Angus Graham

[Tigertriumph]

Graham was shockin today was rather a non factor around the ground and struggled to keep up with hudson, most of his hit outs were not to advantage. Can recall a number of times his taps went straight to boyd or in disadvantageous positions which resulted in a few easy clearances. Also he needs to learn how to time his leaps effectively in ruck contests on numerous occasions he completely missed the ball. Quite simply he is a slow dumb footballer.

The sooner vickery takes over the number one ruck spot the better the tigers will be. As today he showed that is capable of competing in the ruck and at least winning tap outs that are to the advantage of the tigers mids. In addition he also provides more around the ground and is becomin quite a dangerous forward option, showing that he is quite capable of taking strong marks and possesses a lovely kick for goal for his size.

 

[Reckoner Tiger]

Is Gus ever going to be an AA ruckman? I doubt it, then again I doubt anyone thought Jamar would be one prior to last year(which was his 8th), yet now he is widely considered to be one of the top rucks in the league. Amazing what happens when you actually let ruckmen fully develop before putting high expectations on them.

What, Jamar's 8th season? Really? It takes ruckmen that long to develop? Gee its a good thing Melbourne didn't expect him to instantly dominate, whip him, drop him, axe him, and trade for several other unproven rucks before he'd played 50 games!

The sooner vickery takes over the number one ruck spot the better the tigers will be. As today he showed that is capable of competing in the ruck and at least winning tap outs that are to the advantage of the tigers mids. In addition he also provides more around the ground and is becomin quite a dangerous forward option, showing that he is quite capable of taking strong marks and possesses a lovely kick for goal for his size.

Ahh, no. Not going to happen. Vicks is our Tall forward/Ruck, will not be playing as #1.

 

[rammbo]

The real problem with angus is he will always b slow and lumbering no matter wat improvement he makes to his game. Do we want that type of ruckman ?brown is the same too.

 

[JS#35]

Gus will never be a good ruckman. Bring out all the stats you want and it will still mean sweet jack shit. The bloke is soft as butter. He simply hasn't got it in him to be a quality ruckman.

Will not be here when we're pushing for top 4.

 

[StringyDog]

He out-bodied Hudson heaps of times tonight and smashed him in the hitouts around the ground - he was clearly the stronger ruckman

comes out and beats a very good ruckman in Hudson, monsters him in plenty of contests throughout the night

Graham had an average night, but he held his own OK against a good opponent and gave us plenty of glimpses of future upside - we had at least 9-10 others who were worse and very few you could say were genuinely good.

Wow, I have heard of head in the sand supporters but this just about takes the cake, Hudson gave Graham an absolute bath today, it was embarassing and inspid by Graham. Vickery looks lgreat prospect and the sooner he and another come on the better as Graham has Josh Fraser written all over him, too soft to be a ruckman, was literally shitting himself in the ruck against Hudson today. I didn't think there would be any Tigers supporting him after that display.

 

[Barnzy]

Wow, I have heard of head in the sand supporters but this just about takes the cake, Hudson gave Graham an absolute bath today, it was embarassing and inspid by Graham. Vickery looks lgreat prospect and the sooner he and another come on the better as Graham has Josh Fraser written all over him, too soft to be a ruckman, was literally shitting himself in the ruck against Hudson today. I didn't think there would be any Tigers supporting him after that display.

Not wrong. It's quite funny that even after performances like that people are still so blinded and delusional to defend Graham and even say he beat Hudson. Wow. Sorry Rayzor you're spot on sometimes but massively disagree with those statements.

 

[TIAGRA]

Geez there's some pathetic comments on this thread tonight.

'He doesn't even look at the ball.'

Seriously, how dumb do you have to be to sit there through 7 weeks of watching Graham ruck this way at centre bounces without realising he's doing it entirely under instruction, let alone after it's been pointed out repeatedly on the forum for weeks now?

'Plays like Jane. Soft as butter.'

He out-bodied Hudson heaps of times tonight and smashed him in the hitouts around the ground - he was clearly the stronger ruckman, he failed to capitalise on it as often as we'd ideally hope.

'All his hitouts go to the opposition.'

It's been pointed out week after week that Graham is doing as well at getting hitouts to advantage as numerous players rated very good ruckmen, even more so considering he's conceding most centre bounces. A player barely into his 2nd season as a no.1 ruck comes out and beats a very good ruckman in Hudson, monsters him in plenty of contests throughout the night, and some of you want to whinge that not enough of his hitouts were to our advantage? Or that he wasn't Hudson's equal around the ground when the Dogs' superior ball movement set Hudson up far better all night? Hats off to the pelican who complained Graham wasn't as influential as Minson or Vickery when both spent nearly the entire night in the forwardline.

