To understand why Sandi doesn't smash it further / wider, you have to watch the way Sandi rucks. He's not a jump-off-one-leg ruckman who hits the ball at the top of this jump. His style is to get to the fall of the ball, plonk his body in the way, and then hit the ball. It basically lets him win almost every time. However, it's very hard to get much force on the ball when you are hitting it on the way down. Seriously, try jumping up and down on the spot, and then punch a ball on the way down and see how far you get it.
He has 'pushed' it wider this year to Fyfe when he can get two hands up, but he can only do that against certain ruckmen. Sadly, big Sandi doesn't have it in him to to the big Clark Keating whack it forward trick.
But the way Sandi rucks means he decides which side the ball comes down, and stops the other teams setting up, and minimises injuries to the big bloke. On balance, it's a win.
Sometimes you have to ask yourself if something seems so obvious, why don't the coaches do it? They get paid a lot of money to sit around thinking of things to do on a footy field. I'm pretty sure they have thought of 'hit it forward'.
