The AFL media needs to change the narrative on Brodie Grundy

Spot on.

The Nank is a great ruckman, at least against us, big and aggressive, which is what you want

Yeah he's pretty handy alright. A premiership ruckman. Didn't mean it in a negative sense. He's what I reckon Jack Dyer would have called a good ordinary ruckman. He's in a similar category to Nankervis and McEvoy in my eyes. They're not in a Gawn or Nic Nat category but have lot of ruckman nouse.

Lycett is actually leading the league in hitouts to advantage in the league this year, or was until the weekend Nothing average about the big man, kicks straight for goals as well

Classic tall poppy syndrome. If it wasn’t for that huge contract no one would be talking about it. Perhaps focus on their lacklustre over-rated midfielders instead.

The narrative needs to be changed from bs like "Grundy is one of the greatest ruckmen of all time". And also the anal fixation with stats. Stats will tell important info to a degree but there's a vastly deeper universe in footy beyond the data spreadsheet. I feel for Grundy. He has a very ordinary midfield around him, a poor game plan from the coaches box, and he's never been tutored by an actual ruckman at Collingwood. It's been obvious all the way through his career at Collingwood Grundy is not what you would call a natural ruckman. Nankervis from Richmond, and McEvoy from Hawthorn for example, 2 solid and undersung performers, have much more natural ruck nouse than Grundy. This also why Grundy has been towelled up by an over the hill Mumford, and was taken to the cleaners in the GF against 2 average ruckman in Vardy and Leycet. Grundy is gifted with a huge athletic frame and he's at his best when he virtually plays a bullocking ruck rover type which also seems to get his confidence up and feeds into him being much more physically competitive against his rucking opponent.

My thoughts around the time that contract became common knowledge (after the GWS prelim loss) were that the pies needed to learn how to structure the mids around Grundy to take advantage of his hit out dominance, or let him walk.

he needs to grab it out of the ruck more as well but like PTS said later down Grundy isn't a good mark so he can't get the ball out of the ruck easily like that.

Although he's getting a lot of hit outs it's obvious they're going nowhere. And opposition players midfielders are picking up on that straight away & taking full advantge

If I keep on saying Miranda Kerr will fall hopelessly in love with me over and over again like you do about Clarko joining the pies Scribe - will that make it happen? I'm willing to try it :)

There have been many ruck and rover combinations, great ones. Given the first chance to touch the ball hardly makes the ruckman an irrelevant position. I don't see this as a Grundy problem. Not having an insider's knowledge of the personalities I can only look at it like a game day observer. What I see is a systematic breakdown. The proof in my pudding is the fact that opposition teams are able to take advantage of Grundy's ability. Once again, I think it's a coaching problem.

you lost me when you said "commentators needed to get a better understanding of the sport" the same commentators who have played hundreds of games at the highest level and won multiple flags - as against your opinion. Fact is, Grundy as a ruckman doesnt deliver the ball to his mids anywhere near as well as Gawn or NicNat - and he's being paid copious $$$ over 7 years to do so.

What you appear to have completely missed is that Grundy is the highest paid player at Collingwood (by some distance) and is not performing anywhere close to his contract. Yes he may have been in Collingwood's best half a dozen players Saturday but he has to be. For a million dollars a year he should be the All Australian ruckman and consistently dominating opponents (both of which is is miles off). No ruckman in the game is on close to a million a year. To suggest Grundy has had an "amazing" season is extraordinary. He was monstered by Naitanui after quarter time in the WCE game and Collingwood had to use two ruckman in an attempt to nullify his impact. His efforts last week against a VFL standard ruckman on Anzac Day being pushed off the ball were borderline disgraceful. How embarrassing that after 7 games into a 7 year contract he can't carry the position on his own let along dominate it. While it isn't his fault he has been grossly overpaid by the inept Ned Guy and his recruiting team to point to his hit outs as a sign of dominance fails to scratch the surface of Grundy the player and perhaps you should also consider your argument about commentators not looking closely at his play yourself. Try the Prelim final against GWS in 2019 as to why Grundy's hit outs are largely meaningless...

The Suns actually had the prior pick to select Jack Martin passed due to his insane demands. Carlton now have to pay, although he is far cheaper. I suspect he has fired his agent.

How would that work out in practice Thom, would another club in a better draft position have to match front-ended demands from a player to pick them? The AFL would have to know exactly the price a player puts on their own head.

If a player is being paid significantly under market value then that is the opportunity for a club to offer an extended contract on higher terms.

PTS, I must admit I am not enthusiastic about players moving clubs. There are occasions when a particular player from another club will fill a certain need and a club has to be prepared to pay overs in that situation both in contract payments and compensation. I believe Merrett will be happy to stay at Essendon, my guess is that De Goey will be after big money but I don’t believe he fills an Essendon need. You can’t buy a premiership and players who want to play in a premiership need to be prepared to accept no more than market value.

And if they can get his great uncle to come back from the dead then maybe. I don’t think Merrett is a the right choice for the pies he’s still a little too demonstrative