Player Watch #9: Luke Davies-Uniacke [Part II] - [Herald Sun] LDU has parked contract talks with the club & is expected to command offers of more than $1m a season

[Horace]

To my eye he's a solid ruckman at best currently. Letting the midfield group off the hook because he isn't brilliant is way too far for mine, if the opposition can rove to him at will then why the * can't some of our players?

That's it in a nutshell. Ever since the game was invented, there have been ruckmen who have failed to win the hit outs or unable to direct them to their midfielders, necessitating those midfielders to read the play and shark the ball off the opposition. Perhaps our mids, collectively do not have enough experience yet, to play this way, but hopefully when they do, we will see some different results.

 

[Horace]

Equalisation reminds me of those plastic bags you see swirling around the streets on a cold winter’s Melb day

I think that the the AFL does equalisation pretty well when it comes to helping teams struggling to win games (apart from us).

They fixture those teams to play us. Hawthorn two weeks ago, Adelaide last week and now the Saints this week. Nice wins to get them back on track or sort of on track through the fixture. Oh well.

 

[Twangler]

No one is using him as a scapegoat for LDU. As I’ve said previously that his ruck work isn’t working for our current mids. It’s not giving them first possession, which we need at the moment. We’re playing with one senior mid and the rest are 19y/os against senior blokes in their prime

That says more about our on ball brigade than it does X. Last year we weren’t exactly a dominant force in the midfield even with Goldy and that was with a more in form LDU and Simpkin in the midfield. Greenwood and Shirld were also playing significantly better footy last year. My gut is that if we had goldy in the ruck this year, if anything we would be even worse. Xerri isn’t a finished product but he’s been a shining light this year and no way is majorly responsible for midfield woes.

 

[Gasometer]

View attachment 1975096

Goldy is cooked Gaso, move on.

View attachment 1975096

Goldy is cooked Gaso, move on.

I have. The Ruck thread started before the end of last season.

Everytime I see Larkey in the Ruck I see ACL.

But sure, let’s move on

 

[King Corey]

But nah "my eyes tell me that Xerri is s**t lol" is much more valid than literally every single statistical metric.

Absolutely stupidity to use Xerri as a scapegoat for LDU.

What do you think statistics are? They're isolated actions, often assessed subjectively to pick up trends.

Statistics measured in football stem from and evolve from the very "eye test" you deride.

 

[Gasometer]

That says more about our on ball brigade than it does X. Last year we weren’t exactly a dominant force in the midfield even with Goldy and that was with a more in form LDU and Simpkin in the midfield. Greenwood and Shirld were also playing significantly better footy last year. My gut is that if we had goldy in the ruck this year, if anything we would be even worse. Xerri isn’t a finished product but he’s been a shining light this year and no way is majorly responsible for midfield woes.

My argument was to offer Goldy a 1 year deal as a second Fiddle and in a teaching capacity to X

But as we have belatedly seen, someone’s ego is as big as the front entrance to Luna Park, so that was never happening

Just makes me sick seeing our Key FF going up in the Ruck

 

[spurs]

Have we offered LDU a contract extension?

 

[tazaa]

You clearly have an agenda and are seeing only what you want to see. Here are ruck stats for the last 5 weeks ranked by hitouts to advantage. X isn't dominating, but he isn't our problem. Note that he is the youngest player on this list, playing his first year as No.1 ruck, and getting better by the week. In round 1 he only had one hitout to advantage, in the last two weeks he has had 26 - the highest in the comp.

View attachment 1975084


He is grabbing it out of the ruck because he is being told to do that or hit it to his feet when he doesn't have a good option. Whenever the ball is tapped to space we are getting slaughtered because our mids are getting muscled out of the position. They are often being pushed under the ball and the opposition are controlling all this space around the contests.

Watch the games with your eyes mate and stop reading the AFL website stats and supercoach bull****.
The last bloke that was employed by champion data f***** the club silly and were still paying for it.

Its actually embarrassing to see any sort of justification when the side is getting belted across the park.


