Tim English could be the most pivotal player on the ground in Sunday’s Elimination Final between the Western Bulldogs and Essendon.
Dogs coach Luke Beveridge is stretched for tall personnel, sweating on first-choice ruckman Stefan Martin’s fitness and having lost leading goalkicker Josh Bruce to a knee injury.
Back in Round 21, the Bombers trounced the Bulldogs in the middle.
Ben Rutten’s men piled on 70 points from stoppage chains to the Dogs’ 21 points from the same source; 39 of the 70 came from the centre bounce.
Former Footscray captain Doug Hawkins noted the Dogs’ engine room strength, with Marcus Bontempelli and Jack Macrae last night named as starters in the All-Australian team.
Hawkins believes their season could come to naught unless they can break even in the ruck however, with Essendon carrying two All-Australian midfielders of their own.
“Don’t worry about that Essendon midfield,” Hawkins told SEN Breakfast on Friday.
"Zach Merrett, Andrew McGrath - who got injured when he was probably leading their best-and-fairest - Dylan Shiel, the boy Darcy Parish is a gun.
“It’s very, very good. It might come down to the big boy (Sam) Draper.”
Last time around, Draper notched 39 hit-outs and four clearances to English’s 24 and one, and helped his side to a +16 clearance differential.
The Dogs defenders simply couldn’t cope with the volume of Essendon entries (60-39), and Dons recruit Peter Wright kicked a career-best seven goals.
Coach Luke Beveridge deployed defender Lewis Young in a mobile ruck role over the final fortnight, hoping English could help the Dogs maintain their forward structure with Bruce out.
Over the two games, his side have recorded negative differentials of -73 for hitouts, -9 for clearances and -24 for inside 50s; they are always on the back foot.
Hawkins hopes a highly-touted tall talent can flip the script.
“Lewis Young, I’m not convinced about him being a ruckman,” Hawkins expressed.
“Tim English will have to do more than 30 per cent, he’ll have to do 67 per cent of the ruck, (especially) if Draper gets hold of Lewis Young which could be the case.”
Speculation has swirled around the 24-year-old’s readiness to resume his rucking role, but Macrae says the players and coaches have faith in English.
“Tim, to the boys who know him at the club, is a very confident bloke,” Macrae laughed on SEN Breakfast.
“We value his role immensely. With Josh Bruce going down we’ve relied on Tim being a presence up forward, that’s probably why his ruck numbers were so low on the weekend.
“Just trying to find that perfect mix of talls in the forward line while the ruck is balanced as well.”
English primarily rucked from Rounds 12 to 21, averaged 13.4 disposals, 4.2 marks and 23.2 hitouts, and booted six goals over that time.
“I think you’ll see a bit more of him in the ruck this weekend, but we don’t have to build Tim up too much,” Macrae explained.
“He’s got a lot of self-confidence.”
The Dogs and Essendon will play off for a Semi-Final spot at UTAS Stadium in Launceston from 3:20pm on Sunday afternoon.
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