Autopsy To our fraud midfield

[JohnHinckleyJr]

 

[Poo Eckert]

butters literally won AA mid, AFLCA champion player of 2023 and most coruagous, he had a execptional seaosn, rozee back to back AA. s**t call mate.

Shot call! Lol

Come back to me when it’s a finals game of significance….. until then my position stands, to many supporters are obsessed with h & a success

 

[JakeNeadeFan]

RUCK 2023 TLR

I wanted to go through the ruck situation and posit that it was a black hole of a position for us this year. I don't think this will be news to everyone but I am happy to give it a bit of analysis. It was untalented, old, too young, injured, out of form, not clicking with the midfield. Just not the best.

Also, if there are some mistakes, post them and I will edit them in. I don't remember everything from the year. If you want to call the ruck duels, be my guest.

First off, we actually have to go before the season and see that our team traded out our obvious 2nd ruck in Peter 'laddie' Ladhams. What this means is that we didn't have a 2nd ruck to go and if Lycett got injured or showed poor form, which was the case, it would be very detrimental to the team as ruck is an important part of the ground. Given the wash up of the dog's breakfast of a season in ruck, this decision doesn't seem the best at all.

Lets have a look at the ruck options that went before us at 2023.

Scott Lycett - old, injured, out of form, unathletic, not clicking with the young midfield
Sam Hayes - hated by the coaches, can 't get around the park supposedly
Brynn Teakle - untalented and delisted. The less I say the better.
Dante Visentini - super young and not readyish

So we went into the year with very, very poor ruck stocks. Our first ruck is old and injured and we traded out our 2nd ruck. WTF?

I am going to use the Player Rating from Champion Data to try and get an understanding of the ruck situation. It is not perfect but just a very good guide.

There were 45 rucks listed by Champion Data. This is the Player Rating Average. Just a reminder that there are only 18 teams in the AFL.

Scott Lycett - 29 of 45
Sam Hayes - 39 of 45
Brynn Teakle - 40 of 45
Dante Visentini - 41 of 45

Not the best. You would hope our Number 1 rucking option would be in the Top 18. Just saying.

Minor Round.

The first 5 games are played by Lycett and seems to be on the decline with injuries already. Not the best.

Round 1 - Brisbane - Lycett 9.8 versus McInerney 12.6. We beat the Lions quite convincingly but McInerney shades Lycett. At best, you would call that even. At worst, McInerney gets him.

Round 2 - Collingwood - Lycett 5.4 versus Cameron 13.5. Collingwood and the umpires kill us. Cameron kills Lycett but the entire team was killed on that day.

Round 3 - Adelaide - Lycett 8.2 versus O'Reilly 17.4. The Crows kills us and O'Reilly beats Lycett with ease.

Round 4 - Sydney - Lycett 6.9 versus Ladhams 17.7. We just get over the line against the Swans. Butters starts his big minutes in the midfield. Lycett is beaten well in the ruck against their 2nd ruck which use to be our 2nd ruck. A bit embarrassing.

Round 5 - Western Bulldogs - Lycett 1.1 versus English 19.4. Lycett gets handsomely beaten by the 2023 AA ruck. IIRC, I think he is injured during the game.

The first five games by Lycett is that he gets beaten most games and he has problems with injuries. A red flag considering the season has just started.

From Round 6 to 9, out of nowhere, Brynn Teakle is picked over Sam Hayes. It is a disaster of epic proportions.

Round 6 - West Coast - Brynn Teakle 7.2 versus Bailey J Williams 17.5. We win the game easily but Teakle is chronically beaten by the young ruck.

Round 7 - St Kilda - Brynn Teakle 7 versus Rowan Marshall 22.3. Teakle is taken out back and beaten like a slave by one of the better rucks in the comp.

Round 8 - Essendon - Brynn Teakle 1.3 versus Sam Draper 17.6. Teakle is beaten to a pulp and Finalyson has to ruck for the majority of the game.

Round 9 - North Melbourne - Brynn Teakle 7.1 versus Todd Goldstein 22.3. Old rolled Gold beats Teakle to a bloody mess.

During this 4 game stretch, Teakle is well beaten in every game. Maybe not the best decision to play the WAFL offcast.

Lycett has now recovered from his injuries and play from Round 10 to Round 15 which is the game before the bye.

Round 10 - Melbourne - Scott Lycett 11.5 versus Brodie Grundy 12.8. Lycett breaks even and does alright. This is the time when playing Gawn and Grundy playing together is starting to be a problem for the Demons.

