blue-insider wrote:
It's amazing just how many sheep there are here.
One negative post and the rest follow blindly...
Taken from another site listing the positives of this scenario:
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Reasons to be excited:
* still young at 24.
* comes via PSD for free.
* frees up early draft picks for Gibbs and other mid-fielders.
* a "mobile" ruckman.
* will play every game.
* fills the gap of French, giving time to draft a new youngster slowly.
* he played virtually every game with saints with big man competition.
* finished 8th in their B & F in 05.
* played almost every game this year despite coming off a knee injury.
* keen to add leadership to young guys.
* this guy CHOOSES Carlton over a regular finals team.
* he was a required saints player, which shows we're going somewhere, being able to actually attract decent / current afl players.
* being 24 years old gives us an immediate on field impact next year.
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Gibbs was needed much more before the Berger.
So this looks so far to be quite a good acquisition.
Good post, and awesome avatar b-i
look, the guys right... the PSD has rarely in recent years been a licence to print money.....
the 3 years bit is a bit of an eyebrow raiser, but the getting of Ackland isn't the worst decision the club has made.... especially if we have a mind to picking up a raw kid in the national and trying to get more experience into Aisake this season.
Ackland isn't a great player, but he's probably as handy as McLaren (or better) and SHITLOADS better than DeLuca and Bryan, whom we can now happily delist at least 1 of (and marginalise the other further).
The fact is, we have to play someone in the ruck. Better Ackland than either DeLuca or Bryan, and better than chucking someone like Kennedy or Aisake into probably the most impact-wearying position on the ground.
Obviously this doesn't necessarily mean Gibbs is ours, but either way if we go for a ruck like L-Berg (pick 1) or Renouf etc they won't come-on in year 1, and McLaren is no certainty to be around beyond next season if he doesn't come on..... that gives a year or 2 grace to build-up whomever we pick this year and Aisake.
By year 3 we would hope that Ackland is on the way out and either Aisake and/or L-Berg/Renouf/whoever are on the way in... and in year 3 I suspect Bryan and DeLuca will be memories and McLaren will have been axed the year before.
ALSO, Ackland seems capable of playing forward to some degree of success, which is something McLaren, French and Bryan weren't able to do. So rather than plonk DeLuca up forward to mismatch and waste another spot in the 22, Ackland might serve that purpose from time to time.
Again, I don't know the guy..... I don't reckon he's a great player.... I'm aware how short he is (but also aware he can out-bench-press Gehrig), but I'm willing to give the guy a chance.
(and will be happier with the decision when we pick a ruck with one of our better picks in the national... but hopefully not pick 1)
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