Greene has decent pace but was slow this year due to being overweight and unfit.
It is well known that Josh Green “lacks defensive pressure” . Is that because he cannot apply it, or because he doesnt bother? If its the latter there is hope because even he admits it is something he needs to work on.
The AFL Prospectus 2016:
“His defensive pressure remained a feature of his game, ranking in the top 10 players in the AFL for forward 50 pressure points in each of the last two seasons.”
Things change over time as we all know. AFL prospectus 2016 is based on 2015 data. Its no secret that some facets of Greens game fell away in 2016. goals scored per game is one, defensive pressure is another. This might have been a factor in Brisbanes decision to basically cut him loose. That gave us the opportunity to pick up a relatively young, proven quality small forward for free.
AFL Prospectus 2017: “… His pressure is one is one area of his game he hasn’t improved, averaging a career low 30 pressure points per game last year…” ( in 2016)
This guy gave rise to the eponymous “McKernan Uncertainty principle”.
That is to say, which Shaun McKernan will come out to play today ?
Several hypotheses exist.
The Shaun anger quotient effects his play
The Shaun injury index effects his play.
Either way he now is a rookie. So come round 1 he probably will not be available.
So far in 2017 experiments confirm the guy is a forward/ruckman…
So, we have these choices for the ruck chop out:
Shaun with his uncertainty, when he is on, can take contested grabs. Needs to be elevated . Again.
TBell with his almost Gumby like predilection to get injured, but is potentially the best tap ruckman/forward
Young Stewart who runs around a lot, who seems to be neither injured, nor angry, but appears to be not so good at marking the ball or as a ruckman.
This will be an interesting selection problem over the next month, because Joey is probably a better ruck chop out, but what a waste.
Imo - Smack needs to play in the 2’s till he learns to kill it as a CHF, and he may then, with a bit of luck (bad luck for someone else) have a last crack at 1’s in that position. He won’t ever be a ruckman. He is a great kick, especially for his size.
Imo - Smack needs to play in the 2's till he learns to kill it as a CHF, and he may then, with a bit of luck (bad luck for someone else) have a last crack at 1's in that position. He won't ever be a ruckman. He is a great kick, especially for his size.
So far I am not seeing Stewart as a viable ruck chop out either, but in the absence of TBel?
The problem is it all pressures Leui to play more minutes and he is not Paddy Ryder 2014 vintage.
Imo - Smack needs to play in the 2's till he learns to kill it as a CHF, and he may then, with a bit of luck (bad luck for someone else) have a last crack at 1's in that position. He won't ever be a ruckman. He is a great kick, especially for his size.
He won't ever be a CHF either. Much of his time in the seconds at Adelaide was spent up forward according to Adelaide fans, not in the ruck, as the Crows realised the same thing. He simply isn't smart enough to play there, sure he will do the occasional eye catching thing but too often he just looks lost anywhere other than the ruck. He's simply a tweener and probably the best he will manage is a solid career as an AFL journeyman.
He has 1 good game like this, then is just a witches hat for 5-10. then does it again. and so on and so forth.
In fairness he was really good in the last intra-club match too. He also rarely gets 5 consecutive games in the AFL as he's always very quick to be dropped. Probably because he's not doing what he's told by the coaches
I like the guy. He has a real dip but it just doesn’t work rucking. Unfortunately he’s a good VFL ruck and might be a decent KPP back up at AFL level. I think that’s his problem at Essendon because he ends up filling in for the primary ruckman.
We have all heard of white line fever, well SMack has center circle fever. He goes in there and he forgets about how to play the game, and just infringes. Hasn’t made it in the ruck as yet, and time is running out for him.
On second watch, his ruckwork overall was serviceable last night, certainly fine for a second ruck.
Except for two or three really important moments in the last, where he either gave away the free or allowed a virtual uncontested hitout to the opposition. And those moments hurt us on the scoreboard.
Which is most of his problem. His bad is really, really bad.