I'll reserve a judgement on Bryan after a few weeks at senior level, but I don't care how good his kick is, if he's not prepared to stick to his diet and training regimes, he is gone for mine.

French has to remain for another year, Deluca and probably McLaren are contracted for next year. Even if Deluca wasn't contracted I would retain him and get him on the weights, I still believe there's hope yet and he's the youngest of all these options.

Naturally this would mean a third and final year on the rookie list for Aisake.

Anywho, back to the question.

As of right now, pick 2 would be a waste on Sellar or Leuenberger IMO, especially on Sellar if we want him as a ruck option, because at this point in time he looks to be a forward/ruckman.

If we miss out on Hansen (for example), there's still Gibbs, Thorp, Gumbleton and maybe Selwood to look at prior to them.

Bryan is a handy No 2 ruckman.....we need a No 1 ruck to complete the combo...French is handy tap ruckman bit offers nothing else and is a turn over merchant in general play..Deluca is handy up forward but cannot ruck and Mclaren isnt big enough.....I would keep Mclaren on the list like Brisbane did as he handy backup material both in the ruck and down back...

For mine its Luenberger/Kruezer or another rookie ruck plus Bryan...
Bryan has skill and also has some grunt..the mark he took backing into the pack where he goaled wouldnt have been taken by the other ruck aspirants...he also can get the footy in general play more than the others combined. Thought his ruckwork was better vs Essendon* than I had seen from him before but his major downfall to me is his stamina and ability to keep up with the other quality ruckman ...players like White, Lade, Simmonds etc would run off him and rack up the possies...
We need a proper mobile tall ruckman who can do 70% of the work and use Bryan in bursts where he can hurt other teams but not get exploited when he tires...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Aisake will at the very least superseed Bryan by the end of next year IMO, so no worries there.

Kreuzer is too young to be drafted this year

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

As is Bellchambers.

Hampson might be worth a look with a late pick if he's still around.

French out, Maclaren in.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh the riches...........the riches..................!!!!!!!

I actually think Maclaren was good when French was out injured this year. He rucked okay and was good around the ground .... but when used second to French was pretty average so i would go for a Maclaren / Bear Double and have maclaren as the main ruckman and bear more in the forward line.

Maclaren wasnt bad when he was given responsibility but when given limited game time and a secondary role was pretty average.

Agreed French seems too slow now to be in the side.

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CFC TAC Squad everyone over 25 must be traded sounds like Loguns Run

In rounds 7 and 8 Maclaren was the main ruckman as French was out injured his stats wernt to bad certainly not any worth than Frenchs stats for most of the season

Round 7 14/05/2006 Essendon* K-3 HB-9 P-12 M-5 HO-19 T-10
Round 8 21/05/2006 St Kilda K-5 HB-6 P-11 M-6 HO-20 T-3
No score in those 2 rounds but in round (7) 10 tackles great effort

And his 2 full game ruck duties of 19 and 20 hit outs

Best French has done is 27 / 20 / 19 / 18 / 17-> less

So i think Maclaren plays okay in number 1 ruck roll and have him combine with Bryan

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CFC TAC Squad everyone over 25 must be traded sounds like Loguns Run

French was out but he wasn't injured. He played in the VFL.

Well then when Maclaren had the number 1 role he did okay

Deluca has been a dud in the ruck not getting more than 6 hitouts in a match so i reckon a Bryan / Maclaren mix would be no worse than French in getting hit outs but both players are much more mobile than French and from what i can see Maclaren dosnt mind laying a tackle when he gets a chance

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CFC TAC Squad everyone over 25 must be traded sounds like Loguns Run

This is a question for those who have seen Batson play this year?:-

Would you object to bringing him into the Blues line-up (we would have to promote him ofcourse) if only for a game?
A couple of points on that..................

1) His body has matured and i believe he could hold up against some of the bigger ruckmen in the AFL. He looks to have a bigger build than that of DeLuca and is around the same height.

2) We could at least see if he is worth retaining next season?

3) We can't get any worse (can we? )

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

I'm only going on reports but it seems he's been spending most of his time up forward in the ants 2s. Don't think he's rucking much at all.

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There's so much I could say...

No he has been quite good in the ruck this year. Him and Aisakie made a good team but the bullants 2's also have this 'smaller' type kid (#61 - sorry, can't remember his name!) who's very good in the ruck. But he's probably around the 193cm-194cm mark.

But Baston, whilst spending time up forward, has been used in the ruck quite a bit.
I guess he's filling the DeLuca role for the reserves. But he's done well this season. Wouldn''t surprise me one bit if he won the B&F!

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

I've only seen one Bullants reserves game and Batson played at Full forward all day. He is big, quite well co-ordinated and seems to give a bit of leadership in the Ants 2s, but the fact is we are crying out for a ruckman and he is not even doing much rucking with the 2s. I really thought he might develop, but if he can't be ruckman for the Ants 2s and break into the Ants 1s and ruck then I can't imagine the MC see him as having any future. It's a pity because he is a big, reasonably mobile, co-ordinated unit. But i just can't see him being promoted to the senior list when he can't even get a game with the Ants 1s.

In the games I've caught, they throw him in as the third ruck option, it's usually Aisake/Hooper, then Batson.

Then he's either sitting at FF, or on the rare occassion, making a goose of himself in defense.

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