Controversial Opinion: We will/would be BETTER with LOBB in the ruck and English up forward in 2023.

[Sam]

Yeah and you if we didn’t get Lobb Cornes would be criticising us for putting so much pressure on a 20 year old who is still a stick if or when English gets injured. Can’t win with this guy his issues with Bevo are becoming nauseating.

[whythelongface]

Yeah and you if we didn’t get Lobb Cornes would be criticising us for putting so much pressure on a 20 year old who is still a stick if or when English gets injured. Can’t win with this guy his issues with Bevo are becoming nauseating.

So true. ?This is me reading between the lines?? . Hello what else do you do Kane?. Nothing you write is substantiated, it is merely an opinion based on nothing. Similar to a Herald Sun or Sky News columnist- just write what will cause a headline.

Anyway on topic I do hope we rotate English and Lobb through the ruck and forward line a lot more than last year. Makes us more unpredictable and minimises some of the workload placed on English. Throw Darcy into the mix at times and potentially we have a three pronged approach to the ruck contest. I do hope we continue to place more emphasis on the ruck contest as this has been an area of frustration in recent times - this doesn?t just lie with the ruck itself but our ability to take advantage from our hit outs.

[doggies ftw]

I can?t agree with this one, in no way is Lobb a better genuine ruck in the ruck contest than English. It?s night and day to be honest.

Plus English is 100x better as a contested mark around the ground, better ball user, better runner etc which all translates to better performance in the ruck.

The sample size is way too small for Lobb, yeah he?s a great chop out compared to almost every other chop out in the league, but rucking 80% game time week in week out is a completely different beast.

English?s lack of physicality at times frustrates me to no end but let?s be honest, Lobb makes English look like Barry Hall when it comes to physicality, he?s probably one of the softer 200cm blokes in a contest in the league. I still like what he brings, but a tougher look in the ruck is not one of those things IMO.

In saying that I like English forward, and I like Lobb getting a bigger chop out in the ruck as English is at his best when he?s not being run into the ground - which we negligently did last year.

I think a 60/40 ruck/fwd for English and vice versa for Lobb is the perfect mix which gives us a little bit more unpredictability. And we need to be quicker to make a change if English is well beaten etc which we never do, more than happy to sub English off mid game if he?s going poorly and move Lobb in there and open up the forward line for a Weightman etc

[GVGjr]

I can?t agree with this one, in no way is Lobb a better genuine ruck in the ruck contest than English. It?s night and day to be honest.

Plus English is 100x better as a contested mark around the ground, better ball user, better runner etc which all translates to better performance in the ruck.

The sample size is way too small for Lobb, yeah he?s a great chop out compared to almost every other chop out in the league, but rucking 80% game time week in week out is a completely different beast.

English?s lack of physicality at times frustrates me to no end but let?s be honest, Lobb makes English look like Barry Hall when it comes to physicality, he?s probably one of the softer 200cm blokes in a contest in the league. I still like what he brings, but a tougher look in the ruck is not one of those things IMO.

In saying that I like English forward, and I like Lobb getting a bigger chop out in the ruck as English is at his best when he?s not being run into the ground - which we negligently did last year.

I think a 60/40 ruck/fwd for English and vice versa for Lobb is the perfect mix which gives us a little bit more unpredictability. And we need to be quicker to make a change if English is well beaten etc which we never do, more than happy to sub English off mid game if he?s going poorly and move Lobb in there and open up the forward line for a Weightman etc

Your assessment is fairly accurate and Lobb is a forward who can ruck so we need English to be fit and firing to get the balance right.
Complicating things just a bit is that Darcy is making some strong progress this year and it poses a challenge on if we can squeeze him into the best 22 or not.