List Mgmt. Crows Ruck Stocks

[AFC979810]

Imagine if we didn't force Strachan to retire... cough I mean if Strachan wasn't so selfless

We'd have no ruck backup on our list right now

Yeah talk about bad list management!

I mean imagine being Reigning Premiers Brisbane! If they lost Fort and Henry Smith to season ending injuries! They'd have no backup ruckman behind Oscar on their list.

Imagine being the Suns! If they lost Moyle and Noble - they would have nobody to backup Witts!!!!

I mean imagine being the Bulldogs. If they lost one backup ruckman they would have zero ruck backup on their list!!!

The list goes on and on. Considering all teams carry 3-4 ruckman - its almost like any team would be in big trouble if they lost 2 of em to season ending injuries.

 

[Scorpus]

Yeah talk about bad list management!

I mean imagine being Reigning Premiers Brisbane! If they lost Fort and Henry Smith to season ending injuries! They'd have no backup ruckman behind Oscar on their list.

Imagine being the Suns! If they lost Moyle and Noble - they would have nobody to backup Witts!!!!

I mean imagine being the Bulldogs. If they lost one backup ruckman they would have zero ruck backup on their list!!!

The list goes on and on. Considering all teams carry 3-4 ruckman - its almost like any team would be in big trouble if they lost 2 of em to season ending injuries.

False.

Brisbane... well they could play McInerney, Fort, Smith, Ryan or even Sam Day or Hipwood in there. They've got like 5 or 6 ruck options

Gold Coast have Witts, Moyle, Knobel, Read, Himmelberg and failing that several other 200cm options. So there's probably 6 guys minimum they could use

The Bulldogs have English, Lobb, Smith and at a pinch could use their KPFs in Darcy and Croft.

Without McAndrew on our list we would have just four ruck options total. O'Brien, Strachan, Thilthorpe and Murray. Beyond that we're getting into desperate territory, like putting the undersized Burgess into the ruck.

So no, most clubs do not have 3-4 ruck options on their list. They might have just a couple of pure ruckman, but most have 5+ tall options.

 

[AFC979810]

False.

Brisbane... well they could play McInerney, Fort, Smith, Ryan or even Sam Day or Hipwood in there. They've got like 5 or 6 ruck options

Gold Coast have Witts, Moyle, Knobel, Read, Himmelberg and failing that several other 200cm options. So there's probably 6 guys minimum they could use

The Bulldogs have English, Lobb, Smith and at a pinch could use their KPFs in Darcy and Croft.

Without McAndrew on our list we would have just four ruck options total. O'Brien, Strachan, Thilthorpe and Murray. Beyond that we're getting into desperate territory, like putting the undersized Burgess into the ruck.

So no, most clubs do not have 3-4 ruck options on their list. They might have just a couple of pure ruckman, but most have 5+ tall options.

C'mon you are throwing out Hipwood, Sam Day, Read, Croft....

Hipwood has 30 career hitouts in 180+ games and 10+ seasons. You mention Croft - bloke has 2 hitouts in 12 games at VFL.

You bring up Sam Day as a ruck option but neglect to list Tex as a ruck option for us.

You list Read & Himmelberg for Gold Coast - but dont mention Burgess for us.

We entered the season with ROB, Strachan, TMurray, Thilthorpe, Burgess and Walker - 6 ruck options.

If 12+ sides in the AFL lost two of their best ruckman they would be getting into desperate territory.

 

[Scorpus]

C'mon you are throwing out Hipwood, Sam Day, Read, Croft....

Hipwood has 30 career hitouts in 180+ games and 10+ seasons. You mention Croft - bloke has 2 hitouts in 12 games at VFL.

You bring up Sam Day as a ruck option but neglect to list Tex as a ruck option for us.

You list Read & Himmelberg for Gold Coast - but dont mention Burgess for us.

We entered the season with ROB, Strachan, TMurray, Thilthorpe, Burgess and Walker - 6 ruck options.

If 12+ sides in the AFL lost two of their best ruckman they would be getting into desperate territory.

There's desperate territory, and there's fielding Taylor Walker in the ruck for any significant period of time.

Let's just say each team copped 3 injuries to their big men department. So across their rucks and tall forward chop outs.

Gold Coast could field Himmelberg in the ruck and get a chop out from Ethan Read while still playing King and Walter in their forward line.

Brisbane could put Brandon Ryan in the ruck, use Sam Day (avg 12 hitouts this year) as a chop out while still fielding Hipwood and Morris

Us? Three injuries and both our ruck and forward line are compromised. It would either mean all of ROB/Strachan/Thilthorpe are out, meaning we're fielding Murray in the ruck with Burgess playing forward. Or ROB/Strachan/Murray would be out and we've got Thilthorpe or Burgess as first ruck with the other up forward. The third option is changing our structure because of a lack of options.

The Bulldogs would find it more difficult but even if they had to put Sam Darcy in the ruck, they would be calling up their first round pick 200cm Croft to replace him in the forward line. Not a short depth type like Burgess.

I would much rather be able to field a reasonable side in the event of a few injuries to tall players because we have more than 2 genuine rucks on the list, than have Brodie Smith on the list and be talking about using Taylor Walker in the ruck. Without McAndrew we would have had among the least number of tall options on the list of any side.

And with two long term injuries to talls we wouldn't have been that far off that chat about Thilthorpe/Burgess/Walker in the ruck.

 

[AFC979810]

There's desperate territory, and there's fielding Taylor Walker in the ruck for any significant period of time.

Let's just say each team copped 3 injuries to their big men department. So across their rucks and tall forward chop outs.

Gold Coast could field Himmelberg in the ruck and get a chop out from Ethan Read while still playing King and Walter in their forward line.

Brisbane could put Brandon Ryan in the ruck, use Sam Day (avg 12 hitouts this year) as a chop out while still fielding Hipwood and Morris

Us? Three injuries and both our ruck and forward line are compromised. It would either mean all of ROB/Strachan/Thilthorpe are out, meaning we're fielding Murray in the ruck with Burgess playing forward. Or ROB/Strachan/Murray would be out and we've got Thilthorpe or Burgess as first ruck with the other up forward. The third option is changing our structure because of a lack of options.

The Bulldogs would find it more difficult but even if they had to put Sam Darcy in the ruck, they would be calling up their first round pick 200cm Croft to replace him in the forward line. Not a short depth type like Burgess.

I would much rather be able to field a reasonable side in the event of a few injuries to tall players because we have more than 2 genuine rucks on the list, than have Brodie Smith on the list and be talking about using Taylor Walker in the ruck. Without McAndrew we would have had among the least number of tall options on the list of any side.

And with two long term injuries to talls we wouldn't have been that far off that chat about Thilthorpe/Burgess/Walker in the ruck.

You are out of your mind.

So if we lost our 3 best ruckman - ROB, Strachan and TT. We would be F*cked playing a combo of TMurray/Burgess with Walker as a chop out.

But Gold Coast would be fine running Elliot Himmelberg in the ruck with Ethan Read who had 2 hitouts from 12 games in the VFL helping out. Sounds reasonable.

Brisbane are fine using Brandon F*cking Ryan as their ruck with Sam Day in the ruck. Brandon Ryan has 63 hitouts in 33 VFL games and and 0 hitouts in his 4 AFL games. Sounds even more reasonable.

The Bulldogs would be even more screwed. Don't forget its 3 players they lose - English, Smith and Darcy. They then need to have Croft as their #1 forward and their best key tall defender Lobb has to go into the Ruck.

As I said - all teams would be F*cked if they lost 3 ruckman.

 

[dogs105]

You are out of your mind.

So if we lost our 3 best ruckman - ROB, Strachan and TT. We would be F*cked playing a combo of TMurray/Burgess with Walker as a chop out.

But Gold Coast would be fine running Elliot Himmelberg in the ruck with Ethan Read who had 2 hitouts from 12 games in the VFL helping out. Sounds reasonable.

Brisbane are fine using Brandon F*cking Ryan as their ruck with Sam Day in the ruck. Brandon Ryan has 63 hitouts in 33 VFL games and and 0 hitouts in his 4 AFL games. Sounds even more reasonable.

The Bulldogs would be even more screwed. Don't forget its 3 players they lose - English, Smith and Darcy. They then need to have Croft as their #1 forward and their best key tall defender Lobb has to go into the Ruck.

As I said - all teams would be F*cked if they lost 3 ruckman.

We should be looking at Henry Smith from Brisbane

 

[AFC979810]

We should be looking at Henry Smith from Brisbane

Interesting. First I have heard of this bloke.

 

[Scorpus]

You are out of your mind.

So if we lost our 3 best ruckman - ROB, Strachan and TT. We would be F*cked playing a combo of TMurray/Burgess with Walker as a chop out.

But Gold Coast would be fine running Elliot Himmelberg in the ruck with Ethan Read who had 2 hitouts from 12 games in the VFL helping out. Sounds reasonable.

Brisbane are fine using Brandon F*cking Ryan as their ruck with Sam Day in the ruck. Brandon Ryan has 63 hitouts in 33 VFL games and and 0 hitouts in his 4 AFL games. Sounds even more reasonable.

The Bulldogs would be even more screwed. Don't forget its 3 players they lose - English, Smith and Darcy. They then need to have Croft as their #1 forward and their best key tall defender Lobb has to go into the Ruck.

As I said - all teams would be F*cked if they lost 3 ruckman.

