Position 2026 Rucks

[Sydney Kicker]

Folk think Meek is cooked as he can't jump.

Folk forget what the coaches try out in preseason games often doesn't happen in the real stuff.

Folk are also shitting themselves about what to do in the ruck line.

Oh ok. I guess North will be dropping Xerri too then.

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

Oh ok. I guess North will be dropping Xerri too then.

Keep up, Xerri is cooked because he lost a few CBA's to Heath

 

[Hawkboy62]

Xerri vs Cameron in the Community Series games will be interesting. Have English locked in. R3 will be Emmett, if named for R0, or McAndrew. When/if McAndrew gets a game I will be keen to pivot him to Flex via one of my R/F's.

If Madden is announced for R0 I will get him in as Flex.

 

[iDon]

Xerri vs Cameron in the Community Series games will be interesting. Have English locked in. R3 will be Emmett, if named for R0, or McAndrew. When/if McAndrew gets a game I will be keen to pivot him to Flex via one of my R/F's.

If Madden is announced for R0 I will get him in as Flex.

Hasn't McAndrew basically confirmed that he will be starting the season?

 

[Hawkboy62]

Hasn't McAndrew basically confirmed that he will be starting the season?

Have confirmed R1 teams been announced?

 

[stevebbb]

RUCK: Xerri, Jackon (Reidy)
FLEX: McAndrew

"2-3 years Dagestan [set] and forget"

 

[iDon]

Have confirmed R1 teams been announced?

Would be bold to play ROB without any praccy games and ditch McAndrew.

 

[A Bit Dusty]

Would be bold to play ROB without any praccy games and ditch McAndrew.

 

[JuddgementDay]

Classic - POTY

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

 

[4tune8]

Blakiston D4
Dante R2
Reidy or another cheap R/F at R3
McAndrew Flex

Cameron R1

Decisions on whether Bryan and Draper are appropriate stepping stones once they surface.

 

[iDon]

Blakiston D4
Dante R2
Reidy or another cheap R/F at R3
McAndrew Flex

Cameron R1

Decisions on whether Bryan and Draper are appropriate stepping stones once they surface.

That's a lot of cash you'll need to find to if anything bad happens (injuries / dropped etc).

But be bold. Be brave.

 

[dabombers]

Blakiston D4
Dante R2
Reidy or another cheap R/F at R3
McAndrew Flex

Cameron R1

Decisions on whether Bryan and Draper are appropriate stepping stones once they surface.

Not sure clogging up your Flex with a ruck is the move this season. You could just be booking in a non for profit trade around Round 6-7.

On Bryan, I think Essendon will be cautious with him and he mightn’t be an option til after Round 8. At $250k though he could be a good R3 cover ruck.

Draper I think might play a few then miss a few all season, or play more games fwd and pinch hit in the ruck. Building up for a finals burst.

I can’t see either averaging over 75 SC.

Blakiston when he gets DPP may be the better option over those two but only just, can see him averaging 80’s.

I can see some teams may end up with 5 rucks via DPP at some point up until the end of the byes.

One Top 5 ruck at R1, McAndrew at R2, a R/F at R3, Draper in the FWD line and Blakiston in DEF.
Using the Flex with other DPP players to play the best option at R2.

If I got or started any of these Ruck options I wouldn’t trade any of them out or downgrade them, except McAndrew who is really a cash cow. I would be too scared of injuries re-occurring.

I would prefer to start a DEF or MID rookie at Flex and end up with a 9th midfielder there during the midseason byes.

 

[nameless]

This just makes me want to select Gawn

 

[4tune8]

That's a lot of cash you'll need to find to if anything bad happens (injuries / dropped etc).

But be bold. Be brave.

Not sure clogging up your Flex with a ruck is the move this season. You could just be booking in a non for profit trade around Round 6-7.

On Bryan, I think Essendon will be cautious with him and he mightn’t be an option til after Round 8. At $250k though he could be a good R3 cover ruck.

Draper I think might play a few then miss a few all season, or play more games fwd and pinch hit in the ruck. Building up for a finals burst.

I can’t see either averaging over 75 SC.

Blakiston when he gets DPP may be the better option over those two but only just, can see him averaging 80’s.

I can see some teams may end up with 5 rucks via DPP at some point up until the end of the byes.

One Top 5 ruck at R1, McAndrew at R2, a R/F at R3, Draper in the FWD line and Blakiston in DEF.
Using the Flex with other DPP players to play the best option at R2.

If I got or started any of these Ruck options I wouldn’t trade any of them out or downgrade them, except McAndrew who is really a cash cow. I would be too scared of injuries re-occurring.

I would prefer to start a DEF or MID rookie at Flex and end up with a 9th midfielder there during the midseason byes.

Not bothered about injuries, they can happen and I get that options are limited for replacements on the ruck line, but I'm seeing a lot of clubs running with a 2nd ruck so a replacement for McAndrew, Reidy or Visentini won't be hard, especially given the flexibility of R/F at R3 and a ruck at Flex.

