The best young ruckman???

[Coona Blues]

English has the runs on the board as a follower, but is not a genuine tap ruckman.

Ladhams would have to be leading the pack of genuine rucks for mine.

However, would not trade any of them for De Koning with maturity and hopefully durability, he will be the best complete ruck of the lot.

Honourable mention to Draper who has been cautiously managed to date (rightly so with schedule of late)

 

[eth-dog]

English has the runs on the board as a follower, but is not a genuine tap ruckman.

Ladhams would have to be leading the pack of genuine rucks for mine.

However, would not trade any of them for De Koning with maturity and hopefully durability, he will be the best complete ruck of the lot.

Honourable mention to Draper who has been cautiously managed to date (rightly so with schedule of late)

And cos he's coming off an ACL. He'd have been our #1 12 months earlier if not for that

 

[Scotland]

People love English because he's tall and weedy and can potentially add another 5-10 kg or more to his frame - which not all players do, see Jarrad Grant.

There's almost zero hype about Sean Darcy because he is a 113kg lump of a lad so people expect him to just perform from day one.

Brodie Grundy was AA at 24, Gawn at 25, Naitanui 22, Cox 25, Sandilands 26, Goldstein 27. Ruckmen do take longer but are any of the 'young' ruckman at 24/25 really challenging for AA honours this year?

 

[Upgrayedd]

Tim English for me is going to enter the elite bracket of Gawn/Grundy/Naitanui/Goldstein probably next year. Physically hes lacking but he's very good purely because of his footy IQ, absolutely reads it as good as anyone

Darcy for me is just an injury free season away from breaking out as well

 

[JC Hawks]

Ned Reeves

 

[showemhowtorock]

interesting position being taken here where everyone seems to be judging ruckman based on what they do outside of the ruck.
Speaking on Darcy, listening to him speak after playing against Melb on the weekend he spoke about how he knew that Gawn would get him on height so he spent alot of time working on where he could position himself so that he could force Gawn to tap it to a position that would advantage Freo midfielders!
When Fyfe, Brayshaw, Mundy, Cerra and Serong are getting the ball through work like this alongside his own hitouts i'm not too concerned about his work around the ground, even though he is showing improvement in this area.

I'm not saying he is the best btw i'm just commenting on him, i haven't seen a majority of the players whose names are being thrown around so i can't compare.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

How many players on the field get a direct opponent? Generally one KPD plays body to body on the best KPF (which at the Dogs Naughton gets), but apart from that English would line up against players who more likely are the teams interceptors.

Playing English forward and back for 60-70% of the game (I believe he can do both), would keep him fresher for longer periods. The more often hes trying to wrestle the big rucks at stoppages the slower and more ineffective he gets. No surprise after a 9 day break that it was him that was saving the game with big contested marks.

English should be playing a Blicavs/Westhoff role imo. Not a main ruck role.

Rucks, Mids when not getting tagged, 7th defenders freed up to play loose and possibly wingers when free to do so are the only positions that are unlikely to have a direct opponents. All fwds have direct opponents and obviously defenders need to be the most accountable.

It’s all good and well instructing English to play high and impact around the ground from a fwd starting role but no coach will ever allow him to have free reign to do as he pleases. They certainly won’t allow a miss match opponent as you are suggesting.

The reality is English plays one element of the ruck role very well, but he won’t be allowed that freedom playing out of another position.

He’s had some poor games this year as far as tap numbers go but there’s been more than enough to suggest those improve.
Certainly more than to suggest he’d be able to play the strong lead up game that Westhoff has.

Blicavs isn’t a great comparison because a lot of what you are suggesting he does is on the back of his role in the ruck.

 

[TheKITC]

The best of the current 'young crop' could well come from any player outside of those that have been and will be mentioned in this thread, such is the nature of ruckman in the AFL.

 

[Virgin Dog]

If you want the best player who happens to be a ruckman, then it's most likely English.

