Player Watch #45 Will Green

[Ticky009]

At pick 16 the Sydney Swans select AA U18 ruck Will Green

WILL GREEN



Date of Birth: 08/09/2005 ; Height: 204cm
Draft: #16 - 2023
Recruited From: Northern Knights


A developing tall, Green showcased his potential with three promising performances
as Metro's go-to. He proved hard to move in the ruck, displaying outstanding craft while also expanding his game
around the ground. There, he clunked clean marks at the highest point and was mobile enough to lay tackles. The
Northern Knights captain averaged 12 touches and 24 hitouts.

 

[caesar88]

Brilliant post. But still my gut says we struggled out of the middle with good mids, so strengthening our ruck must make a difference … mustn’t it?


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I believe any great midfield can nullify a strong ruck, which is why there's no concrete correlation between hitout dominance and grand final victories.

But if having a strong ruck will encourage us to be more proactive in the midfield then hey, sign me up. Still lies with the midfielders though.

 

[sataris]

I believe any great midfield can nullify a strong ruck, which is why there's no concrete correlation between hitout dominance and grand final victories.

But if having a strong ruck will encourage us to be more proactive in the midfield then hey, sign me up. Still lies with the midfielders though.

My dream of 22 ruckmen and a ruckmen as the sub would be nigh on impossible to defeat.

 

[RubbaDuck]

Did you see the tackle in the highlights? Stopped him cold. Coach's delight.

Green laid a few crunching tackles in his highlights reel. I liked when Cleary tried to slip past him at pace, suddenly those long arms shot out and snared him. It was so quick it was like watching a David Attenborough documentary.

"The purple headed shrimp nosed baublepus disguises itself as a stick. When even fast moving prey approaches within a metre, its vice like tentacles shoot forth, each carrying milllions of tiny suckers that make escape impossible. After paralysing its prey the shrimp nosed baublepus consumes it in a single gulp"

Really, it's great to see a young ruckman who isn't a tangle of legs and arms protruding at awkward angles, like a foal emerging from a shoebox. Will looks fairly quick, agile and tough, a strong mark, a good tap ruckman and a nice kick. Plus he seems to like a goal or two.

I think this boy is going to be much more than your average ruck. Nice pickup

 

[McRobie]

Beats developing your own when it wastes a list spot for 6 or 7 years just to find out if they're AFL standard or not, and even then there's no guarantees they won't be injury prone or just up and leave because they're behind someone else in the pecking order. I think trading for ruckmen from other clubs is generally the best way to go.

Ok

 

[Deccas]

I imagine when interviewing him one of the first questions we would've asked him would've been his thoughts on a potentially long apprenticeship. It'd be impossible to ignore the big Brodie Grundy in the room so I think if the recruiters got any sense that Green would be impatient or not willing to learn from the best for a number of years they might've steered clear. They must've got the impression from Green that he's a studious kid who will take his development seriously.

You'd hope anyone drafted as a ruck would know they aren't about to play 22 games a season any time soon. I can't really think of any rucks playing a full season as number 1 under the age of 22 or 23.

As an aside it would be interesting to know what the average age of the first 20 game season is for each position.

 

[caesar88]

You'd hope anyone drafted as a ruck would know they aren't about to play 22 games a season any time soon. I can't really think of any rucks playing a full season as number 1 under the age of 22 or 23.

As an aside it would be interesting to know what the average age of the first 20 game season is for each position.

The geek in me wants to volunteer for that analysis, but I feel like it would be a bit difficult as senior games =/= playing in position. E.g. Gulden's a midfielder but played 18 games in his first season as a small forward/high half forward. It would be too difficult to know who played where in their first 20 game season.

 

[Deccas]

The geek in me wants to volunteer for that analysis, but I feel like it would be a bit difficult as senior games =/= playing in position. E.g. Gulden's a midfielder but played 18 games in his first season as a small forward/high half forward. It would be too difficult to know who played where in their first 20 game season.

