The Brisbane Lions again opted to share ruck duties on the weekend with either Trent West or Stefan Martin moving up forward as a target when not rucking.
In recent weeks there has been plenty of comment on what the team’s best ruck set-up is and if big Stef is better as a lone ruckman, as he was when he produced his stellar run of form in recent seasons.
“A question was asked of us: why are we playing two ruckman?,” Assistant Coach Danny Daly told the Vero Coaches Wrap.
“In rounds 4-8 we were ranked 18th in terms of clearances, -36 in centre bounces and in all stoppages -60 over the four week period.
“What we found was that Stef had a very, very high work rate. He was carrying everything on his shoulders for the first 8 weeks, while still recovering from his concussion suffered against the Gold Coast, so we thought it was a good opportunity to bring in another ruckman.”
Geelong premiership ruckman Trent West was recalled for the first time in 2016 in Round 9.
“Westy’s come in and he’s actually made a big difference for us around stoppages. We’ve moved up the last four weeks to 10th in terms of our contested ball and our clearances numbers so it’s certainly had an effect.
“We absolutely understand that Stef has probably struggled a little bit down forward but it’s more about getting our numbers around the source and giving us an opportunity to get the ball inside 50,” Daly said.
“Between weeks 9-12 the Lions were ranked equal 9th and 8th in clearances.
“It’s an area we’ll look at this week whether we do play with two ruckman or do we go back to one ruckman and bring another forward in.”
(slide taken from this week's Vero Coaches Wrap)
(slide taken from this week's Vero Coaches Wrap)
Latest on Lions.com.au:
