(04-11-2016, 11:19 AM)crashlander link Wrote:In a lot of ways, this is the most damning aspect of Kreuzer this season. When he came back last year he did well against Gawn for 3 quarters - he really exposed Gawn's running with his. Nor was that his only decent effort. But this year he has struggled in the centre bounce, and his running ability has not been seen at all.
He did struggle against Hampson last year, but he was not long back playing at that point. Hampson really beat him in the air and killed him in the ruck.
Has he struggled to get used to our new style of game? Or has his mobility been compromised by his injuries? Whatever it is, he has not become either a Bull type ruckman or a Superman type, as he has neither the leap and athleticism, nor the strength.

The marking things is really worrying me. He is just not making us kick to him, nor is he holding the marks he gets to.
I'm less worried about his 'below the knees' stuff, but this has been one of his strengths and it just hasn't been there.
I don't mind him nocking the ball on constructively, but even that hasn't worked much.
I really want to see him get on his bike and make position, burning off his ruck opponent and get some cheap marks. Then his confidence might rise to the point where he starts taking some contested marks again.

We may have to. Phillips has a future, but he isn't there yet. He needs another 5 - 10 kg of muscle to go with his leap, and probably another preseason or 2 to get the ball going to our mids properly.

Gorringe I would like to see get a go, but there is something not quite right yet with him. Maybe we need to get a sport's psychologist to get into his head and work out if he really wants to make it.

I am more worried now about Kreuzer than I ever have been before. In his present form he is one of the AFL's least effective ruckmen. He had NO PRESENCE around the ground. None. Nicholls didn't have a lot, he didn't even run to dangerous areas often. But Kreuzer did not attack and run off him. Not once. No big tackles. No big shepherds. Nobody feared him. Even though he got more taps that Nicholls (quite easily) last weekend, we did not get much benefit from it. Nicholls used his extra height and reach to knock Kreuzer's arm and affect his ability to direct his taps. When Nicholls was getting a tap, he usually got his quite clearly and to advantage.
Not all of this is Kreuzer's fault: Murphy, Gibbs and Cripps were down somewhat and couldn't combine like they did at times last year. I can recall Murphy's handball being picked off 3 or 4 times in the centre square. Ablett and Hall were reading the taps and our mids much better than the reverse.

Our whole centre structure is not working as well as it did last year. We had issues in the midfield (as we got torn up a few times), but Laidley deserves kudos for making our centre square work as well as it did. The only real problem with it was we were very indirect from the middle and almost never found a forward.
Maybe we will improve in this area of time: we have changed the set up significantly. I hope so, as I was bitterly disappointed with what we were doing in there.
Until we get a dominant ruckman, we won't seriously challenge the real contenders.

(04-12-2016, 04:17 AM)DJC link Wrote:West Coast is leading with 54, Freo and Melbourne have 44 and then it's Adelaide, Hawthorn, Port, Sydney, St Kilda, North, Carlton and Collingwood.  The teams with the poorest performing rucks are Richmond, GWS, Essendon, Brisbane, Bulldogs, Gold Coast and Geelong.

(04-12-2016, 04:17 AM)DJC link Wrote:I'm not sure what I'm missing when watching Kreuzer this season.  I'm certainly not seeing the broken down has been other folk are complaining about.

First of all, I think Kreuzer is spending too much time as a forward.  That's not his caper and we need his second and third efforts around the ground.

Secondly, if you look at the hitouts won by each side's two ruckmen (or ruckmen/forwards), we're not far off the pace and are in a group of 8 teams that are averaging 38 to 41 hitouts in the three games.

West Coast is leading with 54, Freo and Melbourne have 44 and then it's Adelaide, Hawthorn, Port, Sydney, St Kilda, North, Carlton and Collingwood.  The teams with the poorest performing rucks are Richmond, GWS, Essendon, Brisbane, Bulldogs, Gold Coast and Geelong.

(04-12-2016, 05:44 AM)Amers link Wrote:Any loss by less than 10 goals will pretty much be an improvement on the last couple of weeks.

My expectations have really dropped away now, we are not going to see the radical improvement that Port and the WB's saw in their 1st year under a new coach, I was kind of hoping to see that, but I've seen enough now to realize it's just not going to happen.

Now I just want to see 100% effort every week and incremental improvement in skills and executing the game plan as we progress through the season.

(04-12-2016, 04:17 AM)DJC link Wrote:I'm not sure what I'm missing when watching Kreuzer this season.  I'm certainly not seeing the broken down has been other folk are complaining about.

First of all, I think Kreuzer is spending too much time as a forward.  That's not his caper and we need his second and third efforts around the ground.

Secondly, if you look at the hitouts won by each side's two ruckmen (or ruckmen/forwards), we're not far off the pace and are in a group of 8 teams that are averaging 38 to 41 hitouts in the three games.

West Coast is leading with 54, Freo and Melbourne have 44 and then it's Adelaide, Hawthorn, Port, Sydney, St Kilda, North, Carlton and Collingwood.  The teams with the poorest performing rucks are Richmond, GWS, Essendon, Brisbane, Bulldogs, Gold Coast and Geelong.

(04-12-2016, 04:29 AM)LP link Wrote:Firstly, those stats are a little ambiguous. I think the stats can be misleading because they don't break it down into clubs playing two rucks, one ruck or only part-time rucks. For example I think the Bulldogs would be very happy with young Roughead's almost solo efforts(They are very reluctant to use Boyd in the ruck.).

Check out the Ruck stats linked at Final Siren.

Then as you point out you have to take into which rucks spend time as forwards which reduces opportunity in the center.

I'm not questioning SpecialK's ability, I agree with you regarding the forward vs ruck issue, but I cannot state that he is in great form either. Given we have bonified 2nd, 3rd and maybe even 4th ruck options to give him chop outs he should be thriving. I'd expect him to dominate when he gets the chance but he is just competitive at best.

(04-12-2016, 07:17 AM)age link Wrote:Wes hould be playing the kids.  Ready or not.

KJ, Plowman, Cunningham, DVR.  Throw them in and see what they can do over an extended period