Our ruck to midfield connection

[Boot]

I have watched Grundy's ruckwork since his debut and have been impressed with his tap work on numerous occasions in being able to control the ball from both Centre bounces and Boundary Line Throw Ins. Hence I have no doubt that he has the ability to win the tap to Collingwood's advantage more often than not.
However, the game that stands out where he repeatedly tapped boundary line throw ins to his feet was the 2019 Preliminary Final loss to Greater Western Sydney. That final quarter charge by Collingwood, where the ball along with all the GWS team seemed to be in the Collingwood forward 50 for 90% of the time yet frustratingly was a slug feast where Collingwood failed to score the last punch to take the lead before the final siren, needed Grundy to change tactics from dropping the ball at his feet where 4 - 6 GWS players swooped to hold the ball in a contested rugby type scrum time and time again. I can only assume that Grundy was following team rules and playing to agreed tactics.

Hence I don't think the problem is with Grundy's ability and skill to tap the ball to advantage but the problem is with the tactics being pursued by the coaching team to get the most out of our midfield team at stoppages.

I remain optimistic that with the departure of Treloar, who was not a help in the midfield stoppages, the development and improved resilience of Brayden Sier and now increased time in the middle for the bigger bodies of Jack Crisp & Jordan DeGoey that Grundy's ruck dominance will equate to a greater clearance rates for Collingwood this year. However, to do so then the midfield team and more importantly coaches need to develop a more flexible and dynamic game plan that mixes up their approach so as not be too predicable for our opposition to counter.

[KickTruly]

[AnthonyC]

Someone needs to brush up on their animal knowledge.

[5 from the wing on debut]

[think better]

[Rosolino_Leone]

Whatever happened to a ruckman just punching the $!#$ out of the ball?

[Pies4shaw]

The teams all recruited midfield coaches who decide how they want the team to play - as to which, see Boot's post above.

[neil]

[PyreneesPie]

I appreciate that some coaches might prefer to see the safety of the ball dropping to the feet of the ruckman , but I'm not sure that this results in a greater number of clearances than hitting the ball to the outside.
Depends on what direction the ball is punched out I suppose. Last round, it was an absolute delight to see Nic Nat's hit outs going straight into the hands of an Eagles mid, running forward. He gave a master class in showing how it's done.

[Pies4shaw]

You did notice that Footscray won the clearances repeatedly, sharking his hitouts? He had 40 hitouts and 11 (ground) clearances. If you take out his 11 clearances where the ruck wasn't won and he followed up on the ground, his team actually lost the ruck clearances 41 to 25. Sheed had 11 clearances and Kelly 5. After that, their mids barely touched the ball at the coal-face. For Footscray, Liberatore and Macrae each had 9 clearances, Dunkley 6 and Bont 5. Since Martin and English managed just 7 hitouts to advantage between them, that's a hell of a lot of first use of the ball obtained by Footscray from Natanui's and Vardy's hitouts.

By way of comparison, Grundy had 18 hitouts to advantage to Natanui's 15 and 7 score involvements to Natanui's 8. In our game, because we kept Carlton from 1st use of the ball, 9 of the top-10 score involvement numbers were Collingwood players. In Natanui's game, the top 2 were both Footscray players (14 apiece), next came Cripps and Kelly with 9, then there was a bunch of 6 players with 8 (2 West Coast and 4 Footscray).

[PyreneesPie]

[Pies4shaw]

[Rosolino_Leone]

^

Let me just throw a stat out there for you guys.

Ben Cunnington has averaged more clearences in his career than guys like Buckley, Swan and Judd

[PyreneesPie]

[PyreneesPie]