Player Watch #38: Tristan Xerri - signed thru '29 - 2024 All Australian squad member - runner up '24 SBM

[amaz199]

When we were on early I thought X had a lot of impact and we dominated the clearances.

Everywhere on the ground looks disorganised when we start losing the battle in the middle. It's a result of a very inexperienced team with very little senior experience on every line so no surprise the midfield can look all over the joint at times.

Xerri is the least of our problems. He's contesting and going at it despite our deficiencies. He is earning that pay cheque every week compared to some of his teammates.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

What are you on about? Hitouts and even clearances are of limited relevance in today's game. Midfielders do their most important work after stoppages and plenty thrive without a ruckman hitting it down their throat. Blaming Xerri is just nonsense.

Well yes, the argument is self-defeating, that Xerri is hurting our midfield despite his hitout dominance. If the opposition mids are able to win clearances despite their ruckman losing most of the hitouts, then that clearly demonstrates that hitouts are not the most telling factor and our mids need to work harder in the stoppages.

 

[GoRoos2023]

X is giving 100%, he will never be Goldy he doesn’t have the polish but goes to war for us every week.

All things considered i will take that in our current predicament.

 

[bennymate]

We finally have a dominant ruckman and we shit on him, classic BF.

 

[Val Keating]

X is giving 100%, he will never be Goldy he doesn’t have the polish but goes to war for us every week.

All things considered i will take that in our current predicament.

I can only speak for myself, Im not criticising his effort, we couldn’t ask more of him in that regard.

The next step for X, and our midfield is to improve on being more cohesive as a group. I know he’s 25 but he’s still pretty raw.

I don’t think we benefit from him grabbing the ball out of the ruck and hacking it forward when he’s got high end talent around him. We’ve got mids capable of clean clearances that can deliver the ball inside 50.

 

[Roosurgence]

I can only speak for myself, Im not criticising his effort, we couldn’t ask more of him in that regard.

The next step for X, and our midfield is to improve on being more cohesive as a group. I know he’s 25 but he’s still pretty raw.

I don’t think we benefit from him grabbing the ball out of the ruck and hacking it forward when he’s got high end talent around him. We’ve got mids capable of clean clearances that can deliver the ball inside 50.

Instead of laying blame on X we should be looking at the poor work rate of our midfield.

If they worked harder everyone would be saying how good is X.

 

[amaz199]

Would we be saying the same thing if Xerri had the midfield of Wells, Higgins and Swallow?

The midfield is still in development mode. Gotta give them time to start running on all cylinders.

 

[Val Keating]

Instead of laying blame on X we should be looking at the poor work rate of our midfield.

If they worked harder everyone would be saying how good is X.

He’s not giving them a chance at the moment.

 

[Topparoo]

0 marks yesterday needs to start grabbing some, which isn't a strength to this stage of his career.

 

[tazaa]

Yep. You can see it too. The coaches wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t an issue.

Todd: Clarko how do we mix it up in the middle, their mids are killing us.

AC: Tell the runner to take our only attacking focal point inside 50 and put him into the ruck.

Todd: are you sure Clarko? (another attempt to take it out out of the ruck goes wrong)

AC: Just f***ing do it!


This is where we’re at. Willing to risk it all. Just wait until someone decides to put their knee straight through Nick.

 

[Val Keating]

Todd: Clarko how do we mix it up in the middle, their mids are killing us.

AC: Tell the runner to take our only attacking focal point inside 50 and put him into the ruck.

Todd: are you sure Clarko? (another attempt to take it out out of the ruck goes wrong)

AC: Just f***ing do it!


This is where we’re at. Willing to risk it all. Just wait until someone decides to put their knee straight through Nick.

That would be a disaster.

 

[apollo_creed]

We finally have a dominant ruckman and we s**t on him, classic BF.

A ‘dominant’ ruckman? Wtf.

We’ve had better rucks for the past 30 years. Only time we arguably haven’t was when Porter was our number one.

 

[Chadwiko]

We finally have a dominant ruckman and we s**t on him, classic BF.

He's not a 'dominant ruckman'.

I like Xerri, I really do. I'm not trying to 'shit on him'.
He offers more around the ground and makes a good contest. He works his ass off. There's lots to work with.

However... it's a fact that his tapwork is poor, and is hurting our midfielders.

It's something he can work on and I have faith it'll improve with time. It has to... right?

 

[desie]

0 marks yesterday needs to start grabbing some, which isn't a strength to this stage of his career.

That’s an understatement.

He’s been in our best three players this year to be fair but he drops way too many marks that he should be taking at this level.

 

[Twangler]

He's not a 'dominant ruckman'.

I like Xerri, I really do. I'm not trying to 's**t on him'.
He offers more around the ground and makes a good contest. He works his ass off. There's lots to work with.

However... it's a fact that his tapwork is poor, and is hurting our midfielders.

It's something he can work on and I have faith it'll improve with time. It has to... right?

Does tap work really matter that much?
Yesterday Sandringham won the hit outs around 80 to 8 yet we won the clearances. The best ruckman going round are the ones that act either as an extra midfielder in the stoppage or a marking presence around the ground (which X currently doesn’t do).

