I find it difficult to listen to Mark Robinson. He stammers and stutters and slurs his words and repeats himself. Has he got Parkinson's? Is he pissed? He seems to generate alot of noise from the general region of his face but not much of that noise is intelligible, let alone insightful commentary.. is it just me?
He is perpetually shitfaced. You are not alone
Je suis bigfooty
Hard to say, we can only go on what we hear/read.
Champion Data have indicated that a clearance/ centre clearance is credited to the player who has 1st effective disposal in a chain that clears the stoppage area, or an ineffective kick or clanger that clears the stoppage/ centre area
I agree. For mine, however, I'd love to see Taranto (& Dunkley) in B&W.
Interesting, that just devalued Grundy's perceived centre clearance dominance.
Not sure that it does. Could you please amplify your reasons why you think so, as I've probably missed something there? Thanks
Champion Data have indicated that a clearance/ centre clearance is credited to the player who has 1st effective disposal in a chain that clears the stoppage area, or an ineffective kick or clanger that clears the stoppage/ centre area
Unless this constitutes a change in interpretation, though, Grundy's record remains exactly as it was. He's still an absolute clearance beast: he's the best ruck in the competition below his knees and for his follow-up clearances, isn't he? I sometimes wonder whether we've forgotten just how good he is lately. Surely our supporter base are not so fickle that, just because he hasn't played for three months, we're starting to believe the side would be better without him?
I don't think we are better off without him. i don't think he's that good below his knees, did you see draper yesterday? His follow up clearance work hasn't been the same since 2019. What he does still do well is grub a kick forward, now, it doesn't matter if the opposition get the ball after he scrubs it because it gives us meterage. It also helps stop teams from walking it out of the centre. you have to be blind to see that he doesn't do the things he did in 18/19 when he was following up and kicking it well into our forward 50 but he is still a very important piece for the remainder of the year
That was my take as well
And get monstered v teams with the huge bodies. It’s one thing to be banging up against Adams, Pendles and Crisp all day, but a whole different ball game v Bont/ Dunkley/ Macrae or Petracca/ Oliver/ Viney or Cripps/ Hewett/ Kennedy etc. I think there’s obviously roles for smaller agile mids (we have plenty), but you need the balance of bigger bodies which we’ve lacked since JDG went out.
I covered off the drop in clearance differential as well. Grundy rucked for 84% of the first 6 rounds meaning he often came up against the 2nd ruck which was Hayes, Himmleberg, Dixon, Ratugolea and Baldwin whereas Cox/ Cameron haven’t had that luxury with their stretch of matches coinciding with matchups against Gawn/ Jackson, Witts x 2, Darcy and Goldstein.
Bogus use of statistics to justify an unjust anti-Grundy bias, I'd say. If Grundy rucked 84% of game time in his matches, he'd primarily be rucking against the oppositions' first ruck, wouldn't he?. By contrast, Cameron & Cox, by splitting the ruck load, would individually have been matched against the first ruck much less often... Inverts your argument, doesn't it?
I’m hoping we’re targeting McStay to play the lockdown back role for us.
Really good insights there. Thanks.
Are we ranked last? I can’t find the clearance differential rankings anywhere…
