A Grundy thread

[Pies4shaw]

At quarter time, Collingwood is double Brisbane's score. Grundy is on pace for a 32 disposal, 4 tackle, 60 hitout, 8 clearance, 8 mark, 4 goal assist game. Will you folk ever be happy with his contribution?

[Johnno75]

He has had a big qtr but so he should playing against a couple of guys with 5 games experience in total.

[eddiesmith]

He’s getting a bit better, up his early taps were back to his feet rubbish.

But given the massive gap in Grundy and two blokes with 5 games experience, he should smash them in hitouts, it comes down to what he actually does with them, he is great at getting the stats up without helping our midfield.

Let’s not forget, the Brownlow medallist is out there and Grundy is getting more than him...

[Dave The Man]

BOG in 1st Half Tonight

Great to see the Dominate Grundy Back

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

[eddiesmith]

Yet still the usual suspects will say it’s a good idea to blow your cap on a position that doesn’t win you games of football

[Pies4shaw]

13 kicks, 17 handballs, 5 clearances, 5 marks, 6 tackles, 1 goal assist and 54 hitouts (21 to advantage) from 63 ruck contests. He played the opposition almost on his own.

[Big T]

[BEAMER09]

[Johnno75]

Played well most importantly was able to link as a mid and even went forward. Hope to see more of this.

However his hit outs are absolutely useless it doesn’t matter whether he gets 10 or 100 will make no difference. Even 21 to advantage, most of them were in tight or at the feet. There were about 10 he hit to space that made a difference but clearly not enough when you have 60 odd. Brisbane won 30 clearances from 4 H/O there were at least 3 Grundy hit to opposition ruckman for a centre clearance to Brisbane.

This is clearly a tactic to keep the ball in tight and not whack into space as we have mostly a slow in and under midfield that doesn’t spread and we look at our half backers/wingers to get involved to do the spread. That’s why we need to get Crisp in the middle more.

[Pies4shaw]

^ About the same as every other ruckman in the AFL when hitouts don't go to advantage - that is, whether you get the clearance or not depends upon whether your midfield has any pace and ball-handling skills.

So, we won the hitouts 63 to 4 but, as usual, the opposition got first use of the ball from many of our hitouts. This is largely because our mids have no speed off the mark at the contest. I guarantee that if Martin and Cotchin had that much first look at the ball, Richmond would win by about 40 goals.

This is why the ball gets dropped close to Grundy so often. It is a deliberate coaching strategy designed to limit (not exclude) the number of times we are killed on the outside at a stoppage. It's coaching suicide, if you think about it - on the one hand, have a high-stoppage game plan. On the other, try to limit the damage that occurs after the stoppage because you have only 2 midfielders who can handle the ball adequately and none with adequate leg speed.

Collingwood managed to win the clearances last night - but barely and on the back of extraordinarily dominant rucking. Our mids are like watching the Little League, really. Even the coaching staff know that, which is why they cleared out half our starting midfield at the end of last season for basically nothing.

A fine example of why the ball is best brought to ground at Collingwood occurred at one of the last centre clearances. Game in the balance, Gruny gets the hit out and puts it out to Sier's advantage, running directly towards our goal. Sier gets beaten for pace, the Brisbane player runs past him, gathers the ball and it goes straight down for a Brisbane shot on goal. If Grundy had hit that to the favour of, say, Wellingham, Collingwood would have had the shot on goal. Speed over the first couple of paces is something Collingwood badly lacks. That and a genuinely powerful defensive mid who forces the opposition wide when they do get their hands on the ball - we haven't had that since Luke Ball retired.

Ultimately, our problem is that too many of our players can't impose pressure or close down space when the opposition gets the ball.

It's actually a little embarrassing that Grundy continues, week-in, week-out, season after season, to destroy opposition teams in the ruck but people want to nit-pick about the one place on the field we win, rather than the 10 or so where we get pantsed, every match, win, lose or draw.

[Pies4shaw]

[Pies4shaw]

[Big T]

[Mr Miyagi]

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2021-collingwood-vs-brisbane-brodie-grundy-afl-stats-hitouts-nathan-buckley/news-story/dca75744af612f66b9fc609e736b44b7

Sums it up. Interesting Melbourne are in the same boat with their dominant superstar ruckman. 20 years ago, they would have won games by themselves. It’s different game now.