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Roughy ready to ruck

Roughy ready to ruck

17/11/2009 4:32 PM

Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade has nominated untried youngster Jordan Roughead as the next in line for a senior rucking role at the club.

Roughead, the cousin of Hawthorn premiership forward Jarryd Roughead, has apparently displaced boom youngster Ayce Cordy in the pecking order at Whitten Oval.

Both 19-year-olds came to the Bulldogs via the 2008 national draft, but there was a much bigger buzz surrounding the 202cm-tall Cordy - a father-son selection - than pick No.31 Roughead, who is physically stronger but two centimetres shorter than Cordy.

Neither player managed a senior appearance in 2009 but Eade expects both to play at AFL-level next year along with fellow sophomore, key position prospect, Liam Jones.

"They all should get some games of senior footy, I would be very disappointed if they didn't," said Eade.

"We see Jordan Roughead now as our ruckman who can come through and put pressure on (Will) Minson and (Ben) Hudson, so hopefully he can get some games."

"Cordy is still very light, for a guy who's six-foot-eight."

"He's certainly got enough talent to play senior footy next year, but whether his body will develop quickly enough ..."

"Jones is really like a first-year player, he was at Scotch College all last year and didn't play much with us at all," said Eade.

"We see it really as a development year for him."

Asked whether the recruitment of Barry Hall means the club has now assembled every piece in the puzzle required to win that elusive premiership, Eade said the Bulldogs are always looking to improve their list.

"I think every team in the competition would like to add one or two players if they could, or types of players," he said.

"Even though our forward line is very good as far as scoring goals - we were the highest scoring team last year in the competition and we're adding Barry (Hall) - but if we had (another) quick, small forward, that would be terrific and obviously we would like another tall defender if we could."

"We think, future-wise, our tall stocks are fairly good with the young forwards we've got on our list and some young ruckmen."

Eade paid credit to the club's senior backroom staff for being able to re-sign the likes of key defender Brian Lake while cutting important deals to retain veterans Brad Johnson, Jason Akermanis and Nathan Eagleton for 2010.

"We thought with our salary cap, not issues or problems but the fact that we're pretty close to the ceiling that maybe there was a couple of players that might suffer, certainly one," said Eade.

"But James Fantasia's done a great job keeping the list together which is terrific."

 
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