Bruce - Ruck option Game over

[Rocket]

It clearly hasn't worked for quite a while now.

Clearance & tap work ineffective and forward line suffers. Riewoldt forward when Bruce into the ruck doesn't do much for balance either.. This isn't a knock on Bruce, more a swing at coaching panel.

Time for Richardson to sort this out and come up with a solution. Mix it up. Maybe it's Marshall or Hickey has to play forward ruck with Longer?

If we had another decent backman, you could swing Carlisle into this role as he has the height.

Not a lot of options, time for change nonetheless.

[saint-stu]

Time to call for a Marshall?

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Yes. Not working.

Bring in a second ruckman and rest him in the forward line (or on the bench). Bringing the ball to ground is all
that forwards are required to do these days, apparently, and Longer or Pierce can do that as well as
anyone. This will prevent our main ruckman running out of legs in the last quarter, as has happened in
recent weeks.

[saintspremiers]

Works OK when Hickey is playing.

Hopefully Billy has a spell now

[BigMart]

Least of our worries

[Joffa Burns]

It clearly hasn't worked for quite a while now.

Clearance & tap work ineffective and forward line suffers. Riewoldt forward when Bruce into the ruck doesn't do much for balance either.. This isn't a knock on Bruce, more a swing at coaching panel.

Time for Richardson to sort this out and come up with a solution. Mix it up. Maybe it's Marshall or Hickey has to play forward ruck with Longer?

If we had another decent backman, you could swing Carlisle into this role as he has the height.

Not a lot of options, time for change nonetheless.

Bruce started in defence.
Try Carlisle as 2nd ruck and send Bruce back when Jake is on ball.

[BigMart]

Which runner gets the chop if we bring in another tall?

We lose a rotation and our spread and pressure will drop a bit... will the inclusion of an extra tall outweigh that?

Possibly, if they play well??

[Bruce G McAbee]

Do you remember when we played Pierce last year for that one game. It actually worked and I was surprised the kid got dropped the following week because I thought he did enough to warrant another game.
Also, I think Bruce had his best game for the year where he was able to just stay at home and not have to go into the ruck.

[spert]

Do you remember when we played Pierce last year for that one game. It actually worked and I was surprised the kid got dropped the following week because I thought he did enough to warrant another game.
Also, I think Bruce had his best game for the year where he was able to just stay at home and not have to go into the ruck.

Just another case of dumb player management by the coach. Pierce should be given every chance to play seniors as should Sinclair- heaven knows we need some class and a plan B

[supersaints]

It only worked ( sort of) before the new no third man up rule.. We we second in the league in 2016 for hit outs by third man up with 30.7% of our total hit outs won by third man.. mostly by Roo
intresingly 3rd man up was used against us on Hickey rarely

When Bruce goes into the ruck we get killed because no one can help him out against the bigger bodies, posters saying that five minutes a quarter makes no difference Have no idea, that's twenty minutes total were we get absolutely flogged, It's obvious

It's usually toward the end of the quarter when we are already running out of steam .. it hurts badly

If your going to run with one Ruckman have got to be like Sandilands or Gawn etc, they now give the on ballers an armchair ride. Sadly we only have Longer who's tank ain't great and is struggling around the ground.

I believe the Dogs will suffer as they were quite high in using Bont as third man up the same we we use Nick this is the year of the giant rucks, until the coaches work out how to curb their influence once more.

[BigMart]

Did Lewis Pierce work?

6 disposals, 10 hit outs, 1 goal

Not a good game from a forward, or from a ruckman or from a runner?

[saynta]

Did Lewis Pierce work?

6 disposals, 10 hit outs, 1 goal

Not a good game from a forward, or from a ruckman or from a runner?

How many games has the kid played.

Hickey, Pierce or Marshall even would have possibly have been of greater value than Long.

[Toy Saint]

Have we upgraded a rookie to replace Dempster yet?

It's pretty clear we need a 2nd ruck who can be effective forward?

Marshall may be that guy, no idea how effective his ruck work is, but he does kick goals.

Membrey and Weller are similar types, and neither have been that effective. Perhaps we can't afford both in the same squad.

I'm thinking we should drop Long for Koby Stevens to strengthen our mid field, and repalce Weller with Marshall. Minchington and Billings are probably sufficient small forwards and could rotate through the middle.

[Sainternist]

I wonder how Carlisle would go in the occasional ruck contest? Perhaps we could get Bruce to go down back then?

[saintsRrising]

I wonder how Carlisle would go in the occasional ruck contest? Perhaps we could get Bruce to go down back then?

As he rucked a fair bit at the Dons, quite well as a relief ruck I would imagine and ceratinly better than Bruce has shown.

[SydneySainter]

I wonder how Carlisle would go in the occasional ruck contest? Perhaps we could get Bruce to go down back then?

Really like the idea.

Only reservation is that it might mean that Hickey goes into defence and he isn't much of a defender.

[ace]

Time to call for a Marshall?

You have to holler for a Marshall.
But the beauty is if properly charged before hand the battery never runs low during a game.

[realdeal]

In my opinion need another tall.. when you consider that Our tall forwards are Bruce (isn't marking, missing easy shots) and Membrey (who is 188cm), it just lacks abit of balance (esp when Bruce goes in the ruck).

This is even more obvious when we continually bomb it long, surely we need to give something else a try..

[To the top]

IMO it makes as much sense to ruck Carlisle as Bruce.

None.

What Longer showed is that he does not have the mobility or possession skills to add value - so is a liability.

Marshall?

Don't know apart from his physical attributes being what they are so has the height.

If we play Marshall he is going to be required to play forward for significant periods of the game - giving us McCartin, Bruce, Membrey and Marshall.

Would that work?

Then there is Riewoldt pushing forward.

When rucking whoever is going to get hammered physically - and we saw the result on Longer who was then also dragged around the ground by his opponents to our detriment and the ultimate result.

Longer just could not get the ball going our way and Geelong maximised.

[realdeal]

Much depends on whether we play paddy or not.. if we do then Bruce is stuck in the ruck, if we only play 2 of Bruce, paddy or members then we might be about to fit in a Peirce, Marshall or Longer to back up Hickey.
No simple answer unfortunately..

On another note, has it taken just one game for some people to realize that Hickey is a mile ahead of Longer as our first ruck!? Whilst he hasn't been at his best so far, imo Hickey will get better as the season progresses..

[borderbarry]

If we played Marshall - why would we need to play Bruce?

[realdeal]

If we played Marshall - why would we need to play Bruce?

Well that's one of the many options... they could both play as the key Fwds or the could play Marshall as the 'resting ruck' or they could just play one of them.. who knows..

[remboy]

My opinion is that playing Bruce in the ruck is a double negative. He isn't effective as a ruckman and I feel it's begatively impacting his form at FF.
If we're happy with a ruckman having less than 10 possessions and taking 1 mark a game we might as well play Holmes. At least he'll get 50 hitouts.
I think a hard call will have to be made at the end of the year as playing any two of our listed ruckmen will make us too slow and limit our rotations too much.

[realdeal]

My opinion is that playing Bruce in the ruck is a double negative. He isn't effective as a ruckman and I feel it's begatively impacting his form at FF.
If we're happy with a ruckman having less than 10 possessions and taking 1 mark a game we might as well play Holmes. At least he'll get 50 hitouts.
I think a hard call will have to be made at the end of the year as playing any two of our listed ruckmen will make us too slow and limit our rotations too much.

I tend to agree.. Not sure why we went for so many 'pure' ruckman..

[Con Gorozidis]

Time to call for a Marshall?