Training Pre season training

[Leap of Faith]

I read the other day that new recruits cost clubs about 200k per year. We wonder why our club has been so poorly administered for so long then look no further. Why give a critical list spot to a spud who there is a strong chance wont be at the club the following year.

Why are people happy just to replace Campbell with another spud FFS, dont they want to actually have a dominant rucking setup? If the club don't have faith in Heath they should have found a decent alternative, not a slow dinosaur who no other club wants to go near. He is not even second best its like shopping out of skip bins.

Perhaps the club have a decent ruckman tagged for next years trade, if they do then what does Boyd provide that Heath can't. If that eventuates there will be two wasted list spots and we cant afford to keep having misses.

Lots of “should haves”. You say we “should have found a decent alternative”. Do they think they haven’t been trying? I don’t understand the thinking that provides no mature bodied cover if Roma goes down. You’re saying that unless we get a quality ruckman as back up then it’s not worth having one. There’s some merit in that, but two things.

1. If Marshall goes down and Heath isn’t up to it, who would you play in the ruck?

2. Whether or not Harry Boyd can play at AFL level remains to be seen. Pretty harsh IMO to be writing him off so soon and equally harsh to be condemning the club and using it as example of our incompetence for not magically manifesting a higher quality Tom Campbell replacement.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Clark quietly had a very strong finish to last year. He's not the shiny new toy anymore so it flew under the radar but it was his most consistent patch of footy in quite some time. What he does in and under is very unique and is a real point of difference, and if he can stay fit it makes our midfield much better. I think he is best 22 at full fitness.

On a side note, we need to be realistic with expectations in terms of youngsters improving. Not everyone improves in a linear manner year on year. Everyone was extremely bullish on our younger players going into last season but it was a good reminder that you can't just guarentee natural improvement from everyone.

King got hurt, Windy stalled somewhat, Owens stalled and Pou regressed early before working hard to improve in the final 3rd of the season. NAS was fantastic. Thats 3/5 players that most had pencileld in as natural improvers who had average seasons. It can happen where your core young players all take a step at the same time but you need injury luck and good timing.

Hunter needs to find more of the ball ( Hunt the ball more ? ) but yes he's showing something for sure.
Against Essendon he had 20 disposals total , in 60% TOG. But 16 of his possessions were contested.
He'd got similar stats against Adelaide a couple of weeks earlier.
Philipou also managed 15 CP's against Adelaide. If those two can start to do that sort of thing consistently we won't be lacking for inside mids.

 

[SteeleSaints]

Lots of “should haves”. You say we “should have found a decent alternative”. Do they think they haven’t been trying? I don’t understand the thinking that provides no mature bodied cover if Roma goes down. You’re saying that unless we get a quality ruckman as back up then it’s not worth having one. There’s some merit in that, but two things.

1. If Marshall goes down and Heath isn’t up to it, who would you play in the ruck?

2. Whether or not Harry Boyd can play at AFL level remains to be seen. Pretty harsh IMO to be writing him off so soon and equally harsh to be condemning the club and using it as example of our incompetence for not magically manifesting a higher quality Tom Campbell replacement.

Heath is as much up to it as a 26yo spud from a state league... Boyd might be a mature body but if he cant move or remain with the play he is useless and that's him at AFL level IMO.

Anyway I'm done on the Boyd discussions, I'll be waiting for the apologies if we recruit him.

 

[pebblesofsand]

I read the other day that new recruits cost clubs about 200k per year. We wonder why our club has been so poorly administered for so long then look no further. Why give a critical list spot to a spud who there is a strong chance wont be at the club the following year.

Why are people happy just to replace Campbell with another spud FFS, dont they want to actually have a dominant rucking setup? If the club don't have faith in Heath they should have found a decent alternative, not a slow dinosaur who no other club wants to go near. He is not even second best its like shopping out of skip bins.

Perhaps the club have a decent ruckman tagged for next years trade, if they do then what does Boyd provide that Heath can't. If that eventuates there will be two wasted list spots and we cant afford to keep having misses.

Wonder what happened to the "spud" ruckman we de-listed when it seemed that Soldo was joining us?

