JLT Round 1 - Blues v Hird's Old Crew (this Thursday, Princes Park)

[Thryleon]

What;s Rowe got to do with anything?

Rowe was a Ruckman fashioned into a gorilla minder Defender who has shown reasonable ability to play forward if/when required.

Our defense is looking very light on for options with the question marks over Marchbank and Macreadie (Goddard is not a convincing option at AFL level yet) so using Jones in the ruck is a problem because we are robbing Peter to pay Paul without the options to back fill Paul (perhaps shifting McGovern back for periods might work, but thats the only consideration that works.

Besides that, given the durability of Phillips and Kreuzer, Lobbe's lack of exposed form, Tom De Koning's youth, and Harry's requirement to be used in the forwardline, a defender who can actually relief ruck against competent ruckmen (unlike Levi) allows us better flexibility than cheating with one of Charlie Curnow, Liam Jones, or Harry McKay in the case that we start Phillips or Kreuzer and have a break down.

Rowe was aggressive, and would genuinely halve a ruck contest at worst.  Levi is a battler at best, and at worst non competitive and gets smashed in the ruck because he isnt physical enough, and relies on having "the perfect sit".

The one key attribute that you need all your footballers to have, is tenacity.  It makes ordinary look extraordinary.