Even looking at his taps (both total and to advantage) X is mid table. It’s not poor. Xerri and LDU are the second or third most prolific pairing AFL wide.

Our problems aren’t X, or his ruck work. Our problem isn’t even clearances. It’s getting pantsed on transition and getting outmarked at either end of the ground.

 

[Engimal v3]

Xerri's tap work isn't bothering me, but his lack of contested marking definitely is. I think the mids are more to blame than his tapwork, but he needs to be taking marks. Even a "non-physical" ruckman like Goldstein was regularly saving us with intercept marks in the D50.

 

[Merlin007]

Does tap work really matter that much?
Yesterday Sandringham won the hit outs around 80 to 8 yet we won the clearances. The best ruckman going round are the ones that act either as an extra midfielder in the stoppage or a marking presence around the ground (which X currently doesn’t do).

Even looking at his taps (both total and to advantage) X is mid table. It’s not poor. Xerri and LDU are the second or third most prolific pairing AFL wide.

Our problems aren’t X, or his ruck work. Our problem isn’t even clearances. It’s getting pantsed on transition and getting outmarked at either end of the ground.

Yes, but who won the game. Campbell kept them in it pretty much on his own - if we'd halved the hit outs, we'd have won in a canter

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Yes, but who won the game. Campbell kept them in it pretty much on his own - if we'd halved the hit outs, we'd have won in a canter

I disagree. Every time we won a hit-out, the umpires were pulling a free kick out of their backsides to make sure we couldn't take advantage of the clearance. If our boys had won more hit-outs, it simply would have meant more mysterious free kicks to the other mob.

 

[Twangler]

Yes, but who won the game. Campbell kept them in it pretty much on his own - if we'd halved the hit outs, we'd have won in a canter

I don’t think it was Campbell. It was that player constantly taking marks on or forward half that kept them in it and their mids that got on top before that. If the umpires umpired properly we would have won in a canter!!

 

[muttley45]

I just went and compared X's stat's ( total's ) to Goldies for the season so far, both have played 8 games, apart from the win/loss, a very interesting read.

 

[DrZaius]

Big shoutout to Xerri for his efforts this year so far.

Statistically speaking:

The 5th most taps to advantage per game over the last month:


2nd in total hitouts per game over the last month (Conway only sample size of 1 game so honestly not sure you can count that):


4th in stoppage clearances per game over the last month:


6th overall amount of centre clearances per game over the season:


6th in contested possessions per game for ruckman this season:


1st in tackles per game for ruckmen this season


1st in pressure acts for ruckmen this season


2nd highest overall rated ruckman this season behind Gawn:


13th overall highest rated player in the comp this season (granted I have no idea how the champion data magic sauce works but nonethless):


Yes his marking needs work but the pathological criticism (or backhanded compliments) of X on this forum is ****ing ridiculous. Sure statistics aren't everything but we should be bloody thrilled we have a ruck that is improving so rapidly.

 

[Twangler]

Big shoutout to Xerri for his efforts this year so far.

Statistically speaking:

The 5th most taps to advantage per game over the last month:
View attachment 1981345

2nd in total hitouts per game over the last month (Conway only sample size of 1 game so honestly not sure you can count that):
View attachment 1981346

4th in stoppage clearances per game over the last month:
View attachment 1981359

6th overall amount of centre clearances per game over the season:
View attachment 1981358

6th in contested possessions per game for ruckman this season:
View attachment 1981364

1st in tackles per game for ruckmen this season
View attachment 1981366

1st in pressure acts for ruckmen this season
View attachment 1981367

2nd highest overall rated ruckman this season behind Gawn:
View attachment 1981365

13th overall highest rated player in the comp this season:
View attachment 1981363

Yes his marking needs work but the pathological criticism (or backhanded compliments) of X on this forum is ******* ridiculous. Sure statistics aren't everything but we should be bloody thrilled we have a ruck that is improving so rapidly.

If he’s not leading the BNF, he isn’t that far behind Sheezel

 

[DrZaius]

If he’s not leading the BNF, he isn’t that far behind Sheezel

The big fella will be top 3 at least if he stays uninjured

 

[giantroo]

I just went and compared X's stat's ( total's ) to Goldies for the season so far, both have played 8 games, apart from the win/loss, a very interesting read.

Xpected Score says they should be 1-7.

 

[swaeney]

What are you on about? Hitouts and even clearances are of limited relevance in today's game. Midfielders do their most important work after stoppages and plenty thrive without a ruckman hitting it down their throat. Blaming Xerri is just nonsense.

He's not hitting it down their throat, but he is allowing the opposition to gain posession of the ball after his disposal. Him grabbing it out of the ruck and belting it down the line off the side of his boot straight to the opposition is marked as a clearance, but straight to the opposing team. His fumbles out of the ruck where he half taps to himself / half grabs it and then loses it, so he tackles the other mid and they get it out into space and an easy i50. His stats look great, but he isn't really helping the team by doing so. We look so much cleaner with Larkey in the ruck when he hits to advantage.

When we are playing with younger inexperienced mids we can't have them getting belted at every centre clearance. Use their pace and energy to create space and allow us a chance of scoring FFs. Everyone keeps mentioning Gawn with his hitouts to advantage to X, but he has Viney, Clarry, Petracca etc. waiting at his feet.