If you want the best 'ruckman', then English is nowhere near the top. My pick is probably Darcy or Ladhams. We really won't know who is the "best" outside of complete guesses since most rucks don't hit their stride until their mid 20s

 

[Priddis Is Done]

Bailey Wliiams

 

[Tbonefreo]

Darcy is coming along nicely. Can take a grab as well.
English for his around the ground work. Saved the game against the Eagles.

 

[brabs]

Bailey Wliiams

I look forward to seeing him develop, he has a spring that is really impressive. Plus he a local Mornington peninularian!

 

[PAFC_1870]

Ladhams would have to be leading the pack of genuine rucks for mine

Our 3rd guy would likely be many teams second too

 

[Tom14]

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

He’s a talented player and does a lot of good stuff around the ground but he’s a liability in the truck. Big O thrashed him in your game against us.

Couldn’t agree more that he’s a perfect second ruck. In time his craft will improve and I’m sure he will get better but at the moment he needs a chop out.

 

[bresker]

He’s a talented player and does a lot of good stuff around the ground but he’s a liability in the truck. Big O thrashed him in your game against us.

Couldn’t agree more that he’s a perfect second ruck. In time his craft will improve and I’m sure he will get better but at the moment he needs a chop out.

He will get no chop out as Bev pretty much hates the ruck. He’d probably change the rules to soccer if he could.

Thi

 

[Yoda_]

Ned Reeves

who

 

[Chaisa]

Pittonet seems like he'll be that consistent top 10 but never top 4/5 ruck too

Yeah I rate Pitto, but he's already 24 so I didn't include him.

One that I missed but I think will be better than all of those I mentioned - Jackson.

 

[Scotland]

Pittonet was drafted in 2014 and barely played before this year. Why couldn't he get a go at Hawthorn? Some of their fans are adamant they needed spend $500k a year getting Vickery as a backup.

 

[eth-dog]

Ned Reeves

who

Young Cat B ruck at Hawthorn. I don't mind him but I thought he was better forward than ruck last year

 

[flipper83]

Can't really comment on who is the best because I don't see many games outside of bulldog matches but English's ruck work is improving and isn't nearly as bad as is made out.

He actually has a reasonable record when looking at hit outs to advantage. Last round he was equal second with Gawn and behind only Witts for hitouts to advantage.

He is regularly smashed in overall hitout numbers butI I'm not sure how accurate statistics on hitouts that aren't to advantage are anyway. Often the two rucks will both have hands on the ball, the ball will drop to no one in particular and the statistician will need to record a hit out to someone. Regardless I don't think a hitout has much value if its not to advantage.

I think a lot of the frustration with English on the Bulldogs board comes from seeing Dunkley in the ruck and English forward. I'm not sure why Dunkley is used so much instead of Bruce but I think there would be less frustration if Bruce was in there.

English has clearly been showing signs of fatigue having largely rucked alone for most of the season with a compressed fixture and a rolled ankle the last few games.

Most of the contests that he loses are because of strength. He is plenty tall enough and I have confidence that as he builds strength his ruck work will improve enough that he can match it with the best in the game.

 

[Juddernaut08]

Tim English for me is going to enter the elite bracket of Gawn/Grundy/Naitanui/Goldstein probably next year. Physically hes lacking but he's very good purely because of his footy IQ, absolutely reads it as good as anyone

Darcy for me is just an injury free season away from breaking out as well

Issue with English is he is amongst the worst as a tap ruckman.

The AAs you mentioned are all dominant in that area.

 

[ferrisb]

He will get no chop out as Bev pretty much hates the ruck. He’d probably change the rules to soccer if he could.

But you can't throw the ball in soccer....

 

[Foucault1989]

Ned Reeves

Who?

 

[HBF]

I've seen enough of De Koning to say he will be a better player than English in time. He has it all and I think he has no ceiling to what he could be. Have a look at a couple of moments in the second half last night. What has he played? 5 games?

On Pixel 2 XL using BigFooty.com mobile app

Very happy we have TDK at our footy club as well. Kid could be very very good.

 

[Coona Blues]

Ned Reeves

who

Who?

Hawks CEO's son - project ruck. He is tall.........