NORTH MELBOURNE RUCKS

[DT-SC]

theres been a lot of speculations of what might happen with the McIntosh, Petrie, Goldy combinations.
I've done some research and you would see that the only season McIntosh and Goldy played close to a full season together was in 2010 (20 and 21 games)....remember 2010 was the year that Petrie only played two games...in this year goldy averaged 74.5 ppg over 21 games and McIntosh averaged 80.5 ppg over 20 games.... McIntosh averaged 18.7 HO's a game and Goldy averaged 16.1 HO's per games....these are modest numbers, now im no NM supporter but im guessing they played a key forward role swapping in the ruck (similar to what they are gonna do in 2012) but the big difference this year is that petrie is playing! instead of copping the hard defender or being doubled like they might've been in 2010, the best defender will go to Petrie and he may be double teamed (and for good reason) this is gonna increase alll three of their output in 2012...
petrie: wont be ganged as much as he was in 2011 (90ish)
goldy: will share the load evenly with McIntosh and rest forward on the 2nd best or 3rd best defender and kick a couple and take some marks (85ish)
McIntosh: same as Goldy (85ish)

im not a NM supporter so dont kill me if i got this wrong  ;D

[TheMailman]

This is where North really needed David Hale to make it extraordinarily hard for a backline to compete

[dmac07]

Im liking goldy as an aoption this year. Im no north supporter either but it wasnt just the absence of h.mac that saw him improve last year. He has lifted his game to an entirely new level in the last 12 months to the point where i rate him in the best 5 ruckman in the afl.

[Colliwobblers]

good research but the fact is goldy has lifted and proved himself and will be the #1 ruck at north. Now north had the chance to trade HMac and there would have been good money/offers for him. But htey didnt offer him, HMac will be the #2 ruck but for me he will be the #2 ruck as sandi would be if he was in WC with cox.

HMac is an awesome ruck and he will share teh ruck time with goldy and spend the rest of his time up fwd, both will get tons of TOG but goldy will be the #1 ruck, making HMac a DT cash cow for mine not a DT keeper.

As for Petrie he will do some rucking maybe in the FWD line only, but mainly he will be a FWD and as we saw last season he does that just fine and he knows how to find the big sticks and take a grab.

If I was a Norht supporter i'd be really happy about the trio well coached and well used they have 3 great players there. but for DT i'd look only at goldy to keep and HMac to make some money on and trade up midseason to a top 4 ruck probably cox who none of us want to pay for up front :)

[DT-SC]

good research but the fact is goldy has lifted and proved himself and will be the #1 ruck at north. Now north had the chance to trade HMac and there would have been good money/offers for him. But htey didnt offer him, HMac will be the #2 ruck but for me he will be the #2 ruck as sandi would be if he was in WC with cox.

HMac is an awesome ruck and he will share teh ruck time with goldy and spend the rest of his time up fwd, both will get tons of TOG but goldy will be the #1 ruck, making HMac a DT cash cow for mine not a DT keeper.

As for Petrie he will do some rucking maybe in the FWD line only, but mainly he will be a FWD and as we saw last season he does that just fine and he knows how to find the big sticks and take a grab.

If I was a Norht supporter i'd be really happy about the trio well coached and well used they have 3 great players there. but for DT i'd look only at goldy to keep and HMac to make some money on and trade up midseason to a top 4 ruck probably cox who none of us want to pay for up front :)

totally agree, but with the rise of NM midfield(swallow, wells, bastinac, ziebell etc..) i can see McIntosh getting enough of the ball in the forward line to achieve a high enough average,  in my team it was a mid-priced defender and a premium ruck or a hamish-mac and a premium defender, at the moment im leading towards hamish-mac and a premium defender    :D

[Colliwobblers]

tough choice i was doing exactly what you are then i got scared and went premium in the ruck, mainly due to the many potentially excellent options this season for mid priced def and fwd from mid 300's to high 200's.

But i dont think hmac will burn you they could have traded him and got a really good deal for him, he was/is a great player, but they chose to keep him, i imagine that choice wasnt made just to waste him on the bench or out of the balls way :)

I reckon a LOT of other people will go 1 premium 3 rooks too, and then a lot will also have 1 premium and the likes of west,kruezer,lobbe,smith to save coin.

[TheMailman]

Yeah Hmac should do ok. Its seeing whether he'll do well against other potential rucks your oppenent might have