Angus Graham

[Spudregus_87]

Considering he was up against the most dominant player in the game, I though Gus held up pretty well on the weekend.
Definitely becoming a better ruckman with every game he plays. It's easy to forget that he's only played 40-odd games; feels like he's been around a lot longer than that.

It's just little things that frustrate me about his play; shows a lack of awareness sometimes, in terms of his positioning at kick-ins, etc.

While he's improving, surely Tom Derickx is due for a crack soon?

 

[Bruce Monteath]

lol sandilands totally dominated and graham was totally incapable of stopping him.47 ho 23 possesions numerous blocks shepherds etc he was in so much action its no wonder he tired. yes graham tried hard to the end buts that what graham does no matter the opposition tries hard.
lmao sandilands did a demo job not only on graham but nearly on us as well.
ah perspective and honesty.

Sandilands dominates hit outs against every ruck in the competition, every week. Unless we actually get Sandilands, I can't see this changing much.

And I don't think we need him - as the scoreboard showed.

 

[CoggaRules]

lol sandilands totally dominated and graham was totally incapable of stopping him.47 ho 23 possesions numerous blocks shepherds etc he was in so much action its no wonder he tired. yes graham tried hard to the end buts that what graham does no matter the opposition tries hard.
lmao sandilands did a demo job not only on graham but nearly on us as well.
ah perspective and honesty.

sorry claws but you are on your own on this one dude..perspective? yeah Sandilands dominated, but he also had the luxury of moving to the Defensive 50 to patrol, whereas Gus was all over the ground.
The other bit of perspective you dont seem to grasp is the length of each ruckman's career and what a Sandilands was doing in his first 50 games.
He was developing and learning the caper.

 

[_RT_]

sorry claws but you are on your own on this one dude..perspective? yeah Sandilands dominated, but he also had the luxury of moving to the Defensive 50 to patrol, whereas Gus was all over the ground.
The other bit of perspective you dont seem to grasp is the length of each ruckman's career and what a Sandilands was doing in his first 50 games.
He was developing and learning the caper.

Come on Cogga, didn't you know that when it comes to our young players, they need to come in and dominate from day 1 to be considered any good.

 

[CoggaRules]

Come on Cogga, didn't you know that when it comes to our young players, they need to come in and dominate from day 1 to be considered any good.

Its a symptom of the last 2 decades dude. We tend to look at each position on the ground in isolation and expect to fill it with a gun or else try another.

We have forgotten that even when we were a powerhouse, we had the likes of Strauchna, Dunne and a couple of other goof balls in the mix. Just like the top teams have now. I mean the take the pies, Toovey, Beams and even Jarrod Blair, you put them in to say the Port Power and they will be playing SNAFL for before you know it. Its the nature of the beast.

 

[Reckoner Tiger]

ah perspective and honesty


He had 43 not 47 hitouts, and at least Gus dragged him back from a whopping 53 hitouts last week. He was also at 28% eff in his hitouts (Gus 42% eff in hitouts) which showed the pressure Gus put on him. And as i posted before, Gus had 11 2nd half disposals at 100% eff to Sandilands 9 at 65% eff.

You say he had "numerous blocks" well Gus had 16 pressure acts (4th behing Jackson, Newman and Martin) to Sandilands 6 pressure acts. Take you blinkers off and go watch the game again.

Oh, i didnt think you were coming back here, as we are all soft *****

sorry claws but you are on your own on this one dude..perspective? yeah Sandilands dominated, but he also had the luxury of moving to the Defensive 50 to patrol, whereas Gus was all over the ground.
The other bit of perspective you dont seem to grasp is the length of each ruckman's career and what a Sandilands was doing in his first 50 games.
He was developing and learning the caper.

Here is your perspective claws. FFS you can be such a cancer on this board.

1. Statistics showed Graham had a very good game re: Bazzar's post.

2. 'Sandilands dominated' is never an argument against his opposition ruckman. Sandilands smashes hitouts every week, but Gus was damaging the other way.

Look at something positively for once in your life maybe, ever, or perhaps try for accuracy at the very least
Your final option is to shut up until criticism is actually warranted if you're just going to talk garbage.

