 2 or 3 run down tackles a round on a good day.

Applying and building pressure has very little to do with chasing in a normal AFL game, pressure is applied when the ball is in dispute not when one team has clear possession. It's about being in the right places to create disputes and a contest, primarily by causing the ball carrier to be confused or slow to decide, not chasing ball carriers down.

Nobody can run as fast as a handball or kick, and once a player gets three or four clear steps 75% of the time he'll deliver clear possessions to advantage!

If you rely on running players down you have a losing strategy, you are trying to capture the horse that has bolted.

Size comes before strength. Wouldn't ruck McKay at 19. Kreuzer and Casboult will ruck for sure. That's actually been the our best combo for while anyway. Kreuzer tends to ruck much more and plays alot better while Casbout gets a chance to build his confidence by marking around the ground, where he seems do alot better. Reckon one of our defenders will go forward with McKay as we can play all of Rowe, Marchbank, Weitering and Plowman in defence.

I'm not asking for much - just elite speed, endurance, tackling and skill level from all of our players.

Is Casboult the KPF closer to bridging the gap to Phillips as a ruck option, than Phillips is as a Ruck closing the gap to Casboult as a KPF?

x2. I think you'd see the big Yank in action before young H gets rucked.

I really can't buy the argument that you can't give a >200cm, >100kg 19 year old a run in the ruck because he might get hurt.  If that's the case, you certainly wouldn't want him standing under a high ball in the hot spot or being picked up by Steven May 

Whilst Flipper rehabilitates, does anyone think the Jones boy might get a run?(potentially to free up Levi)

In 2005 I sat with a colleague at Box Hill oval to watch her 18 year old nephew play in the ruck against the O'hAilpin brothers.  He was giving up 7-8cm and 5-10kg but was a key factor in Box Hill's win and was promoted to the Hawthorn side for the next game.

I suspect that Hawthorn didn't want to jeopardise the playing career of their potential 200+ game key forward.  I also suspect that they knew exactly what they were doing when they played a first year player in the ruck against two older, taller, heavier, stronger and unpredictable opponents.

I'm not advocating playing McKay as a permanent ruckman.  However, if he is ready to play as a key forward against the likes of Steven May, he is ready to have a run in the ruck.

Looks like good news :

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/carlton-ruckman-daniel-gorringe-cleared-of-serious-achilles-injury-20170228-gumwmh.html