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Training Pre Season 18/19

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There's a saying about Kevin Rudd: if you like him, you don't know him. In the same vein, if you think Balta should have been in our finals side, you didn't watch him play.

I like Balta but he played one good full game, and it wasn't in the ruck or on the wing. Plus a few cameos and a good half against Essendon in the VFL final.

Agree, drifted in & out of games all year which shows he lacks a decent tank so he's 0 chance of taking Griggs role as he'd need a tank to run through the midfield/wing.
 
Agree, drifted in & out of games all year which shows he lacks a decent tank so he's 0 chance of taking Griggs role as he'd need a tank to run through the midfield/wing.
He actually has a naturally large tank, especially for a big lad, but a fair way off Grigg levels yet.
 
Good comments by Neil Balme.
The team is keeping a low profile, only doing media when they need to.
Favouritism counts for nothing.
We were favourites last year and got done.
Adelaide were flag favourites in 2017 and got done.
Amazing statistic. Adelaide was on top of the ladder for 18 weeks in 2017, and never dropped below second.
 
I don't think it's Chol vs Balta vs CCJ vs Soldo...

I think we are just happy to play out current system of 1 ruck and we had a "bad day" in the prelim.
I disagree. That problem was brewing since the loss to West coast in Round 9. It was Naitanui and Lycett vs Nankervis.

We need a solution for the best ruckmen of the competition. Our midfielders and Nankervis have adapted and did well, but let’s make it easier for them by putting in a genuine second ruck in the side. We already made it easier in the forward line for them by bringing in Lynch, so let’s do the same in the ruck.

We don’t want them to be worn out by the end of the year again because we structurally did not support them. They put in much more effort than other teams. Yeah, they are a fit bunch, but it still gets taxing after a while.
 
Another amazing statistic. Adelaide won its first six games of 2017, and then just 11 of the next 19. Best team all year my hairy arse.
We had 4 chokes by less than 2 goals and still finished only half a game behind them.
 
I disagree. That problem was brewing since the loss to West coast in Round 9. It was Naitanui and Lycett vs Nankervis.

We need a solution for the best ruckmen of the competition. Our midfielders and Nankervis have adapted and did well, but let’s make it easier for them by putting in a genuine second ruck in the side. We already made it easier in the forward line for them by bringing in Lynch, so let’s do the same in the ruck.

We don’t want them to be worn out by the end of the year again because we structurally did not support them. They put in much more effort than other teams. Yeah, they are a fit bunch, but it still gets taxing after a while.
My statement of "one bad day" was what I feel the view of the club / coaching staff is..... wasn't my opinion.
 
Balme interview

<iframe src="https://omny.fm/shows/the-roco-show/full-interview-richmond-football-manager-neil-balm/embed" width="100%" height="180px" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Blame brought up a good point about 2 forwards probably being a better set up for us. People keep questioning whether adding another tall to our forward line will disrupt the forward set up.

Our forward line functioned best with 2 talls in our forward line in the last two years. At the beginning of the year in 2017 we were taller and scored more. After about Round 5, we had injuries and from there to Round 22 we didn’t score all that highly. Enter Townsend and although he isn’t a KPF we ended up scoring high scores again. Mind you, Townsend is a role player and not a star KPF. In 2018 we didn’t have a tall in the forward line pretty much all year and did not score above 125, which was against Gold Coast. We obviously could score a lot since we were ranked second in points for, but our high had a fairly low ceiling considering there were many instances where sides have scored more.

The moment you add a role playing tall to our forward line we start scoring higher scores. So, what about adding a star KPF?
 
My statement of "one bad day" was what I feel the view of the club / coaching staff is..... wasn't my opinion.
Oh OK I see. Look, it definitely was a bad day but I just hope they realise (which they probably will) that the Grigg ruck situation is done. We need a genuine 2nd ruck.
 

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I know I've said it before. But we need to think through the trade off between another ruck and the player they displace. Picking a second ruck each week reduces Nanks load. But does it help us as a team?

If we aim to play a second ruck against the teams with better rucks then we should trial that before we get there.

And I would not try to play a pretend ruck because they are tall. I'm just play Soldo and use him as a battering ram, with Nank in the forward line and as a monster ruck rover. Maybe CCJ gets a few games if he's up to it physically.

But I would only look at that second ruck if we intend on playing them seriously. Maybe as an experiment early in the season to see how it goes. But given relentlessness is our trademark another tall might detract from that ability to go hard all the time.
 
I know I've said it before. But we need to think through the trade off between another ruck and the player they displace. Picking a second ruck each week reduces Nanks load. But does it help us as a team?

If we aim to play a second ruck against the teams with better rucks then we should trial that before we get there.

And I would not try to play a pretend ruck because they are tall. I'm just play Soldo and use him as a battering ram, with Nank in the forward line and as a monster ruck rover. Maybe CCJ gets a few games if he's up to it physically.

But I would only look at that second ruck if we intend on playing them seriously. Maybe as an experiment early in the season to see how it goes. But given relentlessness is our trademark another tall might detract from that ability to go hard all the time.

I'm in the opposite camp of the bolded bit.

I think by playing a taller makeshift ruckman would help us greatly and be an ideal solution providing we used the right player.

Currently the main issue is Grigg is clearly far too short and most of the time doesn't even jump for the ball giving the opposition ruckman a free go at putting the ball wherever they want.