Most sides would be much worse in the ruck.

We'd be much worse in the ruck and up forward because unlike other teams, our ruck and forward depth would have been the same players.

Also I don't think you actually know who the ruck options are for most sides. Ethan Read for example is as much of a genuine ruck option as Riley Thilthorpe and has done more ruck work in his early career than TT.

 

[AFC979810]

Most sides would be much worse in the ruck.

We'd be much worse in the ruck and up forward because unlike other teams, our ruck and forward depth would have been the same players.

Also I don't think you actually know who the ruck options are for most sides. Ethan Read for example is as much of a genuine ruck option as Riley Thilthorpe and has done more ruck work in his early career than TT.

Says the bloke listing Hipwood as a ruck option for Brisbane.

 

[Cromulant]

Says the bloke listing Hipwood as a ruck option for Brisbane.

He's rucked a whole hap more than Tex, so has Sam Day for that matter.

 

[AFC979810]

He's rucked a whole hap more than Tex, so has Sam Day for that matter.

Ha ha ha.

Man - you are wrong a lot. This one may take the cake.

Hipwood has played 10 seasons in the AFL for 182 games. He has 30 career hitouts.

Taylor Walker has had 3 individual seasons where has had significantly more hitouts than Hipwood has had in his entire career.

 

[Cromulant]

Ha ha ha.

Man - you are wrong a lot. This one may take the cake.

Hipwood has played 10 seasons in the AFL for 182 games. He has 30 career hitouts.

Taylor Walker has had 3 individual seasons where has had significantly more hitouts than Hipwood has had in his entire career.

Pot, meet kettle.

Not sure ive ever seen Tex at a CB, have you ??

Actually dont answer that, we both know the answer.

 

[AFC979810]

Pot, meet kettle.

Not sure ive ever seen Tex at a CB, have you ??

Actually dont answer that, we both know the answer.

Hipwood has rucked more than Tex? You are sticking with that? He must be the worst ruckman of all time to only have 30 career hitouts.

 

[Cromulant]

Hipwood has rucked more than Tex? You are sticking with that? He must be the worst ruckman of all time to only have 30 career hitouts.

No one is saying he's any good, but you seem to struggle grasping with the fact that the Lions see him as a break glass ruck option.

 

[AFC979810]

No one is saying he's any good,

Correct. Nobody has said that.

What YOU said is that he has rucked more than Tex - when in fact Tex attended almost twice as many contests as a ruckman in 2023 alone than Hipwood has in his 180 game career.

but you seem to struggle grasping with the fact that the Lions see him as a break glass ruck option.

Well shit - I don't dispute that at all. Just think that if he is classified as a ruckman we can, at minimum, classify Tex and Burgess as ruckman.

Could even consider Borlase a ruckman too! The only season in which Hipwood had more hitouts than Borlase did in 2024 was in 2022 (and Hipwood played almost double the amount of games and only had 2 more hitouts).

Look at us - stacked with Ruckman. ROB, Strachan, Murray, TT, Burgess, Tex, Borlase - begs the question. Did we go into 2025 too top heavy.

 

[Cromulant]

Correct. Nobody has said that.

What YOU said is that he has rucked more than Tex - when in fact Tex attended almost twice as many contests as a ruckman in 2023 alone than Hipwood has in his 180 game career.



Well shit - I don't dispute that at all. Just think that if he is classified as a ruckman we can, at minimum, classify Tex and Burgess as ruckman.

Could even consider Borlase a ruckman too! The only season in which Hipwood had more hitouts than Borlase did in 2024 was in 2022 (and Hipwood played almost double the amount of games and only had 2 more hitouts).

Look at us - stacked with Ruckman. ROB, Strachan, Murray, TT, Burgess, Tex, Borlase - begs the question. Did we go into 2025 too top heavy.

Wow..... talk about one of your all time rants.

Its ok to be wrong mate, you should be used to it by now.

 

[Scorpus]

Why would Brisbane ever bother playing Hipwood as a ruck when they have half a dozen other options and regularly play two rucks? Of course he never gets any hitouts or ruck contests.

One thing I am confident of is that if it came to it, Hipwood would actually be capable of rucking in the center, and Walker would not. It's actually insane to suggest Walker is a backup ruck option for us, the guy is not heading to a center square contest as a 35 year old, ever (unless we cop mid-game injuries I guess)

But regardless, Brisbane have three pure rucks and two forward rucks they can use before turning to Hipwood. Plenty of injury cover, and worst case maybe Hipwood has to be the chop out ruck.

With us, if we're ever using Walker as a planned chop out in the center square, we're ****ed. So thank goodness we got McAndrew

 

[AFC979810]

Wow..... talk about one of your all time rants.

Its ok to be wrong mate, you should be used to it by now.

