Aisake?

[Dramoth]

I've been sort of surprised by the amount of people that have Hampson above Aisake.

From what I saw of Hampson he looks AWESOME! The kind of ruckman we have required for the past 10 years.

Now to critique his game, he was slow and didn't have the tank to keep up around the ground. He is probably working on his fitness atm, but around the ground he seemed overwhelmed and lost at times and didn't know where to go. Totally expected from a ruckman of his age and knowledge of AFL.

Hampson needs time to learn more of the basics about what to do. I see his 08 playing between 2-5 games (providing no injury to either Cloke or Aisake). If he can learn his craft in the VFL, he and the CFC are probably going to be better for it.

Anyway that's just my two cents

I think that Hampson will play about half the games next year as the #2 ruckman to Cloke being the number 1 ruck. Aisake will probably play as our ruck rover (202cm ruck rover who runs like the wind...)

Then it will be Hampson being the number 1 ruck with Aisake being #2 ruck while Cloke plays as ruck rover.

But it will be good fun to see if Lloyd does try to flatten Setanta when they play next. He will get bookended 5 minutes later by the two irish

Fun to watch that one happen.

 

[Bentick's My Man.]

Hampson and A. O'hAilpin will be given as much of a run in the seniors as they need to develop in 2008.

Kruezer may not even play a game in 2008, and I wouldn't be bothered by that at all, too early to over pressure a young raw body.

Hampson, A. O'hAilpin will be our main ruck combination with Cam Cloke playing a Ottens-type role up forward and will help them out if they're struggling in a game due to under-sized bodies and if it continued Ackland would return if showing some form in the seconds.

Kruezer definately won't be competing for a ruck spot in Round 1, 2008 so don't even put him into next years configurations

 

[Jock]

To those who have actually gone along and watched Aisake and Hampson play more than a few times and to the same people who have seen Kruezer and Cotchin play more than a few times I ask this.

Can Aisake and Hampson be a quality AFL ruck combination with in the next twelve months ? With Ackland and Cloke as back ups.

I would be very interested to know your thoughts.

The answer basically determines if we can over look Kruezer for Cotchin.

Cheers

 

[therubbernub]

This whole situation is ludicrous. We recruited Hampson last year using a prized pick and yet we have no idea whether he will make it (nor kreuzer for that matter) Surely a forward thinking coach would have sorted this out during the season so that we knew whether to go for kreuzer or not. Same for Aisake we are still none the wiser as to whether either of these players will be long term ruckman. What if they all develop well and we take kreuzer. We will be sitting back in 3 years with an embarassment of riches in our ruck division, with one of them looking elsewhere. Nice problem to have i agree and recent successful sides have had a choice of ruckman, but in the end they get restless.
My point is that ruckman should be developed through the rookie system so that they dont "cost" high draft picks- the reason is the development lag that these players need EVEN IF they are labelled stars in the draft. At his height I think Kreuzer is too risky to take at no1, all shoes have to fall into place for him to be the star ruckman that most think we will be getting. I dont buy the KPP/Ruckman argument... are we recruiting a Ruckman or not? Lets not look for a fallback position on such an important pick- he is either god enough for ruck or not.
Is he good enough? Well I admit I have not seen him play, BUT it occurs to me that at a junior level physicality and natural ability gets you a lot further than it does in the AFL. It is possible to star at a junior level simply because you are big and have some sort of idea about how to ruck. IMO this does not get you far once you enter the world of battle hardened experienced ruckman where the majority of the skill you are competing against has been gained AFTER entering the AFL ranks. We need to be very careful with this pick and IMO Kreuzer is just as likely to make as is Hampson or Aisake. Why take the risk when we can take Cotchin who is much more likely to succeed.