Yep, I cringe every time TDK goes up at centre bounce...even when we had Pitto available. I see TDK as such a valuable asset as pinch hit in the ruck and rest/play forward.
Much more of this 1st ruck stuff and we will grind him, and his body, down to a much lesser version of himself. We did it with Kreuzer too.

Ruck is such and injurious position and you have seen what it does to athletic men (read Nic Nat). Imagine Nic Nat without the injuries as pinch hit ruck now.

As listed on their own websites

Collingwood - Begg Grundy Cox & Cameron
Essendon* - Draper Phillips Wright Bryan
Fremantle - Darcy Lobbe Meek Benning
Geelong - Stanley Conway Ceglar Ratugolea Neale Blicavs
Suns - Chol Casboult Witts Moyle Conroy
Hawks - McEvoy Reeves Lynch Ramsden
North - Goldstein Xerri CCJ Edwards
Richmond - Nankervis Soldo Ryan Colina
St Kilda - Marshall Ryder Hayes Adams Campbell Heath
Sydney - Naismith Hickey Sinclair Ladhams McAndrew
WCE - NicNat B.Williams J.Williams Jamieson Strnadica

Clubs like Port who have three are now having to use stop gaps like Finlayson to do their ruckwork
Melbourne with just one injury (Gawn) now have Jackson the ruck supported by Weideman or Brown?
Bulldogs have English Street Martin and another if you count Darcy, Schache or Cordy as rucks (they have all played there)

We have Pittonet TDK & Mirkov. Jack does a great job but is a fill in/back up. Mirkov could fill in for a game or two but certainly wouldn't last a season. TDK still developing and I feel he is more Fwd/2nd Ruck. If TDK went down at the moment we would be in real trouble

Personally, I would want a Goldstein or a Sinclair as mature depth (would also be cheap) and part of development, and a player like a Ballenden who can play Ruck & any KP. I look at our reserves every week and we really lack size

Agree. How many Rucks get through 22 games or even close? It's a bloody tough position

What rubbish.

Ruck is arguably the most important position in the game now with the 6 6 6 rule.

Many pundits have said since Pitto went down he might be our most important player.

But some of you clowns think it is fine we have just 1 fully experienced and skilled ruck on the list. That is laughable and amateur hour thinking.

TDK is 2 years off being a fully fledged ruck.
Mirkov isn't ready.

Thats it

Omac and Young? Are you serious ??

This isn't about mediocre depth.
It's about players who can actually do the job properly.

We have 1 guy who has true bona fide experience in the position.

Even if our other talls hadn't got injured we'd still be struggling in this spot as we only have 1 proven ruck.

I don't want to just get by I want to have a fair chance to win the ruck contest every week. You won't get that with the Omacs.

Also it is one of the most injury prone positions positions on the ground

BV you often make good comments but your so far off the mark on this one it's harious

I really don't see the value in a developing/project ruck as they seem so easy to just grab from another team when you need one. Clubs need 3-4 on their lists but generally only 2-3 will get regular opportunity. So most clubs have 1-2 looking for more game time.

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Gawn, Grundy & English were all taken as young developing rucks. If you get the right one I like it

Obviously all rucks in the system were drafted at some point and there will be some success stories. There would be many more don't make it and waste years of club resources.

Every season there seems to be a handful of them switch teams for relatively low value.
Eg us getting Pitto whilst losing Phillips.

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That’s the gamble with all draftees. My take is if you have a young developing ruck like Mirkov then you also need a mature back up. Get it right like with Gawn or English it can be a game changer. Too important a role.

Spot on. Do not waste a pick on them. You can pick up serviceable rucks for nothing from other clubs. Richmond win a flag with a midfielder! Just poach them from a club that has a few of them.