Round 11 - Richmond - Scott Lycett 12.3 versus Toby Nankervis 11.8. Lycett breaks even with Nankervis. Lycett has a bit of form under his belt. Yay.

Round 12 - Hawthorn - Scott Lycett 13.1 versus Ned Reeves 12.7. You would say that Lycett beats Reeves as he basically plays a half a young 1st ruck. Happyish days. Lycett is rested for the 2nd half of the game. Fans are angry as they want a percentage booster but I thought it was a really good sign that the team was thinking of the future.

Round 13 - Western Bulldogs - Scott Lycett 13.1 versus Tim English 13.6. In the return bout, Lycett does well and break even against the best ruck in the comp. Another tick.

Round 14 - Geelong - Scott Lycett 14 versus Mark Blicavs 6.4. For the first time, Lycett beats his opponent for the year. Going into the break there is some hope.

From Round 10 to Round 14 Lycett plays well enough and either breaks even with his opponent or beats them outright a couple of times. Heading into the bye with more rest, Lycett should come out firing for the rest of the year. Given our midfield is young and awesome, things are looking up.

But it is not meant to be, Lycett misses the next two games. Huge red flags.

Round 16 - Dante Visentini 1.1 versus Andrew Phillips 13.6. Lycett is a late withdrawal from the game and Visentini runs from the stands, his parents get in the car, boot studders are up and about. Dante only plays a small amount of gametime and Finlayson does most of the centre ruck work. Given the circumstances, Dante's first game is forgivable.

Round 17 - Gold Coast - Sam Hayes 8.8 versus Jarrod Witts 13.6. Hayes gets his first game since a long time and plays not bad against the hulking juggernaut of Witts.

Lycett is back for two more games and then is out for the rest of the minor round.

Round 18 - Carlton - Scott Lycett 12 versus Tom de Koning 13.6. Lycett comes back from injury and Carlton beat us and Lycett seems to break even.

Round 19 - Collingwood - Scott Lycett 4 versus Darcy Cameron 16.7. Cameron beats him quite well.

Round 20 - Adelaide - Dante Visentini 4.5 versus Reilly O'Brien 13.7. Dante plays OK but the Crows kills us and O'Brien beats him.

Round 21 - Geelong - Dante Visentini 11.8 versus Rhys Stanley 11.2. Dante gives glimpses of a real ruck for the future but it is against the 2nd Ruck of Stanley.

Round 22 - GWS - Sam Hayes 8.3 versus Kieran Briggs 19.7. Hayes comes in and gets beaten but I remember the game overall and Hayes was OK and seemed to break even against the premier young ruck who loves to get midfield type numbers.

Round 23 - Fremantle - Sam Hayes 8.9 versus Luke Jackson 18.1. Soundly beaten by one of the best and overall talented rucks in the league. I thought his tap work was pretty good though.

Round 24 - Richmond - Sam Hayes -1.9 versus Toby Nankervis 11.8. A poor showing by Hayes leading into finals. Can't remember if he was injured this game.

Finals

Scott Lycett returns from injury and plays a pretty decent game and a poor game but the way I remember both finals and his overall play is that he never really clicks with the young midfield.

Qualifying Final - Brisbane - Scott Lycett 12.5 versus Oscar McInerney 10.8. Champion Data gives this win to Lycett but we get smashed all over the park. He plays well enough but never really seems to gel with the young midfield.

Semi-Final - Giants - Scott Lycett 1.3 versus Kieran Briggs 13.7. Briggs dominates the first half and Lycett is injured during the game.

In Conclusion

Lycett was a very poor 1st ruck for us this year.
Our backup rucks were poor.
Our secondary rucks of Dixon and Finlayson had real problems as well.
We traded away our 2nd ruck.
The decision to go with Teakle after Lycett was injured was a joke.
Dante was way too young but at least the boy has some fire.
Hayes is probably gone. Can we put it down to irreconciliable differences.

The ruck situation this year was a black hole and this is really poor management from the coaching and list management staff considering we have one of the best and young midfields in the competition. We really need a young ruck who can complement Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis for the future.

Our rucks were so poor this year for a myriad of reasons that even a ruck that can break even would be a severe upgrade on what we rolled out this year. We are looking at Jordon Sweet and I get the feeling he is more of the Brendon Lade type of tap ruck which I think will fit in really well with the young midfield. People want him to be able to mark and I don't know if he's the second coming of Corey McKernan in that way but if he taps well, it will give the young midfield huge leaps of confidence in the centre square. He is the right age profile and hopefully has learnt a lot being under Tim English. He has connections to Josh Carr and more importantly, Connor Rozee and should be chomping at the bit to play senior football. Looking at his stats, he seems to be able to bob up and kick a goal as well. He could really catapult an already good midfield into the stratosphere.

