If Murphy and Simpson had bot had such a good game I would be more confident in Duigan keeping his place. Given Curnow had such a good game, Ellard and Duigan seem to be the only natural outs assuming Casboult stays in.
McInnes might not be safe, was struggling a bit and Waite did OK up forward which suggests Hendo can safely go back. In our previous games against Nthmond the tall backs haven't figured heavily. It has been our midfield and rucks that did the damage.
Maric would be too much for Kruezer IMO.....Warnock with his extra size was important last game in negating Maric...need to play the two rucks IMO plus Casboult as KP Forward...
That's what I'm thinking. I'm okay with dropping Warnock as long as Kreuzer can handle the opposition ruck but Maric is too good for him.
It was great to see Warnock get pissed off and hand out some of the treatment he cops week after week. Opposition rucks jump early and bury their feet or knees into his thighs and midriff, and they get away with it. Warnock returned the favor against Port a couple of times after half time, he got pinged for doing it twice, but it also stopped the opponents doing the same dead in their tracks.
As for Kreuzer, we should be bitching it up like Collingwood does whenever Cloke gets his arms chopped. I haven't seen an opponent make contact with the ball yet when Kreuzer jumps from in front!
We always do best with one and a back up. More often than not we're sh1t with 2. Doesn't add anything. Diminishes Kreuzer's affect as he is not good up forward. He suddenly becomes average if he's not first ruck. Collingwood and Richmond will be the same too. Hawthorn will go with 2 out of necessity with Buddy out, meaning Hale needs to spend more time forward. Hawthorn operate best with Hale, with back up from Roughhead. Not sure the Swans have been as good playing 2 rucks plus Tippett and White. Why would you do that when white and Tippett can ruck most proficiently. If you're looking to split between a bloke who can win a few taps and a bloke who can kick a couple of goals you'd go with the latter.
That is old fashioned thinking, Laj. The Swans go with all the big guys because it is their natural advantage and it works, there is no better game plan or team setup, just a winning team that plays to it's strengths.
Like it or not we have a significant ruck advantage over most clubs that we have greatly failed to capitalise on, it is my opinion that we need to engineer the game plan to suit our strengths. It is pointless playing a marking KPF game plan if we have no marking KPF or if we have to bastardise our backline to try and fashion one! I'd rather see two Amigos up forward with a tackling forward like Armfield or Robinson and a tall like Kreuzer or Casboult inside F50 bringing the ball to ground. In my opinion the best football we played this year was early in the season when we had a series of narrow losses to top four sides. All games had combinations of Kreuzer, Rowe, Hampson and Casboult playing bringing the ball to ground from long fast entries of the HBF by the likes of Walker, Tuohy and Gibbs. In addition opposition rucks were being dominated, and all that happened when our midfield was hopelessly out of form! If we added an in form Yarran running off the HBF to that mix I think it would be our most damaging combination.
I am with @EB1 we need both playing plus Casboult but Casboult's performance will be critical. If he puts in another one like the last two we are shot, he could be our most important player this week.
I would like to play 3 ruckmen but whenever we do we usually lose. We were getting smashed on Saturday until we subbed one off.
But Casboult is not a ruckmen, everyone keeps telling me that!
If he was a useful ruckmen, he would be much better value. Blokes like SpecialK and Warnock would not have to sprint the length of the ground to get to stoppages!
The top sides will set up ruck zones for the finals, especially Sydney and Geelong. Whoever takes the center bounce will either immediately zone off either forward or backwards as required by the game plan. They will not be required to traverse the full length of the ground to get to stoppages.
Finals are too fast, and under the current fast ball up rules rucks do not have the time to cover the ground. A single ruckmen would be cooked by quarter time.
That's a ridiculous post. He might not have the best skills but Casboult goes the hardest of any of our big men.
As long as he isn't hearing footsteps! Levi loves jumping over packs but turns timid once he has the front spot, he runs under the ball way too much for a bloke his size! In this respect Rowe has far more presence, but Rowe has been horribly out of form and is not timing his marking attempts very well at all. Not that that is anything new for our big blokes, we got a total of 6 marks from Warnock, Kreuzer and Casboult and three of them were marks taken out on the wings virtually uncontested!
Also if you watch the replay you see another Casboult trait that is a problem, and this is what I refer to when making my Jane statement. Meat got shoved off the ball multiple times by blokes 20cm shorter and 15kg~20kg lighter, that should never ever happen to someone his size unless he has already lost his balance! He should be clearing packs Bell style, not watching or roving like Garlett!
In my opinion there is only one place on the ground to play Meat, and that is starting on the goal line and jumping at everything that comes within 30m of goal.
I suspect Casboult will retain his spot, primarily because the NBs haven't played and Rowe has been just as poor over the last couple of weeks, unless of course Laidler get the miracle nod!
But Meat better start playing more like Tarzan inside F50 and far less like Jane out on the wing or this final could be the end for his Carlton career! He needs to be clunking marks or brining the ball to ground in and around the goal square.
Casboult has a lousy ball drop...too much air time between when it drops and the ball hits the boot......Stewart Lowe is about the only player I know who was a rubbish kick and became reasonable after lots of practice.. Earl Spalding was always awkward and a ordinary kick until the premiership year when he still looked awkward but seemed to kick goals.
Casboults kicking also lacks touch, he over kicks the ball even when kicking short...he needs a vatican improved exorcism of the kicking demon....
I hope it can, but I won't hold my breath waiting, MM might be too old to want to wait that long!
Amazing how much better we looked when Yarran went down back, even though he was relatively quiet in the last term, he sparked the revival in the third quarter. His run and creativity straightened us up and it seemed his confidence came back in a flash.
I suppose he actually enjoys playing there occasionally, once or twice a season would be nice!
Fair enough makes sense. Great leadership regardless.
If you get to watch a replay you will see he turns like a titanic, relative to how he use to turn. Often when confronted he now ducks his head in situations that he would have previously just stepped around a few.
I reckon it is a hip!
Trust me, I know for a fact its his knee.
He must be playing with a partial medial tear then, because he accelerates fine as long as it is in the straight line.
Fair enough makes sense. Great leadership regardless.
If you get to watch a replay you will see he turns like a titanic, relative to how he use to turn. Often when confronted he now ducks his head in situations that he would have previously just stepped around a few.
I reckon it is a hip!
The club claims it is a knee, but knees don't let you run like that!
How good was Menzel's pick up from his toes and handball to Bell for the goal? Some very hard tackling as well. So good we're going to get a final into these types.
