The Geelong Ruck Wars

Written By: Catman Forever on October 7, 2009 No Comment

Each club has a player that gets maligned by their supporters. At Geelong ruckman Mark Blake has taken the place of the once much reviled Kent Kingsley as our whipping boy and scapegoat. Often facts don’t seem to matter in these vigorous debates as fans obsessively pour over the faults of their hated player.

Chapter 1

Blake post 2007 Grand Final

It all began in 2007 when Geelong dropped Blake for the Grand Final and Steven King was bought into replace him. Blake had rucked all year but had a poor performance in the Prelim Final against Collingwood. Mark took the news hard and found it difficult to look pleased when the Cats won the flag. A bitter pill to swallow when Geelong won by so much that any concerns for his form wouldn’t have made a difference to the outcome if he had played.

Unfortunately some Geelong fans took Marks sunglass scowl in the post grand final presentation to mean he wasn’t happy for the team and was only thinking of himself. While this kind of public perception is ridiculously wrong it has somehow stuck.

Chapter 2

Played out over Kings transfer to St Kilda and the stories of Blakes family members demanding the club repay Mark and recontract him at Kings expense. While I find this highly unlikely it does gain credence given the recent revelations about Kings brother texting Blake after the 2008 grand final loss.

But this situation also played into the public perception of Blake because to many it looked like we were shafting a former club captain for him. I do think that Geelong handled Kings trading poorly. King wanted to stay and they offered him a one year contract and then withdrew it before King could say yay or nay. But having gone to St Kilda with all their success he has landed on his feet.

Then by default we seen Mark Blake get elevated into the number 1 ruck position because of Brad Ottens continual injury problems. I think he went into that position before he was ready. But he battled manfully and had the odd victory and the odd defeat from other ruckmen. But as a result we really saw the deficiencies in Blakes game and this also fed into the anti-Blake hysteria.

We seen a tall, uncoordinated bloke who sometimes tripped over his own feet and couldn’t kick to save his life. He was a good tap ruckman, but was very light for a ruckman and easily pushed aside in general play. We noticed our own players using him in general play only if they had no other option. Blake appeared to be not too keen to lay on a tackle or go in after the ball like we see Ottens do. He seemed like a one trick pony. His fall from grace was picking up momentum.

Chapter 3

Come 2009 and once again Brad Ottens went down with knee problems and Blake was thrust into the No 1 ruck position yet again. Early on the season Mark actually was going very well. I remember the Age even writing an article about him on how he had improved. At the same time we seen the return of Shane Mumford who immediately made a good impression.

Shane Mumford

Mumford was a Cinderella story. The 20 stone footballer played in the Geelong VFL team in 2007 and realised he could match it with the AFL ruckman. He understood the only thing holding him back was his lack of fitness. When Shane went home to Bunyip that summer of 2007, he proceeded to train and lose weight and came back to the club a new man. So impressed by his resolve and new found fitness he was offered a rookie position in the Geelong team for 2008. Due to Ottens injuries he debuted in the AFL team in 2008.

The showdown was to come. Good versus Evil in the ruck department.

Chapter 4

In 2009, with Ottens again injured, Mumford got another shot at the senior team as the 2nd Ruckman to Blake. Mumford again showed his great heart in taking his opportunities by both hands. What we saw in Mumford seemed to be the complete antithesis of Blake. He was coordinated, athletic, strong upper body so not easily pushed aside, good hand and foot skills, and his second and third efforts were Cox-like. The only area Blake could claim superiority was in the tap ruck work.

Mumford become the savior of the ruck department and Geelong fans were generous in their compliments of his abilities and more scathing of Mark Blake. The Blakeford Wars had begun.

The Geelong Ruck Wars

Blake was dropped

So on the Geelong Board thread after thread was started in this “Blake versus Mumford” theme. Mostly posters coming in to sink the boot into big Blake and proclaim the virtue of young Shane. As 2009 wore on Blakes form fell off and so he was dropped from the senior team. Geelong, for the first time in a long time, was going in with only one ruckman. That man was Shane Mumford. It looked like the Mummy had won.

Shane took to his ruck duties with gusto and all the Mumford admirers were cooing and gushing over everything the big bloke did. Good had triumphed over evil at last. All was right in the world. But those who watched the game with a bit more of an educated eye started to notice a few flaws in the Mumford game.

In terms of hit outs, Mumford lost when it came to duals with other ruckmen. Geelong started to seriously lose at all the stoppages, despite our fantastic midfield. We were getting creamed because the other teams worked out that this weakness in Mumfords game could easily be exploited. When you know you can win 80% of all hit outs, it becomes easy to set up the stoppages to your advantage.

But Mumford battled on and on. Then as is often the case with young players he began to run out of steam. Meanwhile Mark Blake was absolutely killing them in the VFL. He had taken the criticism he had got on board and really turned his game around. He showed he was truly a class above VFL level which is what a good AFL player should do.

When Blake returned to the AFL side the change in the stoppages was immediately noticeable. Blakes one trick was a very important trick at that. It gave our on ballers a chance to win the clearances. Something we could not do when Mumford was our no 1 ruckman. As Brad Ottens returned the decision to go with Blake was a sound one and he played very well in the Grand Final.

Shane finishes the season leaving an indelible mark on it. Blake finishes with a Premiership Medal. Mumford needs to build on that fitness and work on his tap ruck abilities to take the next step. But one could clearly see Mumford and Blake as our future Ruckmen combination when Ottens retires.

Prologue

Talk of trading a ruckman has risen due to our salary cap problems and many of those Blake haters would love to see him get traded out of the club. If I am reading between the lines correctly the club wants to keep both. I hope that is what happens. But sadly it appears Mumford is looking to be traded at this stage.

The irony of all this is that I am reporting in this article has much to with how our own supporters have created this drama on BigFooty. For all we know Blakey and Mummy are good friends and don’t see it the way the fans do. But it is amazing just how we can build these dramas up in our imaginations that take on a life of their own. Whether true or not.

If 2010 sees Blake versus Mumford as opponents, then the Ruck Wars will kick up a whole new level.