(03-29-2017, 10:36 PM)deags link Wrote:I need to go back and watch the game again. I thought he was well beaten at most of his ruck contests, and slow in getting to some of them as well.
I thought similar watching it live at the ground, he was often caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's something I don't understand about him because he basically spent his whole junior career as a ruck, alas an unfit one, but he should at least know where to be and when. His best VFL season was rucking and pushing forward.
But my biggest concern was his 2nd and 3rd efforts, they are still effectively non-existent. You can get away with poor tap-work if you make up for it at ground level, getting in the way of opponents, making space for your team-mates, tackling and harassing. He does very little of this stuff, and it's such a contrast to Kreuzer.
Also for someone with his marking ability he doesn't push anywhere near hard enough to get forward, and his defensive work is poor. He's still too easily maneuvered and bustled out of the way by smaller players. Opposition forwards should fear him when he is in the vicinity, instead he is rarely in the contest on the defensive side of the center, which probably says something about work rate.
At his size and shape he should have a Mumford type presence, Mumford should be his role model. Casboult is actually more mobile than Mumford, a better mark and fitter. But he just doesn't have the mindset to impose himself on the game. As a result when the he gets a run in the ruck it's like the opposition are getting a breather, they are not forced to work hard enough in his presence.
He has improved this year, but he's got a long way to go, as a ruck option he is now as effective as Rowe but still some significant way behind Kreuzer or Phillips.
I haven't watched a replay, but it's hard to tell from replays as you only get to see them when they are in shot and therefore close to the ball.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"