 

[Rayzorwire]

lol sandilands totally dominated and graham was totally incapable of stopping him.47 ho 23 possesions numerous blocks shepherds etc he was in so much action its no wonder he tired. yes graham tried hard to the end buts that what graham does no matter the opposition tries hard.
lmao sandilands did a demo job not only on graham but nearly on us as well.
ah perspective and honesty.

LMAO@ you santa.

Freo - the fantasy list which you're always gushing about - smashed mostly by ten or so blokes you've been telling us for years haven't got a hope of being decent AFL footballers.

Graham pulling off one of the highest game rankings recorded against Sandilands since he himself was a rookie, doing all the things you claim he can't and never will - and doing them well against the best opponent going around.

And then there's the juniors you've second, third and fourth guessed every draft nearly all playing well...I reckon you're averaging about 15-16 eggs for your face a game this year.

There is a use for you though, I've lost count of the number of times you've talked up a mediocre opposition player compared to one of ours and their career has imploded shortly afterwards. Any Dogs other than Mitch "Core List' Hahn you'd like to talk up for this week mate?

 

[fightingfury_88]

Personally I'm very happy with the way Graham has gone about things this year. He is never going to be the most smooth looking ruckman but you can see him improving week by week. His actual ruckwork is pretty good but if he can add a strong contested mark to his repertoire then his game will go to a whole new level.

 

[santa claws]

Here is your perspective claws. FFS you can be such a cancer on this board.

1. Statistics showed Graham had a very good game re: Bazzar's post.

2. 'Sandilands dominated' is never an argument against his opposition ruckman. Sandilands smashes hitouts every week, but Gus was damaging the other way.

Look at something positively for once in your life maybe, ever, or perhaps try for accuracy at the very least
Your final option is to shut up until criticism is actually warranted if you're just going to talk garbage.

stats show no such thing. graham is a ruckman is he not and he managed just 12 hitouts for the game probably against bradley or someone.

this is the fewest by any ruckman to play sandilands this yr. sandilands had his second highest total hit outs for the season. so what if its 53 or 43 its a hiding.to top it off he had his highest possesion game for the yr.where was gus when sandilands loped away from ruck contests with ball in hand to set up play. how many clearances did he have again.

stats eh you can make em sound anyway you like but one undeniable truth grahams direct opponent dominated. sandilands along with pavlich and mundy were almost single handed responsible for keeping freo in the game for so long and gus was good please give me a break.
if he was good in this game id really hateto see when hes bad.

and graham hurt the other way did he i suppose he managed a goal the fact is it was one of the worst performances put up by any opposition ruckman against sandilands that freo have played the stats say so.

 

[Thecho]

Personally I'm very happy with the way Graham has gone about things this year. He is never going to be the most smooth looking ruckman but you can see him improving week by week. His actual ruckwork is pretty good but if he can add a strong contested mark to his repertoire then his game will go to a whole new level.

I agree with this. We need a ruckmen who can take an awesome mark when the going gets tough. If Graham was able to bring down a huge mark every now and then I would be very satisfied with him. Although he has, he doesn't do it enough for mine.

On the weekend Graham got better as the game went on and was very damaging. I was very pleased with his output.

 

[Rustof]

Maybe it was Dimma's gameplan to let Sandi win the CB's and have our guys shark the taps.

 

[fightingfury_88]

Maybe it was Dimma's gameplan to let Sandi win the CB's and have our guys shark the taps.

I'd go further and say it looked like we actually didn't mind if Sandilands had the ball. On some occasions it appeared as if we sort of zoned off Sandilands when he got the ball and forced him to dispose of the ball by foot. He's definitely not the best user of the ball at Fremantle.

 

[DoubleA]

Sandilands may have had 160 supercoach points but (and it pains me to say it) I thought Graham did ok.

He was up and about around the ground, kicked a goal and didnt make many obvious mistakes. And he didnt fall over!

Tough to drop him, or anyone at the moment really when the team is on a 3 game winning streak, even though Brownie is dominating in the twos.

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

LMAO@ you santa.

Freo - the fantasy list which you're always gushing about - smashed mostly by ten or so blokes you've been telling us for years haven't got a hope of being decent AFL footballers.

Graham pulling off one of the highest game rankings recorded against Sandilands since he himself was a rookie, doing all the things you claim he can't and never will - and doing them well against the best opponent going around.

And then there's the juniors you've second, third and fourth guessed every draft nearly all playing well...I reckon you're averaging about 15-16 eggs for your face a game this year.


