(03-15-2018, 02:20 AM)PaulP link Wrote:My hobby horse for a while has been that I want Krooz to play as a mid and bring in Lobbe as a ruck. Lobbe is the best ruck we've had on our list for years, so why not use him ? We've been bullied around the stoppages for too long by the big bodied mids like the Swans, Crows etc. I have no idea who's in or out for the Tiges, but having Cripps, Kennedy and Krooz as genuine mids is real muscle around the contest. People say that Krooz can still do that as well as ruck, but IMO it's not quite the same.
The club won't do it, nobody on here likes the idea (I've mentioned it previously), so I doubt it will ever see the light of day. But I'd like to see it trialled for a block of games. The JLT series would have been perfect for such an experiment.
I note that Cripps was drifting forward a lot more in the JLT series, and Krooz could be Crippa MKII in this respect.
I think if they had wanted it they would have trialled it in JLT, but I think as a quartet Lobbe, SpecialK, Cripps and Kennedy are too slow.
If Meat hadn't played so well in JLT I might be persuaded to swap him out, bring in Lobbe to ruck and Kreuzer as a mid/wing as you suggest. But again it would have to be trialled in the pre-season, in the main season if that setup goes wrong you end up in a world of pain with no way out! Even when it seems right, it would only be fit for use in a horses for courses scenario.
During JLT when we broke from the midfield SpecialK is just another runner. Some of those segments of play with SpecialK, Cripps and Kennedy linking with the smaller mids were spectacular.
What teams would SpecialK as a mid work best against, teams with strong and heavier mid-field like an Adelaide or Freo? Could SpecialK go head to head with someone like Nat Fyfe, but even so wouldn't we prefer Cripps or Kennedy to go head to head with Fyfe? What about Charlie Curnow? Kennedy looks like a ready made to take on a Fyfe type!
Plus, I think SpecialK's best work comes in his 2nd and 3rd efforts, he recovers from the ruck contest and rejoins the chain of play faster than anybody else(Except maybe Natanui who is probably SpecialK's equal in this regard) which is why when SpecialK rucks he is so influential without winning lots of taps.
FWIW, Casboult's 2nd efforts were much better in the JLT, I hope he takes that into the main season as well, but he still let play move away rather than rejoin the chain of disposals like SpecialK does. Casboult's emphasis seemed to be ruck then sit back behind play, SpecialKs emphasis was to ruck then push towards the next contest.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"