The Ball-Up

[Proud SJW]

Was watching some game last week (don't remember which one) when one of the channel seven commentators made an interesting observation.
Now I'm fully aware that using that as an intro might make people either laugh or gasp in surprise and stop reading, but...

One of the umpires (Rosebery?) was tossing the ball up a little higher than normal. The observation was that it reduced congestion a little, made the rucks work a bit harder and made a bit more of a show of the ball-up, and stopped a lot of the third man up play.
So I watched a Freo game later and did indeed notice that when the usual toss up is made, it does actually reduce Sandiland's effectiveness a little in negating some of his height advantage, making the whole thing too rushed and allowing the third man in more often.
Found myself hoping it was a deliberate ploy by Rosebery to reduce congestion, and also I was hoping he'd be umpiring in the finals in our games.

Thoughts?

 

[Jezzitizle]

How does it reduce congestion?

 

[Proud SJW]

How does it reduce congestion?

Like I said I was watching us the next week, and I think he had a point. A half-second more airtime gives the rucks a half-second longer to plan things in their heads - and that's quite a long time for a sportsman to size things up.
In our game the week after, at least one of the umpires was throwing these dinky little balls in the air just over Sandi's head. Not long enough for the rucks to properly size things up, gives the third man an opportunity, and at least half of those throw-ups had to be made again because the players were in there like flies on jam on a ball that had no option but to be tapped straight down. Instant stoppage, another throw up.

Doesn't matter I suppose, don't think anyone's really interested judging by the lack of responses, but I suggest you keep an eye on it the next couple of games. Rosebery in particular seems to have it right, I'm seeing less additional stoppages from his throw ups than from other umpires.
Need to watch longer to get a clearer idea.

 

[ydraw]

Throwing the ball higher allows you more of a run-up.

 

[Proud SJW]

Throwing the ball higher allows you more of a run-up.

Yeah true, but are you thinking third man up getting a run, or a Sandi-Nic Nat battle, Sandi size vs Nic Nat's leap?
In that second scenario, third man up is likely to infringe more often than not, in my view. and option B, well... I can't see that being bad for the game at all.

 

[ydraw]

I would guess it would favour Sandilands since Naitanui's weapon is his standing vertical leap. Give another guy a run up and he can jump pretty high, but Naitanui does it from a standing start.

 

[Unique Name]

Will be crazy in 10 years time. Imagine a 7ft+ American ruckmen who has the agility of Stephen Hill.

The scouts will muck up 99 times out of 100 but they'll keep trying with these camps in the US and eventually they'll find that rare diamond. A pure athlete that just dominates at any sport he tries and happens to be 7ft tall.

A population of 330 million and a schooling sysyem that cares more about finding elite sporting talent than education. It's going to happen, just a matter of when.

 

[theGav56]

Will be crazy in 10 years time. Imagine a 7ft+ American ruckmen who has the agility of Stephen Hill.

The scouts will muck up 99 times out of 100 but they'll keep trying with these camps in the US and eventually they'll find that rare diamond. A pure athlete that just dominates at any sport he tries and happens to be 7ft tall.

A population of 330 million and a schooling sysyem that cares more about finding elite sporting talent than education. It's going to happen, just a matter of when.

Hey, that pure athlete should play basketball in the US. Big bucks compare to AFL.

 

[ydraw]

The issue in America really is that we're only getting the castoffs, since the actual great athletes go to the NBA or NFL instead and make 7 figures a year.

Pretty much all the guys at the combine are guys who played college basketball but weren't good enough to go pro.

It's why the Irish recruits have been much more successful. Gaelic football pays practically nothing. We are getting the absolute cream of the crop from Ireland, but only the dregs from America.

 

[Unique Name]

The issue in America really is that we're only getting the castoffs, since the actual great athletes go to the NBA or NFL instead and make 7 figures a year.

Pretty much all the guys at the combine are guys who played college basketball but weren't good enough to go pro.

It's why the Irish recruits have been much more successful. Gaelic football pays practically nothing. We are getting the absolute cream of the crop from Ireland, but only the dregs from America.

America has more cast-offs in one year than the AFL actually drafts in 10 years. We're spending very little at the moment looking into the US. Most clubs aren't even bothered. That'll change the second one team strikes gold.

I reckon in ten years time at least a quarter of the leagues main ruckman will have been scouted from within the US.

 

[ydraw]

America has more cast-offs in one year than the AFL actually drafts in 10 years. We're spending very little at the moment looking into the US. Most clubs aren't even bothered. That'll change the second one team strikes gold.

I reckon in ten years time at least a quarter of the leagues main ruckman will have been scouted from within the US.

I'm not so sure.

If I was an AFL recruiter I'd stop looking for ruckmen all the time and take a closer look at guys who never made the NBA because they weren't quite tall enough. Basketball is pretty unforgiving with height, unlike AFL where there are plenty of spots in the team for blokes who are only around 6 foot. There must be thousands of really talented guys who never made it purely because they weren't big enough.

If you look at the Irish recruits we are getting, only Stynes was a ruckmen. Most of them have been speedy, agile half back types.