Killed it in the ruck? Whoa there, back it up. l get the McNurnan love affair, l really do, but he has never killed it in the ruck. Quite the opposite has happened. He has quite often killed our momentum when he has gone into the ruck and given away 2 - 3 cheap free kicks. Things have changed a bit recently, and he isn’t infringing anywhere near as much, but let’s not go overboard.
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Should check out the Long shot prediction thread from the beginning of the year.
One of the commentators said it best the other week against North, Mckernan needs to stop trying to win the ruck against much bigger opponents and concentrate on just drawing level in the contest.
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Jack l’m sorry I know you might be getting a bit old in the tooth but Smack has definitely had games where’s has absolutely killed it in the ruck. Games where he’s won very damaging clearances, taken contested marks around the ground and then kicked freakish goals all at once. But then the next week he’ll give away 10 free kicks and have a stinker. It’s why he’s become such an enigma with so much untapped potential.
I’ve said to you a million times, don’t exaggerate.
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As an example go back and look at round 1 last year I think. When we were without Luey and TBell.
So to see a good game in the ruck, you have to go back to the start of last year? He’s not even played ruck in the seconds!
Look, McKernan is doing far better than I expected this year, but its as a forward, not a ruck. That period in the 4th against Collingwood where McKernan had a solid 10 minutes against Grundy went a long way to losing us the game. That isn’t meant to be a criticism of Smack per se, just an acknowledgement that he is limited as a ruck and although a good second chop out, struggles against the competition number ones.
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Begley & laverde? Or we assuming pure mids…?
Zerk.
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Out Neeld
= In Essendon
CHB for Zerk-Thatcher. He might be too short to go with the Hipwoods of the future
Redman — Lavender — Gleeson
Saad — Zerk-Thatcher — McKenna — Ridley
Francis to be 4 time Brownlow Medalist as the big bodied inside mid we’ve been waiting for.
This is getting further away from what I originally said. I said in the past he’s had very good games as a mobile ruckman, that’s all. He must have had something going for him to keep him on list. In the past it’s been his backup ruck skills that has kept his career alive but now it’s his performances up forward. I think anyone with a decent memory will agree with me.
I didn’t realise Hipwood is 203cm. Jesus he’s going to be a hard matchup considering his mobility
I think zerk and ridley will hold it down. Get around them
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Great post
Smack needs to be told to calm down when he has the ball- and to always kick for goal if within his distance or if in doubt kick long to a contest
I really believe there is an X factor about him
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so true is legit scary
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I would ask you to watch the 4th qtr vs GC again
Smack was doing silver service on a platter to Parish and Heppell and co
One quarter or even one game doesn’t qualify as killing it in the ruck. When he hits the consistent sort of form Belly has been in for a month or two, then we can say he has been killing it.
McNernan is actually a pretty decent tap ruckman. Has very nice touch.
His problem is that he has to jump and wrestle against guys much bigger than him, and he doesn’t have the stamina to do that for four quarters.
He did have some great games in the ruck in 2015, it’s just that most remember his two bad games, which were diabolical.
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Hence why I said he killed it in ‘some games’.
I hope he properly wipes up the number twos.
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