AFL Rd 13 2024 Post Game Celebrations - Carlton vs Essendon

[DJC]

Essendon laid more tackles , we had more turnovers and they even had better disposal efficiency overall...however if you cant kick straight when it matters then none of those other stats add up to much effect on the result.
We did shade them in the clearances where TDK did his best work and again we got smashed in the hitouts but those Goldstein taps had little influence at stoppages or on the result.

Tom was interviewed on SEN(?) recently and revealed a lot of information about our ruck tactics.  He gave a lot of credit to Matty Kreuzer for preparing him for his role in the ruck.

To start with, he knows everything there is to know about the opposition ruck; what leg he jumps off, what hand he prefers to hit with and where he likes to direct his hitouts. With Matty’s help, he develops a plan to defeat the opposition ruck, and that may not necessarily involve winning hitouts.

Tom is in charge at ruck contests and positions the midfielders to both take advantage of hitouts he wins and to shark or neutralise hitouts won by the opposition rucks.  Tom’s second and third efforts play a big part in that.

And that’s where the hitout to advantage statistic has little meaning. It’s the ruck-midfield combination that negates opposition hitouts and produces clearances that counts.