Totally agree. Highly skilled and quicker than most.

Im not a huge fan but if money is reduced significantly for Gov and he gets 2 year deal I think it is pretty good business given the number of other players we need to jettison off the list and the various holes in our list
Apart from Kemp there really is no one else in the senior squad who plays his role or a like role.He can also play forward
At least he has played every game bar one this year
The real risk in the process is that he goes to another club and they pay similar reduced wages and we get little or nothing for him in terms of compensation pick
Having said that has been disappointing in output during the last contract term and he may still go anyway
We would be hoping for a better performance overall over the next contract period

Surrey understand your position I think overall he has been disappointing but surely you would keep him over Marchbank who is injured more often than McGovern

He’s a different player and (with any luck) person than the guy who turned up five years ago.

I’ll never forget why we call him Brackets, but I’m willing to see another year from him.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

McGovern can play, and is worth $~400,000.
Not disappointed if that's the ballpark.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Same and if he is keen to stay as reported, you'd think the figure would be around that mark.

Good call FB.
I hope some posters note, beggars can't be choosers and we need to get these 2 right to a. plug a hole at KPD, and give us some depth incase of injury or form.

I'm not a fan and never been a fan of playing a short ruck or short KPD (Kemp and Gov) or KPF.

I'm still a Young fan despite his last 3 outings in the AFL and VFL looking like he's been shell shocked by something (maybe something in that Weitering clash).

Both Young and Durdin have been written off by a lot of posters: not me...yet. I'm at a loss at how far Young has fallen since his first great month this year.

The fact is, Young isn't playing because he's been demoted and Durdin isnt as resilient as you may suspect. Iinjury prone?); he's been out for a long time too, and has endured 3 significant injuries, PCL, Hamsting, Back...the latter 2 maybe old man syndrome.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Sydney have to go and find a top 10 pick, and if they really want TDK, and have half a chance to get him, they will find it.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I want better than Pittonet.
I'd prefer if Pitto was our depth ruck.
I want a ruck who does take marks around the ground and can kick a goal from a set shot.

I know, beggars cant be choosers.

The fact is though, whilst we had/have TDK and Pitto, we found ourselves playing SOS as the 2nd ruck for many games because we had no depth ruckman...and Mirkov is not the answer, well not this or next year imo....maybe never.

So, if we lose TDK, we need a Fwd -Ruck (not SOS) and a depth ruck (someone like Pitto if we cant get better). Like I said, beggars cant be choosers.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I dont think Gov is having a good year.
A cameo period during a game here and there does give us hope and that's all its been.
He looked great against WCE, but well down on last year's early form imo.

Gov got monstered as the 3rd tall when he had a ruck size opponent as the 3rd tall (which is not unusual)

I wish Marchbank could stay on the park, but that ship, sadly, seems to have sailed.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I think we need to replace at least one, if not both of Young and S Durdin at the end of this season. They’re both too flaky (in different way) to be carried by the club given all our other flaky players.

Given the dirth of key backs and their young age I would persist with them.

That's the real point carntheblues. Where do we find them? and I don't mean a kid from the draft to develop either.

We have to be real about our window of opportunity: the Premiership window.

With Weitering, Cripps, Curnow and McKay we have our spine other teams would die for...well, at least with Jones at CHB we were complete.
Add Walsh and Cerra, and there's our first 6 picked every week.

What's missing in the spine? CHB and a marking ruckman imo
An 18yo may come on in 3-4 years time. May.
We need to plug these 2 holes in 2024 and 2025.

With Cerra and Walsh we know they can focus on us losing the ruck and still win their contest, albeit playing against the tide a bit, so we need a CHB.
At this stage, can anyone name a CHB we could bring on to fill that gap? I can't. Beggars can't be choosers. Young needs to be further developed to play CHB for mine.

Here's an interesting question for you.
Would you believe Young is one of our top 10 fastest on the list? What about top 5?
Hint: he's not a useless as some want to believe. He's a good mark but just needs to make quicker decisions by hand or foot.

