Considering he is an incubating hen for Sammy Drapes, he’ll do. He just needs to learn how to play to his strengths, which isn’t his strength.
1 Like
Wholeheartedly disagree. Leuny was solid in the 2’s
1 Like
15 disp, 37 hitouts, and a goal.
…but still getting bagged here because he looked a little off the pace in the first half after not playing AFL for 12 months.
Gotta love the Blitz.
11 Likes
No, forget the stats. His connection with our mids was not good. It just let Cripps in to get a clearance time and time again.
2 Likes
It’s not his stats. He looks OK with the ball in his hands in space. It is his complete and utter lack of physicality in ruck or marking contests that worries me. I think he will be getting bullied by rucks at VFL level (Phillips being a prime example). We looked better in the middle as soon as McKernan went in (admittedly other things changed also) as McKernan - whilst not a great ruckman - is at least willing to use his body.
4 Likes
2 Maddens, Paul Salmon, Paddy Ryder and a Steve Alessio.
Actually, TBH I wasn’t expecting very much at all.
He looked rusty for the pace of the game initially. He got to some good spots and started to catch up by the end.
1 Like
he did good up forward. his tap work was absolutely atrocious though
Would much rather have seen Draper in the team yesterday.
7 Likes
Would have liked to see Zerk rather than Hartley also.
We know what we are going to get with Hartley.
2 Likes
He was desperate to get a touch. Ran to places where others with much better disposal could have. At stoppages he’s taps were terrible and again got in the way when the ball hit the deck.
A lot of what was poor about his ruckwork in the first half is our mids stoppage craft was legitimately terrible. When the ball hit the ground that’s on on him there but our mids were not where near it. Parish in particular. Ruckman can only do so much when the mids don’t work to the drop. Carlton’s mids did a very good job of getting such good position that it didn’t matter who won the tap.
1 Like
TOG Clarke 110 minutes
Phillips 76 minutes
This guy is terrible. Delist.
Zac “spack filler” Clarke
Zac “incubating hen“ Clarke
Thread delivering already.
1 Like
agree. I thought he competed pretty well, but our mids were just nowhere near it when he did hit it to their advantage
It will take time for him and the midfield to gel and build chemistry, it was similar for Leuenberger. The issue for him will be the lack of opportunity to do such in the seniors. He should be a level above in the VFL.
1 Like
I wish the AFL would provide more detailed Ruck stats, I’m sure they have the data.
Total hit outs is just the start. You also need to know, at a minimum:
- taps to advantage (with/without clearance)
- taps to a neutral position (restart)
- taps to the opposition(with/without clearance)
- total taps conceded
- taps to advantage conceded(with/without clearance)
- tap conceded to neutral position
- tap conceded to our advantage (with/without clearance)
-free kick in Ruck contest conceded/recieved
You could then break these down by throw ins, ball ups, centre square bounces and look at the rate of ball retention and scoring opportunity for taps to advantage and those conceded.
Before you can assess a rucks performance you need all of that and then you need to compare it against competing norms adjusted for his opponent.
My gut feeling was that Clarke didn’t do enough with his taps to make life easy for his midfielders often enough.
I think his tap work suffers the same problem as luey’s did. he has a limited number of spots he can tap too because he rarely finds himself in a superior body position to his opponent. Accordingly, often his tap work is forward and rarely to a designated control zone behind the ruck contest.
1 Like
Tap work isnt Clarke’s strong point. It never has been, it wont change now