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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 7 2024 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong
Last post by Lods -Right now, i'd drop Young for Cincotta. Give Kemp the lockdown role and allow Cincotta to cover the intercept role, which adds more run.
When the game starts getting wetter, you'd think about dropping one more tall. We'll wait and see who is out of form at the time.
The decision is made easier right now because we don't have Silvagni available, or any other option for 3rd tall.
There was never any doubt about their 'styles of ruck' or that they compliment eachother. The issue was they they were both doing not very much around the ground.....at all.
TDK was lacking in ruck area, and performing worse than Silvagni as a forward......but better than Pittonet as a non-ruck option.
Pittonet was performing better in the ruck, but not doing enough around the ground.
BOTH of them are not only performing better around the ground, but both are being genuine options around the ground and up forward.
Pittonet kicked a goal first game back. TDK kicked 3 last week, and 0.3 this week. I showed stats on pittonets ruck AND around the ground work and how it was the same or better than both rucks combined....and even 2 mids combined in clearances.
That kind of form from both of them was nowhere to be seen last year. THAT is what has changed......and thankfully its changed when the cupboard is very bare behind them.
However,
Once we start getting players back, if you want to play both rucks in your 22, you are leaving out someone like Kennedy, Cottrell, Hollands (x2), Williams.....etc.
That would be sad (the bit in bold) but maybe necessary…because right now both Rucks offer more than most (if not all) of those mentioned in terms of game influence. The other thing is that it assumes all those players are in form and uninjured. If we only need to lose one to play the two rucks it probably won’t be an issue.
The important thing is both our Ruckman continue to stay healthy and maintain a degree of form. They will no doubt have a poor game here or there, but it would probably need to be a patch of multiple poor games before one loses their spot. DeKoning is still improving, and time together can only develop the combination and understanding with Pittonet
Wet weather during winter may be an issue and it may be a time when the one ruck option is looked at. But it won’t rain all winter, and games at Marvel are a ‘non-issue’ as will be most of the interstate games.
There’s a bit of a contradiction in your post. A lot of it is about the ‘future’ and what might happen, yet the judgements made on the two-ruck situation were made in the ‘present of 2023’ when there were aspects of both players not up to scratch, and both struggled a bit with injury at stages during the season.
Judging in the present is also one of the issues with statistics. They are a measure of the past, (even last weekend’s statistics). A string of good games by a player and those early season statistics can alter dramatically.
We don’t know what will happen in the games to come and a whole lot of variables will come into play. The team we’re playing at ‘present’ may be completely different to the side that takes the field at the end of the year. We may get players back… and/or (perish the thought) we may lose important players. There’s not a lot of point predicting a line-up with a full side to choose from, because that’s a pretty unlikely scenario.
If we do have a full side to choose from, they might as well just give us the cup.