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IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
Originally when I tried to put something together for Trent Knobel, I thought I’d take a look at his statistics, and in particular his hit outs versus his disposals and marks. The big knock on Knobel I’ve seen is he doesn’t contribute enough around the ground, and apart from being an excellent tap ruckman, he does little else to justify his position. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get an idea of what Trent will provide for us next season statistically, and then, I’ll discuss the other side of Trent Knobel, the intangibles that aren’t measured by numbers.
In comparison to the leagues two elite Ruckmen (D Cox and P Everitt) his numbers pale into insignificance. Both average above 20 hit outs a game, (25.3 and 23.8 compared to 16.6). Both contribute more marks (6.5 and 5.6 compared to 2.8) and both contribute a lot more possessions around the ground (16.4 and 17.4 compared to 8.2). Yet only 1 of these guys saw action (on a football field) in September.
Of all the teams that made the 8, only 2 had more hit outs than Trent. So we know that just winning a lot of hit outs, isn’t going to get you into the finals. Of all the ruckman in the league, Trent was equal 12th in Marks taken, equal 15th in disposals and equal 14th in goals kicked. So the pure statistics say that Trent has a fair way to go, to catch up with the big guys in the league. Reading all this, would probably have most of you really worrying about the season ahead, and praying that Simmonds comes good as a Ruckman for us to be successful. And you might be right.
However, successful teams don’t HAVE to have a ruckman like Dean Cox. There was one ruckman in the league that had almost identical numbers to Trent, and his team finished on top of the ladder – Rhett Biglands. Both averaged 8.2 disposals and both averaged under 3 marks a game (2.8 – TK and 2.6 – RB). Biglands averaged 15.2 HO, which was just slightly less than Trent (16.6). Both contributed very little as far as goals for the year – Rhett kicking 7 to Trent’s 4 yet he played 6 more games. Encouraging at least is the fact that each year (with the exception of one at St Kilda where he played just 4 games) his average disposals and marks improve each year.
There is one thing that none of these statistics indicate however, and that’s just how effective his hit outs are.
In May this year, the Herald Scum posted an article acknowledging that of Trent’s hit outs, 37% went to the Tigers’ advantage, which was out and out the best in the league. Peter Everitt and Jeff White – for all the wonderful disposals in the world – only get 26% roughly each to their teams’ advantage. On average 40% of the time the ball is tapped, it will go to a neutral situation.
This means that few ruckmen contribute as many effective hit outs compared to Trent – and that’s one thing that doesn’t show up in the disposals column. For example, if Trent got 25 hit outs in a game, 10 would be contested, 9 would be to our advantage and 6 would go too our opponents’ advantage. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that at the time the article was published, Richmond were performing quite well. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that as he tapered off midway through the end of the year, and then subsequently was rested, we started to taper off in performance. Sure there were other factors (Re Brownies injury) but I honestly believe we would have performed better in the last half of the year if Trent were able to keep his early season form going.
Not everything about Trent though is numbers. I’d suggest of all the games I saw him play last year, the game against Fremantle at the MCG was his best. The game itself showed everything about Trent’s personality (based on the opinion of those who know Trent’s personality better than me!). He worked hard all game. He shepherded, he ran after blokes twice as quick as him and panicked them into turning the ball over (Think it was Troy Cook), he got between a group of Freo players, corralling them into a poor kick which lids picked off and Brownie goaled from.
If you had to choose a vocation for Trent outside football, he’d probably be a tradesman. One that knew the finer points of his trade especially well, but might not be quick enough to produce as much as some of the other, better paid tradies. However, one thing Trent does just as well – if not better than all of the other tradies on the scene - is try his guts out for the company, and give everything he has to his performance. He’ll lead from the front, and you can be pretty much assured of getting a consistent, if not spectacular performance from him.
Best of luck for 2006 Trent. You’ll certainly be pressured to perform – especially with Simmonds likely to take over the mantle of no 1. Here’s hoping you can improve the around the ground coverage so that you’re at least midway in performance amongst your peers. If you can do this, and continue to tap the ball to our advantage as well as you have done, I’m confident we’ll have a very good rucking tandem in 2006.
