Richmond aside, and they really only ended up as they did through injury to Griffiths, most teams have always looked to have strong presence in fwd line both to mark the ball and bring it to ground for the smalls.
Were you watching on fox, because that happens a lot. They say something during what’s an ad break on the commercial channels, then say it almost word for word again after the ad for the ‘benefit’ of the people who missed it the first time.
Both Sydney games really can be used if only to look at the influence of strong bodied kpd Grundy.
In game one, the long balls to contests between he and Smack he was winning either via outmarking/outbodying or punching balls away.
This affects so much. If not taking marks across half fwd can’t hand off to players streaming past into fwd line. If not bringing ball to ground where smalls expect it to go not getting effectiveness out of them.
It also means that the rest of team has no time to setup defensively or rest, & the ball ends up transitioning back quickly into our defensive 50 for scoring opportunity.
If it was Hooker that wouldn’t have happened, last nights game case in point about how valuable he is fwd. The contest where he was out positioned he still found a way to impact and TIPPA crumbed it, handball to Green. Goal.
We had no Hooker or Smack in the final and Grundy mauled Stewart in any marking contest they had. And he was also left one out / double teamed when JD was in the ruck.
The entire structure broke down not helped by getting pantsed in midfield.
