McKernan and Giles playing together in the VFL worked well as a combination. Accept that AFL is a bit different but surely we are at a stage where we can experiment and see how it plays out - after all we are prepared to experiment with a player who constantly drops marks, kicks few goals, wins barely any hit outs and whose main asset is laying tackles because his opponents have won the ball.
Not an Ambrose fan then.
I agree, though. I reckon against the best ruckman in the league, this week was the time to see how Giles and McK go as a duo.
Some people think footy is all about the leading hands & foremen. Others see what the labourers do, & u/stand that the "shining lights" are useless without the grunt work they do.
Carlisle's played a better ruck game than Giles in the past 2 years...
The question is how much better. And the fact that the time he’s not in the ruck he’s almost a complete liability.
Yeah, i wouldn’t say much better. Carlisle did play a good game against carlton, where he exploited Robbie Warnock for mobility. Not sure he’s the only guy to ever do that though. Warnock still won the hit outs 41-18. I know hit outs stats are overrated, but they still mean something when discussing ruckman. Giles played a few decent games last year when Mumford was out injured.
Anyways. I know he’s hardly tearing it up at VFL level, but he’s not really a ‘tearing it up’ kinda guy. He’s meh, but he structurally fills a need that we’ve been throwing boxes of cheap band aids at all year. Hooker is currently playing forward so Gwilt and Stein can both play. Nick O’Brien is our tagger. We’re hardly playing for keeps at the moment, surely you have a look at Giles even out of curiosity? That, and to not let Shaun McKernan go head to head all night against the best ruckman in the game. It’s a pretty big ask of him.
I will say though, to those getting all ‘sack Dodoro’ about the recruitment of Giles, the most obvious reason he isn’t playing right now is because the same recruitment team took Mckernan at pick 12 of the rookie draft. And pick 51 for a ruckman is not much of an investment anyway. Richmond used 28 on Hampson ffs.
Agree with all of this.
I think it's important he plays some games. I don't think it's an issue at all that he plays this game (or any other) in particular.
They've obviously cooled on him a lot since trade week, and they're obviously re-thinking the whole ruck division for 2016.
The overall state of the team/list has obviously dictated a change of thinking on the older blokes en masse and he’s the oldest & worst of our rucks. Wonder if they could/would bump him down to the rookies??
I'd be guessing third degree. Third degree burns don't actually hurt and I get a feeling someone ain't feeling burnt at all.
(And in Australia now we refer to them as “superficial”, “partial thickness” and “full thickness” burns)
Hooray for that, I never remember whether high or low numbers mean worse burns.
To be clear, third degree are the worst. They have burnt so bad that the pain receptors are gone too. The only pain is felt around the edges of the burn where it is just partial thickness (i.e. second degree) or superficial (i.e. first degree)
I’m not going to argue with the selectors, they have their reasons. And though Ambrose is not a ruckman’s ■■■■■■■■, I agree with Harvey that his competitiveness helped turn things around in the third quarter last week. Big difference though between Gawn and Goldstein.
Obviously there’re big issues with Giles. I don’t know if it runs any deeper than ordinary form, but given we’re up against one of the more dominant ruckmen in the comp this week I’d have thought he was a clear inclusion - in part so we could double team Goldstein, but more so to release Smack to play forward more. Structurally it works better.
We’ll have a plan in his absence. We’ll get flogged in the hit outs, but can finagle that if we’re smart. Around the ground reckon they’ll use a combo of Smack and Ambrose to give Goldstein a hard time.
I turned up late to the Stkilda game and was so internally full of rage to see that the game was over 5 minutes into the second quarter that I needed to let something out.
The Essendon crowd I saw before me had the demeanor of Reek from Game of Thrones.
This won’t do. Some passion was needed. I bellowed at a blatant turnover “■■■■ off Cooney, get off the ground”.