The 4 cheap rucks are all hopeful cash generators, maybe some get dropped, who knows? I'm pretty comfortable with the structure and others like Heath, Emmett, Madden or Edwards might present and offer more choices.

The early byes give a little insurance with best 18 until round 5 where I think there'll be more clarity over main rucks as well as a couple of MP's.

 

[A Bit Dusty]

I present to you guys the answer to the Ruck situation and present Jarrod Witts

28

Jarrod Witts

Age

33

Ht

209cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

6.4

3star

HB

5.8

4star

CL

3.3

5star

HO

31.8

5star

D

10.8

3star

K

5.9

2star

HB

4.9

3star

CL

3.4

4star

HO

29.5

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

4.2

2star

HB

3.6

3star

CL

0.4

3star

HO

8.0

5star

.
Opening Round he is up against the Cats so we get a look but he should be safe for 100?
Rounds 1&2 up against other tanks in Flynn & Nank so should score well. Has the Bye in Round 3 so can be traded to who we know is the best ruck or hold and have him covered by McAndrew. Round 4 up against another tank in Gawn so should score around his average again and then has Grundy another tank who he scored 125 against last year and the Blakiston in Round 6.

 

[4tune8]

I present to you guys the answer to the Ruck situation and present Jarrod Witts.
Opening Round he is up against the Cats so we get a look but he should be safe for 100?
Rounds 1&2 up against other tanks in Flynn & Nank so should score well. Has the Bye in Round 3 so can be traded to who we know is the best ruck or hold and have him covered by McAndrew. Round 4 up against another tank in Gawn so should score around his average again and then has Grundy another tank who he scored 125 against last year and the Blakiston in Round 6.


View attachment 2535139

That bloody round 3 bye though.

 

[dabombers]

So I am thinking about tanking the rucks completely to start the season.

No $600K rucks, not even a single $500K or $400K ruck.

I am really tempted to spend a maximum of $850K down to around $600K total.

To do this I would need one of my Rucks planned to get Fwd DPP at round 6.

Start Blakiston at D5 and wait until he gets DPP Ruck and trade in a R/F in the FWD line during first 8 Rounds.

In a perfect world this would be Thilthorpe around R6-R8. But the only way I see him getting Ruck DPP is if ROB doesn’t play at all. Second option would be Draper followed by Madden/Riccardi then Heath/CDT.

I can see an end of season look back that all lines, even Forwards average better than the Rucks, unless the Rucks can score 3 goals a game or get 25 possessions each game. The Buffer stats need to increase for the Ubers to stay around $550K.

Yep $550K is what I think the best rucks will settle around come rounds 8-10 as any game with less than 18 possessions or 10 marks will see them drop $$$.

Another added problem is I can see more teams rotating 2 rucks. One who can drop forward. The splits may still be 70/30 or 60/40 depending on how good the second ruck is. But the increased speed of the game will obliterate any ruck who cant run 10km per game (a midfielder runs about 15km a game).. Also only a few Rucks can sprint a reasonable 400m, a skill that will seperate some from the dinosaurs.

If they can’t get to contests or need a head start to be positioned behind the ball for defensive intercept marks it may be easy for teams to transition plays around where the rucks have set up, maybe decoy leading packs to open up space for running transitions instead of long kicks down the wings.

If this idea of a changing playing style happens it hurts both the offensive Ruck as well as the defensive one as plays won’t be set up to go through them reducing stats.

The only play I don’t see this affecting is the long kick out from either a behind or out on the full/free kick deep in defensive 50, once a full zone press has been set up. This will be a chance for rucks to attack the pack for contested marks/intercept marks.

Overall I see at least a 70% reduction in Ruck stats in all areas.

Now a ruck may go forward and kick the winning goal in the final 2 minutes of the game for the win and get max bonus, but any player could also do this and it is rare so not worth considering.

Final thought is the dinosaurs will be instructed to handball more often then previous years to link up runners in transition. And SuperCoach loves a player who handballs more than kicks.

I don’t think this is a new hot take but as I still see a lot of teams picking top end Rucks I don’t think many are well prepared for Ruckageddon.

 

[dabombers]

Not bothered about injuries, they can happen and I get that options are limited for replacements on the ruck line, but I'm seeing a lot of clubs running with a 2nd ruck so a replacement for McAndrew, Reidy or Visentini won't be hard, especially given the flexibility of R/F at R3 and a ruck at Flex.

The 4 cheap rucks are all hopeful cash generators, maybe some get dropped, who knows? I'm pretty comfortable with the structure and others like Heath, Emmett, Madden or Edwards might present and offer more choices.

The early byes give a little insurance with best 18 until round 5 where I think there'll be more clarity over main rucks as well as a couple of MP's.

Yep, Yes and Yeah.

Nothing here I can’t agree with.
Seems we are on the same wavelength.

 

[Significant]

So I am thinking about tanking the rucks completely to start the season.

No $600K rucks, not even a single $500K or $400K ruck.

I am really tempted to spend a maximum of $850K down to around $600K total.

