2024 Practice Match Carlton vs Melbourne

[DJC]

I thought in the ruck BigH was average except when he was up against the other dud ruck who's name I can't remember, away from the ruck he was probably BoG.

Even so, I can't accept the risk that comes with rucking him, I get tall KPF's can ruck, but like Salmon, Rocca and others, you do it at the end of their career after they are bruised and busted. Not when they are at their potential KPF peak.

When we saw BigH run past Charlie and an assortment of Dees defenders to collect the ground level footy on the run and slot the easy goal, (was that the Boyd kick?) that is a tell, and it should have signalled the end of his ruck ambitions. Ruck BigH for too much or too often, or against the wrong opponent like Nankervis (aka The Butcher), and you'll never see that happen again.

The way the ruck rotations worked, Harry very rarely contested hitouts against Gawn but, when he did, he was certainly better than Pitto!

I'm not sure why you have this obsession with ruckmen getting hurt.  Key forwards, key defenders, midfielders, utilities, etc all get hurt and, unlike Jack Silvagni, Harry has the size and strength to look after himself; 106kg to Nankervis's 102kg (and Nankervis is more of a pussycat than a tiger).

Harry's main role is kicking goals and he has underperformed for a bloke of his size and ability; a bit like Joe Daniher really.  The latter's goalkicking has skyrocketed since he was given the job of second ruck to the Big O.  I suspect that getting Harry into the game by running him in the ruck will make him a more dangerous key forward.

Harry's ability to get up the ground to provide a marking target on the wing or in the corridor has become a feature of his game.  Playing as a ruckman last night gave him the opportunity to drag down some big marks deep in defence, something Pitto and De Koning couldn't manage.

Interestingly, Gawn had 30 hitouts while De Koning, Pitto and Harry managed 27 between them.  Harry took clean possession a couple of times too on his way to three clearances. As you know, they don't count as hitouts.