AFL Rd 17 2023 In Game Angst Carlton vs Fremantle

[kruddler]

There are a few schools of thought here.

1. Our midfield dominance makes a ruckman's work (my contention) look good or bad.

2.  Hitouts don't matter (I dont think this is the case, but they don't matter if your midfield is incapable of capitalising on it).

3. It's difficult to measure ruckman capability based purely on what we see on game day (this is true).

What we are currently seeing is that the ruck conversation at our footy club is shaped as much by the performance of our midfielders as it is the person contesting the ruck, and ergo its hard to draw meaningful data about our rucks as a result based on what our games dish up.

1. In part, yes.

2. Yes and no. Hitouts themselves don't matter. Hitouts to advantage matter. Who cares who touches the ball first. It only matter if you can touch it and get it to your teammates.

3. There are 2 parts of the ruck conversation.
a) Ruck contests - Hitouts/Hitouts to advantage
b) Work around the ground that is not in ruck contests.

My contention has been that If you have a ruck who is good at 'a', then your backup needs to be good at 'b' because there is limited influence the 2nd ruck can have on 'a'. As long as your backup ruck can neutralise 'a', and make a influence with 'b'.

We are seeing all of the above today.