WILLIAMSTOWN Seagulls have swooped on delisted Collingwood ruckman Cameron Wood.
The Seagulls had a vacancy in their big man stocks following the departure of mobile tall James Wall and this acquisition will go some way to filling the need.
Wood played 64 AFL games at the Brisbane Lions (16) and Collingwood (48) after being selected with pick 18 in the 2004 national draft.
Seagulls football manager Chris Dixon said his club’s top preseason aim was to recruit a quality big man.
”I think it was obvious that we lacked a ruckman and left ourselves a bit short last year,” he said.
”We’re thrilled to have secured a ruckman of Cameron’s quality, especially knowing that he had a significant amount of interest from other clubs both here and interstate.”
Wood trained with Richmond in recent weeks but missed out on the preseason and rookie drafts.
The Seagulls had to remain patient to land their ruckman with a shortage of quality big men on the market.
“The truth is that there’s not too many of them around,” Dixon said.
”We knew that Cameron would be training with Richmond up until the rookie draft, so we sort of had our hands tied up until then, but once he slipped through we knew we had to pounce and we’re delighted to have secured someone with Cameron’s credentials.”
Wood refuses to give up on his bid to return to the AFL ranks.
With two Seagulls, Brett Goodes and Jack Frost, taken in this year’s rookie draft, Wood felt the Seagulls nest would provide him with a chance to re-launch his career in the best league outside of the AFL.
”He could have easily given up on the dream, but to his credit, he wants to have another crack at the top level,” Dixon said.
”Cameron was of the opinion that our environment, our facilities and our coaches were best placed to give him that opportunity.”
