Have faith in Tom

[greenlight]

Tom bellchambers will take the 1 ruck spot season with support from hille and ryder...i think not picking a ruckman this season was a great move..we picked up some fast and pacy mids and some mature aged players...i believe bellchambers will be an elite ruckman sooner rather than later...speaking to a high profile ruckman in the afl today rates Tom as one of the best already and hates playing on him...nice recruiting dons ...

 

[Lance Uppercut]

 

[The Prosecutor]

capslock is over-rated.

 

[Tassieboy]

My ears hurt...

 

[HurleyTheFuture]

Did anyone else read that loudly in their head

 

[Howard Moon]

loud and fast..like the ramblings of a madman

 

[Humble Minion]

I am amazed at your ability to capslock your entire post, but somehow neglect to start the word 'Tom' with a capital T in your thread title.

 

[greenlight]

ok guys sorry about the caps....but cant we just read the text and if you want to comment go for it

 

[HurleyTheFuture]

ok guys sorry about the caps....but cant we just read the text and if you want to comment go for it

I really think Tom can turn into a dominate tap ruckman in the Sandilands, Mumford mould, but not be as good at moving around the ground like a Cox

 

[greenlight]

better???....lol

 

[Keystone agony]

Im a massive fan of Tommy Bell and what i saw early last year (first half of year) i was extremly impressed. He has a great ability to go forward and take by marks and also do this around the ground, needed on the big GF stage when there are no options. He still looks to me like he needs to get a big bigger and stronger. I think most of its in his head and confidence does him wonders.

I just hope essendon have faith in him as the number 1 ruck and dont go back to Hille.

One day i would love to give it to richmond fans who consider Angus Graham just as good if not better, give me a break.

 

[keepzitreal]

Agree completely.

Would have Belly ahead of Hille but willing to give Hille a chance to see where his at..

If remotely like last season, Belly takes his spot and we use Hille sparingly mainly against big bodied effective ruckman..

Had a look at what's leftover after my best 22 and there isn't much KPP depth anymore. I hope Bendigo sign up some decent KPP talls and a ruckman so players aren't played out of position..

 

[daz17]

As long as we don't play all 3 at once I will be happy. Did not work last season.

 

[BrunoV]

It has nothing to do with "faith in Tom", we need back up plans for when players get injured and long term plans for when players age. Clubs should have 4 and, I'd go as far as 5, ruckmen on their lists each year (especially when the talent is available).

You need 2 ready made players capable of playing number 1 and 1 "backup" (who is preferably young and developing).

We are perfect to this point.

There should then be a ruckman on a rookie list. I just cannot see why there wouldn't be. The extra years of development are quite clearly what a lot of ruckmen need, 2 or 3 years on the rookie list is how a number of the best ruckmen in the competition started out (obviously they didn't acquire talent from being rookies but they were given the time their bodies and minds needed to develop). If someone like Campbell becomes surplus to requirements he is then valuable trade material (see Jenkins this year). Ultimately there will be 1 or 2 completely speculative picks on the rookie list so it isn't as if there is no spacee among the 6 rookie picks.

There is plenty of room for a fifth young ruckman to add to the primary list if you have a talented young guy who has fallen down the draft list due to injury and/or the like. I don't know that this was the case this year.

Surely Hille won't be going on further than this year, by 2013 we will be a ruckman short. We will actually have to trade for someone who is capable of playing at AFL level.

 

[Valcurdra]

Tom looks like he is going to be a good player for us but I think Hille is clearly ahead of him. Despite Bellchambers great start to the year Hille still did WAY more over the course of the year.

Hille is a proven top line ruck man and a damaging forward. He was not at his best last year due to some niggling injuries but hopefully will bounce back this year.

If he struggles again its great to know we have Tom as backup but he is still behind Hille in the pecking order for me.

 

[Childish Gambino]

I'm not convinced but I'm probably one of only a handful who think so. I'm sure he will make it but he has a lot of work to do.

Seems to really struggle to keep his feet for such a big man, also is disposal is very questionable. Also needs to improve on making an impact around the ground.