:gotigersIn comparison to the leagues two elite Ruckmen (D Cox and P Everitt) his numbers pale into insignificance. Both average above 20 hit outs a game, (25.3 and 23.8 compared to 16.6). Both contribute more marks (6.5 and 5.6 compared to 2.8) and both contribute a lot more possessions around the ground (16.4 and 17.4 compared to 8.2). Yet only 1 of these guys saw action (on a football field) in September.
Of all the teams that made the 8, only 2 had more hit outs than Trent. So we know that just winning a lot of hit outs, isn’t going to get you into the finals. Of all the ruckman in the league, Trent was equal 12th in Marks taken, equal 15th in disposals and equal 14th in goals kicked. So the pure statistics say that Trent has a fair way to go, to catch up with the big guys in the league. Reading all this, would probably have most of you really worrying about the season ahead, and praying that Simmonds comes good as a Ruckman for us to be successful. And you might be right.
However, successful teams don’t HAVE to have a ruckman like Dean Cox. There was one ruckman in the league that had almost identical numbers to Trent, and his team finished on top of the ladder – Rhett Biglands. Both averaged 8.2 disposals and both averaged under 3 marks a game (2.8 – TK and 2.6 – RB). Biglands averaged 15.2 HO, which was just slightly less than Trent (16.6). Both contributed very little as far as goals for the year – Rhett kicking 7 to Trent’s 4 yet he played 6 more games. Encouraging at least is the fact that each year (with the exception of one at St Kilda where he played just 4 games) his average disposals and marks improve each year.
There is one thing that none of these statistics indicate however, and that’s just how effective his hit outs are.
In May this year, the Herald Scum posted an article acknowledging that of Trent’s hit outs, 37% went to the Tigers’ advantage, which was out and out the best in the league. Peter Everitt and Jeff White – for all the wonderful disposals in the world – only get 26% roughly each to their teams’ advantage. On average 40% of the time the ball is tapped, it will go to a neutral situation.
This means that few ruckmen contribute as many effective hit outs compared to Trent – and that’s one thing that doesn’t show up in the disposals column. For example, if Trent got 25 hit outs in a game, 10 would be contested, 9 would be to our advantage and 6 would go too our opponents’ advantage. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that at the time the article was published, Richmond were performing quite well. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that as he tapered off midway through the end of the year, and then subsequently was rested, we started to taper off in performance. Sure there were other factors (Re Brownies injury) but I honestly believe we would have performed better in the last half of the year if Trent were able to keep his early season form going.
Not everything about Trent though is numbers. I’d suggest of all the games I saw him play last year, the game against Fremantle at the MCG was his best. The game itself showed everything about Trent’s personality (based on the opinion of those who know Trent’s personality better than me!). He worked hard all game. He shepherded, he ran after blokes twice as quick as him and panicked them into turning the ball over (Think it was Troy Cook), he got between a group of Freo players, corralling them into a poor kick which lids picked off and Brownie goaled from.
If you had to choose a vocation for Trent outside football, he’d probably be a tradesman. One that knew the finer points of his trade especially well, but might not be quick enough to produce as much as some of the other, better paid tradies. However, one thing Trent does just as well – if not better than all of the other tradies on the scene - is try his guts out for the company, and give everything he has to his performance. He’ll lead from the front, and you can be pretty much assured of getting a consistent, if not spectacular performance from him.
Best of luck for 2006 Trent. You’ll certainly be pressured to perform – especially with Simmonds likely to take over the mantle of no 1. Here’s hoping you can improve the around the ground coverage so that you’re at least midway in performance amongst your peers. If you can do this, and continue to tap the ball to our advantage as well as you have done, I’m confident we’ll have a very good rucking tandem in 2006.
I've included the spreadsheet I recorded the numbers in here for you to look at, at a snapshot.
2005 Ruckmen Statistics
If you want more comprehensive stats, you can look up a website like
http://www.footywire.com/fw/web/ft_index
where some of these stats were taken from.