(03-09-2024, 02:37 AM)laj date Wrote:I'm more a one ruck fan. Whether Harry is great in the ruck or not i'm not so worried. He kills it around the ground and take him away from the confines of the goalsquare. That is more valuable plus it seems to do him good like it did for Levi. Then you can pick an extra runner.Harry's a +200cm lightning fast KPF who takes contested marks in F50 when the heat is on, late in the game when TDK was rucking and we wanted to put heat around the footy he was even roving the stoppages at speed to bring a physical presence.
But after the game his first comment when asked about rucking was his shins are sore, and sore shins are a pre-cursor to a knee(PCL) and even a minor PCL will smash acceleration.
Like Cripps use him in the F50 at throw ins and ball ups, but the centre square stuff send chills down my spine, the benefit is so small and the risk is so high!
We will divide up ruck duties across the season, there will be weeks when pace isn't the priority issue, and it was clearly the issue last finals and last night, we even mentioned it in the pre-game thread that some of the selections can be explained by a need for pace. Other weeks we'll want size or strength around stoppages or a ruck option that floats a kick behind or into D50 which Pitto does far better than others.
So it mostly depends more on opposition strengths and weaknesses, more than our own, as we now have depth we can leverage. We won't become formulaic, because if we do we are predictable and that is the worst thing an AFL team can be.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"