Finding a long-term, exceptional ruck who can crash and bash at AFL level is one of the biggest challenges that faces any club’s football department.
Even Todd Goldstein, the all-time AFL/VFL hitout leader and one of the greatest rucks of his generation needed 18 months of development at VFL level, before making his mark in the seniors.
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With Callum-Coleman Jones joining North’s ranks of talls, the club looks to have hedged its bets and found Goldstein’s long-term successor, and now has some of the strongest ruck stocks in the competition.
North Melbourne GM of Football Brady Rawlings says Coleman-Jones was a long-term target for the club.
“We tracked him all year and identified that position from a fair way out. Someone who can ruck past ‘Goldy’ and someone who can go forward and take a clunk,” Rawlings told SEN.
“We’ve obviously known him for a long time coming through Sturt, playing for South Australian and captaining his state.
“He’s just in the right age bracket as well, [and] he comes with four years of development into him.
“Hopefully he can play a lot of footy with the likes of ‘LDU’, Tarryn (Thomas), Tom Powell, Will Phillips and Jy Simpkin in that midfield. We think we can have a pretty good midfield in the future.
A new player coming into the system means more competition for spots, and fellow ruck/forward Tristan Xerri has recently requested a trade to St Kilda in search of more consistent game time at the top level.
His eight games in the 2021 season took his career tally to 12 games in three years for the club, alternating between ruck and centre half forward.
With Xerri still being under contract at North for the 2022 season, Rawlings says the club is keen for him to continue in the royal blue and white.
“We signed Tristan for a couple of years, so he’s still got one more year to go. Given he’s in contract he’s still very much a required player for us,” Rawlings said.
“We played him for half the year this year, and he was a dominant player in the VFL … he’s come along really well.
“We’ve got no real interest in moving Tristan on … it would have to take something very attractive for us to even consider a move.
“If it’s valuable for us, we’ll help him get to where he wants to, if it’s not then he’ll start pre-season with us and we’ll carry on business as usual.”
With the ability of Jacob Edwards and Charlie Comben to both play in the ruck, the club now has some of the strongest depth in the competition in that spot.
With Edwards being selected in last year’s mid-season draft, and Comben fighting injury battles during his time at the club, both are still slim frames with mountains of potential.
Rawlings says the added depth will allow the pair to develop at their own pace.
“We’ll go in with three rucks that can play any weekend. Jacob’s just completed school this year and he’s very light,” he added.
“We’re very excited for what he’ll bring in the future, but probably can’t count on him playing AFL [yet].
“We’ve also got Charlie Comben coming through who’ll purely play forward at this stage, but he definitely can ruck as well.
“We’re pretty comfortable with that, and obviously it depends on whether Tristan stays or goes … but at this stage we’re counting him in.”
