Finals rucks...what to do with ours

[kevind]

Re: Finals ruck...

If Wood is our no.1 ruck , we have no chance of being Premiers. How many times do we have to provide proof that ruckmen who lack physical presence are bad options if finals??????

Jolly seems to be still carrying a knee injury and that is a concern, but Cameron Wood as our no.1 , no, please no!!!! Leigh Brown is also required for the physical stuff in finals, so I would imagine Cameron Wood won't be in the side next week.

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

Re: Finals ruck...

Pies fans and others have been horribly overrating Jolly over the past couple of years probably because we have had such ordinary ruckman before Jolly. Jolly is a good ruckman, nothing more nothing less. Against the best ruckmen in the comp, he gets soundly beaten. This season he has been worse than last but even last year it frustrates me people laud him about GF2 without adding that he needed to step up after GF1 when he was beaten by Kosi. Remember Kosi outrunning him into the fwd pocket and Jolly just trailing in behind (Kosi set up a goal), no intensity at probably the most crucial moment of our season at the time.
I think his body is just about shot. How awesome it would have been if we had somehow forecasted Mumford's rise and plucked him.

Added to this last night Jolly was shameful. If Cam Wood played like that there would be people calling for his immediate decapatation.
I'd say looking into the future we should be speaking with Shaun Hampson's management.

 

[mattys123]

Re: Finals ruck...

Interesting to note, the last time we played the Eagles (Round 10 at the MCG) we won by 52 despite Jolly and Leigh Brown not playing, and the side virtually not having a second ruckman.

Wood played fairly well that afternoon, but we can't take him into the finals as our number one ruck, we may as well commit football suicide right now.

Jolly and Brown will lead us in September (and October), nothing more is certain.

 

[Fluro Boots]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly is an excellent ruckman, he just seems to give away a few frees against bigger ruckman though. Not sure if it's the way he's being umpired or if it's his technique. I noticed it against freo and again last night against Ottens. Against smaller or similar sized opponents Jolly is far too good. He might just need to revise his strategy against the monster ruckman.

 

[Knightmare]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly has had a poor season but at no stage has Wood done anything to suggest he has come close to surpassing him.

Jolly anyday for me.

Simply wouldn't feel comfortable with Wood rucking in any must win game.

 

[mwalker]

Re: Finals ruck...

Do you know why Jolly gives away all these frees? Its because he's lost his leap and hasn't worked out the other way to ruck and tries to engage in wrestling.

I'm not suggesting Jolly should be dropped immediately but if he has another shocker against the Eagles will the "Jolly good, Wood bad" majority realize that Wood is our in form ruck right now?

Dropping Wood will be a huge mistake.

Jolly was giving frees away last year as well. Not disputing he is not fully fit either. Atleast you have him in for WCE.

Wood stays in with Jolly then who do we drop. Hard to do it to the Anvil as he has paid down back the last two weeks and thus not his normal role. Tarrant? Dawes? Because I doubt we are going to go in with all 5 again.

 

[rachhanley]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly was struggling last night, I don't know what it came down to, if it was an injury/fitness issue, or if it was a mentality issue or if he was preserving himself for finals. But, wow, I haven't ever seen him look so unenthusiastic throughout an entire game. I just hope to god it was the latter and he's saving his best for finals. Having said that, there is no way NO WAY I would drop him for Wood.

 

[Bugglz]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly was struggling last night, I don't know what it came down to, if it was an injury/fitness issue, or if it was a mentality issue or if he was preserving himself for finals. But, wow, I haven't ever seen him look so unenthusiastic throughout an entire game. I just hope to god it was the latter and he's saving his best for finals. Having said that, there is no way NO WAY I would drop him for Wood.

It looks likely that Wood will be dropped for the Weagles game (especially with it looking to be wet), but if Jolly has another shocker then some serious questions need to be asked I think.

 

[PieBeast]

Re: Finals ruck...

This is some nice drivel from you, before last night, Jolly hadn't had a negative free kick differential for 7 weeks.

Forgive me for not doing a thorough research prior to posting and just relying on the obvious-Jolly giving away multitude of frees in the ruck. At a guess his free kick differential will be negative over the whole season so I suggest you stick to berating everyone's arrogance and then coming out yourself and declaring next week's game a foregone conclusion.....

 

[PieBeast]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly was giving frees away last year as well. Not disputing he is not fully fit either. Atleast you have him in for WCE.

Wood stays in with Jolly then who do we drop. Hard to do it to the Anvil as he has paid down back the last two weeks and thus not his normal role. Tarrant? Dawes? Because I doubt we are going to go in with all 5 again.

With all due respect but I don't see any point of continuing this discussion if you aren't prepared to admit Wood is our only in form ruck right now.
Wood played well against Cox/Nik Nat duo last time and is on fire ATM, Jolly is struggling big time and Brown hasn't influenced a game in yonks, don't care who gets dropped but it shouldn't be Wood.
Have a sneaky suspicion Mick will agree with me (for a change)

 

[rose jam]

Re: Finals ruck...

Wood is back-up, won't play, why is this even a discussion?

