Position 2023 Rucks

[Pure_Ownage]

surely rucks this year is a simple choice out of 4 players.

english darcy grundy marshall.

witts? yeah maybe
cameron in the rucks? would consider to save cash.
hickey? too risky imo.

grundy and marshall are the two value ruck picks. but to me english and darcy are the two premo rucks everyone will want to have by seasons end.

cameron is a good fwd inclusion as would make a great r3/f7 come sc finals time.

The issue is how much ruck time those guys get.
Grundy might be fwd and might not even play at all if the 2 rucks doesnt work at all.
Darcy the issue is his knee (carrying injury?) amd how much ruck time he might split with jackson.
Marshall would be my pick but they have no standout fwd/ruck option so ross might pick that spud campbell which takes ruck minutes off marshall.
English the concussion risk.
I can see why some people will take witts as hes guaranteed to ruck 85 % of the game though he burnt me last year.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

In saying that they both kicked 11 Goals in 2021 and Max kicked 13 in 2022. If they play him as a KPF they would want 50+ goals a year is he that good?

Plus if they play gawn fwd their fwd line defensive pressure will suck unless they basically drop both brown and mcdonald to the vfl (given fritsch doesnt chase).

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

Plus if they play gawn fwd their fwd line defensive pressure will suck unless they basically drop both brown and mcdonald to the vfl (given fritsch doesnt chase).

BBB could be cooked, sounds like van Rooyen might get a go.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

BBB could be cooked, sounds like van Rooyen might get a go.

Does he bring a lot of defensive pressure though? I cant see gawn as a fwd working defensively and if that happens they will drop grundy.

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

Does he bring a lot of defensive pressure though? I cant see gawn as a fwd working defensively and if that happens they will drop grundy.

Not sure. No way in the world they drop Grundy. He won't have gone there unless he's guaranteed to play.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Not sure. No way in the world they drop Grundy. He won't have gone there unless he's guaranteed to play.

They would have told him that to get him to agree to the trade sure. But that means little.
Will they drop him in about round 10 when its clear gawn plus fritsch plus whatever else they have wont work as a fwd structure?
Sure they will when the alternative is dropping the captain.
Clearly melb think gawn fwd can work but i think they will end up admitting defeat on it.

 

[A Bit Dusty]

They would have told him that to get him to agree to the trade sure. But that means little.
Will they drop him in about round 10 when its clear gawn plus fritsch plus whatever else they have wont work as a fwd structure?
Sure they will when the alternative is dropping the captain.
Clearly melb think gawn fwd can work but i think they will end up admitting defeat on it.

Coaches don't admit failure and I don't think it will be that at all. Think about it Gawn being so tall will attract at least 2-3 defenders to every bomb kick towards him. Maybe the plan will be to get the ball down to the smaller guys like picket & sparrow and they also got Hunter as well now.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Coaches don't admit failure and I don't think it will be that at all. Think about it Gawn being so tall will attract at least 2-3 defenders to every bomb kick towards him. Maybe the plan will be to get the ball down to the smaller guys like picket & sparrow and they also got Hunter as well now.

Hunter will play wing (if he plays) not fwd.
Gawn isnt great at chase and tackle, brown has the turning circle of the QE2, fritsch is lazy and wont chase, mcdonald is slow. Neale bullen pluz kozi cant do all the defensive work alone. Honestly it will go one of two ways either gawn will mark everything and they kick huge scores or he wont and they will get rebounded of half back massively (due to no defensive pressure) and leak scores against. I reckon the latter personally.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Hunter will play wing (if he plays) not fwd.
Gawn isnt great at chase and tackle, brown has the turning circle of the QE2, fritsch is lazy and wont chase, mcdonald is slow. Neale bullen pluz kozi cant do all the defensive work alone. Honestly it will go one of two ways either gawn will mark everything and they kick huge scores or he wont and they will get rebounded of half back massively (due to no defensive pressure) and leak scores against. I reckon the latter personally.

Their forward line may resemble the Cats from ten years ago when no-one chased (Menz couldn’t even run)

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Their forward line may resemble the Cats from ten years ago when no-one chased (Menz couldn’t even run)

Exactly my thoughts

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

They would have told him that to get him to agree to the trade sure. But that means little.
Will they drop him in about round 10 when its clear gawn plus fritsch plus whatever else they have wont work as a fwd structure?
Sure they will when the alternative is dropping the captain.
Clearly melb think gawn fwd can work but i think they will end up admitting defeat on it.

I agree it might not work, but can't agree with the bold bit. You can't make promises to a player then change your mind once he signs. What happens with the next player Melbourne try to sign? If they break the promises they make to Grundy the whole AFL world will know in about 30 minutes. You can't run a club that way.

That and Goodwin seems pretty stubborn to me. He'll flog that horse until it is dead, or one of them goes down with a LTI.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I agree it might not work, but can't agree with the bold bit. You can't make promises to a player then change your mind once he signs. What happens with the next player Melbourne try to sign? If they break the promises they make to Grundy the whole AFL world will know in about 30 minutes. You can't run a club that way.

That and Goodwin seems pretty stubborn to me. He'll flog that horse until it is dead, or one of them goes down with a LTI.