Also, our secondary rucks of Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson was struck with problems as well. Dixon is an excellent 2nd ruck in game but was injured for most of the year like Lycett which really impeded his impact on games. When he is thrown into the ruck late in games, he can really impact the contest and team strongly. Finalyson seemed to be found out and didn't jump and then opposition rucks knew and adjusted accordingly. So our secondary rucks in games wasn't the best either this year.

If Dante is good to go, he could be our 2nd ruck and then I would ditch Lycett and Hayes and draft two rucks. Given the draft is rife with excellent ruck talent this year, I would pluck out two like Goad and Vigo but dependent on draft picks, we could get a cracker.

So for next year, I hope we get some serious sweet light into the black hole that was our ruck situation this year.

Teakle 7.2 to Williams 17.5 - Teakle chronically (?) beaten
Hayes 8.3 to Briggs 19.7 - Hayes breaks even

interesting.

Lycett has always been a negating ruck and he's never going to put up English or Gawn numbers. His objective is to limit the opposition. The problem with him is that he is physically cooked and has been that way for at least the past two years, maybe longer. And you can kind of see it in his form, he plays a few decent games, gets a niggle, then falls off a cliff.

To be fair to him, I also don't think he was bad in either finals (up until he got injured... again). He put in a better performance than Hayes would have.

What we have completely failed to do is to take advantage of the fact that he is injured all the time and actually blood a decent replacement. And that starts with some form of talent ID. You can't continually draft rucks, play them for a few games, and then realise they are not who you want. That's just wasting time and resources.

Find a guy who has the traits you want. Play the guy for 50 games. Live through the highs and lows and then decide if he is any good after that.

 

[Peninsula Boy]

Teakle 7.2 to Williams 17.5 - Teakle chronically (?) beaten
Hayes 8.3 to Briggs 19.7 - Hayes breaks even

interesting.

Lycett has always been a negating ruck and he's never going to put up English or Gawn numbers. His objective is to limit the opposition. The problem with him is that he is physically cooked and has been that way for at least the past two years, maybe longer. And you can kind of see it in his form, he plays a few decent games, gets a niggle, then falls off a cliff.

To be fair to him, I also don't think he was bad in either finals (up until he got injured... again). He put in a better performance than Hayes would have.

What we have completely failed to do is to take advantage of the fact that he is injured all the time and actually blood a decent replacement. And that starts with some form of talent ID. You can't continually draft rucks, play them for a few games, and then realise they are not who you want. That's just wasting time and resources.

Find a guy who has the traits you want. Play the guy for 50 games. Live through the highs and lows and then decide if he is any good after that.

From what I remember Teakle was soundly beaten in those 4 games he played this year.

And while there is a similar disparity between both of the games you've shown, I am an eye test analyst first and then look to the stats. I might be biased but I remember Hayes who is a more attacking ruck playing OK against Briggs who I had been banging on about as the next big ruck thing. The midfield seemed to gel with him a bit more.

And this bleeds into your next point. Why would you want a negating ruck with Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis. Find the guy, hopefully Sweet, and stick with him and he could pay off handsomely.

If we get him, I'm excited.

 

[JakeNeadeFan]

From what I remember Teakle was soundly beaten in those 4 games he played this year.

And while there is a similar disparity between both of the games you've shown, I am an eye test analyst first and then look to the stats. I might be biased but I remember Hayes who is a more attacking ruck playing OK against Briggs who I had been banging on about as the next big ruck thing. The midfield seemed to gel with him a bit more.

And this bleeds into your next point. Why would you want a negating ruck with Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis. Find the guy, hopefully Sweet, and stick with him and he could pay off handsomely.

If we get him, I'm excited.

I thought they were both pretty terrible. Hayes did a little bit better compared to my expectation, but still got destroyed. It wasn't a break even, that's just rose coloured glasses.

No club wants a negating ruck. Every club wants a gun ruck. But it's about opportunity and resource allocation.

There's pretty good evidence to suggest you shouldn't be dumping a huge amount of cap room into a star ruck, because the bearing they have on the game is relatively small compared to other players.

If we can find a relatively low cost ruck who is at least semi competent, a la Darcy Cameron, then I'm happy with that. We just need to not get belted in the ruck every week.