We need to talk about Oscar

[Dom PC]

Oscar had a poor first half. But I actually think he slightly had the better of Gawn in the 2nd half.

 

[Squizz89]

Yeah Oscar embarrassed himself in the first half but again to his credit I thought he competed far better in the second half. He’ll never be a star but all you can ask is just to compete and not get comprehensively beaten like he was in the first half.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Oscar had a poor first half. But I actually think he slightly had the better of Gawn in the 2nd half.

Got a lot more physical. Leveled it out a bit.

 

[JasRulz63]

Oscar had a poor first half. But I actually think he slightly had the better of Gawn in the 2nd half.

Yeah I thought so too. Also benefitted from when neither could get on the field in the fourth quarter.

I thought Oscar, as well as the team as a whole did well to limit Gawn's impact around the ground. He only ended up taking the two marks, only one of which was contested.

 

[HereIGoAgain]

Just before half time Oscar started to body Gawn, really launching at him. Not something I've seen much of from him. Gawn was still getting on top at that stage but Oscar was trying to lift.

 

[KissKiss]

Gawn to me is probably one of the all time greatest rucks. Might be going past Cox. Some of his taps to Vineyard's and co tonight were beautiful. Going up against him is a nightmare but felt Oscar absolutely competed well. Did well to push forward and try and stretch him round the ground. Didn't let him dominate in the air down the ground when we were chasing the win

 

[Sanchez365]

No doubt Oscar got humbled tonight. Gawn is as mentioned on of the best ricks ever though. It was probably one of his worst nights though so I'm not gonna go too hard on the bloke. His form has been goodets see if he can bounce back.

Melb were very aggressive in attacking our two main clearance aggressors in Oscar and Neale tonight. Good lesson for the boys.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Can't dominate every week.

 

[Toffee Lion]

Gawn to me is probably one of the all time greatest rucks. Might be going past Cox. Some of his taps to Vineyard's and co tonight were beautiful. Going up against him is a nightmare but felt Oscar absolutely competed well. Did well to push forward and try and stretch him round the ground. Didn't let him dominate in the air down the ground when we were chasing the win

Going need to you confirm you're talking about Dean, not Mason.

 

[luthor]

Ok, so Gawn won the ruck but I thought Oscar was far from disgraced.

Gawn didn't have much influence around the ground did he?

No big influential marks and no monster of a goal, as he has tended to do against us in past games.

 

[Elixuh]

I'm surprised that people are potting O. Gawn should go down as in the echelon of best rucks this game has ever seen.

I thought O did very well around the ground. Gawn has had his marking game back up again this year. Didn't notice that part of his game tonight. Big O competed really well.

 

[HereIGoAgain]

The prevailing opinion says Gawn flogged Oscar but the stats show a closer battle. Oscar was let down by his midfielders standing on their heels and poor handling off the hitouts early on. Gawn and Viney are getting praised, and although Viney put in a big shift with 20 contested possessions, 34.6 percent disposal efficiency undoes a lot of that good work.

 

[M Malice]

Ok, so Gawn won the ruck but I thought Oscar was far from disgraced.

Gawn didn't have much influence around the ground did he?

No big influential marks and no monster of a goal, as he has tended to do against us in past games.

I thought I must have been going bonkers, live at the game I thought Oscar was quite good all game against Gawn and also lifted his level in the 2nd half.

I get home read through most of the review thread and this one and thought gee I am a horrible judge(some might say yes always have been), the Big O was copping it.

Glad you and a few others restored my scant remaining sanity, thanks luthor.

 

[questeds]

I think Grundy will present another major challenge for Big O, both Gawn and him have an athleticism that he can't quite handle. But they are two of the best rucks in the comp, and our midfield need to do a better job of reading their work to help because Oscar is going to win less than half of those.

He was far from embarrassed in this game, just always going to be a challenge he has to do the best he can in.

 

[Viceregal]

Going need to you confirm you're talking about Dean, not Mason.

Never for one instant did I think of Mason in the context of a greatest ruckman conversation...

 

[irel]

I thought I must have been going bonkers, live at the game I thought Oscar was quite good all game against Gawn and also lifted his level in the 2nd half.

I get home read through most of the review thread and this one and thought gee I am a horrible judge(some might say yes always have been), the Big O was copping it.

Glad you and a few others restored my scant remaining sanity, thanks luthor.

I have no idea why people are denigrating Oscar's game vs Gawn.
Gawn is my Supercoach number one ruck and BigO kept Gawn to his lowest score of the year.
79 F***** points. 79.

 

[Voss the boss]

To me it was more that Gawn didn’t have the influence around the ground like he usually does. And had we lost it would not have been because of Gawn - which usually is a major reason we do lose to Melbourne. A pass for Oscar tonight.

 

[Dalions]

To me it was more that Gawn didn’t have the influence around the ground like he usually does. And had we lost it would not have been because of Gawn - which usually is a major reason we do lose to Melbourne. A pass for Oscar tonight.

I would give him a D for the first half and a B for the second.
He finished the game stronger than he started that’s for sure.
As for Gawn, he was a good reason for their second quarter dominance.
And the reason for his minor impact around ground was due to our movement of the ball in the second half especially to keep the ball away from him.

 

[Sanchez365]

Would love to see the hit out to advantage. In particular Oscars tap work is where he has the biggest issue and in the last few weeks has the biggest improvement. But from my eyes Gawn monsters him at the stoppages all night.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Would love to see the hit out to advantage. In particular Oscars tap work is where he has the biggest issue and in the last few weeks has the biggest improvement. But from my eyes Gawn monsters him at the stoppages all night.

I think it was 6-1 in the first half

 

[Sanchez365]

I think it was 6-1 in the first half

Yeah I heard the commentators say that too.

 

[Happy_Neale]

Oscar had a poor first half. But I actually think he slightly had the better of Gawn in the 2nd half.

Agree with this, had his colours lowered but even then it was more Gawns tap work that was hurting us, never really impacted the game around the ground at all. Oscar won the second half too I thought

 

[beardancer]

was the same old passive oscar in the first half then he bashed in hard after that and was far more effective

 

[Sproj]

I thought he was comparatively great. He isn't in Gawn's league but how many rucks are? If he can negate to a large extent the influence of guys like this, the rest of our team is good enough to capitalise. Big O is not a superstar and he never will be but if he can do what he did last night against the gun rucks, he's done his job and then some.

 

[Nathan Barley]

I thought he was comparatively great. He isn't in Gawn's league but how many rucks are? If he can negate to a large extent the influence of guys like this, the rest of our team is good enough to capitalise. Big O is not a superstar and he never will be but if he can do what he did last night against the gun rucks, he's done his job and then some.

I thought Gawns tapwork was a big part of Melbourne kicking 8 in a quarter when they won about 15 clearances in a row