Its absolute madness to use the last 2 weeks as an example, referring to our performances against the the Hawks and Crows as if we romped it in. F*** me. We were nowhere near it.
If we didn't exist in this competition, the heat on both Hawthorn and Adelaide would be extreme. We got belted by mediocre sides. How the f*** is he not part of the problem?

He is grabbing it out of the ruck because he cant be pinned for holding the ball and because he can't outreach his opponent. And he has been told to stop doing so by the club because he can't even take the ball cleanly. Its embarrassing.
The reality of the ball being tapped to space by the opposition is because he's being used as a stepladder when he tries to hold his ground and grab the ball.

We are being bullied around the contest because our mids cannot set up in attacking positions. First instinct is to react rather than get on the move and its hurting us. Its football suicide.


This is where we're at as a football club. Don't just drink the Kool-Aid the clubs dishing out about how were going fine and rebuilds going well and not realising that we do have serious problems. He is one. He isnt exempt.
I don't sit there watch his form and general play and think, yeh we got a player here. His job isn't to tackle and win the clearances himself. We've been touched up by a side who has scored less than us and another whose in turmoil and wants their coach sacked.
When did we lose ambition about delivering quality ball inside 50 to our forwards advantage? Do we want LDU kicking it or X?

Anyways jokes on me cause he has a 5 year deal. I look forward to next weeks stats being shared after we've kicked 4 goals for the game and got belted again.

 

[tazaa]

But nah "my eyes tell me that Xerri is s**t lol" is much more valid than literally every single statistical metric.

This is some moronic s**t considering our form.


We are not even in the conversation of being competitive with Hawthorn who touched us up 9 days ago.
Again - I am not talking about winning games of football. Just competing.

We got nowhere near 17th and yet you're preaching stats here.

 

[archereleven]

I think he has some potential but he's way overrated by some based on metrics.

In theory we have a statistically dominant ruckman and a troupe of elite young mids.

That'd explain our tons of inside 50s and constantly hitting our forwards on the chest each game then.

Pretty much where I'm at. By no means am I writing him off, but we need synergy in there and quick smart...

Patch looks to be a massive downgrade on Russell...



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[King Corey]

Pretty much where I'm at. By no means am I writing him off, but we need synergy in there and quick smart...

Patch looks to be a massive downgrade on Russell...



On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Patch is quite the brownfingers line coach so far.

 

[Hopper10]

I have. The Ruck thread started before the end of last season.

Everytime I see Larkey in the Ruck I see ACL.

But sure, let’s move on

If Larkey breaks down in the ruck, board the joint up. We have 1 KPF, FFS keep him away from this area . Don’t contest it when x is on the pine, how bad can it be?

 

[archereleven]

To my eye he's a solid ruckman at best currently. Letting the midfield group off the hook because he isn't brilliant is way too far for mine, if the opposition can rove to him at will then why the * can't some of our players?

LDU, Wardlaw, Powell, Phillips, and Jy verses -

R1 - Green, Kelly, Coniglio, Callaghan
R2 - Sarong, Fyfe, Brayshaw, Young, Jacko
R3 - Cripps, Cerra, Hewitt, Kennedy
R4 - Neale, Dunkley, McCluggage, Berry
R5 - Geelongs midfield we should beat imo
R6 - Hawfs midfield we should beat imo
R7 - Laird, Dawson, Crouch, Soligo, Sholl

LDU is the only midfielder we have that gets a game in all those midfields. The rest need another 50 games...

We are giving away hundreds of games of experience at nearly every stoppage.

We need time, continuity, good coaching and some luck.





On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[archereleven]

What do you think statistics are? They're isolated actions, often assessed subjectively to pick up trends.

Statistics measured in football stem from and evolve from the very "eye test" you deride.

A HOTA is the ball reaching its intended target via the ruckmans hand.

Gawn could be palming the ball straight down his midfields throat while on the move, while X hits it to our mids' feet, who are instantly tackled - both counted as a HOTA.

Not saying that's happening, btw.

