Always Right Match Committee Round 12 v Geelong at Marvel on Friday Night

[azabob]

Has O'Brien rucked before?

Has Khamis other than his 3 part time VFL outings?

[Axe Man]

I'm thinking O'Brien will be our 2nd ruck.

Khamis doesn't have the fitness base or conditioning to play second tall forward and chop out in the ruck.

Stanley and Blicavas maybe not great ruckman but they are seasoned bodies and use to the crash and bash nature of ruckwork.

I guess that makes sense with Geelong just having the 2 tall forwards. Richards should be able to matchup on the next tallest in Rohan if O'Brien isn't down there.

[azabob]

I guess that makes sense with Geelong just having the 2 tall forwards. Richards should be able to matchup on the next tallest in Rohan if O'Brien isn't down there.

Ok, if it makes sense we can rule out O'Brien rucking.

[MrMahatma]

Match will be over at 3 qtr time when we're 10 goals up so Chilli can spend the full last qtr on the bench and get his 75% game time.

Caleb can ruck. We're gonna win.

[Grantysghost]

I am with you Mr M, I don't see any structural issues in the way we set up. Whether the players are good enough to go all the way is another matter.

For those thinking our backline is fragile, we are once more one of the hardest to score against (7th), and could have been better if Keath didn't miss half of the first half of the season. As for scoring, well we are the 4th highest for scoring.

As long as we are winning the clearances, who cares about the rucks, especially 2nd ruck.

Well I guess we have to beat teams like Melbourne so I kind of care

Structurally we are ok, we just lack personnel in some key areas.

Ruckwise, English is coming on so well I'm ok with a part time second. But then I think about Melbourne and worry again !

[Happy Days]

I don’t like affecting the structure of the back six for ruck relief, particularly when O’Brien doesn’t really offer anything that Buku doesn’t.

He’s a frankly brutal decision maker with the ball but O’Brien’s intercept game is way better than I was expecting it to be. He’s gonna be critical to helping Keath and Gards and I don’t want him anywhere near a ruck contest.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

And by side show I mean it's the easiest of easy things to point to when we are looking for an excuse as to why things aren't going as we might like, and the most ambiguous to measure in terms of impact on a result.

It's perfect forum fodder, and that's fine. But it's off the mark.

We have the talent across the ground to compete. We have players rotating through the middle who if they play for each other we can do better than compete. Our forwards if they run each way and pressure to lock the ball into our scoring zone will get opportunities and we can compete. Doing that and creating dirty ball for opposition forwards brings our backline into the game rather than defending it, and they can compete.

It's simple, and it's effort and mindset based. Whoever is the second ruck is irrelevant, mostly, just like Jackson would have been in the Grand Final if our midfielders had the right mindset and competed the right way.

I get what you are saying jee, but that's a little tongue in cheek.

Any side or individual that has won anything, ever, has had the right 'mindset' so that's a given, but you can't discount structure and personnel particularly in a team based sport.

You are right that it's hard to measure in a lot of ways but I disagree that 'whoever is second ruck is irrelevant' - there's a flow on effect from every position and player on the ground, the second ruck position CAN be important. We just don't value it, but that doesn't make it right.

[whythelongface]

I don't disagree that Bevo is a good and innovative coach but having the likes of Bont, Naughton, Hannan and now potentially Gardner and Khamis as chop out options in the ruck isn't innovative when really it's a more of a reflection of how we see the position.

Agree with what you are saying that it isn’t innovative. BTW don’t think I mentioned innovative more along the lines of creative by at least trying something with other players. He could just go for the stock standard 2nd ruckman option but doesn’t see this as a good fit for this game. Hence his use of another player to be the chop out ruck.

[Rocco Jones]

I’m with Bevo/MC here. When looking at the balance of what we have and Cats bring, I think going tall down back and a focus on mobility elsewhere is the right way to go.


- We have selected 3 KPDs with complimentary skill sets up against Tomahawk + Cameron

- Cats have Stanley + Blicavs in ruck. Both more mobile types. Of course I’d like the best pure ruck in tandem with English but as I’ll explain in next point, it comes at too big a price when they go forward.

- The Cats have Stewart as the stand out intercept player in the league. SDK has been elite-ish as an interceptor as well this season. Blicavs goes back too. Sweet, Marra and Schache have their strengths but they all struggle to consistently get to and be competitive in forward marking contests.

Scott, McNeill, Naughts, Dunks, Bont, Khamis and Cody I feel give up the best combo of danger, pressure and limiting weak chains with uncontested intercept marks. Would I prefer them to be taller? No doubt at all but our fringe tall guys biggest weakness is fodder for Cats biggest strength.

[Bulldog Revolution]

I don't disagree that Bevo is a good and innovative coach but having the likes of Bont, Naughton, Hannan and now potentially Gardner and Khamis as chop out options in the ruck isn't innovative when really it's a more of a reflection of how we see the position.

Is it not more about how he seems team balance?

He is going to play English in the ruck 70+% of the time so he'd rather have the running power and not carry someone as a backup ruck who cant make a contribution elsewhere?

The challenge for Sweet is to become more of a threat as a forward - which doesn't seem unachievable to me

[GVGjr]

Is it not more about how he seems team balance?

He is going to play English in the ruck 70+% of the time so he'd rather have the running power and not carry someone as a backup ruck who cant make a contribution elsewhere?

The challenge for Sweet is to become more of a threat as a forward - which doesn't seem unachievable to me

Dale Morris mentioned that Sweet was working on his forward craft. I think he's a chance to get there as a ruck option for us.

[Mantis]

I don’t like affecting the structure of the back six for ruck relief, particularly when O’Brien doesn’t really offer anything that Buku doesn’t.

He’s a frankly brutal decision maker with the ball but O’Brien’s intercept game is way better than I was expecting it to be. He’s gonna be critical to helping Keath and Gards and I don’t want him anywhere near a ruck contest.

I haven't really noticed O'Brien's decision making, but have noticed that he's a really good field kick... kicks it flat & hard likely B.Dale which is the polar opposite to the loopy kicks from defence we see from Zaine. Such a weapon when we are switching play or trying to hit up an open player.

Dale Morris mentioned that Sweet was working on his forward craft. I think he's a chance to get there as a ruck option for us.

Whilst he might be working on his forward craft it's still very much non-existent even when playing for Footscray in the VFL. He is very useful in ruck contests, but only having that to fall back on isn't enough to be an AFL player of any note.

[Axe Man]

Dale Morris mentioned that Sweet was working on his forward craft. I think he's a chance to get there as a ruck option for us.

Doesn't Dale live in Queensland and have nothing to do with footy these days?

[GVGjr]

Doesn't Dale live in Queensland and have nothing to do with footy these days?

Dale is back in Melbourne and has a non footy job. This was a call from him earlier in the year when he was still at the club.
He was very positive in the work Sweet had done in the off season and the progress he was making.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Khamis (or Marra) over Sweet is more palatable for me than Cordy or Schache.

It does mean it's an important game for Khamis, given he's been quiet for 2 weeks, we didn't bring Marra in and we dropped Sweet. He needs to play well.