Hang on.... So are you still saying Hipwood has rucked more than Tex?!?!?

 

[AFC979810]

But regardless, Brisbane have three pure rucks and two forward rucks they can use before turning to Hipwood. Plenty of injury cover, and worst case maybe Hipwood has to be the chop out ruck.

They have two pure rucks - Oscar and Fort. 2 Forward Rucks Smith and Ryan. Then they can go to Hipwood and Day.

We entered the season with two pure Rucks. Rob and Strachan. 2 forward rucks in TT and Murray. Then we can go to Burgess, Tex and Borlase.

Same as the premiers. Great list management. Hard to argue with.

 

[jenny61_99]

Hipwood has rucked more than Tex? You are sticking with that? He must be the worst ruckman of all time to only have 30 career hitouts.

Rucking in the forward line is hardly playing the role of ruck though, is it?

 

[AFC979810]

Rucking in the forward line is hardly playing the role of ruck though, is it?

My point is that if other posters use Hipwood as a ruckman depth - then we can use Tex as backup ruckman depth.

Hipwood has attended has exactly 0 CBA's in his career. He has 30 career hitouts. He ain't ever been, nor will he ever be a ruckman.

Games with 3+ hitouts at AFL level.

180cm Trent Ormond-Allen - 3 game
Eric Hipwood - 1 game

 

[AFC979810]

And how much does Brisbane's forward line suffer as they go down that list of ruck depth compared to us?

Well firstly - I dont think any team plans for 3 ruck injuries. It's extremely extremely rare (which is kinda the point).

We would suffer less IMO. If we lost ROB/Strachan(McAndrew) and TT. We could put Murray in the Ruck and still have two KPF.

If Brisbane lost Oscar/Fort/Smith they would still only have Hipwood as their Forward and Ryan as their ruck.

You can claim Hipwood isn't a backup ruck

I will let the Ormond-Allen comparison speak for itself.

Thilthorpe is our third in line and is required in the forward line. Brisbane can cop three ruck injuries without touching their forward setup. We would not have been able to do that - unless you are comfortable with Burgess or Borlase as first ruck.

Thats because they dont have anyone who can play ruck in their forward line.

Can you name me a time in history (apart from 2009) when a team has lost their 3 first choice ruckman.

 

[Scorpus]

Well firstly - I dont think any team plans for 3 ruck injuries. It's extremely extremely rare (which is kinda the point).

We would suffer less IMO. If we lost ROB/Strachan(McAndrew) and TT. We could put Murray in the Ruck and still have two KPF.

If Brisbane lost Oscar/Fort/Smith they would still only have Hipwood as their Forward and Ryan as their ruck.

So our forward line would suffer less if Thilthorpe was injured (or moved to the ruck), than Brisbane if they had no one missing from their forward line.

Certainly an interesting opinion.

Thats because they dont have anyone who can play ruck in their forward line.

No, it's because their list management has set up their list to maximize their depth options.

They have bodies ready to go and their current best 22 has Sam Day facing 26 ruck contests a game as a chop out in their forward line (same role Daniher played last year). They don't have to move him or Hipwood into first ruck unless they cop three ruck injuries.

Can you name me a time in history (apart from 2009) when a team has lost their 3 first choice ruckman.

2021 when Gold Coast lost Witts, Zac Smith, Conroy (untried) and even Sam Day and were forced to ruck Burgess for half the year

Rucking hell: How will the Suns solve their giant-sized problem?

Gold Coast's ruck stocks have reached crisis point. Michael Whiting and Mitch Cleary look at who it could turn to in the mid-season draft

www.afl.com.au

 

[AFC979810]

So our forward line would suffer less if Thilthorpe was injured (or moved to the ruck), than Brisbane if they had no one missing from their forward line.

Certainly an interesting opinion.

Structurally we would suffer less.

If we lost 3 ruckman in ROB/Strachan/Tmurray is probably the closer example since Brisbane losing O, Fort and Smith is the equivilant.

TT is a top 3 player in the league right now. Losing him alone would hurt us more than

No, it's because their list management has set up their list to maximize their depth options.

They have bodies ready to go and their current best 22 has Sam Day facing 26 ruck contests a game as a chop out in their forward line (same role Daniher played last year). They don't have to move him or Hipwood into first ruck unless they cop three ruck injuries.

And we dont have to move TT / Walker / Burgess into our ruck unless we cop 3 injuries to ROB/Strachan/TMurray.

2021 when Gold Coast lost Witts, Zac Smith, Conroy (untried) and even Sam Day and were forced to ruck Burgess for half the year

Rucking hell: How will the Suns solve their giant-sized problem?

Gold Coast's ruck stocks have reached crisis point. Michael Whiting and Mitch Cleary look at who it could turn to in the mid-season draft

www.afl.com.au

So twice in the past 16 years.