To be fair players are smart they know things change and coaches make changes when stuff isnt working. Grundy would have weighed the risk of being either no2 ruck or in the vfl
(as a pose to a club where he was more likely to be no1 ruck) when he chose to gk there.

I agree goodwin is stubborn but he also wants another flag and i stand by comment that i dont think the 2 rucks will work for melbourne and therefore grundys JS is a huge problem. If he was at a club that didnt have gawn hed be my first ruck picked for sure.
Realistically if it doesnt work they have very few other options than to drop grundy.

 

[Choppers]

"Similarly, Tom Campbell aggravated his Achilles just before Christmas and given his age and the delicate nature of Achilles injuries, we're taking a considered approach to his training, with an eye on the pre-season games.


Does this mean Marshall will be solo Ruck...

Injured Saints back at training but draftee set for long absence

There was mostly good news on the injury front for the Saints, although a draftee has suffered a major setback

www.afl.com.au

 

[A Bit Dusty]

"Similarly, Tom Campbell aggravated his Achilles just before Christmas and given his age and the delicate nature of Achilles injuries, we're taking a considered approach to his training, with an eye on the pre-season games.


Does this mean Marshall will be solo Ruck...

Injured Saints back at training but draftee set for long absence

There was mostly good news on the injury front for the Saints, although a draftee has suffered a major setback

www.afl.com.au

Most Saints fans on their Forum have Marshall Solo ruck

 

[blueiris]

"Similarly, Tom Campbell aggravated his Achilles just before Christmas and given his age and the delicate nature of Achilles injuries, we're taking a considered approach to his training, with an eye on the pre-season games.


Does this mean Marshall will be solo Ruck...

Injured Saints back at training but draftee set for long absence

There was mostly good news on the injury front for the Saints, although a draftee has suffered a major setback

www.afl.com.au

Jack Hayes is apparently back training so Marshall is still a wait and see for mine I don’t want him if he’s playing forward

 

[rye]

surely rucks this year is a simple choice out of 4 players.

english darcy grundy marshall.

witts? yeah maybe
cameron in the rucks? would consider to save cash.
hickey? too risky imo.

grundy and marshall are the two value ruck picks. but to me english and darcy are the two premo rucks everyone will want to have by seasons end.

cameron is a good fwd inclusion as would make a great r3/f7 come sc finals time.

think cameron at r2 is one of the safest ways to navigate the ruckline

some rucks like darcy / grundy / gawn have too many question marks over how their scoring will go with the additions to their teams to be started, but once the season proper starts we will have a far greater idea of what these new setups will look like, with (hopefully) a clear top 2-3 emerging who can be targetted for an upgrade. cameron can then be swung forward as you upgrade to these rucks, and as a bonus can then cover for them if you have a fragile player like english. will probably be a top 8 forward if McStay forces Cox out of Collingwood's best 22, so i think hes a great pick for the price regardless.

i would start one of marshall / english / witts with cameron at r2 personally. im leaning towards marshall as i dont think english will play 22 games and expect some regression from witts.

 

[Northernsoul74]

think cameron at r2 is one of the safest ways to navigate the ruckline

some rucks like darcy / grundy / gawn have too many question marks over how their scoring will go with the additions to their teams to be started, but once the season proper starts we will have a far greater idea of what these new setups will look like, with (hopefully) a clear top 2-3 emerging who can be targetted for an upgrade. cameron can then be swung forward as you upgrade to these rucks, and as a bonus can then cover for them if you have a fragile player like english. will probably be a top 8 forward if McStay forces Cox out of Collingwood's best 22, so i think hes a great pick for the price regardless.

i would start one of marshall / english / witts with cameron at r2 personally. im leaning towards marshall as i dont think english will play 22 games and expect some regression from witts.

If I start Cameron it will be at R2. Still a big if though. The if is I’m not convinced I want Cameron at F6 come seasons end.

 

[kananooks]

If I start Cameron it will be at R2. Still a big if though. The if is I’m not convinced I want Cameron at F6 come seasons end.

im thinking to have him as a f7/r3 .. need depth at seasons end.

 

[Northernsoul74]

im thinking to have him as a f7/r3 .. need depth at seasons end.

Not sure you can plan for that now. Will need a lot to go right but would be ideal.

 

[A Bit Dusty]

 

[Dazjack]

View attachment 1585905

Sounds like the whore-off is on!!!

 

[Northernsoul74]

View attachment 1585905

Really wouldn’t surprise if Gawn rucks the majority. I know he’s the better forward of the 2 but he’s also the superior ruck.

 

[Duckworthy]

Really wouldn’t surprise if Gawn rucks the majority. I know he’s the better forward of the 2 but he’s also the superior ruck.

Gawn is quite a lot better at intercept defensive marking isn't he? The second sentence in A Bit Dusty media grab is how we should expect it to play out in most cases...I think

 

[Raveneyes]

Imagine the shock on this board when Cox and McStay are the talls selected for Round 1, and Darcy Cameron is an emergency.

There's a fair chance that this happens, and it's why many Pies fans have shied away Cameron.

 

[Duckworthy]

Imagine the shock on this board when Cox and McStay are the talls selected for Round 1, and Darcy Cameron is an emergency.

There's a fair chance that this happens, and it's why many Pies fans have shied away Cameron.