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Everything before the word "but" is horseshit - J Snow

Melbourne win a flag with two they developed. It's not one size fits all. Need to look at all avenues

2019
Kreuzer
De Konig
Casboult
Lobbe
Phillips

2020
Kreuzer
De Konig
Casboult
Pittonet

2021
De Konig
Casboult
Pittonet
Mirkov (MSD)

2022
De Konig
Pittonet
Mirkov

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Watching Levi limp through every game he played last year, unable to apply forward pressure told us all his time was up, and needed to be replaced. He had knee problems the previous year, and he wasn't getting better.

Club did the right thing delisting him imo, but I was expecting to add another ruck too.

I'm a fan of playing 2 rucks (not 2 Mick Nolan's either) in Finals. Both rucks would need to be in form and a competitive beast to compete with the big boys at the pointy end of the season.

I disagree that 4 rucks disrupts the list. Most teams have 4 rucks, and its not unusual for us to do so either. In fact, I think we learned after that horrible stretch from 2002 when we had with only 2 bonafide rucks we needed 4: one to support the 2 bonafide rucks, and another developing and rucking in the reserves to learn their craft.

In 2003 Allan and French were our 2 rucks with Angwin, Beasy and McKernan as 'crap' back ups. Does anyone remember Cory in the centre bounces, jumping too early, missing the ball completely....We learned from that period we needed 4 rucks due to form and injury and a need for one in the reserves too. French was forced to carry the ruck on his own and the reserves didnt even have a ruck. Same happened to us this year when Mirkov did his ankle.

Then we added 196cm Cain "The courageous" Ackland to the ruck squad in 2006...and that wasn't the answer because he didn't play like a bonafide ruck.

2008 We picked Kreuzer to add to Warnock, Hampson and Jacob, who also had ruck support from Setanta and 196cm Cloke.

2012 Warnock Kreuzer Hampson and Casboult with some cameo support from Rowe when injuries forced our hand with Warnock and Hampson injured.

2022 should tell us 4 is the number of rucks we need on the list. With injuries to Pittonet and for a few weeks Mirkov, we had a lone developing ruck, TDK, take the mantle as No. 1 ruck. When Mirkov wasn't injured he wasn't and hasn't even been selected, so a bonafide ruck in the reserves would be great now whilst Mirkov develops.

Delisting Levi and replacing him with no one, left us with a 24yo Pittonet who is developing his ruck craft, TDK as the developing ruckman, and another on training wheels who we can't use in fairness to the player and the team being Mirkov.

I believe that less than 4 rucks leaves our list unbalanced.

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I bet a bonafide mature ruck would be more useful for us this year if we lost our 2 rucks Pitto and TDK to injury than Mirkov.

In our reserves, Crocker or Glass McAsker play at FF. I'd rather have Mirkov and the mature ruckman waxing the ruck and FF position that what we have now....and play Mirkov as the No. 1 if fast tracking his developmnent asks for that.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Sorry, I know you're not the only one to hold that opinion, and that's cool, but I can't buy that theory.

In 2010 when Kreuzer did his knee he was not only a great kick at goals, I had never heard anyone suggest he shouldn't be playing, or that he didn't belong in the seniors. He polled well in the club BnF, and was a great kick for goal. His football went downhill, along with his kicking after the ACL.

When he returned in 2011 he was well down on the player he was and that's when the blame by some was put on the club. The club didnt cause the ACL: footy did.

IMO its a Fallacy to suggest the club ruined Kreuzer.

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There you go. I thought 4 was the norm, and imo, the standard, and we failed to fill the spot. How good would it have been to have a Goldy, Sinclair or the bloke who was once the 4th ruck at WCE, now the first ruck at the Swans, namely Hickey?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

We had a 4th developing ruck as a rookie called Sam Jacobs. He became an AA ruckman.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I forgot about Lobbe and Philips....5 rucks...maybe one too many IF there's a hole elsewhere on the list.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Proves my point. We were poor and TDK was developing

Have to remember this is when SOS was reshaping the list and we filled a few holes with fill ins like Lobbe. TDK was about where Mirkov is now

100%. Only have to watch the Reserves to see we lack badly in size. I hope next year we add another ruck and a another KPP at least