I'm more worried about X smothering the stoppage than his hitouts. 10 tackles and 10 below average clearances is choking us.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Lol. I've been guilty of this too discussing valued players.

Let's take it as read that 99% of us would give him a 6 year+ warchest $$ deal to stay at North Melbourne forever if he wanted it.

But if he refuses to sign heading into 2025 we'd want to have done a hell of a lot of contingency planning to achieve thr best outcome for the club. That planning would've begun already.

I would much rather turn him into a Lever, May, Taylor or at the least future 100+ game best 22 players than get all giddy about whoever lines up with 2025 Band 1 compo.

Look if it’s a player-player trade, we would have an exodus of the fan base if it wasn’t an extremely promising young player or established gun.

While he has never really shown his wares on a consistent basis, with the midfield support of any of the other 17 teams, he would absolutely flourish.

LDU has been brilliant when we have had Jy inside playing well and leading him. Without that, he has fallen away to be quite inconsistent this year.

 

[perplexed]

Watch the games with your eyes mate and stop reading the AFL website stats and supercoach bull****.
The last bloke that was employed by champion data f***** the club silly and were still paying for it.

Its actually embarrassing to see any sort of justification when the side is getting belted across the park.


Its absolute madness to use the last 2 weeks as an example, referring to our performances against the the Hawks and Crows as if we romped it in. F*** me. We were nowhere near it.
If we didn't exist in this competition, the heat on both Hawthorn and Adelaide would be extreme. We got belted by mediocre sides. How the f*** is he not part of the problem?

He is grabbing it out of the ruck because he cant be pinned for holding the ball and because he can't outreach his opponent. And he has been told to stop doing so by the club because he can't even take the ball cleanly. Its embarrassing.
The reality of the ball being tapped to space by the opposition is because he's being used as a stepladder when he tries to hold his ground and grab the ball.

We are being bullied around the contest because our mids cannot set up in attacking positions. First instinct is to react rather than get on the move and its hurting us. Its football suicide.


This is where we're at as a football club. Don't just drink the Kool-Aid the clubs dishing out about how were going fine and rebuilds going well and not realising that we do have serious problems. He is one. He isnt exempt.
I don't sit there watch his form and general play and think, yeh we got a player here. His job isn't to tackle and win the clearances himself. We've been touched up by a side who has scored less than us and another whose in turmoil and wants their coach sacked.
When did we lose ambition about delivering quality ball inside 50 to our forwards advantage? Do we want LDU kicking it or X?

Anyways jokes on me cause he has a 5 year deal. I look forward to next weeks stats being shared after we've kicked 4 goals for the game and got belted again.

I know you love stats, so I thought I'd share this article.

The best ruck-mid duos, and why it doesn't guarantee success

Two leading clubs are bucking conventional wisdom when it comes to clearances in 2024

www.afl.com.au

Good news is X hits the ball to Luke heaps, he also wins his own clearances too.
Bad news is our clearance differential sucks. Good news is this statistic, and clearances generally, have little effect on whether you win or lose - Geelong and GWS have much worse numbers than us.

Games these days are won and lost in transition. How well you spread from stoppages, and how well teams attack and defend after turnovers. We are awful at both these things. This is partly our structure (we press way too high), partly our lack of pressure, and partly our mids and flankers not working hard enough. Luke is one of our worst offenders here.

 

[King Corey]

Watch the games with your eyes mate and stop reading the AFL website stats and supercoach bull****.
The last bloke that was employed by champion data f***** the club silly and were still paying for it.

Its actually embarrassing to see any sort of justification when the side is getting belted across the park.


Its absolute madness to use the last 2 weeks as an example, referring to our performances against the the Hawks and Crows as if we romped it in. F*** me. We were nowhere near it.
If we didn't exist in this competition, the heat on both Hawthorn and Adelaide would be extreme. We got belted by mediocre sides. How the f*** is he not part of the problem?

