The issue with the second strategy is that you’re basically praying for Grundy / ROB to get injured, so you can justify the extra $150k spent on the bench.
Seems a bit counterintuitive to me.
We've been blessed in the last few years with the resilience of the top rucks... perhaps we should be considering the likelihood one our starting rucks does miss a week or two and figure out what is worth to save a trade by having cover in place.
Here is the historical likelihood of a ruck missing a game...
Based on the above even in 2018 there was a greater than 50% chance of a ruckman missing a game, so chances of one of two ruckmen missing a game during the season goes to greater than 75% (and over 90% using last years figures - DISCLAIMER: probability is not my strongpoint)… Yes we can keep the faith with Grundy & Gawn that they'll be resilient once again but I would prefer to have some sort of plan in place... If its not a DPP ruck sitting in the forward line then maybe its an expensive benchwarmer.
EDIT: A DPP ruck in the forward line needs to be a playing ruck and also needs to justify the $ spent otherwise the expensive benchwarmer with JS like Naismith ($255k) almost makes more sense... who out of Ryder, Ceglar, Ladhams or Patton is a compelling selection???