Toast #186 Nic Naitanui (2009 - 2023)

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Groin Watch Round 4 - Flat Track Bully Mode - ENGAGE

Another week against bottom 10 opposition and another easy win without really getting out of second gear. NicNat trippled his mark tally for the year and the one I saw late (poorly timed birthday party for my 4yo being to blame for missing the first 3 quarters) looked like a pretty good grab. Things are coming along nicely.

Except I'm impatient, and Nic has yet to tear a game apart with his bare hands. All that extra jogging in the off season seems to have translated into the same sort of jogging around the field looking vaguely disinterested with the occasional (all too rare) burst of pure awesome. It's early days yet and I'm sure he's saving it for a good team that doesn't have Aaron Sandilands in the ruck. With Mumford coming up this week and Ryder/Lobbe next week, he'll get his chance to fly against good opposition soon enough.

Back to this week. 38 hitouts and 4 tackles is a decent outing. Only the 10 possessions with only 4 contested is a little unusual. Possibly explains his SC score not setting the world on fire (83). His opposite number (Stefan Martin, who seems to have completely recovered from being a former Melbourne player) had a day out with 20 touches, 36 hitouts, 4 tackles and a goal for 140SC.

Probably a good thing the duel in the rucks didn't decide the match. I'm sure the dominant AA goal kicking ruckman we all know and love will manifest very soon. We'll need him badly in the second half of the year.
 
Groin Watch Round 5 - Coasting against kids.

Hard to say what I think of this weeks performance. Nic really only spent about half the match rucking and half the match forward for a return of 19 hitouts and 2 goals. Callum Sinclair rucked the other half (with plenty of help from Elliot Yeo who I saw go third man up quite a bit), and got 14 hitouts himself. Mumford got 28 hitouts but his backup ruckman got something trivial like 1 or 2, so we easily won the hitouts for the match.

Nic drifted in and out of the match, but did some good things and moved freely throughout. Only took the one mark again, but given Mumford took none for the match it wasn't really an issue.

I guess the real question is this....by the time Nic hits career best form later in the year, will he have any team-mates left not in injury rehab? Our other players continue to drop like flies, and for long periods of time too...none of this half arsed 1-2 week calf tightness for us...no siree...every innocuous bump costs us 12 weeks or more! Our players are going hard AND going home (on crutches).

Port this week....Ryder and Lobbe. Normally I'd be very confident in our ruck division, but with Nic still in somewhat middling form and Lycett banished to the WAFL, who knows how we'll go. My hope is that Nic was being rested this game for a big effort next week where he will finally hit his stride. We'll see how that goes.
 
Groin Watch Round 6 - Expecting the unexpected.

I was a bit concerned when I saw Nic's stats for the game, but then I watched the second half replay this morning (only saw the first half of the game yesterday), and it was pretty clear Port were so terrified he was going to tear the game a new one, that they had multiple large players always ready to pounce on him. This extra attention regularly allowed our runners to get free, so along with some very nice hitouts (Nic and Sinclair completely owned the hitout stat against Ryder and Lobbe, which is no mean feat), I'd say Nic went alright in this one. No cause to panic yet.

What a win though. I can't remember the last time we were heavy underdogs and beat a very good team away from home. Nic may not be dominating the competition right now, but imagine how good we'll be when he starts? I have goosebumps. To borrow a line from Titus O'Reilly, we're playing everyone's favourite teenage drama (Gold Coast) this week at home, and I for one can't wait.
 

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Groin Watch Round 7 - Is he injured or what?

Weird game that one. We got thrashed in the clearances, in the wet, and won by a a helluva lot. Nic dominated the hitouts, but they mostly went to opposition players. When we turned it on in the 3rd, Nic had some excellent centre clearances, looking like the panther of old. He doesn't really look injured, but then he was rested for pretty much the whole last quarter.

The million dollar question becomes, is his back still bothering him? His groin is clearly A-OK. Should I rename these posts to Back Watch? How do you even tell if someone's back is sore? Am I just expecting too much? Looking back to 2012 SuperCoach scores, no I'm not. Nic's high in 2012 was a whopping 185. This year his best so far is 103, 10 below his 2012 *average*, so he's still a long way short of his best.

St Kilda next week probably won't provide any answers, given their ruck brigade is still pretty green.
 
Groin Watch Round 8 - Baby steps.

That was probably Nic's most dominant display of the season as far as ruckwork goes. 37 hitouts with 15 to advantage is a pretty good day out for a ruckman. Throw in 6 clearances (trademark style, bursting out of the centre when the game was on the line in the 3rd are the ones I remember) and Nic suddenly starts to look in ominous form. Much easier to overlook the lack of marks when he's doing that in the middle.

But still, it was the St Kilda work experience ruck brigade he was up against in Longer and Hickey. Should be a bit harder this week against (quickly checks fanfooty to see who Geelong are playing in the ruck right now), Bliclavs and Stanley....Wait, what? No scratch that. Nic is going to absolutely murderate them this week. If our midfield can't get on top even with Yeo out with those two rucking vs Nic then we're just not that good.
 
Groin Watch Round 9 - NAAAIIIITAAAANUUUUUUUIIIII!!!!!!

He's back baby.

When I first took NicNat at pick one in the sponsor draft, I was expecting to be sponsoring this legendary creature that would dominate the ruck like it's never been dominated before. As such I've had a bit of trouble getting in the mood so far this year. Until now.

What a game. A complete Ruckmans game. 153 SC points. Some other guy broke the world record for hitouts in another game and didn't even crack 100 SC points. His two goals were brilliant. One from a take out of the ruck and snap near the goals, and one following mark of the year. 7 clearances along with all the clearances he helped create.

That's the guy I was expecting to sponsor, right there. Let the rest of the competition tremble at his might :D
 
The return of the beast!

Incredible return from the big man against the Swans, playing basically half the game managed a dozen touches, 33 h/o and a goal, also took a couple of marks. Incredibly he was also one of the best players rated on the field.

Great signs, the team is infinitely better with him in the ruck.
 

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Naitanui returned as a beast against the Tigers, he mauled them to death. He destroyed Nankervis so badly that the poor guy has quit football for a week.
 
Naitanui had heaps of time to take naps against the Hawks, in fact he fell asleep four times whilst in ruck contest (still won the tap).
He celebrated the win with Hungry Jacks for dinner.
 
Against the might of the Saints, young up and coming ruckman Nic Naitaui finally turned super saiyan after 957 episodes. Was best on field and received all 6 Brownlow votes.
 
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