AFL Rd 9 2023 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Western Bulldogs

[kruddler]

I thought Pitto actually thrashed English last night,

I wrote this in the ruck thread.

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Dribble. English is an AA ruckman this years. Our guy is a plodder. End of story.

Yep, English is the best Ruck in the comp. 
He will give Libba and Bont first use all night.

Pittonet vs English - STAT
83 - 85 - Ruck contests
48 - 30 - Hitouts
18 - 6 - Hitouts to advantage
22% - 7% - Ruck contest - hitout to advantage %

Pittonet was 3 times more likely to get the ball to a teammate from the ruck contest than 'AA' English that 'will give Libba and Bont first use all night'.

Pittonet also got 5 clearances to English 1.
He is dominating the ruck each week, and people still do not see it. He did all the above, and still only played 78% game time to English 86%
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We are better when we play 2 rucks. That allows Pitto to get some decent rest while providing Tom de Koning, a totally different type of ruckman, who can get over people who are used to wrestling with Pitto. Tom actually can provide the marking option that Marc often can't. But that requires him to be in something approaching form. I'd consider bringing him in against Collingwood, as their ruck division is something we can exploit.

Disagree.

Pittonet only played 78% game time last night. When TDK plays, he plays 50-60%.....as does TDK.
We play a 2nd ruck and we tie up a spot on the bench for over half a game. How much benefit do we get from that? Output wise, we actually get less from the ruck contests, because TDK can't deliver Pittonets numbers. So ruckwork wise, 2 rucks makes us worse.

Around the ground, TDK offers us more.....but is it really much more?
Averages this year, TDK offers us 0.8 more marks per game and 0.1 more contested marks per game.
That is, in 10 games of playing 2 rucks, we get 8 marks and 1 of them contested.

Now take TDK out of the picture and add in a midfielder. Will that midfielder offer the team more in 10 weeks than 8 marks and 1 contested? Absolutely.

The theory of 2 rucks makes sense.
The output of it suggests otherwise.

.....until we start seeing more output from TDK at least.