Can Jon Ceglar be the #1 ruck in a premiership team?

4THAWN

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Loved his marking and around the ground work today. However, he had 15 hit outs up against a bloke playing in his ninth game. That's not going to cut it.

imo hitouts are such a pointless stat. Seriously, you pretty much don't see a clean tap out to a lone player these days making them almost useless.
 

Zack

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Loved his marking and around the ground work today. However, he had 15 hit outs up against a bloke playing in his ninth game. That's not going to cut it.

Both he and Macca were terrible in the actual ruck duels. Substandard in fact. O'Brien was better in the last.
However agree around the ground as a forward or ruckman it has been his best 6 quarters of footy in a row.
I'll also give him some breaks on the ruck work as he was obviously told not to tap it but grab it which he did well more than I've ever seen any player do it since maybe the 80's perhaps 70's. My guess is the club decided Soldo was too good if it became a tap, so grab it and run the bastard around at every opportunity. So he did that well. It is a concern though that, that was our best option.
 

bumsonseats

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His best game for the club by far. A real positive.

Was bang average in the first 4 or so games.
Got dropped and has come back hungrier than ever.
His work around the ground today was outstanding.
Hopefully he can maintain that standard more consistently for the rest of the year at least.

I don’t see him as a first ruck, and perhaps that is because of how we have been playing him as a ruck/fwd (David Hale role). I don’t think his ruck work by itself is good enough to be first ruck in a premiership side, but he can be a very effective 2nd ruck/fwd.
 

PenAndPaper

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I've honestly always thought he has been stiff when dropped. Yeah he might not rack up big numbers for a ruckman but his ability to actually go forward and provide a target is something I think we had needed.

With Big Boy looking to be out for maybe a couple weeks its going to be a good test to see how he goes as the #1 which I think he can be. Will also be interesting if we bring in Pitt.
 
I've honestly always thought he has been stiff when dropped. Yeah he might not rack up big numbers for a ruckman but his ability to actually go forward and provide a target is something I think we had needed.

Yeh, I also thought he often didn't deserve to be dropped.

I think when dropped, it's because we've favoured Roughy as the key focal point & it was probably never going to work playing Cegs @ FF & Roughy @ FP (or other way round). In previous years, we also tried with Schoey & Tim O'Brien, using both as 2nd Ruck at times.

He probs missed out a lot due to team balance more than actual form.
 

Zack

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F&$k, Big Boy out for 4-6 weeks. We are about to find out if Cegs can carry the ruck division

Cegs has always had more ability/height to do the role. BB has always has had the will to actually do the role.

Be interesting. Both are cactus in the ruck tap outs, BB has always solved that around the ground... as has CEGS lately.
 

tige19

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For a guy who is 204cm with some good athleticism and a solid frame, his actual ruck work was horrid. In saying that, his tap work is a strength so it may be an anomaly.

His work around the ground was bloody elite
 

Nick the Pig

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I think people are underselling Cegs a bit or maybe have short memories. He is no mug and can more than hold his own as 1st ruck.

One of our 3peat years he shared ruck with Hale for a good chunk of the season and played finals but was dropped after the prelim for McEvoy and so missed the grannie. It was a bit controversial at the time (McEvoy certainly didnt set the world on fire for his first couple of years as a Hawk).

And 16 he and McEvoy played in tandem all season before he did his acl same game as NikNat close to last round. He and McEvoy were sharing equally ruck duties that year and i reckon his tap work at that time was much better than Big Boy but Big Boy always had the bigger tank. He also filled in fine last year for a long stretch when Big Boy bust his cheek.
 
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F&$k, Big Boy out for 4-6 weeks.
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