Lade and Brogan

[*PAF]

The ruck frees this year was a lottery that went against us more often than not. Or was it more than just bad luck.

Lade 28 frees for 34 against
Brogan 20 frees for 38 against, nearly 2:1 against.
Even De Luca had 1 for and 3 against in his 3 games.

That is a total of 49 for and a whopping 75 against for the year or a tad worse than 1.5:1 against.
Throw in a couple more for infringements by other players during a ruck contest and it is an area of major concern.

Once or twice might be a coincidence but to get it so wrong all year there must be more to it. We need to fix this for 2008.

 

[timeless]

there seems to be something different between when brogan pushes a player and when every other ruck in the league pushes a player, because he always gets called up on it

 

[Peninsula Boy]

The part taht really angers me about this indiscrepancy is usually the better players int he league get decisions for them. If you look at the top midfielders, they get better calls, especially against taggers but our rucks get treated like they've never rucked before.

To have a two time recent AA ruckman in Lade continually getting pinged in ridiculous.

 

[gytre]

I think there's a bit of a reputation factor in this. Brogan in particular is an aggressive player with a bit of a temper and that can often set the umpires against you. Players like Barry Hall and Jamie Charman often get a pretty raw deal from umpires also.

 

[macca23]

I had a yarn about this very topic of ruck frees with Rhett Biglands, and his explanation of them is that you can crash into the opposition ruckman with your knees or body as much as you like as long as your eyes never leave the football.

Watch Brogan carefully, particularly at centre bounces. He looks at the opposition ruckman rather than at the footy on far too many occasions which is why his frees against ratio is so high.

 

[*PAF]

I had a yarn about this very topic of ruck frees with Rhett Biglands, and his explanation of them is that you can crash into the opposition ruckman with your knees or body as much as you like as long as your eyes never leave the football.

Watch Brogan carefully, particularly at centre bounces. He looks at the opposition ruckman rather than at the footy on far too many occasions which is why his frees against ratio is so high.

I have heard commentators mention that very same thing but gee that is a bit like drawing a line for the sake of it.
Surely positioning is a very important part of rucking and part of that is knowing where your opponent is. I have seen frees go against us when all our players were trying to do is getting to the ball after a bad bounce.

Having said that, rules are rules however stupid they might seem to be and we have to learn to live by them.
Primus is our ruck coach so I suppose it is up to him to turn it around.

 

[The Hobo]

I don't see why it's a problem if the Ruckman is looking at the other, in a bid to know where the opposition is. As long as it's not eyes only on the Ruckman, in an attempt to run straight through him.

 

[jo172]

Wow the lottery of free kicks in the ruck contests was annoying yesterday!

Umpires need to understand that in a ruck contest a bit of body contact is kind of inevitable

 

[Power King]

in my heart, i honestly believe lade was ****ed over by umpires more times this season THAN ANY OTHER PLAYER IN THE AFL.

i've comented on this numerous times throughout the season.

it's a ****ing joke.