Absolutely Just watched the Hammer replays......gee the guy can play, and he's only going to get better. Should be a real weapon for next season. Kreuz is a great ruck and around the ground player, and should form a great combination with the ever-improving 206. Ruck wise, only WCE hold a candle to us, and Cox ain't getting any younger

Nice to see Ellard rewarded for his efforts, and Army shoed a lot in the latter part of the season.

Round 17 (2010) - Hampson's mark and goal at the top of the goal square.

You substitute Hampson to be in Walker's position at the end of the game in that tussle against Glass - either Hampson mark's it or Glass gives away the free kick for chopping the arms, as Glass would have had to do that rather than his "Gieschen non-hold".

The extra 12cms that Hampson has on Walker would have made a huge difference - and Walker could have spent most of the last quarter on the ball creating havoc.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Lucky not to get the boot then.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

Hampson wouldn't have kicked the late goal that Walker did.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

You're right Walker would have kicked the late goal that Walker did.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Need to be comparing Hammer to Setanta.

Fair chance he'd have dropped the mark too. People forget very easily. It's not Hammer's best skill. Clunk some occasionally like in the above highlight reels but generally was very ordinary in the marking department up forward. We learned that about round 2 this season.

Ruckmen are ruckmen, forwards are forwards. The odd one crosses over both but not many. Playing forward is a skill on it's own. Kreuzer's easily our best in both roles combined and even he struggles as a forward. It's why we're liable to use Waite and Thornton in the KP forward roles with Kreuzer backing them up while resting.

Hammer's a terrific ruckman but one very ordinary forward. Problem for him there's no way we'll play 3 ruckman in the same side meaning he many spend alot of time in the twos while Kreuzer and Warnock are on the park.

... and can we re-sign Chris Yarran while we're at it. one of our most important players going forward (yes, i know he's got another year to run, but let's do it now)

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i don't wanna spend my life explaining myself. Either you get it, or you don't- Frank Zappa

Happy that armfield + ellard got 2 years.

As for hampson, @#$%&! yeah

You are right, he will be much better

Point I was making is that deep into time on in the last quarter and Glass is trying to spoil Hampson (rather than Walker) he is giving away a few centimetres and kilos he has to spoil and probably going to chop the arms - if he is going to hold he is going to have to do more than his "Gieshen no-hold" to do the job.

You're maybe right Hampson may not mark but he may have got the free kick - 202cm/100kg with a leap Glass is AA but he's not superman.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

If you wanted to try and make one of Hampson , Warnock or Kruezer a forward I'd make it Kruezer.

He is a better mark then the other two. A much better set shot. Good lead up as well. Bit quicker and can play at ground level better then the other two. Also be better for his knee perhaps to play there.

FF: Walker Kruezer Betts
HF: Waite Garlett Gibbs (Robbo on a shutdown role Leon Davis, Fletcher etc)

Rotate Warnock and Hampson through the ruck.

As I said in my subsequent post, I hope Hampson makes it for the sake of the club as we desperately need that ruck / forward option... (and I really do not want Kreuzer to play this role as he is much better around the ground)
Hampson just hasn't shown enough for my liking yet and he's 24 now and has a massive frame - surely by now he'd be firing.... When he goes up for marks, his arms and legs are all over the place!!! And if he holds down a forward role predominantly then he has to learn how to kick for goal and use his body to advantage!!! I'm not a fan yet, but hope to be in the future... I guess we'll find out sometime in the next 3 years hopefully!!!
AND I am utterly amazed how many blues fans on this forum actually disagree with this because in reality he has done nothing yet except for two reasonable FULL games prior to injury this year....
I love your passion Kouta but I will definitely be nowhere near as passionate until he actually does something for this club.... After all he was a high draft pick!!!

Hampson much quicker than Kreuzer - in the top 5 for speed at the club - as I was saying we just don't exploit this enough

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

Kreuzer isn't a forward either. That's a skill of it's own. Just a better forward, a better mark, strong one actually, than Hampson and Warnock, hence a good back up when resting forwardto Waite and Thornton, both of whom have been shown to play the KP roles well. Make Kruezer a true forward though and he'll start to struggle. He is first and foremost a ruckman and the first one picked. The other spot is between Warnock and Hampson, not both.

Greg Swann just confirmed in SEN that Hampson had rolled his ankle during the week. They still took him just in case but he didn't come up.

Agro I think you are giving far too much credit to the umpires, there is no way they would have paid that free kick against WC at that stage in the game no matter how obvious.

You're right what the hell was I thinking.

But maybe in Melbourne at the MCG with 80,000 people on our side.

But the point I make still is valid about talls (as Jack Dyer said they dont get any shorter towards the end of the game) - I would have liked a 202cm behemoth standing in the goal square in time on during that game rather than Andrew Walker at 190cm and about 10kgs lighter.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I wonder whether you wanted Hampson to try and kick that goal from the boundary about a minute before the goal square incident?

Like I said I was happy for Walker to kick THAT goal from the boundary.

I'm not saying Hampson to replace Walker in our forward line.

What I was saying is that a 202cm tall standing and contesting a mark in the goalsquare in the dying moments of a very brutal and tiring game is a better option than someone of 190cm tall.

Andrew Walker's strengths in the last few moments of that game would be using his outstanding aerobic and fitness capacity to cut through the mid-field and create havoc in the forward 50 (which is what he did brilliantly) then he was asked to be the go to man in the last few moments and try to wrestle Darren Glass for a mark.

We would have been better off with someone like Hampson wrestling Glass with perhaps Walker floating across as the 3rd option.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

If we are so stubborn about playing Henderson back with Jamison then Hampson & Kruezer rotating between CHF & FF makes perfect sense, with Waity & AW floating between pocket/hf - pushing up the ground as needed. This setup is going to cause massive headaches for oppositions. They are all big, mobile and dangerous. All we have to do is teach (Hammer & Krooz) to play forward and all of them to play / work together. Add Gartlett & Betts and you can see it exploding.
Then it's just development of Mitchell, Casboult, McCarthy &/or Aussie!