Carlton Supporters Club

14.14 to 15.9.  On paper freo won, but in practice did they win easily?  I haven't seen any of it, so I don't know, the stats can lie.

Not to mention how strong your mids are.  I'd like to see how pittonet and tdk would fare without cripps, Kennedy and Walsh on.  Oh hang on, we same both of thems truggle vs Sydney and it wasn't because there was two rucks, it was because the Sydney midfield smashed us.

But does that not filter down if we use a backup ruck as well? If our mids are doing all the work??

I wonder if Voss and co may be looking at Fremantle’s ruck setup. Darcy is the anchor, like a better version of Pittonet, and Jackson is the mobile, athletic one, like Tom De Koning. I’m safely assuming (hoping) the MC will leave  nothing to chance and will continue to thoroughly explore all options, even if that means a variable, horses for courses approach, based on the best solution for the opposition.

our lack of leg speed is a bigger issue than the ruck combo is a big point, but my next question is interesting. 

If we play a shock value ruck for longer how well does that work?  Like you've stated it comes back to the mean right?  My recollection of playing jack in the ruck was the more it happened the worse it looked over time. 

That's not to say don't do it, but as we play two rucks how would that look over time?  Better worse same?  Depends on the bigger picture.  Players available, not.  Etc.  Harry wasn't kicking as well last year as he does this year.  Would that change the debate entirely just by him improving? 

Perhaps.

The issues of run and carry having one or two rucks are vastly overstated by opponents of the two rucks, it's really not an issue.

When you run two rucks there are three main scenarios;
A:- One Ruck on the Ground, One on the Bench
B:- Two Rucks on the Ground
C:- Both Rucks on the Bench

A is the most common, but it's not 100% of the time. B happens more than people realise and C rarely happens but it does happen.

Time on the bench isn't necessarily causing a lack of run, a significant portion of the reported bench time happens when players take set shots for goal, most using the full 30s plus some, then there is the obligatory Ad after every goal not just set shots. It a flaw of stats that bench time isn't just measured against Time On, a rather uncomfortably large chuck of time is standing or sitting there waiting for the red light to flash!

The time a ruck occupies can obviously vary, but it's an interval largely distributed across the rest of the team. I heard one of our players(McGovern or Hewett if I recall correctly) described playing the second ruck reduced bench time for the rest of players by about 60-90s per player for the entire game. That is because it's a distribution, whether it's proportional to run or distributed evenly is really an MC issue.

Of course opponents of playing the two rucks like to make it sound bad, they like to talk totals, he spent 18 minutes on the bench, he spent 22 minutes on the bench, but of course that 18 or 22 minutes is distributed across 21 team-mates. If we use bench time averages and report it as our players spent 65s or 83s less on the bench across the whole game, it barely registers as a concern.

If that really made no difference you wouldn’t see the guns on the pine.

If that really made no difference you wouldn’t see the guns on the pine.

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I think that you can safely assume that our MC aren't wedded to a single approach and will play Tom, Pitto or both of them as appropriate.  One thing I think that we can be sure of is that, unlike Melbourne, they won't throw their hands in the air and give up on two rucks.

Pittonet not playing in the twos, wonder if there might be a late change today.

Thought we handled the ruck situation pretty well yesterday, and if we are mostly going with one ruck it may be the blueprint for going forward.
Now assuming we take Voss at his word, DeKoning had some 'general soreness'.
So by giving him a break we were also able to get some senior game time into Pittonet as he comes back from injury.
Win-win.

Now if DeKoning was generally sore that also indicates that his workload will need to be managed so that one or both of them are ready to go come finals.
One of the key concerns with just one ruck is the toll it would take over a season for a solo ruckman.

Playing it the way we did yesterday means that some weeks we play only one ruck, others we alternate the rucks depending on the opposition, and some weeks maybe both play.
We are pretty lucky, and probably one of the few teams who have two ruckmen able to handle the solo role, if need be.

Now if DeKoning was generally sore that also indicates that his workload will need to be managed so that one or both of them are ready to go come finals.
One of the key concerns with just one ruck is the toll it would take over a season for a solo ruckman.