Carlton Maintains Interest in Ned Reeves as It Explores Ruck Options
Written by Marcus Guarnera
Yesterday Carlton traded away Hudson O’Keeffe to the Western Bulldogs as part of the mega deal to allow Zak Butters to join the Bulldogs. He will be the first of two ruckman traded by Carlton, as Flynn Riley is also expected to leave Carlton this trade period. This comes after he requested a trade to Collingwood before the opening of the trade period.
The Pies hoped to pick up Riley in the mid-season draft last year, but Carlton took him off the board before Collingwood could select him. However, the Pies got into Riley’s ear and managed to offer him a better contract than Carlton for next season. When Riley joins the Pies it will leave Carlton with only two established rucks for next season on the current list: Marc Pittonet and Liam Reidy.
This will mean Carlton will need to make a move to acquire another ruck before the end of the trade period. Carlton’s GM of Football, Chris Davies spoke at the beginning of the trade period saying that Carlton could will take its time and assess all options before deciding how to pick-up another ruckman. Mitch Cleary has given the first indication on Carlton’s search as they could potentially make a move for Ned Reeves.
Reeves played in only 15 games for Hawthorn last season as Lloyd Meek became the starting ruckman for the Hawks. This could make him expendable for Hawthorn if a rival team wanted to make a move to bring in Reeves. However Reeves is still happy at Hawthorn has shown no indication of forcing a move before the trade deadline on Wednesday.
Even if Reeves was to join Carlton there would be no guarantee that he would be the starting ruck for the Blues. If anything it would likely lead to Reeves playing less games than he did during last season as Marc Pittonet will likely start a majority of games. It is also unlikely that Carlton will give up a draft assets to get Reeves as they will be looking to move up the draft instead to help match a bid for Cody Walker.
