My thoughts on Rucks/Fwds cover issue?
I haven't actually completely decided one way or the other yet. I have however generally in the past been strongly in the Set and Forget camp, and could be very likely to take this path again in 2017. But I'm certainly giving the idea of starting a $300k ruck (stepping stone?) type more thought this year than i ever have in past.
So being that my $300k ruck is quickly approaching middle age, I'd say anyone thinking of going down this path needs to seriously think of investing in some sort of insurance or have a damn solid get out plan( this is often easier said than done ). Although something would have to have gone horribly wrong between now and Rnd1 for me to even contemplate having either Giles or Boyd in my starting squad.
Thanks mate, appreciate you coming back on this.
Just to clarify, my plan wouldn't be to start Giles or Boyd, although I do think they could still prove useful in a sense. If I recall/interpret your comment last year correctly, it was essentially that you need to have a good get out plan if you start an R2 around $300k, because if they get injured early on, you usually can't downgrade to a rookie (no rookie rucks playing, typically) and you can't upgrade them (not enough cash generation yet), so you could even be looking at taking donuts, or burning multiple trades to fix the one problem (downgrade elsewhere to upgrade in the ruck - although even that could be hard if a Goldy or Gawn type was $600k, say).
The nuance in 2017 could be that if Sandi gets injured, we could simply sideways to Giles or Boyd, because there is >1 option at around that price range. It's still an injury trade used, although every player carries that risk to varying degrees, it's just that a cheap R2 may no longer be the special case that it might be in most years.
I'm actually firming on Ryder as a forward pick anyway, given (1) Lobbe's manager's comments about Lobbe struggling to be the number one ruck, and (2) the likelihood of the forward line being lower scoring in 2017, so you don't have a big negative POD if Ryder averages, say, 95.
It's good to have options though, which I think was the crux of your original point!