He is grabbing it out of the ruck because he cant be pinned for holding the ball and because he can't outreach his opponent. And he has been told to stop doing so by the club because he can't even take the ball cleanly. Its embarrassing.
The reality of the ball being tapped to space by the opposition is because he's being used as a stepladder when he tries to hold his ground and grab the ball.

We are being bullied around the contest because our mids cannot set up in attacking positions. First instinct is to react rather than get on the move and its hurting us. Its football suicide.


This is where we're at as a football club. Don't just drink the Kool-Aid the clubs dishing out about how were going fine and rebuilds going well and not realising that we do have serious problems. He is one. He isnt exempt.
I don't sit there watch his form and general play and think, yeh we got a player here. His job isn't to tackle and win the clearances himself. We've been touched up by a side who has scored less than us and another whose in turmoil and wants their coach sacked.
When did we lose ambition about delivering quality ball inside 50 to our forwards advantage? Do we want LDU kicking it or X?

Anyways jokes on me cause he has a 5 year deal. I look forward to next weeks stats being shared after we've kicked 4 goals for the game and got belted again.

Let's assume signing Xerri long term is the right decision - What do you think they're projecting for him that we're not seeing on field?

I'm going to assume they're hanging their hat on something beyond metrics..

 

[William Caresser]

I know you love stats, so I thought I'd share this article.

The best ruck-mid duos, and why it doesn't guarantee success

Two leading clubs are bucking conventional wisdom when it comes to clearances in 2024

www.afl.com.au

Good news is X hits the ball to Luke heaps, he also wins his own clearances too.
Bad news is our clearance differential sucks. Good news is this statistic, and clearances generally, have little effect on whether you win or lose - Geelong and GWS have much worse numbers than us.

Games these days are won and lost in transition. How well you spread from stoppages, and how well teams attack and defend after turnovers. We are awful at both these things. This is partly our structure (we press way too high), partly our lack of pressure, and partly our mids and flankers not working hard enough. Luke is one of our worst offenders here.

All true and our defensive spread continues to be appalling. We don't look like getting the ball back from the opposition unless they kick a point. They can make mistakes and we still don't touch it or them.

That said, a side's ability to cleanly use the footy in and immediately out of stoppages before any spread is important. Can the side shrug off tacklers in close and cleanly release players out the front? Or are they going sideways, panicking and hacking it around the corner? And on the flipside, how well does the side harass the opposition at the stoppage - hold on to tackles and know when to man up (not get drawn in) to prevent damaging clearances out the front?

We would rank very poorly in all of those areas if stats could actually be kept on them, whereas good sides would rank highly and so don't need to win raw clearances. But stats aren't available on them and so it's left to the eye test. The clearance stats we see are crude - completely lack nuance - scores from stoppages would be the most useful stat but that doesn't tell the 'why'. But given our deficiencies, if we lose clearances we're absolutely stuffed.

Still think contested ball and contested marking differential is indicative. You can't keep losing contested situations around the ground (out of stoppages) and fix it elsewhere.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Watch the games with your eyes mate and stop reading the AFL website stats and supercoach bull****.
The last bloke that was employed by champion data f***** the club silly and were still paying for it.

Its actually embarrassing to see any sort of justification when the side is getting belted across the park.


Its absolute madness to use the last 2 weeks as an example, referring to our performances against the the Hawks and Crows as if we romped it in. F*** me. We were nowhere near it.
If we didn't exist in this competition, the heat on both Hawthorn and Adelaide would be extreme. We got belted by mediocre sides. How the f*** is he not part of the problem?

He is grabbing it out of the ruck because he cant be pinned for holding the ball and because he can't outreach his opponent. And he has been told to stop doing so by the club because he can't even take the ball cleanly. Its embarrassing.
The reality of the ball being tapped to space by the opposition is because he's being used as a stepladder when he tries to hold his ground and grab the ball.

We are being bullied around the contest because our mids cannot set up in attacking positions. First instinct is to react rather than get on the move and its hurting us. Its football suicide.