However his number one job is to be a ruckmen and this is where he excels. Pretty sure he ranked 4th in average hit outs to advantage which is an awesome achievement for such a young ruckman.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Hille is ahead of him for Round 1. Make Bell earn it, he can and he will.

 

[Eleven 38]

It has nothing to do with "faith in Tom", we need back up plans for when players get injured and long term plans for when players age. Clubs should have 4 and, I'd go as far as 5, ruckmen on their lists each year (especially when the talent is available).

You need 2 ready made players capable of playing number 1 and 1 "backup" (who is preferably young and developing).

We are perfect to this point.

There should then be a ruckman on a rookie list. I just cannot see why there wouldn't be. The extra years of development are quite clearly what a lot of ruckmen need, 2 or 3 years on the rookie list is how a number of the best ruckmen in the competition started out (obviously they didn't acquire talent from being rookies but they were given the time their bodies and minds needed to develop). If someone like Campbell becomes surplus to requirements he is then valuable trade material (see Jenkins this year). Ultimately there will be 1 or 2 completely speculative picks on the rookie list so it isn't as if there is no spacee among the 6 rookie picks.

There is plenty of room for a fifth young ruckman to add to the primary list if you have a talented young guy who has fallen down the draft list due to injury and/or the like. I don't know that this was the case this year.

Surely Hille won't be going on further than this year, by 2013 we will be a ruckman short. We will actually have to trade for someone who is capable of playing at AFL level.

trading for ruckmen seems to be the way the top teams are doing it these days, look at Geelong, Bulldogs, Collingwood, Stkilda, Hawthorn, Carlton and Sydney have all traded in ruckmen over the last 6 or 7 years....

 

[Lucrious]

Bellchambers looks likely to be our #1 ruckmen sooner than later, but until Hille is too old (still got few years left) he might be in and out at times, but when Hille retires on his terms, than I can Bellchambers as #1 and Ryder can play either end of the ground where required, extremely versatile!

Loved watching Bellchambers this year, and I agree that it was wise of us to get some mature players to inject into the side, alongside some great youngsters in Kavanagh, Merrett and hopefully Corey Dell'olio will fit into the side quickly as a small forward option if Davey's form wanes

 

[Keystone agony]

We have 4 rucks on our list Ryder, T Bell, Hille and Hooker.

People didnt think J.Roughead or Brennan could/were rucks but they are more than capable good fill ins.

 

[Rack Watts]

Bellchambers is great!
If we don't start playing him, he'll run away, then Hille will retire and we'll cry.

 

[Kong]

I've rated Bellchambers since his first game.

I also rated Goldstein and Leuenberger from theirs, so I'll back my judgement.

Won't ever get 25+ touches, but he'll dominate the hitouts, be an important target at either end, and chip in around the ground. He did all of that this year, and he'll only get better.

 

[BrunoV]

trading for ruckmen seems to be the way the top teams are doing it these days, look at Geelong, Bulldogs, Collingwood, Stkilda, Hawthorn, Carlton and Sydney have all traded in ruckmen over the last 6 or 7 years....

So we'd prefer to trade for a ruckman rather than have a last crack at Caddy next year because other clubs have traded in ruckmen?

None of those clubs wanted to use first round picks on rucks. They realised a weakness on their list (caused by their own management) and traded to improve it.

 

[HurleyTheFuture]

I've rated Bellchambers since his first game.

I also rated Goldstein and Leuenberger from theirs, so I'll back my judgement.

Won't ever get 25+ touches, but he'll dominate the hitouts, be an important target at either end, and chip in around the ground. He did all of that this year, and he'll only get better.

I beg to differ, if anything he being a tap ruckman will be his best attribute

 

[theboxmike]

Gun i love young tommy. But i still think Hille has a role to play next season and maybe the one after. However i do have one niggling issue is that we don't seem to have much height in terms of our rucks. Personally for our next ruck prospects i would like to go for somebody around the 205cm mark rather then the current standard 200-201cm.