Re: The Ruck Division .... Is It Really Competent Enough ??
Reply #126 –
To be honest, I really worry about our ruck unit.
[1] Pittonet is well down on how he started last year. He isn't getting the taps, and our midfield need him getting taps.
Granted that one of his issues is coming back from long term injury. He'll be better next year, but he is the old bull ruckman we have.
[2] Tom de Koning isn't a smart ruckman. His has some athleticism, a very nice leap and a fine set of hands, but he doesn't direct his taps to our mids' advantage. The best that could be said is that the opposition isn't getting it either.
Tom is much stronger now than when we recruited him, he is 13+ kgs heavier, for starters. But he isn't a bull. Jumping at the ball is his thing, and he isn't doing it. He tries to wrestle now all of the time.
Not sure what he can do to fix his problems, but he needs to get the contest on his terms. If he is going to play to is weaknesses instead of his strengths, he's in trouble.
[3] I'm becoming a lot less confident about Mirkov. The guys has some real advantages, and 210 cm is just the start. he can actually move and run pretty well, for example. However, he doesn't get much of the ball and we don't kick it to him. That was really noticeable in the 2nds; he doesn't make great position, but we don't kick it to him when he does.
He is learning to wrestle, but it isn't a natural part of his game. His ruck taps are a thousand times better when he jumps at the ball.
Like Tom de Koning, he doesn't ruck to his strengths, but to his weaknesses.
When he gets taps, they can be really significant. In fact, he can really pound it sometimes. However, our mids don't seem to be aware of a lot of the time. The Richmond mids were reading his ruckwork almost as well as ours were. There is clearly a communications problem there somewhere, which we need to fix if Mirkov is ever going to be any good.
[4] Because our rucks are not getting good taps, our mids are struggling. We get no advantage from our taps. On the other hand, the opposition rucks deliver the ball to their mids' advantage and our mids don't have the speed to run them down. Even with 3 Hussain Bolts, we couldn't run them down because we're out of position. That we need to fix and soon.
I didn't think Mirkov was too bad the other night.