Carlton Supporters Club

I think we can all agree that if Kreuzer had an injury free career he probably would be the best ruckman in the business but he hasn't. In round one he was looking great till he got injured again. As soon as he went off the Tigers had their way with us.

Ask any non Carlton fan who the best ruckman in the AFL is and he won't even get a mention.

We need to put the best possible team on the park.

Special K certainly is not the best ruck in the competition, but when he is fit and in form he can be one of the most effective. And mbb is right; he doesn't get the kudos he deserves. Even from many Carlton supporters. But his form last year had very few peers. He was beaten maybe three times for the year. He at least broke even against some of best credentialed rucks and he simply thrashed most of them.
He doesn't just compete in the ruck, but he makes clearances. Few rucks do that.

One of the positive things about Phillips so far is that he has been able to at least break even, usually doing better. This has not been the case earlier in his career. Unfortunately he runs out of gas in the second half. Not surprising given his history of injury, but a disappointment all the same.

In the past Kreuzer has been struggling with fitness and has let the ruck become a battle of strength with Jacobs. That has been a mistake which has allowed Sauce to play well against Kreuzer. Get Jacobs to run after Kreuzer and the matter takes on a whole new light.

Thats assuming Kreuzer can actually run around for 4 quarters. In his 3 games thus far this season, he has played 66%, 71% and 80% of game time, whilst Phillips has gone at 86% and 83% of game time.

It all points to Kreuzer not being fit, and that means you don't play him unless he has proven he is not only right to play, but is also fit enough to run an opposition ruckman around the ground.

Firstly given he was injured Rnd 1 it's not bad.

ToG figures are pretty meaningless without careful cross correlation to intensity, any spud can spend 100% ToG but be sauntering around like a goose!

It would be interesting to know how much ground is covered by various players, which would give you meters per minute or Intensity as the AFL fitness pepole like to call it. I wouldn't be surprised to find Kreuzer pre-injury right at the top of the list of our bigger players.

It's one of my biggest bugbears with SPS, there is nothing worse than seeing a young fit bloke like SPS jogging along in the background as someone like Daisy or Wright sprints past him after the ball carrier.

If my assertion about Kreuzer having a Psoas injury is correct, you won't see him regain full running intensity until next season. He'll be OK as long as it's straight line stuff, but direction changes will be very sluggish by his normal standards. If I was coaching against Kreuzer I'd ask his opponent to weave and zag all over the place, lots of lateral movement and try to get Kreuzer following. If I was coaching Kreuzer, I'd tell him to ignore chasing opponents too far laterally and hold the main corridor to force them wide, let them run themselves into the ground avoiding a contest.

To go with that, ruck him at VFL level this week.  If he proves he can get through 4 quarters, play him at AFL level.

I don't see what message you send to Phillips and by extension the group, if Kreuzer walk up starts against Adelaide this week.

He is our number 1 ruckman, and he has had his fair share of injuries, and didn't finish the game at Blundstone in his last outing, because we were getting hammered.  That means others have to carry his load whilst he sits out.

Lets not repeat that mistake.

In reality we now know he sat out because of injury, not because he wasn't fit enough and being managed. And it is true that sitting Kreuzer out meant others had to be on the ground injured, if I recall correctly both Kennedy and Weitering went back on the ground with ankles and corkies. But that is part of football.

But that is no different to a 100% fit player getting injured in the first few minutes. The problem you write about really becomes an issue if you start playing too many unfit players from the get go, like Kennedy, Kreuzer, Marchbank and Weitering all at once. But we've heard the coaches talk about players needing to learn to cope with adversity as part of their development. However, too many at once is clearly a problem.

On that issue, I'm pretty sure if we keep pushing Cripps he'll break down eventually, he needs to find another string to his bow so he can have a natural chop-out form the crash and bang stuff.

Time to play Kerr.

Phuk!!!! I was looking at a smaller side but this wasn't what I had in mind.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/carlton-s-charlie-curnow-sidelined-with-ankle-injury-20180503-p4zd4r.html

Time to play Kerr.

We play Adelaide in Adelaide next Saturday night. Things do not bode well.