To do this I would need one of my Rucks planned to get Fwd DPP at round 6.

Start Blakiston at D5 and wait until he gets DPP Ruck and trade in a R/F in the FWD line during first 8 Rounds.

In a perfect world this would be Thilthorpe around R6-R8. But the only way I see him getting Ruck DPP is if ROB doesn’t play at all. Second option would be Draper followed by Madden/Riccardi then Heath/CDT.

I can see an end of season look back that all lines, even Forwards average better than the Rucks, unless the Rucks can score 3 goals a game or get 25 possessions each game. The Buffer stats need to increase for the Ubers to stay around $550K.

Yep $550K is what I think the best rucks will settle around come rounds 8-10 as any game with less than 18 possessions or 10 marks will see them drop $$$.

Another added problem is I can see more teams rotating 2 rucks. One who can drop forward. The splits may still be 70/30 or 60/40 depending on how good the second ruck is. But the increased speed of the game will obliterate any ruck who cant run 10km per game (a midfielder runs about 15km a game).. Also only a few Rucks can sprint a reasonable 400m, a skill that will seperate some from the dinosaurs.

If they can’t get to contests or need a head start to be positioned behind the ball for defensive intercept marks it may be easy for teams to transition plays around where the rucks have set up, maybe decoy leading packs to open up space for running transitions instead of long kicks down the wings.

If this idea of a changing playing style happens it hurts both the offensive Ruck as well as the defensive one as plays won’t be set up to go through them reducing stats.

The only play I don’t see this affecting is the long kick out from either a behind or out on the full/free kick deep in defensive 50, once a full zone press has been set up. This will be a chance for rucks to attack the pack for contested marks/intercept marks.

Overall I see at least a 70% reduction in Ruck stats in all areas.

Now a ruck may go forward and kick the winning goal in the final 2 minutes of the game for the win and get max bonus, but any player could also do this and it is rare so not worth considering.

Final thought is the dinosaurs will be instructed to handball more often then previous years to link up runners in transition. And SuperCoach loves a player who handballs more than kicks.

I don’t think this is a new hot take but as I still see a lot of teams picking top end Rucks I don’t think many are well prepared for Ruckageddon.

This is wild. Hilarious once Xerri and Gawn get their shit together and end up as clear R1 and R2 by the end of the year.

 

[footyfnatiC]

I mucked about and traded out Max and X yesterday and ended up with this, using the ruck positions for rookies and getting rid of two rookies for premos elsewhere. Can upgrade to the two best rucks throughout the season once we know who they are, hopefully cheaper than their starting prices
View attachment 2534325

This is wild. Hilarious once Xerri and Gawn get their shit together and end up as clear R1 and R2 by the end of the year.

Grundy better suited than Xerri for me.

 

[dabombers]

I present to you guys the answer to the Ruck situation and present Jarrod Witts.
Opening Round he is up against the Cats so we get a look but he should be safe for 100?
Rounds 1&2 up against other tanks in Flynn & Nank so should score well. Has the Bye in Round 3 so can be traded to who we know is the best ruck or hold and have him covered by McAndrew. Round 4 up against another tank in Gawn so should score around his average again and then has Grundy another tank who he scored 125 against last year and the Blakiston in Round 6.


View attachment 2535139

When I think of Witts I can’t help draw a ruck comparison to ROB.

I am not sure either has jumped higher than 15cm off the ground for the past few years.

Though both do ok with contested ruck taps.

Another option I thought of because of R4 bye was TDK. Now he can jump. Problem is he will be in a ruck-share with Holla a Marshall. Which might be 60/40 or 70/30.

Then correction trade on bye if looking south.

Maybe names on a dartboard or consulting the magic 8 ball may provide some illumination into this quandary.

 

[dabombers]

This is wild. Hilarious once Xerri and Gawn get their shit together and end up as clear R1 and R2 by the end of the year.

You say tomato I say Potato.

 

[Sherman41]

Keep up, Xerri is cooked because he lost a few CBA's to Heath

Spot on, one of those blokes is playing for a spot in the team. The other is just doing what he has to do to get through.

I feel like people are forgetting about this in practice matches.

 

[dabombers]

Spot on, one of those blokes is playing for a spot in the team. The other is just doing what he has to do to get through.

I feel like people are forgetting about this in practice matches.

True !!

Practice matches often present too many fools gold results. Each year is littered with players we are sucked into from one or two good performances while the real gold just chills out and goes at 70% like a run in the park.

My opinions aren’t rigid or prophetic. I would be happy to be proven wrong and probably will be at the end of the season.

I think I would prefer to hedge my bets and include the rucks into the upgrade plans this year and boost up other lines. It will still end up being the same amount of trades with rookies feeding upgrades. It may cost some points on the Ruck line but that can be made up in other lines. Also I get 4-6 rounds to evaluate upgrade targets rather than downgrade moves.

It may be easier for playing $300K players to hold value versus $650K players holding theirs.

The only answers we will have will be in September looking back at what happened retrospectively.

So right now no one is wrong and everyone is right.