This is where we're at as a football club. Don't just drink the Kool-Aid the clubs dishing out about how were going fine and rebuilds going well and not realising that we do have serious problems. He is one. He isnt exempt.
I don't sit there watch his form and general play and think, yeh we got a player here. His job isn't to tackle and win the clearances himself. We've been touched up by a side who has scored less than us and another whose in turmoil and wants their coach sacked.
When did we lose ambition about delivering quality ball inside 50 to our forwards advantage? Do we want LDU kicking it or X?

Anyways jokes on me cause he has a 5 year deal. I look forward to next weeks stats being shared after we've kicked 4 goals for the game and got belted again.

Do you have a single hope? I worry about you as it seems to be a bleak universe in your view.

 

[SonofSamsquanch]

Well, just when you thought the world had gone completely mad...

 

[DesertRoo]

Well, just when you thought the world had gone completely mad...

Honest question what does a $13 to $15 million dollar trade look like?
This isn't some sort of token free agency pick. that's going to be some sort of record trade which will be done.

 

[SonofSamsquanch]

Honest question what does a $13 to $15 million dollar trade look like?
This isn't some sort of token free agency pick. that's going to be some sort of record trade which will be done.

If a club rates him at that kind of contract figure then it would have to be at minimum, a top 5 draft pick and a highly rated mature player in the 25 to 28 age group and then maybe even some more.

It can't be a one for one trade.

 

[perplexed]

All true and our defensive spread continues to be appalling. We don't look like getting the ball back from the opposition unless they kick a point. They can make mistakes and we still don't touch it or them.

That said, a side's ability to cleanly use the footy in and immediately out of stoppages before any spread is important. Can the side shrug off tacklers in close and cleanly release players out the front? Or are they going sideways, panicking and hacking it around the corner? And on the flipside, how well does the side harass the opposition at the stoppage - hold on to tackles and know when to man up (not get drawn in) to prevent damaging clearances out the front?

We would rank very poorly in all of those areas whereas good sides would rank highly and so don't need to win raw clearances. But the clearance stats we see are crude - completely lack nuance - scores from stoppages would be the most useful stat but that doesn't tell the 'why'. But given our deficiencies, if we lose clearances we're absolutely stuffed.

Still think contested ball and contested marking differential is indicative. You can't keep losing contested situations around the ground (out of stoppages) and fix it elsewhere.

Yeah, our contested work is dreadful, both on the ground and in the air. But our pressure and the broken or not attempted tackles are infuriating (hi Dyl). But what amazes me is how, knowing this, we have adopted a game plan that requires manic pressure and elite endurance. We try to press as high as Collingwood but don't have the players or will to make this work. It is like we are trying to expose our own weaknesses.

 

[lockheed]

Yeah, our contested work is dreadful, both on the ground and in the air. But our pressure and the broken or not attempted tackles are infuriating (hi Dyl). But what amazes me is how, knowing this, we have adopted a game plan that requires manic pressure and elite endurance. We try to press as high as Collingwood but don't have the players or will to make this work. It is like we are trying to expose our own weaknesses.

Or get another #1 pick?

 

[tazaa]

I know you love stats, so I thought I'd share this article.

The best ruck-mid duos, and why it doesn't guarantee success

Two leading clubs are bucking conventional wisdom when it comes to clearances in 2024

www.afl.com.au

Good news is X hits the ball to Luke heaps, he also wins his own clearances too.
Bad news is our clearance differential sucks. Good news is this statistic, and clearances generally, have little effect on whether you win or lose - Geelong and GWS have much worse numbers than us.

Games these days are won and lost in transition. How well you spread from stoppages, and how well teams attack and defend after turnovers. We are awful at both these things. This is partly our structure (we press way too high), partly our lack of pressure, and partly our mids and flankers not working hard enough. Luke is one of our worst offenders here.

I actually agree with all this.
We’re no good. Our ball movement off half back is suicidal not to mention we have poor wingmen, with one who can’t anywhere near it.

Back to the middle, not every clearance is going to be dished up on a platter.
X competes hard - that is not being denied.
But what quality of his can be judged as genuinely above average or elite?