The longer goal square will mean kick outs that used to reach the HBF will now stretch to the wing in some cases. The overlap run of flankers will become even more of a weapon.
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There isn’t really a wing position anymore, we just need to give McKenna and Saad the freedom to play up the ground and get themselves in dangerous positions more often. Then we need our midfielders to feed the ball to them and also get back and cover for them when they run themselves out of position, this is the beauty of midfielders like McGrath.
When we gain territory, McKenna and Saad can move forward with our press, the only problem is that during those times almost all the opposition players have flooded back, and try to make it hard for our runners to get through to the arc…
Our most exciting plays are those when we turn our opponents over at true half back and slice through the middle of their press by handballing to our overlap runners. Unfortunately, our opponents setup to block the channel through the guts, because everyone knows that’s how we want to play.
After about round 8 we added forward half retention to our game. The move of Baguley from down back was a key part of the addition of that layer to the game plan. Thats one of the reasons why we haven’t seen a lot of the line breaking run from those guys in the second half of the season.
Stynes literally rewrote the book on what rucks are capable of and paved the way for the modern style of ruck. I think you’re selling his talent short.
You reckon?
I think Simon Madden did everything Stynes did.
And a lot earlier.
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While I agree, statistically Madden kicked stacks more goals, whereas Stynes did get a fair bit more around the ground in a ruck rover type role.
Obviously I would take Madden 100 times out of 100 given the choice.
I was a little disappointed in McKenna this year. He improved defensively but I thought stepped back on his line breaking, passing the baton to Saad. This was shown IMO by the St Kilda game Saad was knocked out by Brown. McKenna did then stepped up and had one of his most influential games of the year, breaking lines and running the ball.
Now, what I’m describing could be Coach instructions so that the backline has more cover and both speedsters aren’t running off. And I definitely appreciate Conor tightening his defensive skill set. But I do think he can reach another level and complement Saad more.
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And Dempsey.
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Some of the older guys might be better placed, but it seems to me that there has always been different styles of ruckman that can dominate in their own way.
You have the pure tap ruckman, the ruckman who provides a marking presence and kicks goals and then the ruck/midfielder.
You could trawl through each generation and you’ll probably find examples of each.
There was a book?
Polly Farmer… Graham Moss… John nicholls… Len thompson…
Every ruckman who finds a bit of the ball around the grounds (and isn’t completely unco) is the absolute first one to ever think of it, thus paving the book, and rewriting the way.
Saad gets to the spot earlier to get the hand off, probably reads it a touch better. McKenna was always an option hardly taken once we ran it through the middle, he was always there for that extra handball.
He’s got more upside than Saad, he’ll improve on reading the play as well as learning the percentages. Rutten I think will speed up his understanding of percentages because this is one thing Richmond understand more so than than the rest of the comp.
Some guy on BF suggesting McKenna may have a groin concern.
Got the information from a Bomber Legend apparently.
Obviously to be taken with a grain of salt.
I said I was joking.
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Does a grain of salt fix it?
I wonder if they’ve tried that with Daniher
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Given he’s barely trained so far that kinda adds up.
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He better not be injured but it wouldn’t surpise me if he is the club lied about Hookers injury.
Which Hooker injury?
So now Hookers season is over too?
2019 is over before it began.
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Was refering to last pre season. iirc the club said that he would only miss 1-2 weeks of training
Hooker ended up missing a month.