Player Spotlight Grigg not jumping at Ruck contests and what to do with Moore

[TheSmokingGun]

agree with what has been mentioned in here already.

If Moore is playing, he has to do some ruck work. and that isn't a shot at Moore, as he is only doing what the coaches are asking him to do, but his role needs to change and evolve.

We put ourselves under the pump massively by letting the opposition get quick, easy centre clearances. It's not smart football.


I know this happened by mistake in the JLT series, but when Nank was off with a head knock, Garthwaite was in the middle doing some ruck work and was competitive.

We know he was a forward as a junior, and can swing to the backline as per his VFL form.

It might even allow Vlaustin to swing forward a bit more as well as another marking option.


I know i say this almost every week, but we have to be very very careful that we don't burn Nank out.

and this small 2nd ruckman idea is causing us more headaches than we need at the moment.

We burnt maric out unfortunately. Hopefully the club has learned its lesson.

For my two cents, i'd stick with CCJ or bring soldo in. Soldo's got more experience then balta... check out the ivan soldo appreciation society on FB if you want a laugh.

 

[Tango67]

why isn't Jack our 2nd Ruck?

 

[Sterge]

why isn't Jack our 2nd Ruck?

'you don't take a Ferrari four wheel driving'

 

[HumanMeatball]

Soldo to ruck, nank up forward and pinch hit

 

[HumanMeatball]

We burnt maric out unfortunately. Hopefully the club has learned its lesson.

For my two cents, i'd stick with CCJ or bring soldo in. Soldo's got more experience then balta... check out the ivan soldo appreciation society on FB if you want a laugh.

Don’t buy the we burnt Maric narrative. 30 is when most rucks lose there jump and decline regardless.

 

[HTT]

I don't think playing someone like Cotch in the ruck is worthwhile at all. Cotch can genuinely impact the contest at ground level and playing him in the ruck is only taking him out of that.

Playing no one in the ruck is an interesting idea. It gives us a spare somewhere else, which could be used in various ways. The spare could either be an extra mid who plays loose (I'm thinking an Edwards type who can read the ball well and then, as we've seen, can get it to almost anyone he chooses), or someone a kick away waiting to intercept an opposition clearance. I'd personally lean towards the extra mid, because players going unmarked at stoppages are usually highly damaging. Eventually opposition sides would bring an extra into the contest though, which means our loose player would be elsewhere.

 

[purr hana]

Hey team- big Ivan had an 'infected' in grown toenail, he should be fine for this week, cut it back and puss it out, all good we hope.

 

[Dr Tigris]

Hey team- big Ivan had an 'infected' in grown toenail, he should be fine for this week, cut it back and puss it out, all good we hope.

If it was fully infected that would hurt, and make him completely immobile. Fix it up and 2 days later he's fine.

I reckon other teams have gone fully into how we (don't) play the ruck. Change their set ups to give them an advantage. On the other hand we're struggling to stay in tune right now. Essendon game apart. Either we are being worked out, or we are just going ATM.

 

[Tango67]

cant protect Jack anymore, if it's good enough for Rioli, Cotchin and others then Jack rucks

 

[RunningBounce]

Grigg, Cotch, Dusty etc all do the same thing. They engage with the body, then step out of the way to try to shark the oppo's hit-out.

And we've been figured it out. We were always going to be. We were lucky to get away with it for as long as we did.

Now, we need these guys to a) run and jump at the ruck contest or b) get out of the way and let a big fella run and jump at the ruck contest. We need a contest because the oppo now know that we aren't intending to contest and their ruck can just take the piss.

I'm all for Moore taking the hit-outs. He doesn't do it heaps in the VFL (usually playing in a team that has Soldo, Chol, CCJ this season, sometimes Hampson, last year Maric), but he does do it. He has a great vertical leap. His very quick and could learn to expose the oppo 2nd ruck around the ground.

But his what, 5 games in? I remember standing on the platform at Southern Cross station after watching the Tigers with a very young Riewoldt take a belting. A bloke there in yellow and black told me JR#8 was a "pea-heart". "Going nowhere. Gunna be nuthin to noone." He wasn't alone in those views at that time. KPFs really can't be judged until ~50 games.

For mine, the solution is pump games into Moore or pump games into Soldo. Both are good, developing players who will be serviceable, if not champions.

CCJ was great rucking against Willy this week, I thought, but his a fair way off being AFL sized. Balta could be anything, including a ruck, but his a fair way off too. His best is AFL-level but his worst... And Chol - Could be a second ruck / forward, but I reckon he looks more comfortable at FB.

