What to do with our ruckmen?

[Mismatched]

I think the feeling is with Stevens, Walker and Tippett already playing as tall forwards, Moran would make us too top heavy, and is not good enough at the moment to displace any of them. Mind you, wouldn't surprise me if he came in for Walker this week, but long term, it's clearly not going to be that way.

Agree, you'd have to remove one of Stevens or Walker from the forward line for it to happen. The way he's been playing I wouldn't mind seeing Stevens move back into defence as the 3rd tall/Basset role. Although again, it wouldn't surprise me to see Walker having a run in the SANFL either.

 

[adelaide_40]

I would like to see Tippet doing the ruck up foward and playing up foward, He's a great contested mark which is what we need atm. As has been mention Walker doing the ruckwork in the foward line is bad.

Have Maric/Griffin doing the ruck elsewhere.

 

[beartoo]

Tippett ... is an excellent contested mark...

I keep hearing this and I do not believe it to be true. So far this year in 6 matches Tippett has taken 21 marks, 7 of them have been contested. I have never seen Tippett soar over a pack and only once or twice has he split a pack to take a mark and not once has he done that this year.
He is leading the side in hard ball gets, so it seems his value might be more below the knees that above at present. If he plays in the ruck this week, it will be interesting to see him go head to head with Hudson in the centre square. Should be quite a scrap on the ground.
There are an awful lot of rose-coloured glasses being worn on this site about Tippett and his contested marking ability and what might happen if he is played as a permanent forward. If he is opposed to a decent defender, his returns are likely to be quite slender. (hey, that rhymes

 

[Mismatched]

I keep hearing this and I do not believe it to be true. So far this year in 6 matches Tippett has taken 21 marks, 7 of them have been contested. I have never seen Tippett soar over a pack and only once or twice has he split a pack to take a mark and not once has he done that this year.
He is leading the side in hard ball gets, so it seems his value might be more below the knees that above at present. If he plays in the ruck this week, it will be interesting to see him go head to head with Hudson in the centre square. Should be quite a scrap on the ground.
There are an awful lot of rose-coloured glasses being worn on this site about Tippett and his contested marking ability and what might happen if he is played as a permanent forward. If he is opposed to a decent defender, his returns are likely to be quite slender. (hey, that rhymes

To put this in perspective, 7 contested marks has Tippet as leading the Crows in contested grabs, so I'd say 7 is a pretty decent number. He's also spent the vast majority of his time as a ruckman this season, not a key forward, where most of his marks are coming in uncontested situations resulting from hard work into space.

 

[cmndstab]

I could be wrong but my memory is that last year Kurt Tippett had more contested marks than uncontested marks, which would make him one of very few in the league, I'd wager.

 

[thebirdman 24]

To put this in perspective, 7 contested marks has Tippet as leading the Crows in contested grabs, so I'd say 7 is a pretty decent number. He's also spent the vast majority of his time as a ruckman this season, not a key forward, where most of his marks are coming in uncontested situations resulting from hard work into space.

He is leading our contesting our marks whilst spending (im not too sure of the figure) but a large portion of that in the ruck. Imagine if he spent 90% gametime up forward? Not saying we should do this, but unless were really struggling and not being competitive, keep Tippett forward.

Craig always talks about how Tippett is going to end up being a power forward not a number one ruckman.

 

[icrow32]

The most worrying aspect with our ruckman, is that the 2 ruckman in which most of our hopes are with for the next 5 to 7 years have both been dropped to the SANFL within the first 6 weeks of the season.

 

[kulak]

I think the Tippett / Moran combination might work. Tippett in for the centre clearance and then go forward, Moran starts out at CHB and then covers the defence and midfield as ruckman / extra midfielder.

But really, I don't have much confidence in any of them other than Tippett. I've got more confidence in Walker and Stevens to hold down a key forward posts than I do in any of Maric, Griffin or Moran to become a lead ruckman. So no issue with Tippett being no 1 ruckman here.

 

[Stiffy_18]

I think the Tippett / Moran combination might work. Tippett in for the centre clearance and then go forward, Moran starts out at CHB and then covers the defence and midfield as ruckman / extra midfielder.

But really, I don't have much confidence in any of them other than Tippett. I've got more confidence in Walker and Stevens to hold down a key forward posts than I do in any of Maric, Griffin or Moran to become a lead ruckman. So no issue with Tippett being no 1 ruckman here.

When in form Maric is very good ruckman. His downfall however is that he is not overly athletic, nor is he a modern day ruckman. He more of a throwback ruckman. I still love his competitivness and fire in the belly.

He just has that never say die attitude and if anything he can be accused of trying to hard at times hence the FA count. But I still take him with is flaws all day every day. He takes a while to warm up and generally plays really well from midseason onwards. Maybe its due to interupted pre-seasons but he does take a while to get the rythm.

He is good at taps, he hunts it at ground level and he has that hardness and want to get the ball when it hits the deck. I like that in a ruckman.

Having said that, as much as I love Maric, Griffin is a better overall ruckman. Better at taps, more athletic, better mark, better tackler, better at getting into play after the ball hits the ground and overall a better athlete. The problem of course is that he is still needed in the forward line. For the time being, I like the dual role for Tippett even though he is by far our best ruckman and also by far our best contested mark deep in the forward line. If we had 2 Kurt Tippett's we would be set.