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Rookie ruckman generally take longer to mature and rarely make immediate impacts in their rookie year (which highlights what a freak Zac is).
But historically, ruckmen have always been developed as skinny kids in the club instead of rookie drafting a ready made one from the lower leagues.
Orren is 29 (pushing 30) this year and has the body to compete. Giles is 24 which is generally when ruckmen start to peak. I don't think you can compare these two to a young Zac when projecting their ruck scores.
The thing is, if either ruckman average 70 then you're happy. I don't think anybody is expecting Giles or Orren to come out and start averaging 80+, but they're nice cash cows to upgrade to a premium ruck when the time is right. If for some reason you get smashed by injuries and have to trade elsewhere, you could do far worse than starting a ruckman who's averaging 70ish.
I'd feel much better starting Giles/Orren as my 2nd ruck and having a premium elsewhere to start with, than starting 2 premo rucks and an extra rookie-priced forward for instance.
Zac Smith was a mature aged player aswell. 21 from memory. Had a VFL season leading in where from memory produced some big tons and avg very highly aswell. Same as the BIG O/Giles.