 

[RunningBounce]

cant protect Jack anymore, if it's good enough for Rioli, Cotchin and others then Jack rucks

I reckon he has done his share when the footy has been in F50. Not so much this year, and never seen him take the centre bounce. To be fair, a skilled ruck can do real damage to an amateur at the centre bounce. Grigg needed stitches to the lip after copping a knee (to the face) last season.

 

[RunningBounce]

I know this happened by mistake in the JLT series, but when Nank was off with a head knock, Garthwaite was in the middle doing some ruck work and was competitive.

Garthy's even better at KPD at VFL-level than he was in the ruck during the JLT. Wouldn't mind him getting a run for Astbury this week.

 

[RunningBounce]

Playing no one in the ruck is an interesting idea. It gives us a spare somewhere else, which could be used in various ways. The spare could either be an extra mid who plays loose (I'm thinking an Edwards type who can read the ball well and then, as we've seen, can get it to almost anyone he chooses)

I reckon our "spare" is often the midfielder in the ruck contest. As I said, they just don't jump. They wrestle like they're thinking to jump, then step back to shark.

Perhaps we would be better with noone nominating and having Sheds loitering as the spare on the defensive side of the stoppage?

 

[Goldust]

Said it elsewhere, we're losing twice over with Grigg.
Rucking takes a certain body type and weight to do it effectively, it's actually wearing Grigg down very quoickly ... hence his form and speed have dropped considerably on 2017. He's doing work he wasn't built for.

 

[Tango67]

our side has 3 genuine talls outside of a ruck
Rance, Astbury and Jack

cant protect all of them so someone has to step up or we play a 2nd ruck

risk the injury to keep our structure or blow the structure and add Soldo, or a newby

 

[HTT]

I reckon our "spare" is often the midfielder in the ruck contest. As I said, they just don't jump. They wrestle like they're thinking to jump, then step back to shark.

Perhaps we would be better with noone nominating and having Sheds loitering as the spare on the defensive side of the stoppage?

I'd rather no one nominate and have someone like shedda loitering around the pack, attempting to be loose, sorta like what you describe.

 

[RunningBounce]

I'd rather no one nominate and have someone like shedda loitering around the pack, attempting to be loose, sorta like what you describe.

I'm with you. Gotta be better than Ryder putting the ball wherever he wants while our "extra" stands next to him watching.

 

[Tango67]

that strategy has been worked out and is now out of date

 

[Sterge]

cant protect Jack anymore, if it's good enough for Rioli, Cotchin and others then Jack rucks

It shouldn't be for any of them, if we are going to play a second forward he should also second ruck

 

[Tigerish09]

Trade our best players and start rebuilding - we're ******


Oh and Hampson is gone won't touch a footy again

He wasn’t touching it much when he was on the field either.

 

[Wacko23Jacko]

I don't necessarily our less dominant performances and defeats are us being caught out 100% but also a case of us trying to implement a game plan with the wrong structure/balance of players. Not a lot has changed strategy wise yet we are fielding completely different looking teams and expecting blokes to shoulder extra work to carry passengers or blokes playing in the wrong part of the ground.

Think our performance on the weekend was definitely more a symptom of the quality of our midfield and depth we had out there rather than being a big man down etc.

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Towno to play Ruck and just put an x on their chest.

 

[TigerImposter]

Towno to play Ruck and just put an x on their chest.

If he wasn’t so reckless he would be ideal in the midfield, but my recollection of him in there is that he gives away too many frees.

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

If he wasn’t so reckless he would be ideal in the midfield, but my recollection of him in there is that he gives away too many frees.

He does because he just lacks that really quick movement and his timing goes astray. He’s a much more intelligent player than people give him credit but those quick mids don’t give much time for thinking.
He’s obviously gone about bashing the door down to get back in, and I think we are missing him in our forward system. The only issue is that for him to come in it would have to be Moore. Be nice if there was some way they could both get a crack but I just can’t see how.
I can see Moore going out for him on one hand, but I think they’d like to persist with the taller player on the other.

 

[Bojangles17]

Persist with Moore 5 games in people throwing him to the lions needs time and we need another tall.I was wondering why he wasn't going in the ruck does do it in vfl ?.

Otherwise give Soldo the duty and play Nank forward.Worked last year in games no issue and Soldo has improved.

When Moore took 5 marks i50 v ess it adds another dimension to our forward line , yep was trash on Friday as was caddy and other more credentialed players , give him another couple of games to take a more rounded view of his ability