Billy Longer speaks

[saintbrat]

On his recovery and current ruck situation
http://www.aflplayers.com.au/article/qa-billy-longer/

[stonecold]

Well, that makes him smarter than most ruckmen then!!!!!

Have known many of them that carnt speak!!!!!

[WellardSaint]

He's only 23 and he's already been through so much! Shoulder reco, did a medial ligament once...
I know they get paid a lot, but geez they really do a helluva lot as well!

[magnifisaint]

Good article. I thought he was meant to be a space cadet?

[Bluthy]

I want to continue to improve on my aggression and my follow-up work around contests. I want to be a player that my teammates can rely on to block, shepherd and tackle when the other team has the ball

That is what Billy thinks his job his - to be that aggressive, protecting and disrupting big guy around the ball. Do we care that Brown gets 8 possies? No because if he shuts down his man he is fulfilling his role for the betterment of the team. I don't understand this obsession with wanting the ruck to be another midfielder - a poor disposal giraffe midfielder at that.

Billy should naturally get more possies and hopefully marks as his tank gets better but he clearly has focus of his current energies levels going into helping clearances and disrupting the oppo mids and that has paid off the last couple of games. Won't get stats for sheppards and blocking but he won't care if we win games.

Interesting too how much trouble the shoulder reco gave him. Makes me wonder if Dunstan is struggling with it. He drops the ball so weird, like he can barely move his shoulder. Would make it hard to get down low as well.

[timma]

I want to continue to improve on my aggression and my follow-up work around contests. I want to be a player that my teammates can rely on to block, shepherd and tackle when the other team has the ball

That is what Billy thinks his job his - to be that aggressive, protecting and disrupting big guy around the ball. Do we care that Brown gets 8 possies? No because if he shuts down his man he is fulfilling his role for the betterment of the team. I don't understand this obsession with wanting the ruck to be another midfielder - a poor disposal giraffe midfielder at that.

Billy should naturally get more possies and hopefully marks as his tank gets better but he clearly has focus of his current energies levels going into helping clearances and disrupting the oppo mids and that has paid off the last couple of games. Won't get stats for sheppards and blocking but he won't care if we win games.

Interesting too how much trouble the shoulder reco gave him. Makes me wonder if Dunstan is struggling with it. He drops the ball so weird, like he can barely move his shoulder. Would make it hard to get down low as well.

Don't think they need to another midfielder, but having a ruckman capable of being involved in general play is surely a bonus. Of his four possessions on Friday night, 1 came from a good contested mark, 1 a ruck free kick and 1 from a out of bounds free kick that he happened to be closest to (all from memory, don't quote me!). That leaves one possession in general play for a whole game. Compare that to Hickey, who on a good day can have between 20-25 possesions and provide a link in the midfield.

In saying that, Billy still had a good game. His physicality around the contest negated the impact big Mummy usually has in the middle. Hickey obviously doesn't have that same physicality Billy has.

[dragit]

Sounds like he has a great attitude… particularly like that he went out of his way to say that Tom's ruck work is good, it sounds like he really wants to earn his opportunities.