Perhaps he can take Boyds place at Norwood - nah hang on he's been picked up by Melbourne to provide emergency backup to the best ruckman in the league.

Fools!!!!

 

[_Maximus_12]

Boyd can tie us over until we get Sean Darcy

 

[saintmike65]

Can't believe people are arguing against getting a replacement for Tom Campbell.

We have one genuine ruckman!!!!

3 years, zero games and a one year contract says that unless Heath comes on spectacularly this year he's gone.

Dodson is twig. Keeler is not a ruck.

Seriously doubt people are against replacing TC…they simply want someone of some quality

 

[akaifu]

Actually embarrassing this guy watched one game of Boyd and thinks it'd be a disaster for the club if we recruit him as BACKUP for FREE as the 44th player on our list

Heath had never been an emergency until late last season, it's delusional to think he is anywhere close to being a guarantee to stand up at AFL level if Rowan goes down

There needs to be contingencies in place, just like there were with the recruitment of Bonner last season. We had Hastie, but he wasn't ready, so we made a one-year play for a mature player to fill a hole

 

[LeonardHayes87]

Boyd can tie us over until we get Sean Darcy

No way I’m paying him what he’s on currently. Ruckman are that overrated it’s not funny. The deal he’s on at Freo is ridiculous

 

[Circus]

I read the other day that new recruits cost clubs about 200k per year. We wonder why our club has been so poorly administered for so long then look no further. Why give a critical list spot to a spud who there is a strong chance wont be at the club the following year.

Why are people happy just to replace Campbell with another spud FFS, dont they want to actually have a dominant rucking setup? If the club don't have faith in Heath they should have found a decent alternative, not a slow dinosaur who no other club wants to go near. He is not even second best its like shopping out of skip bins.

Perhaps the club have a decent ruckman tagged for next years trade, if they do then what does Boyd provide that Heath can't. If that eventuates there will be two wasted list spots and we cant afford to keep having misses.

If you keep banging on the drum like this your arms will drop off!!

 

[sammm]

Not sure why Barrat needs to be any bigger?

He is a centimetre taller than Battle.

Howard takes the opposition #1 key forward
Wilkie the #2
Barrat the #3


Will Barrat from day 1 be as good as Battle, no.

Long term let's wait and see.

Regardless if he gets 80% of the way there in 3 years time and costs us less salary (allowing us to recruit free agents of our own) then we've done well.

Battle took probably 4 years to be good.

 

[saintkildaman]

Can't believe people are arguing against getting a replacement for Tom Campbell.

We have one genuine ruckman!!!!

3 years, zero games and a one year contract says that unless Heath comes on spectacularly this year he's gone.

Dodson is twig. Keeler is not a ruck.

Amen. People talking about a people list clogger, if he’s no good he will only ‘clog’ the list for 12 months before we move him on. We just drafted Dodson so obviously the club see him or Heath as Roma’s long term successor.

If we’re in finals contention, Marshall goes down and Moose/Dodson aren’t up to it yet everyone will be complaining we didn’t add a mature ruck while we had a list spot.

Boyd is unproven but what are the alternatives? Blakiston who is also an unknown? Pruess who can barely get fit? Goober just because his mum is hot?

People melting over Boyd is real odd IMO

 

[SaintJunior]

Been watching the SANFL vs VFL match, still a bit more to watch.

Heavy weight contest between Boyd and Goober .

Interesting match up, neither jump at centre bounce very physical .

Would say Boyd has just shadowed Goober in hit outs and has won four frees due to his strength and Goober grabbing him .

Boyd better in and around the footy but Goober has done him in the air twice .

Don’t think either have the athletic profile of an afl ruck but clearly Boyd is the best ruck is SA more than matches Goober who is VFL best .

So unless there is a WA ruck who is better then it is understandable that we are looking at Boyd given the need for a mature ruck backup .

 

[inntheno]

How are we gonna fit 45 guns in round 1

Injuries to 22 of them of course you Silly Billy!

 

[Veer Right]

Not much going on when Boyd is all the talk.

To state the F obvious, he's a backup ruckman where we have no genuine replacement for a Marshall injury. He's also a century younger then Campbell with no injury file as long as ones arm re. Soldo.

