Player Watch Welcome to Hawthorn, Ned Reeves. Extends to 2026!


Have to agree with Watson's assessment at the end, it's the one thing I'm concerned about with Ned. When he's down the line he struggles to compete because he doesn't quite have that work rate or the agility to get back into the marking contest... yet.
 
If Reeves becomes a top 25 player in the league then he's pretty much one of the top 2 rucks in the entire league, if not the top one.

I'd be really surprised if that happens by this time next year, but I certainly wouldn't mind it!
 

Simon Crawshay

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If Reeves becomes a top 25 player in the league then he's pretty much one of the top 2 rucks in the entire league, if not the top one.

I'd be really surprised if that happens by this time next year, but I certainly wouldn't mind it!
Yeh to be a top 2 ruck you have to be averaging close to 20 possessions a game (ala a Brody Grundy or Max Gawn at their prime) as well as being a dominant force in the ruck and Ned's a fair way off that.

Can see him becoming one of the top pure tap ruckmen by next year though.

To me Ned should be basing his game on Aaron Sandilands, dominant in the ruck, useful around the ground and good for a goal a game.
 

TylerDurden

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Yeh to be a top 2 ruck you have to be averaging close to 20 possessions a game (ala a Brody Grundy or Max Gawn at their prime) as well as being a dominant force in the ruck and Ned's a fair way off that.

Can see him becoming one of the top pure tap ruckmen by next year though.

To me Ned should be basing his game on Aaron Sandilands, dominant in the ruck, useful around the ground and good for a goal a game.
Marshall just had 30. He's miles off that.
 

Simon Crawshay

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Marshall just had 30. He's miles off that.
I think if Marshall had off been expending his energy in the ruck against Reeves instead of a, to put it politely, past his prime Big Boy he wouldn't have been able to get so many possessions and hit outs.

That's the other advantage of having a man mountain like Reeves in the ruck, it wears the opposition ruck down physically and limits their ability to play their natural game.

Agree though, Reeves is a couple of years at least at being able to put up those kind of numbers.
 
Yeh to be a top 2 ruck you have to be averaging close to 20 possessions a game (ala a Brody Grundy or Max Gawn at their prime) as well as being a dominant force in the ruck and Ned's a fair way off that.

Can see him becoming one of the top pure tap ruckmen by next year though.

To me Ned should be basing his game on Aaron Sandilands, dominant in the ruck, useful around the ground and good for a goal a game.
Witts is probably the AA Ruck this year and is only averaging 13 possessions and only kicked 2 goals for the year. They're the wrong metrics to judge Rucks by.
 

Simon Crawshay

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Witts is probably the AA Ruck this year and is only averaging 13 possessions and only kicked 2 goals for the year. They're the wrong metrics to judge Rucks by.
I guess it's more a personal preference I have had for mobile rucks like Dean Cox / Brody Grundy who are solid rucks and also good around the ground and can go forward and kick the odd goal.

Agree though that Witts is probably been the best ruck this year just due to his dominance in the hitouts.
 
May 10, 2007
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Absolutely dreaming.

Bloke barely marks the footy and gets to nowhere near enough contests. Hyperbole at its finest, currently every club nearly has a better no 1 ruck than us.

I will say this though, given what I saw from him at Box Hill in 2019 he has come a fair way, very serviceable in stoppage situations
( still needs to direct his taps better at times and use that more to his advantage). Has nice skills for a big man also, I just rarely saw that in 2019 as he barely got the footy.
 

Jazzfan

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So much Gawn about this guy for me.

Big Max took time to develop, and then become the best tap ruckman in his 4th year. He just dominated hit outs and hit outs to advantage.

But it was in his 7th season that Max built his game to dominate around the ground, and even more recently up forward.

He's as big a talent as we have one our list, Reeves.

I can see him very quickly dominating hit-outs, the other stuff will take time, but its been really promising he was hitting the scoreboard after the bye.

Knowing Gawn's development better than most might even be why Gary Lyon made his call on Reeves.
 
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