Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board

Egan's form across half back at Willy has earned him a spot ahead of The Rus, wasnt outstanding at Willy but stepped up against the Swans, go figure..

Rus is no doubt competing with different types of players for a spot in the seniors.. and was well underdone when I saw him against Frankston.. he will get his chance soon enough.

Rusling: Has been struggling to find some consistent, dominating form to force his way back into the side, will need an injury in the forward line for him to figure in the seniors this year IMO, unless he actually 'bangs down the door', ala Rhyce Shaw.

Egan: I am happy with what Gotch did with Egan this year, he moved him to the half back flank and Egan has developed well here. It has made him more accountable and more honest, he now has a defencive side to his game, not just a flash moment here and there. A versatile player that i guess has re-invented himself, something that he needed to do to play in the AFL, not just a VFL half forward flanker.

I realise that some of you rate ruz pretty highly. However, the only reason why he played last year was because we needed bodies on the ground.

Even when he did play last season IMO he did not set the world on fire. He continually dropped easy marks and always led wide. And to be honest even in the VFL matches I have seen him play his form is ordinary.

I am not saying he will not make it back in the side. He is a kid and knowing MM he will give him a run sometime this year. Sometimes players only respond to the big stuff. Egan is a good example of this, he did not have a great game but he did play well. I say lett MM and co manage these kids(cause that is what they are) for our better future.

I'm a little concerned with all the hype and talk on Rusling like he's already a star just waiting to return from injury.

He's a kid with a very good motor that has shown he has ability/promise and that is about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan and I too find it hard to resist the excitement surrounding this kid but, he is just that, a kid with a long way to go who has shown he has some tools and we all hope he makes it.

Give him time

rand corp wrote:I'm a little concerned with all the hype and talk on Rusling like he's already a star just waiting to return from injury.

He's a kid with a very good motor that has shown he has ability/promise and that is about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan and I too find it hard to resist the excitement surrounding this kid but, he is just that, a kid with a long way to go who has shown he has some tools and we all hope he makes it.

Give him time

That would be un Collingwood like if we did not build up every player to be a star! I heard people calling Lokan a champion after 3 games on the radio when he started playing for us. Naturally this Irish kid will also be a champion and star and probably as good as Buckley!

my gut feel for why the coaching staff like the idea of Rus is a setup related thing, if you can have a leading forward sprinting away from a big bodied player with a crumber front and center then you have a textbook perfect forwardline setup, multiply that by two and you have hit gold (or goals!).

basically we have two class crumbers now in Dids and Leon, we have one champion big body in Pebs and one in training in Trav our tall fast leading mark is Taz, the second could be... you guessed it, Ruz!

then we could line up like this;

Rusling Rocca Davis
Didak Travis Tarrant

and on each line we would have a leading target, a contest target and a crumbing player to win the ball of the deck, its a mouthwatering proposition, especially with the likes of Buckley, Lonie and Johnson delivering by foot.

Rusling needs to be able to do more than just play FF, we need to be able to rotate him through more positions than the bench, so it's great he is learning a bit about fotty on the wing at Willi, if he can just hold his own or mind someone there he can free up Bucks to go to FF, Lonie to drop back etc, the days of the one trick pony are over i think, even Trav has to pinch hit in the ruck and play as a rover in addition to his CHF duties at times.

Another who looks like he may be able to play that leading FF role is Cox, but we don't really have to many 190cm fast leading forwards coming up, so it's natrual to get a little excited.

GO PIES!

Great post ^^^^^

Welcome to the Sean Rusling 2007 thread



President: Mich@el
Vice-President: uey

Info bellow taken from an article written by Will Brodie on Sat 20 November, 2004 and includes comments from Collingwood football operations manager Mark Kleiman:

Second round pick (23), Sean Rusling, (189cm, 84 kilos), was something of a smokey, having not figured highly in pre-draft predictions, but Mark says all the clubs were well and truly aware of his talents.

However, it seems the Magpies were more aware than most. Study commitments at Westminster College curtailed Seans tenure at the AIS and restricted him to just one reserves game at SANFL level, (which was necessary for him to qualify for the draft), but the Magpies tracked him all of the year.

He booted 12 goals in one school game, so he knows how to find the ball. Mark says. We tested him at the Lexus Centrewe did our homework.

The AFL describes him as quick and very athletic.

Sean is 6 foot 3 in the old measurements, but he runs 400 metres in 50.1 seconds and 100 metres in 10.8 seconds. (Geelong's Kane Tenace, touted as the fastest player in the AFL, manages 10.7 seconds for 100 metres.)

Again, it is anticipated that Sean can play anywhere from half-back to half-forward and eventually on the ball.

Collingwood player development manager Derk Hine says:
He was out there for everyone to see, but we did a lot of work behind the scenes. Neil Balme and I went over to see him. The uneducated might think that he represents a punt, but this has been considered very carefully we have gone into it with our eyes open.

We've done all the testswe've done three interviews, Mick has interviewed him. We know everything there is to know about Sean. He would have been a punt for other clubs who didnt know as much about him.

Links

Profile on official Collingwood site

Stats on Williamstown site

Profile on Nicks Collingwood Page

Early article on official Collingwood site

Player Bio on Footy Draft site

Finally a little something Sean Rusling related! Rusling and O'Brien featured on Magpie Radio's 'The Squawk'.

Magpie Radio Homepage

This Is Going to be a Quiet Thread

He should be back this year davo.

I hope he is

Ruz said he was hoping to be back round 15 or 16 in the B&W show...... Ready for the Finals.

How many games in Williamstown? Will he get a spot in the firsts?I would love to see him back in the forward line.

Is still four weeks away. You would think it would take 3-4 weeks so you wouldn't think he would be seen until round 17