We have other holes we need to plug too.
The holes are where we would play our injury prone best 22 players when injured:

Marchbank = 3rd tall. He plays taller than his 193cm stature and is a great mark and better defender than Kempo and Gov who are .
Martin = HF (not smalls Fisher, Durdin, Motlop)
Cuningham = HF (not smalls Fisher, Durdin, Motlop)
Williams = Boyd can cover this position.

Lets hope Williams, Martin (contracted for 2024) stand up. Ditto Cunners (who has the opportunity to prove himself over the next 2 months)

McGovern = utility. He's not a 3rd tall I think Kemp can cover Gov's spot.

If TDK goes, = Fwd/Ruck, not SOS.

A few gaps. I only want one quick small forward, not 2, not 3, unless they have express speed and elusiveness (Fisher Owies and Motlop dont)

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Sam Durdin is panning out something like Oscar McDonald. Looks a reasonable player and fits the back up description except for one key element being the durability. Durdin was preferred to McDonald at the end of last year due to McDonald not being durable but now Durdin hasn’t been durable either. If club isn’t confident in his body, may be time to try for a third time to find a mature back up coming off another clubs list or from the state leagues.

The devil will be in the detail of McGovern’s contract extension if it eventuates
If it’s short term, average money and incentive based, it should be ok but given our penchant for handing out huge money deals it’s hard to be confident
If he does stay on and Kemp re-signs as has been mooted, you’d think the writing is on the wall for Marchbank

Agreed, I'd like better than Pitto too but, if TDK does go, it's slim pickings in the cheap-backup-journeyman ruck dept and arguably not many better than Pitto.

Of the Free Agents, Flynn from GWS probably has most appeal (25yo/201cm) most of the others are probably too old (Cox-Pies-32, Goldstein-Norf-34, Campbell-Stk-31, Ceglar-Cats-32, Stanley-Cats-32) to consider unless we're prepared to go for a year or two (at most) of emergency measures.

There are a few coming out of contract at the end of the '23 season (Ratugolea-Cats-24, Lynch-Hawks-24, Hayes-Port-24, Preuss-GWS-28) that probably fit the age demographic and might be attainable at a reasonable cost, but all have questions over them be it injury, ability (better than Pitto?) or position (I don't mind Ratugolea, but is he really a ruck?). Then a couple more possibilities contracted until the end of the '24 season or beyond (Moyle-Suns-21, Soldo-Tiges-27, Xerri-Norf-24), but with any of these blokes you'd wonder whether you'd be able to get them out of their current club and, if so, at what price? After that it feels like we're getting into the higher-end, established rucks and whilst most might tick the better-than-Pitto box, they'd probably cost more than what we have to offer in salary and/or trade capital.

There will probably be cheaper options floating around the state leagues, but again, unlikely to be better than Pitto, though to be fair, not a super-high bar. So the more I ponder it, whilst not the absolute end of the world if TDK leaves, I'd prefer he stays.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/06/28/ ... s-ruckmen/

Interesting stat between our two rucks.

I want a gun Ruck as well but they are not that easy to get. I was hopeful on Mirkov but hasn't come on yet and is now unavailable. O'Keefe has talent but is young and Raw.

Lemmey looks good to me as a Fwd/Ruck but be unliely to play FT in 2024

The issue around TDK is we have bugger all draft picks and a tight salary cap and it seems we are happy to let him go to help in other areas. Is there a Darcy Cameron around. Look how Briggs is going at GWS now.

I do agree that SOS is not the answer as a back up. Can Young play fwd/ruck if we find another defender?

That's the issue. Do we chase Ben McKay? Himmelberg is a FA? Do we chase Tom McDonald and put him back in defence? Unless we land 2 or 3 we need to keep what we have

That's the issue. Do we chase Ben McKay? Himmelberg is a FA? Do we chase Tom McDonald and put him back in defence? Unless we land 2 or 3 we need to keep what we have

Given the dirth of key backs and their young age I would persist with them.[/quote]

Well, I did say replace, and if we can’t replace then I agree we should stick with them.