There is a use for you though, I've lost count of the number of times you've talked up a mediocre opposition player compared to one of ours and their career has imploded shortly afterwards. Any Dogs other than Mitch "Core List' Hahn you'd like to talk up for this week mate?

...HAHAHAHAA......

 

[Barnzy]

Sandilands probably had his best game of the year against Graham.

Graham worked hard and and was decent in the 2nd half around the ground but he was embarrassing in the ruck contests ie the main objective for a ruck. People will say it's because Sandilands is tall and to an extent yes that is correct.

However, I have a few questions about his rucking techniques. Why does he jump so early so much instead of timing his jumps properly? (this happens every week so no Sandilands excuses). Why does he look and focus on his opponents so much instead of the ball after the ball is bounced and as a result a lot of the time totally misses said ball in the air? (This happens every week so no Sandilands excuses). It's comedy central watching him trying to "ruck" in the true sense of the word every week.

Graham is racking up good stats per se but he's also doing most of the workload so take that with a grain of salt. Until he seriously fixes a couple of these areas he's not a good ruckman in my eyes, just an average to solid ruckman, a trier who lugs around without much skill or intention. He is what he is. An upgrade would be nice.

 

[_RT_]

stats show no such thing. graham is a ruckman is he not and he managed just 12 hitouts for the game probably against bradley or someone.

this is the fewest by any ruckman to play sandilands this yr. sandilands had his second highest total hit outs for the season. so what if its 53 or 43 its a hiding.to top it off he had his highest possesion game for the yr.where was gus when sandilands loped away from ruck contests with ball in hand to set up play. how many clearances did he have again.

stats eh you can make em sound anyway you like but one undeniable truth grahams direct opponent dominated. sandilands along with pavlich and mundy were almost single handed responsible for keeping freo in the game for so long and gus was good please give me a break.
if he was good in this game id really hateto see when hes bad.

and graham hurt the other way did he i suppose he managed a goal the fact is it was one of the worst performances put up by any opposition ruckman against sandilands that freo have played the stats say so.

You know what is funny Claws, Sandilands may well have dominated the hitouts and may well have racked up more possessions than Graham but who really cares?

A week ago Jack was dominated by Merrett in 1-1 contests and yet still walked off with 5.1 to his name. Same again on Saturday, in the car on the way home after the game the commentators made mention about how Jack was well held by McPharlin, yet at the end of the game you look at Jacks output and he is walking off with 4 goals.

Thats the whole point with regards to Grahams performance on the weekend. Anyone who was expecting him to dominate against Sandilands was kidding themselves it was never going to happen. All we needed to do was breakeven with Sandilands and I'd suggest we did if you look at the following:

Sandilands had 43 hitouts with 28%EFF or 12 to advantage.
Graham had 12 hitouts with 42%EFF or 5 to advantage.

Sandilands had 23 disposals @ 65% which means 14 of them were effective.
Graham had 13 disposals @ 100%.

So in the wash up Sandilands had 1 more effective disposal and 7 more effective hitouts. Hardly what you would call a dominating performance now is it, when you look at the whole picture and not just cherry pick stats to suit.

 

[_RT_]

Sandilands probably had his best game of the year against Graham.

Graham worked hard and and was decent in the 2nd half around the ground but he was embarrassing in the ruck contests ie the main objective for a ruck. People will say it's because Sandilands is tall and to an extent yes that is correct.

However, I have a few questions about his rucking techniques. Why does he jump so early so much instead of timing his jumps properly? (this happens every week so no Sandilands excuses). Why does he look and focus on his opponents so much instead of the ball after the ball is bounced and as a result a lot of the time totally misses said ball in the air? (This happens every week so no Sandilands excuses). It's comedy central watching him trying to "ruck" in the true sense of the word every week. Graham is racking up good stats per se but he's also doing most of the workload so take that with a grain of salt. Until he seriously fixes a couple of these areas he's not a good ruckman in my eyes, just an average to solid ruckman, a trier who lugs around without much skill or intention.

Having played some ruck I'd suggest that the reason he is doing it is because he probably can't out jump the opposition ruck, so by jumping early he stops them from simply jumping over the top of him and having a free hit at the ball. In other words he kills the contest. The benefit of this is it now forces the ball to the ground and gives our mids a good chance at snaring the clearance. The drawback is that if he gets the timing wrong he gets pinged for shepherding in the ruck, which has happened quite a few times to him this year.

