The best young ruckman???

BoundbyKreuze

Cancelled
Feb 9, 2020
1,463
2,997
AFL Club
Carlton
Who is currently the best young ruckman going around.

the contenders:

Sam Draper
Tom Dekoning
Sean Darcy
Tim English
Ivan Soldo
Darcy Cameron
Peter Ladhams

I’d go with the following 1-3
1. English - clearly number 1
2. Darcy - exposes form but losing ground rapidly
3. ladhams - great year before his covid issues.

TDK imo will go past a few in 2021 if given the opportunity. Has a lot of attributes that puts him in the conversation already.

criteria should be under 25 for the classification of young ruckman.
 
Last edited:
No Rowan Marshall?

He's better than English, Darcy and Ladhams.
He should be better, the ruck is such a physical position and Marshall has two years development on English, three years on Darcy and Ladhams.
 
Sep 27, 2008
135,145
155,429
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
Chelsea, Black Caps, Subiaco
Great ruckman but isn't he 24?

He would still be considered a young ruckman and the OP included Soldo who is also 24 and English who is 23.

He should be better, the ruck is such a physical position and Marshall has two years development on English, three years on Darcy and Ladhams.

Marshall only started playing as a fulltime ruckman last year, prior to that he played mostly as a forward and was in and out of the team.
 

The Passenger

The passenger, I am...
Veteran 10k Posts 30k Posts Sensible Type WCE Wings Guernsey
Mar 25, 2003
35,681
28,332
None are really that great to be honest.
After seeing some classic ruck duels over the last decade and a half from Cox, Sandilands, Gawn, Grundy, Goldstein, NicNat, Ryder, Mumford, Kruezer it doesn't feel like the under 25's of today are going to stack up anything close to them.
 
Apr 24, 2013
2,674
6,855
AFL Club
Collingwood
Anyone 26 and under = potential superstar yoof. Anyone reaches 29 = prepare to send out the sandmen from Logan's Run. It's just football age science according to Bigfooty.

Ruckmen always take a long time to develop, apparently, as long as you conveniently ignore the fact that most of the best ruckmen are already elite players by the time they are 23.

But don't you worry about facts, folks. If your 25-year-old whippersnapper kind of sucks, don't you worry, he will definitely be a superstar when he is 28. It can't possibly be that he just kind of sucks. Collingwood is aiming to get Josh Fraser properly filled out in to his body by the year 2039.
 

markm106

Brownlow Medallist
Mar 29, 2006
10,790
10,381
Melbourne
AFL Club
Melbourne
English for me. Needs to improve his ruck work though. Ladhams TDK Darcy Draper all following but rucks can take until 25 or so to really break out.

My current rankings of who’ll be best. Mind you after English I find they’re pretty even.
English
TDK
Ladhams
Draper
Darcy

Luke Jackson really impressive but too early to tell where he falls at this point. But I’ll be surprised if he isn’t as good as these guys in 4-5 years
 
Oct 19, 2012
13,806
17,876
Minas Morgul
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Don't even think English should be main ruck. If Bev had any common sense he would trade in a number one ruck and utilise English as a second ruck/utility.

English's marking/skills/athleticism for his size shouldn't be wasted trying to grapple with the big rucks. Instead he should be allowed to roam across the park.

Imo he could easily be the best 2nd ruck/utility in the competition. It's arguably the most difficult position to play.
 
I’m surprised at the English love here. At times I’m not sure he’s an actual ruckman , just a very tall skinny footballer.

He will be much better in coming seasons. He says he finds it very difficult to put on muscle during the season, he eats 1kg yoghurts and 2l Big Ms but he stays skinny. Unlike me.

I like Soldo
 
Back