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Milne wrote:I agree about the coaching situation with Hickey, but let's give Longer a bit more of a chance. He has come a long way since last year and is only young.
But if Longer rucks then Hickey doesn't get his chance. he is also young but it seems we want Longer to be our long term player and we will look at trading Hickey. Both cant playin the same side long term.
Maybe time for Holmes to replace one of them. Holmes can take a mark at least. Holmes and Hickey would be an interesting pair to watch. Bruce should never ruck.
#gosaintas wrote:Maybe time for Holmes to replace one of them. Holmes can take a mark at least. Holmes and Hickey would be an interesting pair to watch. Bruce should never ruck.
He cant play. He is a rookie and they aren't going to upgrade him over Schneider or Sinclair.
#gosaintas wrote:Maybe time for Holmes to replace one of them. Holmes can take a mark at least. Holmes and Hickey would be an interesting pair to watch. Bruce should never ruck.
He cant play. He is a rookie and they aren't going to upgrade him over Schneider or Sinclair.
plugger66 wrote:Im sure everyone knows that but can someone explain why Longer is still playing and poor Hickey gets subbed 2 weeks in a row. Hickey isn't a forward and the coaches surely know that but if you play him then keep him playing or don't play him at all. If injured I apologise. In the mean time Longer gets his 7 possessions a game and we get nothing from him around the ground. One has to go and I reckon its really harsh on Hickey as he is being played out of position. And for those who say it doesn't matter this year as we are getting games into Longer well that's fine but we aren't getting games into Hickey in his rightful position.
The reason is obvious - Longer is the better ruckman and Hickey is sub-standard in most areas. Longer not great but > Hickey
I actually think it's the other way around. He has to play both because neither can ruck all day and we have no chop-out part-timer like Stanley (Bruce didn't work), but Longer is sub-standard as a forward so he has to ruck and Hickey is up forward.
#gosaintas wrote:Maybe time for Holmes to replace one of them. Holmes can take a mark at least. Holmes and Hickey would be an interesting pair to watch. Bruce should never ruck.
He cant play. He is a rookie and they aren't going to upgrade him over Schneider or Sinclair.
Well there goes that idea then...
Unless they delist that spud Schneider.
Oh dear.
i am Melbourne Skies - sometimes Blue Skies, Grey Skies, even Partly Cloudy Skies.
Yes, it's a real dilemma. Neither Longer nor Hickey are contributing much, so we are virtually two players down each week. Longer is trying hard, but achieving very little and we do not have a chop-out ruckman. Hickey is not suited to the forward line, especially with Rooey and Bruce both there. I suggested a couple of weeks ago, that Hickey be dropped and bring Membrey in to balance up the forward line. Unfortunately, that doesn't fix the ruck situation, with neither good enough to ruck single handedly for us.
Also, we don't have great mids at the centre bounces, which makes either ruckman look worse than they are.
This situation throws a cloud over the Stanley trade decision - he is now playing a great Ruck roll at Geelong.
What do we do - there is no happy solution. (a) play both, (b) play one for 4 weeks, then the other for 4 weeks, and see who lifts. Use anyone as a chop-out,
From his post game review it appears that Richo is determined to turn Hickey into a forward who can ruck. I'm not sure it's serving him or the team well at the moment. One problem is that if we don't play Hickey and Longer we've got to find someone to replace the ruckman when he's resting. I'm not sure who we've got that could do that role.
We could bring McCartin or Membrey in to play forward but neither of them is going to spend time in the ruck.
I feel sorry for Hickey. Until he got injured last year I thought he was showing some good signs as a ruckman.
SainterK wrote:I though Tom was blossoming into an elite ruckman personally, shows how little I know.
I thought he was our number one ruck from late 2013. We seemed to look better at clearances when he was rucking compared to McEvoy (and I'm not bagging Ben in saying that). From the time we got Billy the club seemed determined to find a way to play both in the same time.
SainterK wrote:I just don't get the decisiveness that Bill is a better ruck prospect than Tom.
Before injuring his knee last year in rd 6, Tom was tracking fine.
He really will be looked at by clubs who know what he's capable of in the middle.
It's got me stumped.
I agree that Billy is not decisively better than Hickey in the ruck, but Hickey is better up forward than Billy. We can't just play one of them, so Longer in ruck and Hickey up forward seems to be the least-worst way to play both.
I haven't had a chance to watch this weeks match yet but if Hickey is not injured and been subbed twice in a row I'd be happy for Billy to have a spell. Bring in McCartin against Melbourne and give Hickey a full game in the ruck. I think the two rucks will work together as I rate them both but they both need to improve a bit for that to happen.
