How was Tom Hickey..?

[skeptic]

Haven't seen the game yet...

Obviously Tom had a great game vs Port and battled last week vs the Bulldogs... How was he on Saturday?

Do ppl have a sense of how the club is going to manage the ruck stocks this year? Was Bruce #2 again?



P.S. And how did Dasher Minchington go too?

[bigred]

Hickey was OK. 30 hitouts. We got done in the clearances for the game which was sort of weird since we smashed them pretty much all over the ground. He had ten possies but a handful of clangers..

Minch was good. Fifteen touches, ten of those contested but he torched the ball a few times. Three clangers, but handballed into pressure a few times. Got two clearances. He was in a couple of really good passages of play. Be hard to drop him, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[BigMart]

Tom rucked ok had 30 hit outs to 22

Tackled well, but gave away a few free kicks with high tackles and a silly 50m penalty.

He didn't have a big impact around the ground, just the 10 touches. Grundy had 16 touches.

[BringBackMadDog]

Haven't seen the game yet...

Obviously Tom had a great game vs Port and battled last week vs the Bulldogs... How was he on Saturday?

Do ppl have a sense of how the club is going to manage the ruck stocks this year? Was Bruce #2 again?



P.S. And how did Dasher Minchington go too?

He is currently ranked the 2nd best ruckman in the AFL based on stats.

[kosifantutti]

I thought we missed a couple of opportunities to use Hickey when he charged forward without an obvious opponent. But we didn't use him and kicked along the line instead.

[MC Gusto]

Took a couple of crucial grabs - one in the last was of particular note

Also drilled a lovely pass under pressure to Bruce which finished in a mark inside the square / certain goal

[Beno88]

Tom was excellent. Rucked well, covered plenty of ground and hardly had a rest due to Riewoldt and McCartin being off in the second half. Did not come off the ground in the last quarter. Great effort.

[shrodes]

I went to the game and thought he was great, not as good as the Port game, but after half time he was pretty instrumental in us kicking away. Grundy had his measure at half time with 11 disposals to 3, and Hickey got back in it after half time winning his own tap and getting in there for quick handballs out of the ruck contest.

[saintsRrising]

Solid game and had a midfield presence in addition to his ruckwork.

Is having a good year with 2 pretty good games and one brilliant one.

[thejiggingsaint]

How was Tom Hickey? Exactly the same as the other 21! BRILL-EEE-YANT!!! Tremendous effort from the TEAM! Seriously, this lad along with Holmes and Longer gives me great heart for the strength of our Ruck division going forward. GO SAINTS! (to hell with the rest!)

[Bluthy]

He is currently ranked the 2nd best ruckman in the AFL based on stats.

Is that right? Well done Tom. If he can stay healthy he's got amazing potential - we saw what he is capable of against Port. With Paddy, Roo and Roberton off in the second half, he provided some really good air cover, helping to kill some key marking contests.

[Sobraz]

7.5/10.

A very good game, second half in particular and was instrumental in us taking control from the 3rd qtr on wards.

I'd give his game v Port a 9/10. A 4.5/10 v Bulldogs (pretty much the overall team average in a shocking game).

He must be played as first ruck and first ruck only. I am a big Hickey fan and much prefer him to Longer as he has far greater ability to actually win possession and take crucial marks. Longer, whilst certainly a better tap ruckman, is a terrible mark for a 200+cm player, and really doesn't get around the ground and make the play aside from actually contesting tap outs. Is a nothing forward threat when rucking whereas Hick can be dangerous floating forward.

As a person who thinks tap outs are the most overrated stat in the game, I do not see the point of playing Longer over Hickey particularly with the level Hickey has shown he can reach, and will be hitting more consistently with more first ruck game time.

[the dome]

Tom is really helping our Sainters develop a solid spine as the old timers might say.
I loved his rucking which included very valuable around the ground plays.

Enjoying Tom Hickey's work !

[Legendary]

Played well, particularly in the second half when he started winning more hitouts and using his body in the packs to greater effect. He really got himself more involved after half time, which I thought was great.

He's played 1 exceptional game, 1 good game and 1 average game this year, so he's in pretty good form.

[carn_sainter]

Hickey was excellent. I was at level 3 at the G and was mighty impressed.

Worked super hard all game...he and Bruce especially put in massive efforts and kept us competitive in the air.

Hickey is the closest we have had to Spider Everitt since Spider left...a good tap ruckman (when he drops it just left at a centre ckearance down Steven's throat is brilliant) who follows up really well at ground level, can kick the pill and provides a very good marking option.

His aerial contest work can be enormous for us and I reckon he has it in him to snag a goal or two quite frequently.

I'm very hapy with Hickey and very impressed with his form so far.

[stkfc1]

Love the way he screens our onballers. Obviously his basketball background. Makes a way out when there wasn't one before. Shows some smarts.

[SemperFidelis]

Hickey was very very good again this week. The rest of the team lifted so his influence seemed less important. Assuming we lose at least one of Roo or Paddy this week it will be really interesting to see how we use him and whether we bring in Billy to share some of the load of the talls. He's a beautiful kick. And my god he looks fit this year.

[saintsRrising]

Love the way he screens our onballers. Obviously his basketball background. Makes a way out when there wasn't one before. Shows some smarts.

Indeed.

I just watched the replay and took note of Hickey and he looked even better than he did live.

He was a real presence for our mids, and applied a lot of pressure on the Pies onballers.

He also did a number of smart taps that were as good as a hanball but will not show up as a disposal.