Personally I only see hammer time as an insurance policy to provide short term cover to allow Maric to recover from his first ruck duties. He is never going to be our 1st choice ruck man with his limited ability to mark the footy and influence contested footy.
Without Maric we are definitely a weakened side, and while Hampson is unlikely to provide to same level of output as Maric, he does at least provide a good contest in the ruck. It allows us not to be forced to commit younger bodies to ruck duties. He will also help extend Maric's career by allowing him to rest games that he would otherwise by forced to play.
The question is then how much is this costing us? In terms of draft picks and players, we perhaps paid overs. Given the inexact nature of the medium of exchange available to clubs, this is always difficult to achieve. Even though we paid a premium, I don't think we paid something too costly. The bigger concern is how much cap space he is taking. If he is on in excess of $300k then it starts to hurt, but anything less is acceptable for what he provides the team overall IMO.
Without Maric we are definitely a weakened side, and while Hampson is unlikely to provide to same level of output as Maric, he does at least provide a good contest in the ruck. It allows us not to be forced to commit younger bodies to ruck duties. He will also help extend Maric's career by allowing him to rest games that he would otherwise by forced to play.
The question is then how much is this costing us? In terms of draft picks and players, we perhaps paid overs. Given the inexact nature of the medium of exchange available to clubs, this is always difficult to achieve. Even though we paid a premium, I don't think we paid something too costly. The bigger concern is how much cap space he is taking. If he is on in excess of $300k then it starts to hurt, but anything less is acceptable for what he provides the team overall IMO.