 

[noideaatall]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly was struggling last night, I don't know what it came down to, if it was an injury/fitness issue, or if it was a mentality issue or if he was preserving himself for finals. But, wow, I haven't ever seen him look so unenthusiastic throughout an entire game. I just hope to god it was the latter and he's saving his best for finals. Having said that, there is no way NO WAY I would drop him for Wood.

totally agree. I thought it was obvious he was taking it easy. His form this year has been average. Wood's very average tho slightly better the last few games. You'd have to assume tho Wood has been playing as good as he can, playing for a spot. Jolly has been cruising - picking 2/3 ruckman maybe deliberately to make that possible. He can play a lot better. Given on recent form there isn't that much difference between the two surely picking the player with a much greater upside wins out

 

[Jesus Baulks]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly will play, Leroy will play, Wood will get dropped. Foregone conclusion.

 

[Swooop]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly will play, Leroy will play, Wood will get dropped. Foregone conclusion.

Yep think you're right.

Wood's been better lately, but still personally don't want to see him out there with the pressure on in a final.

Seen too many lame arse performances from him, have no trust in him just yet.

Will be interesting if MC do. Even against all the talls of WCE, do not want to see all three play, because that makes us top heavy which decimates our true strength which is fearsome tackling pressure on the ball carrier and the next in line and so on.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Re: Finals ruck...

I trust Wood to to the job and he is easily in the best form of any of our ruckman, and has been so for a month. I am especially pleased to see him taking contested marks and kicking goals.

Would I pick him? Probably not just yet. Jolly is still the incumbent and hasnt done enough to be dropped. The conservative move is to stick with Jolly and Brown. The brave move would be to make room for Wood.

Its a good problem to have. Form is a powerful weapon and Wood has forced a dilemma upon the selectors.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Re: Finals ruck...

One of the crucial topics leading into this weekends game, given our strength in this area you need to make the right call, either way on Woods and Jolly.

I don't think you can rely on getting smashed in the hitouts and breaking even in the clearances like you did last time we played. It may happen, but we could also get on top there which evens the game up a bit (even though you'd more than likely still win).

Nic Nat especially has taken his hitouts to advantage to another level the last month or so, some of them have been incredible to midfielders already on the burst.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Re: Finals ruck...

His treatment by the umps is reminiscent of what Tarrant was copping in his last couple of years at Collingwood.

Ridiculous.

What the HELL was with those bounces? 2 go out of the circle Jolly's way "Bring it back". 2 go out of the circle Otten's way "Play on".

What a joke.

 

[Sloth]

Re: Finals ruck...

Play Witts & Ceglar

 

[Lockyer24]

Re: Finals ruck...

I'm of the opinion we have been playing Wood (even with Leroy in the side) as Jolly has been so poor. Think we will go with Jolly this week, but I wouldn't write off Wood yet for this Finals campaign.

 

[Ed D]

Re: Finals ruck...

This was interesting:

Jolly has a +10 record for clearances in the past five weeks from 94 centre-bounce contests.

Cameron Wood, who has been Jolly's partner in recent weeks, is tracking at -4 from 38 centre bounces.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl...n-the-afl-finals/story-e6frf3e3-1226129475711

 

[Top2]

Re: Finals ruck...

The great Allan Jeans said he lost 5 grand finals and he lost the ruck in all 5 grand finals, the ruck is so important and I have faith in Jolly,Brown & Wood to stand up over the next month. Go Pies

 

[Snag Breac]

Re: Finals ruck...

The ruck is an imprecise science. We'll just hoover up their balls as well as our own, if you get my meaning.

 

[MarkT2]

Re: Finals ruck...

Jolly is in zero danger of losing his position.

The Wood vs Brown debate is a more interesting one.

Spot on.

Given Brown was getting played out of position it's hard to crucify him for his performance. When he has been in the ruck he has actually done alright.

I don't think Brown has been effective forward or in the ruck for much of this season. He is not a good back option and nener has been. He needs to impact up forward to justify what we lose when he ruks. By and large he gets beaten in the ruck.

Hard too to pick Wood ahead of Brown as a forward off the one good game.

Agree but in reality Brown hasn't don'e much since hios great 1/4 v Dogs early in the year.


Personally I'd be a bit bold and select Wood ahead of Brown against WCE, particularly given their two quality ruck options. Then again I have this recurring image of that giant Whitts bloke being a suprise selection and ripping blokes arms off and smashing them over the head with them while grown men and women in WCE jumpers run screaming from the ground.

 

[rachhanley]

Re: Finals ruck...

Then again I have this recurring image of that giant Whitts bloke being a suprise selection and ripping blokes arms off and smashing them over the head with them while grown men and women in WCE jumpers run screaming from the ground.

I've heard of this guy but never really paid that much attention.. until I saw the training photos from St.Kilda beach yesterday... How old is he? When is he likely to debut? How many more seasons do you guys think Jolly has left in him?

 

[dogbert]

Re: Finals ruck...

Now Leigh Matthews has chipped in, claiming we have the worst ruck division out of all Top 8 teams.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/122905/default.aspx