Sam Mitchell believes Brodie Grundy’s failed to make ruck dominance count
Brodie Grundy won a season-high 73 hit-outs, yet the Pies were smashed in the clearances. A four-time premiership Hawk has questioned the All-Australian’s ruck craft and praised his opponent.
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Giants veteran Shane Mumford had the mountainous task of containing All-Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy on the big stage.
While Grundy had the upper hand on the stats sheet, the Pies ultimately failed to capitalise on the miss-match.
Grundy dominated the ruck duel winning 73 hit-outs — his highest tally for the season — to Mumford’s 14 yet GWS led the clearance count 54-35.
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Four-time premiership Hawk Sam Mitchell believes Grundy wasn’t creative enough with his tapwork, saying he often took the safe option in his side’s shattering loss.
“Statistically I know Grundy had 70 hit-outs or something like that but they lost clearances by 20 so there’s no actual point having a hitout if you don’t win the clearances,” Mitchell said on Channel 7’s Game Day.
“(Grundy) didn’t grab it out of the ruck, he didn’t knock it to the outside except for a couple of times in the last quarter,”
“Other than that, he just did the simple thing, he didn’t try to get creative.”
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The Brownlow Medallist also criticised the lack of aggression from the Pies midfield in a whole, unable to turn their ruck dominance into scoreboard pressure.
“If you are going to have so much upside in the ruck then try to create a score, and I don’t think Collingwood tried to create enough scores from a dominant ruckman,” he said.
Mumford copped his fair share of criticism during the week after his disappointing semi-final performance against Brisbane, comprehensively beaten by Lions ruckman Stefan Martin.
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The 33-year-old gave away eight free kicks for the match and finished with just nine disposals, while Martin racked up 23 disposals, 19 contested possessions and 11 clearances.
Last night Mumford had just eight touches while Grundy gathered 25 disposals, 20 contested possessions and 10 clearances, but Mitchell said his game would be rated highly internally.
“I think Mumford would be sore and battered today, but when it comes to their best and fairest night it wouldn’t surprise me if he was one of the highest rated players from the Giants point of view,” Mitchell said.
“I thought his influence on the game was really significant.”
Originally published as Sam Mitchell believes Brodie Grundy’s failed to make ruck dominance count
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