Graham had an average night, but he held his own OK against a good opponent and gave us plenty of glimpses of future upside - we had at least 9-10 others who were worse and very few you could say were genuinely good.

This weekly scapegoating of Graham is getting very old and some of the participants should try leveling their criticism after games like this at the top echelon of players first. Newman was poor tonight, which makes it 4/7 below par games from him this year, mostly playing on nobody, and barely a whisper of criticism directed towards him. If Graham had turned in four performances at a level as far below expectations as those four of Newman's, people would want him delisted in preference to him playing for the Coburg reserves. Newman will have ten games like that before the year is out and he does most years. Cotchin, Foley, Martin, Deledio and Reiwoldt won't be far behind him.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people insist on holding developing players in the 12-30 best players bracket with less than 50 games to their name to significantly higher standards than they hold their captain to, or the blokes they consider stars and amongst the first dozen picked.

I came with this guy.

Some of the crap posters talk shows how UNcommon,common sense is.

Keep going Gus,ur doing ok mate.

 

[TIAGRA]

too soft to be a ruckman, was literally shitting himself in the ruck against Hudson today. I didn't think there would be any Tigers supporting him after that display.

Yes...shitting himself today against an egg like Hudson but man enough to ruck against Sandilands in a WINNING team.

(Hudson is Sandilands bitch)

Go and enjoy the rest of 2011 moron and while your at it get used to being a future shit team

 

[TIAGRA]

w***ers.

Last week you were all calling for NO CHANGES.

This week Gus should be dropped for a ******* from the bush.
No idea!!!

 

[Rayzorwire]

Hudson gave Graham an absolute bath today, it was embarassing and inspid by Graham.

How do you give someone "an absolute bath" with 22 hitouts at an ordinary efficiency?

Like the rest of the people here who don't begin to understand what negating rucking is, you actually think Graham was trying to win hitouts in the centre, don't you?

Just for those of you who apparently understand nothing about the concept despite it having been around for years, it involves taking the other ruckman's run and jump away using your own body, it doesn't involve getting hitouts yourself. The times Graham looks 'insipid' is usually when the umpire bounces the ball towards the opposition ruckman - he can't get there to negate, he's left stranded and has no choice but to concede the hitout and try to pressurise at ground level.

He flogged Hudson at the around the ground ruck contests, out-wrestled him all night and won hitouts at will when he had a license to go for them.

The way Graham is rucking is a tactic the coaching staff clearly want to employ, how on earth can you blokes miss it when it's so obvious?

Hudson was good in general play, but seeing both coaches were happy to let each ruck run around on their own, I hardly see how it's Graham's problem that Hudson was more damaging in that area, what control does he have over that? In the centre square there were numerous times where Hudson got the handball receive because Graham was tackling or trying to tackle the ball carrier and prevent a clearance. Some people see Hudson 'flogging' Graham in that instance, I see an opposition ball carrier without an opponent getting easy ball and Graham doing his best to cover someone else's arse for the benefit of the team.

 

[TIAGRA]

how on earth can you blokes miss it when it's so obvious?

a-They're stupid
b-They have small penises
c-The possess not a tactical bone in their bodies
d-They love to whine

 

[Dr Awkward]

FFS can we just drop him and give someone else a go. Graham is hopeless he has none of the qualities that I like to see in a player.

 

[Tigerland]

[/I]He out-bodied Hudson heaps of times tonight and smashed him in the hitouts around the ground - he was clearly the stronger ruckman, he failed to capitalise on it as often as we'd ideally hope.
________________________

This is the most laughable statement I have ever read and there have been some bad ones. What particular game were you watching?

Graham got smashed by Hudson in every single aspect of the game. Anyone watching with with no bias could see that as clear as day.

Smashed him in the hitouts? FFS! You have absolutely NFI.

 

[NQTIGER]

One of his strenghs is he seems to have a big tank.

If i walked around all game i would have a big tank too....sheeesh

 

[LBBenny]

Absolute hack, allways thought so.. I just thought that yesterdays performance would let everyone else relise just how bad he is, but somehow some people still think he is good, amazing.

If i was an opposition midfield I would be licking my lips, knowing that I have two ruckmen giving me tapouts to my advantage.

