Before Thursday night's draft one of the most-asked questions asked by recruiters was: Where are all the ruckmen? As it turned out, they couldn't find them. Unless you count Peter Wright - and like the Gold Coast, the No.8 pick sees himself as a marking forward - then just two teenage rucks had their names called out, Hawthorn choosing Mark Pittonet with pick 50 and Port Adelaide using the last of its four selections, pick 84, on Billy Frampton.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
More may be chosen in this week's rookie draft, as well as a few more ready-to-go older prospects, but the situation summed up what seems to have become an interesting consideration for recruiters recently - how many ruckmen can you carry on your list at one time? For how many years can you afford to persist with a young one who might not ever be good enough even when he gets a body? Are you better off trading one in when you need him? If you bring one in cheaply, and develop him well enough, can you sell him off at a much higher price? Either way, not many 18-year-olds in the past few years have made it on to primary lists.
Hawthorn have done a bit of everything in the last little while, last year trading Ben McEvoy into what became another premiership side, having already done the same with David Hale and given Paul Johnson, Wayde Skipper, Broc Macaulay and Adam Pattison brief chances to fill any holes. Max Bailey was drafted at pick 18, Jon Ceglar was brought in as a 21-year-old rookie at first, and Luke Lowden spend 5 1/2 years on the list before playing his sole senior game.
Graham Wright, the Hawks' list manager, said the club had always intended to replace Lowden following his trade to Adelaide, but wasn't initially sure whether to do that on draft night or wait until the rookie draft and bring in someone a little more mature. To him, Pittonet is a player who had plenty of things to work on, but who, at 106 kilograms, should be physically capable of handling a game, or even two or three if required in his first year.
"We just felt that he was the best out of all the guys we watched, and that bringing him in at that point in the draft was the right thing to do. He competes really well, his tap work is good and he has that big body, so as a player we were really happy to pick him there," Wright said.
"There's so many ways you can look at it. We had three or four guys come in and be one-year players come in, and we got Jon Ceglar at a point where he was still young and developing.
"We just felt that Mark's a good kid, that he was there, and that we're in a position where we can spend some time on him, train him up the right way and that come the end of the year, if we do have some injuries and we need him to play, that he has the potential to do that.
"He's young, but it's not like bringing in a 17-year-old Luke Lowden when he was 75 kilos and when you knew it would be a long time before he was going to be physically ready to play."
Port Adelaide found itself in a similar position, having traded Paddy Ryder in to support Matthew Lobbe in the ruck and also provide another tall option in the forward line. Jarrad Redden sits below that pair, but has been badly held up by injury.
"When you look around all the teams, there's not many who play two genuine ruckmen in the one side, and that's making it hard when you're deciding how you want to draft," said the club's recruiting manager, Geoff Parker.
"What you're after above everything else is blokes who can run and stay on the ground, so I think everyone is looking for those types of players and picking them first.
"This year was a good year for talls and still only two ruckmen got picked. I know it can be a cyclical thing but if you're not playing more than one in the team every week then you don't need as many on your list or you need them to be able to do other things.
"Billy's athletic so he can get around the ground and get involved and we think he'll be able to play in the forward line as well, but because Paddy and Matthew Lobbe have still got considerable football left in them we don't need to be in any real hurry with him.
"We can develop him, get him in the gym, do all that work and bring him along properly. If something untoward does happen to one of other ruckmen he might be in a position to play a couple of games, but he won't have to do it week in, week out for a while. I'm sure that's not the way he's looking at it, but we picked him knowing we're not in a position where we'll have to rush him."