I reckon you could still just call it 20 in any position and it would still be interesting. Part of why smaller players can play more games earlier on is that they can fit in in more places around the field. Mostly it's that they don't have the same sort of size/strength match ups.

It's tough for a ruck because to not be an actual liability they need to be able to run 10ks while constantly wrestling the biggest strongest guy on the opposition. Someone who is still growing etc just isn't going to be as comfortable throwing their weight around as a 28 year old. In fact the more I think about it the more I think a ruck making a significant contribution in a debut season seems like an absolute unicorn.

 

[RubbaDuck]

Solid kicking action for a ruck. (No fatigue though)



Road to the draft.

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Give him the number 23 and watch him collapse under the weight of expectation.

 

[McRobie]

I think there was once a ruck called Goodes who went alright as well.

"ruck"

 

[RubbaDuck]

It's been awhile. I think Mumford was our last premium ruckman.

Who was our last homegrown ruck? Naismith would have been. We've been dining out on ruck imports for a long time.

Grundy and Green are both the athletic extra midfielder style of ruck. I hope they bring a bit of aggro and intimidation too. That's our missing ingredient.

The big Canuck Mike Pyke was homegrown, in as much as we turned a Canadian National team rugby player into decent ruckman. Pyke played more of a ruck/forward role when playing in tandem with Mumford, though he showed many times that he could step into the big shoes when required, such as when Mumford was injured in the 2012 GF. Our workman-like midfield, headed by ROK and JPK, would have struggled against a polished Hawks midfield without the ruck work of the big Canuck.

Prior to 2018 our ruck stocks came under the influence of Steve Taubert, the Ruck Whisperer. He had a knack for developing good rucks. Cox was a better player but joined us an inexperienced ruck coach. I sometimes wonder how much of his own ability he has been able to pass on. Sometimes someone very talented can find it difficult to teach another what they 'just do' without thinking, whereas one with far less talent could turn out the better coach, perhaps having paid more attention to and spent longer learning the techniques of their craft. Taubert was also well regarded for his interpersonal skills.

 

[anotherletdown]

The geek in me wants to volunteer for that analysis, but I feel like it would be a bit difficult as senior games =/= playing in position. E.g. Gulden's a midfielder but played 18 games in his first season as a small forward/high half forward. It would be too difficult to know who played where in their first 20 game season.

Chicken

 

[mtooler]

Really hope we make him a defender

Are you actually John Longmire in real life?

 

[RubbaDuck]

"ruck"

Yeah Goodes was very much an fill-in ruck. He played 20 games in his first season after being drafted in the 3rd round of the 1997 draft. He ended up playing quite a few games in the ruck that year (1999) and in a few subsequent years, as he filled in for Stafford before Ball really got going.

It was only Goodes' 4th game when Stafford went down in the first minute and Goodes found himself in the no1 ruck spot against a formidable opponent in Corey McKernan. By half-time the Swans looked beaten, 3.7.25 to North's 9.7.61. It looked like the eventual 1999 premiers would cruise to victory. The Kangaroos were the dominant team of the late 1990s, reaching finals every year from 1992 to 1999, boasting 3 prelim finals, 3 grand finals and two premierships in just 6 years. The fire power of Longmire, Carey and McKernan was unstoppable.

At 0-3 for 1999, the Swans were staring down the barrel of a 0-4 start. Ultimately it would come down to a champion effort from the whole Swans team, led by a true Bloods midfield of Maxfield, Kelly and Schwass, with Maxfield picking up the 3 brownlow votes. In defence the ever reliable Crouch, Dunkley, Matthews and Rowan Wharfe got on top of the powerful Kangaroos forward line. And though Lockett was out injured and Micky O well held, lesser lights like John Stevens (2 goals) combined with Kelly(2), Maxfield(2), Schwass, Nicks and Leaping Leo Barry (playing as a forward) to kick a winning score.

