No1 ruck 2023 - Nank or Soldo?

Who is the preferred no 1 ruck in 2023?

  • Nankervis

    Votes: 47 88.7%
  • Soldo

    Votes: 6 11.3%

  • Total voters
    53

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Last year was always going to be a recovery year for Soldo, no bloke his size comes back from surgery like that and the complications he had with his rehab then picks up right where they left off. The 13 games he gave us (with some very solid output at times) last year and the great pre-season he's reportedly had going into this year seem very much the best we could have hoped for under the circumstances.

With the mature run we've added/regained and a couple less vets to nurse now and again, I'd like to see us go into rd.1 with the two ruck setup and do everything we can to become a quality, fast-break clearance side.

I don't see any way we can maximise our new assets (not to mention our soon to expire assets) playing Nank as solo ruck, unless the plan is to try and out-body the opposition in the centre square. Those close in scrimmages seldom produce quality clearances and they always sap your run and carry.

Nank's got a ton of elite attributes, the man's a living Tiger legend, but the decisive hit-out to space which opens everything right up for a speed merchant to run onto (the kind of thing I know I wasn't alone begging for in Brisbane!) has seldom featured in his repertoire, neither has the deft palm-off to a player at top speed. At this point, they're probably never going to be regular features of his game.

Soldo CAN do those things more often, they're his bread and butter and the more he plays the better he's going to get at them. If he lined up rd.1 he'd only be playing his 50th game, there's still a massive amount of upside to come if his body is back on track.

Play both the giant warriors, let their contrasting styles compliment each other and tailor our now massive midfield rotations to suit. With close to our best-22 fit, we've now got no less run than Melbourne or the other successful recent sides still covering two largely specialist rucks.

The bottom line is, if we can finally combine our territory footy and defensive pressure with an advantage in quality clearances, we'll be a long way to unstoppable.
 
From memory, Soldos hit to advantage and hit to opposition figures are not flattering.

Let’s see if his form has improved with some solid football at VFL level before trying to squeeze him into the ones past the captain.

Nank is our best bet and Miller offers great flexibility as the back up.
 

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Last year was always going to be a recovery year for Soldo, no bloke his size comes back from surgery like that and the complications he had with his rehab then picks up right where they left off. The 13 games he gave us (with some very solid output at times) last year and the great pre-season he's reportedly had going into this year seem very much the best we could have hoped for under the circumstances.

With the mature run we've added/regained and a couple less vets to nurse now and again, I'd like to see us go into rd.1 with the two ruck setup and do everything we can to become a quality, fast-break clearance side.

I don't see any way we can maximise our new assets (not to mention our soon to expire assets) playing Nank as solo ruck, unless the plan is to try and out-body the opposition in the centre square. Those close in scrimmages seldom produce quality clearances and they always sap your run and carry.

Nank's got a ton of elite attributes, the man's a living Tiger legend, but the decisive hit-out to space which opens everything right up for a speed merchant to run onto (the kind of thing I know I wasn't alone begging for in Brisbane!) has seldom featured in his repertoire, neither has the deft palm-off to a player at top speed. At this point, they're probably never going to be regular features of his game.

Soldo CAN do those things more often, they're his bread and butter and the more he plays the better he's going to get at them. If he lined up rd.1 he'd only be playing his 50th game, there's still a massive amount of upside to come if his body is back on track.

Play both the giant warriors, let their contrasting styles compliment each other and tailor our now massive midfield rotations to suit. With close to our best-22 fit, we've now got no less run than Melbourne or the other successful recent sides still covering two largely specialist rucks.

The bottom line is, if we can finally combine our territory footy and defensive pressure with an advantage in quality clearances, we'll be a long way to unstoppable.
Great post about qualities of ruckmen.
I think the way coaches see it is have a main ruck and back up from a mobile KPF. Finlayson was rucking for Port Adelaide most of the year. Geelong have blicas as back up ruck. swans the same. Mobility seems to be valued more than hit out stats.
Brizzys macinerney gets injured. Use a KPF as ruck who lost in stats but Neale gets 50 million clearances. Prestia had a lot too before injury. Nank ain't the best ruckman but Tarranto and hopper will work it out. In fact gws had Mumford as ruck for a long time. Similar to nank I'd a thunk.

So Miller is better KPF depth than Soldo although he had very low game time in the final last year. If he is injured who comes in? Young or Bauer. Or Soldo.

I think Soldo will come in when nank is injured. When he does play, Soldo spends a lot of time on the bench. Unless he has become a mobile KPF option I expect Miller or Balta or young or Nyoun to be ruck back up.
I don't even think Ryan will be selected this year.
 
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Great post about qualities of ruckmen.
I think the way coaches see it is have a main ruck and back up from a mobile KPF. Finlayson was rucking for Port Adelaide most of the year. Geelong have blicas as back up ruck. swans the same. Mobility seems to be valued more than hit out stats.
Brizzys macinerney gets injured. Use a KPF as ruck who lost in stats but Neale gets 50 million clearances. Prestia had a lot too before injury. Nank ain't the best ruckman but Tarranto and hopper will work it out. In fact gws had Mumford as ruck for a long time. Similar to nank I'd a thunk.

So Miller is better KPF depth than Soldo although he had very low game time in the final last year. If he is injured who comes in? Young or Bauer. Or Soldo.

I think Soldo will come in when nank is injured. When he does play, Soldo spends a lot of time on the bench. Unless he has become a mobile KPF option I expect Miller or Balta or young or Nyoun to be ruck back up.
I don't even think Ryan will be selected this year.


Using Soldo ~50-55% game time as primary ruck (and always centre square ruck when he's on the ground) allows us to play Nank in the same role Gawn has been at Melbourne - just annoying the hell out of opposition distributors sitting a kick behind the ball. Nank's not as dominant a contested mark as Gawn, but he's just as mobile and there's few better at bringing the ball to ground, creating a contest then coming out of that contest on top.

While Soldo's hitout to advantage stats look similar to Nank's, the massive asterisk on hitout to advantage stats is that they don't reflect how often the ruckman has given his midfielders an opportunity to win a clearance.

The hitouts where one of our mids gets first hands on it but gets wrapped up in a tackle, or fails to dispose of the ball correctly, or gets hands to it but fumbles, or gets hands to it but can't control it before another hand touches the ball.

These hitouts aren't covered by any easily available stat, but they're quite obviously really valuable in assessing a ruckman's true worth.

Similarly, there's no stat for how many times a ruckman's hitout denies opposition midfielders any opportunity. In blunt terms, how many times a ruck can put the ball into the paddock of space where Lachie Neale isn't.

Take the above two factors into proper consideration and Soldo is a better ruck than face value stats suggest and as I mentioned earlier, that Gawn human wall role really does suit Nank.

I suspect there's every chance the coaching staff will see thing the way you do with Nank and a mobile tall, but I really hope we do give the two ruck setup a decent trial.
 
Back on the board after a 6 month self imposed hiatus and see this thread title. Goodnight.

Wait until the actual season starts. This is the craziest part of the year, nothing real to talk about so we talk about 💩👽👾🦄🌈🧸💔☮️⚛️🚱♻️🏴‍☠️
 

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No1 ruck 2023 - Nank or Soldo?

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