 

[Bazzar]

So it would be safe to assume Grahams negating tactics had absolutely no bearing on Hudson’s pathetic and lowest hitout eff of the year of 18%

 

[Tzatziki_Man]

Most of his tapouts yesterday straight down Bulldog throats.

You can't rule him out, but he needs so much more work. He is a dumb ruckman.

 

[Bruce Monteath]

While I agree there is no doubt Gus is following instruction to focus on the opposing ruck - when it counted most - the tactic was ineffective yesterday.

I thought Hudson was instrumental in giving Grant and Boyd first use of the ball. As the game wore on, Gus improved, but the damage was done.

When the game was on it was like a Dogs procession out of the midfield - this is not just a criticism of Gus but also our clearance team. But if Gus was to play like that every week, he'd be in trouble.

I'll place my faith in the coaches and stick with the "developing ruck" theory at this stage though...

 

[Richo is God]

Doesn't contest well around the ground, countless times i have seen him get knocked over by blokes half his size. Tapped it to the opposition more often then not yesterday.. Needs a couple weeks in the 2's i reckon..

 

[Toothpick Vic]

Dunno if it's been mentioned in this thread or not but I'd actually give serious thought to just resting him for a week or 2.

Never mind dropping or sending him back to Coburg, just give him a game or two off. He's shouldered a pretty heavy workload and it just looks like it's taken it's toll on him, he looks like he's labouring more so than normal..

Plus Browne deserves a crack given that he seems to be featuring in the burgers best consistently this yr...

Give goose some time off and see how he comes back, because he is hardly inspiring at the moment but not a total write off yet either....

 

[JimmyRecard]

Smashed by Hudson yesturday.

I just dont see Graham being a premiership ruckman, and this is how we must be building our list. I think theres a spot for him as a 3rd ruckman, e.g plays when ? or Vickery are injured, but hes just not competitive against the better ruckman, and mind you Hudson is only an average ruckman.

Finding out that ? is the important step.

Bellchambers for mine would be ideal and would proberbly give up our priority pick for him.

 

[Tiger_Stripes]

Hudson destroyed him. We only got competitive in the middle when Vickery was there. I understand he's probably been instructed to not look at the ball and only at Hudson's stomach but truly, is that rucking? I don't give a shit what stats say about hitout efficiency the fact is Hudson put that ball into space for his players so many times it was embarrasing. Graham failed to provide the grunt and bumps around the middle to give our mids space and, most of all, despite his improvement (which I'll admit there has been) he still doesn't take marks and impose himself. Meanwhile, Will Minson marks left right and centre.

 

[Tomnat Tigers]

If anyone was watching one week at a time- robert walls brought up how gus looks at the man and not the ball and luke darcy said lade use to do it and said lade would wait to the right time and crunch is opponent in the ribs and win the tap. So i guess you could say thats what lades trying to teach him and gus just cant execute it.

 

[_RT_]

If anyone was watching one week at a time- robert walls brought up how gus looks at the man and not the ball and luke darcy said lade use to do it and said lade would wait to the right time and crunch is opponent in the ribs and win the tap. So i guess you could say thats what lades trying to teach him and gus just cant execute it.

Well I guess that gives the haters more ammunition to call for Lades head seeing they were saying last night that if its a tactic Lade should be sacked. I'm more than happy to back an All Australian ruckman who is now coaching.

 

[Bazzar]

If anyone was watching one week at a time- robert walls brought up how gus looks at the man and not the ball and luke darcy said lade use to do it and said lade would wait to the right time and crunch is opponent in the ribs and win the tap. So i guess you could say thats what lades trying to teach him and gus just cant execute it.

I posted this before a few pages back, if you look at the ball when the ump bounces it, and its at its highest point and it just starts its downward trajectory, that’s when Gus looked at Hudson for just a split sec and then made his move.

It obviously worked, as contrary to the multitude of Gus haters here, he was NOT smashed by Hudson, if anything nullified him as he had a season low of 18% eff in his hitouts. Might not look pretty but it was effective.

Dont forget he used similar (not as much obvious looking) tactics against Sandilands who he dragged back from 53 hitouts (against the Bulldogs the week before) to 43 with his second worst eff for the year of 28% (Gus had a ripper 42% for that game)

Dimma also mentioned last week on AW that the defence are instructed to “kill the ball” and later on in the year and next year, change that to “taking control of the ball” so how do we know if the coaching tactic for now is to try and kill and nullify centre bounce? We are all armchair experts, but the one thing we don’t have is INSIGHT into the coaching staffs short, medium and long term plans.

Gus on Sunday was so obvious and I cant understand the shit he cops.