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

...some unfashionable players in our side...but they won...because they played as a team......

...good on them!......

...they have got me excited and i am looking forward to the clash with the doggies...what more can i say?!?!...i love them all!......

 

[richoatthedisco]

Having played some ruck I'd suggest that the reason he is doing it is because he probably can't out jump the opposition ruck, so by jumping early he stops them from simply jumping over the top of him and having a free hit at the ball. In other words he kills the contest. The benefit of this is it now forces the ball to the ground and gives our mids a good chance at snaring the clearance. The drawback is that if he gets the timing wrong he gets pinged for shepherding in the ruck, which has happened quite a few times to him this year.

Spot on RT. I'd suggest a very good ruckman in Lade is tutoring both Gumpus and Ty to do this, which is why we see them doing it so much. Barnzy's right, Gus is just a good, ordinary, solid ruckman but that'll do us right now. He's playing 90% of the game, protecting the developing Vickery, contributing to the best of his ability and that's all you can ask.

 

[Bazzar]

Graham worked hard and and was decent in the 2nd half around the ground but he was embarrassing in the ruck contests ie the main objective for a ruck. People will say it's because Sandilands is tall and to an extent yes that is correct.

However, I have a few questions about his rucking techniques. Why does he jump so early so much instead of timing his jumps properly? (this happens every week so no Sandilands excuses).

Normally you are on the ball, but not this time Barnzy. As we all know Guss started his ruck life as an early jumper and Lade eventually got that out of him last year. This year unfortunately sometimes old habits have come back, but generally its going out of his game.

Against the Dogs Sandilands had an incredible 52 hitouts, he was just awesome. So clearly the Freo game plan intention was not to try to compete in the air, as it would be pointless, but to just crash ruck contests hard and nullify Sandi, which he did, as Sandilands recorded a season low hitout eff of 28%.

I have watched the game 3 times now, and you can see our mids paying just as much attention to Sandi as Guss and roving to him. As pointed out earlier, Breraton on the footy show rated Guss`s game as "exceptional" and apologised for not getting him into the votes.

 

[Crumden]

I'd go further and say it looked like we actually didn't mind if Sandilands had the ball. On some occasions it appeared as if we sort of zoned off Sandilands when he got the ball and forced him to dispose of the ball by foot. He's definitely not the best user of the ball at Fremantle.

I reckon you're on to something there ff88. Sandilands had twice as many kicks as handballs against us whereas he nearly always has twice as many handballs as kicks.

 

[Cathal Brugha]

This is a Team game and it is becoming evident to me that strategically Dimma is acutely aware of this fact. You will note that on any given day players are sacrificing their own game to follow a team strategy clearly articulated by coaches - that is why we are improving rapidly.

As others have pointed out Gus lost the the majority of taps (which we 'sharked' according to our game plan) but then spread and placed himself in dangerous parts of the ground. This forced Sandy, when the game was tight and leeching from grasp to become more 'Gus aware' and Viola! Gus had him where he wanted him.

Keep in mind folks that whenever our boys are interviewed they always mention Dimma's Game Plan. Gus is playing his part.

 

[True Thylacine]

Gus more than did his bit. Not much you can do against that man mountain except jump and jump and jump again into him at him etc etc and hope to wear him down. Sandilands was awesome in the first 3 quarters but very ineffectual late in the 3rd and in the last when it was in the balance. Gus wore him down got away and grabbed a goal and gave off another. Overall Sandilands for 4 quarters but the crunch time belonged to Gus. He's not pretty but very effective and a reliable kick for a big bloke.

 

[TIAGRA]

Gus is a draft horse.
Going good.

A
What r ur thoughts on Sandilands at the opening bounce digging his foot into Gus's Guts

 

[Azzleberry]

I thought Angus Graham played his best game of the year on Saturday, even though he got only 17 hit-outs and was 'monstered' in that area of the game by Docker giant Aaron Sandilands. 'Gus' was able to push forward on several occasions and make himself dangerous. He kicked a goal and gave one away at a vital stage of the game late in the third quarter, to help us seize the initiative.

Dimma Hardwick (Direct from Dimma) 9-May

ENOUGH SAID