The highlight for me was a skinny 191cm 19yr old Goodes, in only his 4th game, battling way out of his weight division to quell the influence of 197cm 105kg Corey McKernan. By the time he was 22 McKernan was already a premiership ruck/forward and had topped the Brownlow voting (1996) - though he was ruled ineligble for suspension. By 25 years old (1999) he was in his prime, soon to win his second premiership and back in strong Brownlow form.

History can debate whether Goodes took the honours against McKernan, but I know what I saw. McKernan struggled to influence the game in the second half because Goodes refused to let him do so. The Swans came from no hope at all to sneak home by 2 points. Sadly for them, many Swans fans had already left, convinced we were done. A reminder to never, ever, write-off the Swans (Nick Davis says hello)

Round 4, April 17th, 1999 remains one of the very best Swans games of the post wooden-spoon era. Goodes just refused to go away, refused to be beaten. At one stage he fractured his wrist as he crashed to the ground after quite literally leaping over McKernan in a ruck contest. That game pulled back a curtain to reveal the true champion we'd snared for a mere third round pick 47.

Goodes later admitted that when his mate drove him home from the game, he'd had to ask him to pull over so he could vomit at the side of the road. Too much Adrenalin? He was that spent.

Goodes never should have been a ruck, but then he won a Brownlow as a "ruck". He could have been anything he wanted to be. He is living proof that the size of the fight in the dog is more important than the size of a dog in a fight.

If Green can will himself to be half the "ruck" that Goodes managed to turn himself into (for the sake of his team), he will be a very good ruck.

Woops, another essay

 

[momentbymoment]

Tim English
203-204cm
Draft weight 86kg
Now 103kg

Will Green
203cm
93kg

5 kgs a year and ready for 26 season

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This is key.

Also - I can’t remember seeing a Tim English reel pre draft, but I am 95% sure he didn’t have the mobility or Skills shown by young Mr Green.

 

[momentbymoment]

Are you actually John Longmire in real life?

Horse is currently exploring the option of shrinking the kid down and helping him lose 10-15 kg.

 

[Jewelsbon]

Also don't get me wrong, he does look like a promising prospect, but he won't be playing in 2024 and probably will only get a few games in 2025. Needs to put on around 10kg at least.

I wouldn't have thought we'd need him to be playing senior games in 2024 and should really only be needing to give him a taste of seniors in 2025.

 

[Ticky009]

Taps - this is about Will Green. Stay on topic all.

 

[Callipygian]

This is key.

Also - I can’t remember seeing a Tim English reel pre draft, but I am 95% sure he didn’t have the mobility or Skills shown by young Mr Green.

Tim English was very mobile and skilful for 205 cm tall. He was competitive at ground level, a neat kick and often joined the play a bit like a mid. And who can forget his memorable effort to nearly (but not quite) chase down Olly Florent who expected to get away from him easy before kicking a match winning (or was it sealing) goal for us in the dying stages of the match?

By comparison, Will Green is perhaps not quite as skilful but seems a little more aggressive (both physically and perhaps in his mindset wanting to move the ball on quickly) and he is a better contested mark. Green might have the edge on English as a runner and is a year younger than English was when he was drafted. Conversely English was touted as being a top 10 pick before he slid to pick 19 whereas will was expected to be outside the top 20 picks but we took him at 16.

I'm entirely happy with the acquisition of Green and am moving on after missing out on O'Sullivan.

 

[bedford]

Coming up on Sportsday

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Green has a better appetite for the ruck contest than English.

 

[Kiama Chris]

Green has a better appetite for the ruck contest than English.

If correct, an excellent sign.

 

[bedford]

Green has a better appetite for the ruck contest than English.

htfdyk

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

htfdyk

I watch footy. You stick to your middle class amo team.

English is terrific as a huge mid and contested mark. Less so at round the ground stoppages and certainly not at centre bounces. That has been the knock in his career to date. Ask Dalrymple. Or better watch how he goes at centre bounces yourself. Hey you might learn something.

Whatever Greens weaknesses may be they are not lack of appetite at centre bounces.

 

[Ticky009]

 

[bedford]

Thanks legend