By using someone like Moore, Balta, Garthwaite etc as a makeshift ruckman while Nank is off the ground allows us a better chance to at least break even in those ruck contests giving our mids a better chance of winning the ball.

And it isn't at the expense of dropping someone for another pure ruckman in Soldo.

Especially with the 6-6-6 rule in place we can't afford to let opposition ruckman get free range in Centre bounces when Nank isn't on the ground as it will put our defence under huge amounts of pressure.

But having a taller, more physical makeshift ruckman will help equal all of that out for us I reckon.

The hard part is working out who that player is and how they fit into our team when they don't have to ruck.
 
Playing a player like Soldo offers us little against the 3 main Ruckman that we have trouble with
Natanui , Gawn , Grundy

Soldo becomes a liability on the ground apart from the relief he offers during the time he is giving Nank a chop out, We simply cannot play Nank & Soldo in the same team against these 3 teams Collingwood,West Coast & Melbourne who are all going to be our main rivals come finals

The way i see it we have just 2 options - Balta & CCJ
Both these players offer more around the ground and we are not a man down

CCJ - If we decide to go with Jones then we have the flexibility to also play him foward and have the 3 tall option in the foward line or we could push either CaDDy or Jack further up the ground to maintain the 3 smalls also

Balta - This kid is the player the we really need to come on quickly
Can play in many positions and offers us the flexibility around the ground Back / Mid / Fwd /Ruck , He may not be ready just yet but is currently better than anything els we have so maybe worth taking the punt and getting games into him early.
 
I'm in the opposite camp of the bolded bit.

I think by playing a taller makeshift ruckman would help us greatly and be an ideal solution providing we used the right player.

Currently the main issue is Grigg is clearly far too short and most of the time doesn't even jump for the ball giving the opposition ruckman a free go at putting the ball wherever they want.

By using someone like Moore, Balta, Garthwaite etc as a makeshift ruckman while Nank is off the ground allows us a better chance to at least break even in those ruck contests giving our mids a better chance of winning the ball.

And it isn't at the expense of dropping someone for another pure ruckman in Soldo.

Especially with the 6-6-6 rule in place we can't afford to let opposition ruckman get free range in Centre bounces when Nank isn't on the ground as it will put our defence under huge amounts of pressure.

But having a taller, more physical makeshift ruckman will help equal all of that out for us I reckon.

The hard part is working out who that player is and how they fit into our team when they don't have to ruck.
I think ideally it might be Garth who comes in and either Garth or Astbury takes the backup duties. Think they will be wanting to get games into Garth and this provides an opportunity to do so, allows Rance to play more time as a third tall interceptor so I think they could make it work structurally.

Sounds like Garth is still on limited duties though so not sure if he will be right to go round 1.
 
Our extra Ruck needs to be able to move around the ground as good as if not better than Nank. Can't afford to play a slow slug just because they can compete in the ruck. That's why I'd like to see Balta he can run and is quick.
 

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I think ideally it might be Garth who comes in and either Garth or Astbury takes the backup duties. Think they will be wanting to get games into Garth and this provides an opportunity to do so, allows Rance to play more time as a third tall interceptor so I think they could make it work structurally.

Sounds like Garth is still on limited duties though so not sure if he will be right to go round 1.

I wouldn't mind seeing Garth do it as long as it didn't hurt our structure.

I remember last year in the JLT when Nank had hammy soreness and went off very early in the game that Garth was basically the main ruckman for the rest of the game and didn't do too badly.

all we need him to do is apply enough physical pressure to halve the contest at a minimum.
 
Balta for Grigg is the one i want to see form allow us to do .... but with all this talk of Grigg as the second ruck isn't there a stat that suggests that the clearances from when he is rucking isn't as bad as might be initially thought?

there is a stat to suggest this but with the new 6-6-6 rule I think we could be very exposed at centre bounces as we can no longer play a loose man back at the bounce to help counter the quick opposition clearances.
 
there is a stat to suggest this but with the new 6-6-6 rule I think we could be very exposed at centre bounces as we can no longer play a loose man back at the bounce to help counter the quick opposition clearances.

yup get what you're saying, but if we get the clearance, or at min nullify it (as the state might suggest), then rebounding a forward clearance isn't relevant?
 
I wouldn't mind seeing Garth do it as long as it didn't hurt our structure.

I remember last year in the JLT when Nank had hammy soreness and went off very early in the game that Garth was basically the main ruckman for the rest of the game and didn't do too badly.

all we need him to do is apply enough physical pressure to halve the contest at a minimum.
I see it as Garth taking Rance’s spot, Rance taking Broad’s. Gives Rance more freedom which potentially could be a very good thing for us, obviously he slots back into Full Back when Garth/Ast is doing the ruckwork.

I just don’t see many other options, I think they obviously see CCJ as the long term answer which is why they haven’t gone out and recruited someone, but it’s probably a year or two too early for him. Ditto Balta.
 
yup get what you're saying, but if we get the clearance, or at min nullify it (as the state might suggest), then rebounding a forward clearance isn't relevant?

I'm not sure how much of the stat relates to around the ground rucking vs centre clearances, so it is kind of hard to gauge in that aspect.

I'm only going off what I have visually seen happen at the centre bounce, and Grigg doesn't go up or compete for a lot of them and stays down acting as another midfielder. Sometimes it works out well for us, sometimes it doesn't.
 

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