i'm quoting myself from the afl board, as i can't rewrite all of this, but here are my thoughts:
Re: Neil Balme confirms: King in, Blake out
Quote:
Originally Posted by philhawk
Just comparing stats, what is it that King has over Blake?
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/f...d2=10&pid2=240
ok, to start with, the stats in the link are wrong, particularly in terms of body mass. see the gfc website for confirmation - king is 3cm and 5kg larger than blake, which will make a huge difference against the 2 port big men, who absolutely carved him (blake) up in round 21. king's far superior at the stoppages, where they really hurt us last time.
i have no problem with blake - he's played a commendable year as second string ruckman to ottens, but it was always meant to be as a fill in, while king recovered from injury.
far from king being a sentimental pick, geelong have given blake every chance to play, especially the last few weeks with king starring in the vfl, and blake barely holding his own. the only good game blake has really played, since king's been available, was against the 2 whippets from brisbane in round 22, yet the coaches resisted bringing back king despite the building case for his return.
this has been for 2 reasons -1, because they didn't want to mess with the team dynamic; and 2, blake's early season form, which has unfortunately now run own of puff. his game against north was ordinary, and last week he was attrocious - a damning stat from the game:
As for Blake, read this from The Australian today:
"The most damaging statistic against Blake is that in the 74 minutes he spent on the bench on Friday night, Geelong outscored Collingwood by 74 points to 40 points. In the 47 minutes he spent on the field, Geelong fell 29 points in arrears."
That means 34 points plus while he's on pine, and minus 29 points while he's bumbling around the ground = total impact of 63 points!
Bomber himself admitted during the match that we were getting smashed every time ottens moved out of the ruck - and this was against collingwood's 2 second string muppets!
people have been so quick to write king off, but fail to recognise that he's still only 28, the prime age for a ruckman. and he's not just any ruckman - steven king's a 2 time club best and fairest, former captain and an all australian STAR ruckman.
sure, he's had an ordinary run with injuries for the last 2 or 3 years, but a major reason for that was the club's desperation to always have him playing, rushing him back from injury each time, and always needing him to shoulder the king's share of the ruck work. it wasn't until last year that ottens started to stand up as the second ruckman, despite his own struggles with injury. before that, we'd have cameron mooney trying his undersized heart out, and the truly useless paul chambers, who proved himself even worse at sydney before they finally put the sword to him.
and the biggest thing king's got going for him is his proven finals form. in our last finals campaign, 2005 s/f vs sydney he was single handledly dominating the ruck, until the final quarter, when he unfortunately succumbed to injury, and without him the match turned, and the rest is history.
and before anyone points to injury concerns, bear in mind that he's been back for 3months now, rucking out almost the whole vfl game each time, and most importantly, will be back up for ottens, rather than shouldering the whole load.
at the end of the day, the ruck choice was/is clear:
Talent + Experience + Size + Form + (finally..!) Fitness = STEVEN KING!!
c'mon people, get on board
oh, and don't worry about blake - he's a talented kid, who will have his day..!
Re: Neil Balme confirms: King in, Blake out
Quote:
Originally Posted by philhawk
Just comparing stats, what is it that King has over Blake?
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/f...d2=10&pid2=240
ok, to start with, the stats in the link are wrong, particularly in terms of body mass. see the gfc website for confirmation - king is 3cm and 5kg larger than blake, which will make a huge difference against the 2 port big men, who absolutely carved him (blake) up in round 21. king's far superior at the stoppages, where they really hurt us last time.
i have no problem with blake - he's played a commendable year as second string ruckman to ottens, but it was always meant to be as a fill in, while king recovered from injury.
far from king being a sentimental pick, geelong have given blake every chance to play, especially the last few weeks with king starring in the vfl, and blake barely holding his own. the only good game blake has really played, since king's been available, was against the 2 whippets from brisbane in round 22, yet the coaches resisted bringing back king despite the building case for his return.
this has been for 2 reasons -1, because they didn't want to mess with the team dynamic; and 2, blake's early season form, which has unfortunately now run own of puff. his game against north was ordinary, and last week he was attrocious - a damning stat from the game:
As for Blake, read this from The Australian today:
"The most damaging statistic against Blake is that in the 74 minutes he spent on the bench on Friday night, Geelong outscored Collingwood by 74 points to 40 points. In the 47 minutes he spent on the field, Geelong fell 29 points in arrears."
That means 34 points plus while he's on pine, and minus 29 points while he's bumbling around the ground = total impact of 63 points!
Bomber himself admitted during the match that we were getting smashed every time ottens moved out of the ruck - and this was against collingwood's 2 second string muppets!
people have been so quick to write king off, but fail to recognise that he's still only 28, the prime age for a ruckman. and he's not just any ruckman - steven king's a 2 time club best and fairest, former captain and an all australian STAR ruckman.
sure, he's had an ordinary run with injuries for the last 2 or 3 years, but a major reason for that was the club's desperation to always have him playing, rushing him back from injury each time, and always needing him to shoulder the king's share of the ruck work. it wasn't until last year that ottens started to stand up as the second ruckman, despite his own struggles with injury. before that, we'd have cameron mooney trying his undersized heart out, and the truly useless paul chambers, who proved himself even worse at sydney before they finally put the sword to him.
and the biggest thing king's got going for him is his proven finals form. in our last finals campaign, 2005 s/f vs sydney he was single handledly dominating the ruck, until the final quarter, when he unfortunately succumbed to injury, and without him the match turned, and the rest is history.
and before anyone points to injury concerns, bear in mind that he's been back for 3months now, rucking out almost the whole vfl game each time, and most importantly, will be back up for ottens, rather than shouldering the whole load.
at the end of the day, the ruck choice was/is clear:
Talent + Experience + Size + Form + (finally..!) Fitness = STEVEN KING!!
c'mon people, get on board
oh, and don't worry about blake - he's a talented kid, who will have his day..!
