The Gawn/Grundy thing is going to be put under the microscope from the first minute of play.  I can already hear the journalists warming up their fingers.  They'll be ready to pounce if there's any indication that it's not working 

Just now, Orion said:

The Gawn/Grundy thing is going to be put under the microscope from the first minute of play.  I can already hear the journalists warming up their fingers.  They'll be ready to pounce if there's any indication that it's not working 

Yep. Sort of has to work doesn't it?

At least we're the club that is brave enough to give it a crack, the media ridicule could be intense but the pay-off could be massive. 

 

So lucky to have this guy as our leader and an ambassador of our club.  Makes me smile every time I listen to him. 

5 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

So lucky to have this guy as our leader and an ambassador of our club.  Makes me smile every time I listen to him. 

Same, loved how he said he'd even go sit on the bench if it was going to help us to premiership.  So humble!

Good to hear Max will be focusing on improving his forward craft, and in particular how he will work with T Mac and BBB.

 

23 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

was asking this exact question on Saturday!? Hi AFL website people.

 

 

4 hours ago, Demonland said:

 

In that is confirmation that the intention is to make Gawn a primary FP/FF and gave Grundy take the majority of ruck contests through the middle.

One may play behind the ball from time to time or to halt momentum but we can clearly see the intent to push teams with height in forward line. Don’t think we can play Gawn, Brown, TMac and Fritsch but hmmm…

 

 

He may not be, but I'm not going to write off Max until we've seen the entire season as a whole. 

Also, remembering he's come back from a serious knee injury this season.

Kane is as reactionary as some on here.

Edited June 25, 20231 yr by A F

I think the ruck and clearance work is the best in the comp with these two and it was a real difference against Cox and Cameron. The problem is though, our other forwards aren’t kicking enough and it’s too difficult to carry both Max and Grundy when they’re barely hitting the scoreboard. Unless JvR, Smith, Kozzy and Chandler up their goal average we’ll need to make a change with these two.

24 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

I think the ruck and clearance work is the best in the comp with these two and it was a real difference against Cox and Cameron. The problem is though, our other forwards aren’t kicking enough and it’s too difficult to carry both Max and Grundy when they’re barely hitting the scoreboard. Unless JvR, Smith, Kozzy and Chandler up their goal average we’ll need to make a change with these two.

Agree. They had Rohan, we had a forward line that underperformed, we’re not dangerous and most of them gave us nothing on the scoreboard.

If Max is injured don’t play him, no excuses.

If not, he’s a 6 time AA ruckman  that’s playing 70% behind the ball or as a forward & less than 30% in the centre square 

It doesn’t make sense 

 

In terms of the ruck-forqard duo we'd hoped for it probably hasn't worked yet. 

It's obvious Max doesn't look himself and I'm not going to speculate on why that is but the MCL doesn't help. I really hope he can find some form.

They need to commit to one forward, and one in the ruck. Sometimes we slow movement into the forward line so Max can get down there from the ruck…

Slowing ball movement. 

In this team.

They need to play their actual role and it will be much better. If you are in the ruck then set up the wall, if you are forward, then lead into the hole. 

But because Max and Pretty much everyone has zero faith in our forward execution - they flood him forward at all opportunities.

Frankly, these two are not our concern - some of their play is a symptom of our broken forward connection and setup and lack of craft.

Personally I don't think it's worked at all.

Having the two genuine ruckman leaves us a tall forward short. Both Grundy and Max cannot play forward as they simply dont have the forward natural ability and insticts, and if they're not rucking then they're not really adding much else elsewhere.

I thought Max spending more time up forward would work but it simply hasn't unfortunately. 

They played well against Collingwood. Max had a poor night in the rain, he wasn't alone. Loading a 31 year old ruckman is likely to see a dip in performance

Wasn’t much criticism of them after the Collingwood game. Strange that isn’t it?

A loss seems to require a reason, while a win is just the expectation. In a strange way it’s the proof that this is the best time to be a Melbourne supporter in 50 years.

47 minutes ago, layzie said:

In terms of the ruck-forqard duo we'd hoped for it probably hasn't worked yet. 

It's obvious Max doesn't look himself and I'm not going to speculate on why that is but the MCL doesn't help. I really hope he can find some form.

Dont play injured players I thought this was a learning from last season !!

First, I would like to personally thank Kane Cornes for guaranteeing that Gawn and Grundy will now each deliver stellar results for the second half of the season.

But more seriously, I do think we need to let go of the 'ruckman can automatically be rotated to the forward line' myth.

Gawn does his best work reading the play and providing a relief option both intercepting opposition attacks at roughly half-back, and contested for our boring-but-necessary long kick to the wing out of defence. Giving the injury interruption to his fitness base I think it is also notable that playing that role doesn't require him to be constantly doing long runs up and down the ground.

Grundy is a classic mobile ruckman, winning clearances and gathering disposals around the ground. He's never been a forward nor even a prolific marker, though he can do it fine when needed. He should be roving the midfield and half forward lines giving a connection option or ready to interfere with the opposition's boring-but-necessary long kick out of defence. This demands more running but like the Gawn role I've described, it doesn't require junk running the length of the ground just to keep turning up at contests.

Both can be slipped forward on occasion to mix things up and confuse opposition defence structures, or when their ruck opponents puffs out and can't follow them, but neither are ruck-forwards.

Personally I think we should be giving them their main zones of operation and allowing them to loiter there, maximising both their time on ground so that other players who should be running around frantically can take more rests.

When Grundy came to us I thought I'd seen the last of Gawn having to go on 70m runs and then back again just to be in position for a couple of contests. I thought we'd seem him taking contested marks with full lungs and fresh limbs. I thought we'd be extended both Gawn's and Grundy's career by dramatically reducing their running loads by zoning them to different areas.

At this stage I think we've tried to use double the ingredients to make one giant pancake spread out too thin, cooking unevenly and breaking every time you flip it, instead of having two perfectly balanced pancakes.

it works when it does, and when it doesn't it doesn't

We’ve been so reluctant to sub either of them off as well.

I thought part of the plan to get Grundy was 5 on the bench or the non injury sub meant we didn’t have to have them on the ground.

Grundy’s playing 60% every week but never been subbed. If he’s only good for 60% he should be able to play it quicker then get off.

We also seem to have little faith in Grundy’s fitness or positional work because he rarely plays forward and gets caught being lazy defensively in the ruck. 

The drop off in Max’s handballing / basic decision making with the ball is such a shame. He was always good for one silly kick a week but otherwise was a smart player at his best. Now he’s a genuine worry every time he gets the ball.

Not sure what the answer is. Maybe Grundy and Gawn start deeper and play more full forward to be in position for the long bombs. I’d like to see them switch roles on the ground more often to keep teams guessing too.