The Great Ruck Debate.

[kruddler]

Yes, BUT ...

We got a brief look at how bad we can be if that solitary ruck is injured.  Apart from the centre clearance issues, losing McKay from the forward line for an extended period makes it much easier for opponents to negate Curnow.

If we are going to play only one ruck, I would seriously consider selecting Young as the injury substitute in any must-win game. I don't believe the substitute has represented a significant tactical benefit and Young would represent a true injury-sub option to provide a tall option in the ruck and in case any of our injury-prone defensive talls goes down - even Weitering has been shown to be prone to being hobbled.

Yes, BUT....
Harry said himself it was good to go have a run around up the ground. It releases him and frees him up.
Blokes like LP keep wanted to protect him by keeping him out of the ruck.
I say we are protecting him more by keeping him out of the forwardline. Every time he gets crunched in a marking contest, he is playing as a forward. We saw that yet again on the weekend. Harry probably enjoys it more than he'll let on.

Of course, that does mean that Charlie gets double teamed.

Of course that does mean the opposition will have an extra tall defender that doesn't have a matchup too.
Use that to our advantage.
They want to keep their 2 big defenders on the ground. So be it.
They want to keep their 2 big defenders on Charlie. So be it.
Use our 4-5 small forwards to cause havoc in the meantime. Play through the 'tall defender' by running off him and getting free.

For every negative, there is a positive on the other side of the coin.

Our pressure is what we are known for. Not our ruckwork.
Yes our clearance work is as good as any.....but when we lose, we lose because our pressure is down, not our clearance work.

We lost clearances (by 1) to North.....but we out pressured them.
We won clearances (by 1) against dogs....but we got out pressured.
We won clearances (by 3) against GWS....but we got out pressured.

Forget about winning an extra couple of clearances.
Focus on provided a lot more pressure.