Marshall came from the Ballarat VFL
Xerri was borderline delist material for years at the roos
Meek was happily offloaded (who i really wanted at the saints) to the hawks, then came good under a better fitness reigeme.

Nobody is mentioning the new ruck rules where you can't jump into your opponent. You don't need agility anywhere near as much as you need physical strength to move your opponent and i thought that was meant to be his ace card.

Hope you lot find a new topic soon!

 

[Jay Beast]

Boyd is TC 2.0
Pure contingency and doesn't block the development path for our kids.
If the penny drops for Moose, Keeler or Dodson then Boyd doesn't play in front of them.

The Boyd rookie spot is the least contentious appointment in fact is plain common sense.

 

[jumperfan]

Boyd is unproven but what are the alternatives? Blakiston who is also an unknown? Pruess who can barely get fit? Goober just because his mum is hot?

People melting over Boyd is real odd IMO

I mean, you said it yourself...

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

I suggest that you don't win a Magarey (especially as a Ruckman), being a spud.
Not like there's alot of replacements for Campbell out there.
We're talking 1 year contract while Heath further developes or not?
And we still have'nt splashed the cash yet, so what's 200k.
This acquisition is more about cover for Marshall should he get injured, anyway's.

 

[thekizzler]

Who says Boyd is up to it...its just perpetuating the exact same issue we had with Campbell. Campbell dominates state level but how does he go at thetop level and he has a hell of a lot more tools than Boyd does. If Marshall is injured give Heath the opportunity, we are not challenging next year. Get games into Heath & Keeler they are the future. When was the last time an AFL club brought in a 26yo state league ruckman who have proven to be a sucess?

The club finally have a few decent young ruckman on the list is Dodson, Heath and possibly Keeler, but our identification and recruitment of ruckman since drafting Marshall has been diabolical. Taking Boyd is moving back to the diabolical short term thinking IMO.

No one is saying that he is a guaranteed star, but you are DEFINITELY saying he won't be useful based on next to no research and being a pleb on Big Footy.

Surely we don't need to revisit this again? lol. Big Footy is like bashing your head against a brick wall of egos haha.

Right at this second, based on previous VFL form, Heath, Keeler and Dodson are not ready to play no.1 ruck. They will hopefully be based on a pre-season and some more VFL games.

Boyd is a possible free hit at a player that could be something, or not, and I find it hard to not be amused by your opinion on the situation because it is not supported by literally anything concrete.

 

[CursingFijian]

Why get a Boyd when we could have a PREUUUSS?

!

 

[gubby88]

On SM-A156E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[thekizzler]

Anyway I'm done on the Boyd discussions, I'll be waiting for the apologies if we recruit him.

The amount of fun a psychologist would have with this above statement

Whether Boyd succeeds or fails, it's sure going to be hilarious to see your out of control ego at work either way

 

[Armoooo]

Sooo... what did you do to be banned from the after school program?

Belted a kid.... to make things even worse his mum was my teacher so it made the rest of the year a bit awkward

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

Why get a Boyd when we could have a PREUUUSS?

!

Too often injured

 

[True Believer]

Boyd is unproven but what are the alternatives?

Goober just because his mum is hot?

Exactly - everyone.......vote for Goober!!!

 

[Joffaboy]

Chill guys, Boyd is a Campbell replacement and a break glass option.

Chatting to a supporter yesterday and he was insisting we should have given Heath a go. My view was that Heath was not ready and I stick to that.

So far this season he has shown signs of improvement in his tank and football craft. He like many big ruckman is a slow burn. We almost got Cox from WCE at around 25 as he couldn't get a gig because of Gardiner. Gardiner did his knee and we eventually ended up with him and he was a great recruit. Point is Cox was seen as a second rater at 25, but became a premier ruckman.
Not comparing Heath to Cox or Gardiner just that his development is slow but progressing. However...

He needs to show he is ready this season
Keeler, while getting a rucks body is more a relief ruck
Dodson is 18.

So if Roh goes down, is suspended or just needs a rest, we need a player with ruck craft. I think we should give Boyd a go before bagging the crap out of him.