Position 2023: Ruck Discussion

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Was never looking at Cameron as starting on the Ruck line. I really don't see that as an option, particularly now with the injury concern. Had him as a FWD (with the hope / expectation he can achieve keeper status) and creating cover for the rucks with an R/F donut. As always, a lot depends on where the rookies pop up round 1 and whether the likes of Bruce (as a back) and McLean are looking like solid starters. Add to that the Fyfe dilemma and Cameron may get squeezed out
 
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Nic Naitanui: Was pitted against both Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson in the ruck and dominated both, getting forward to take a couple of good marks in attack which led to a goal. The most impressive thing from a West Coast perspective was that he rucked for almost the entire 60 minutes and *looked lighter and fitter than at any stage in 2022.*


Lighter & fitter …. Don’t tempt me NN 😂
 
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Nic Naitanui: Was pitted against both Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson in the ruck and dominated both, getting forward to take a couple of good marks in attack which led to a goal. The most impressive thing from a West Coast perspective was that he rucked for almost the entire 60 minutes and *looked lighter and fitter than at any stage in 2022.*

Lighter & fitter …. Don’t tempt me NN 😂
Let me help you... in Rd 2 last year Tristan Xerri was pitted against Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson in the ruck and scored 120 SC. And he then spent most of the year playing VFL.

Unless NN was rucking against them both at the same time, I don't think it's that remarkable that he towelled them up 🤣
 
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Let me help you... in Rd 2 last year Tristan Xerri was pitted against Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson in the ruck and scored 120 SC. And he then spent most of the year playing VFL.

Unless NN was rucking against them both at the same time, I don't think it's that remarkable that he towelled them up 🤣
I reckon there's blokes in top level local footy that would towel up Jamieson and Williams haha.
 
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Nic Naitanui: Was pitted against both Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson in the ruck and dominated both, getting forward to take a couple of good marks in attack which led to a goal. The most impressive thing from a West Coast perspective was that he rucked for almost the entire 60 minutes and *looked lighter and fitter than at any stage in 2022.*


Lighter & fitter …. Don’t tempt me NN 😂
I'll be watching very closely in preseason, if he looks fit then he's a very intriguing option.
 
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I loved my pick last year but I think any honest owner would admit we got a gift from god a bit, had 5 or 6 games where he went up against literally no Ruckman and tore them to shreds.
I just felt he was very one dimensional and if he actually got some more ball around the ground it out consistent monster scores out there.
 

Darkie

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I’m also not really arguing for or against Cameron, but one factor that I think has gone under the radar is scope for natural improvement.

Before last season, he had played a total of 27 AFL games. He had only got to 10 hitouts on 4 occasions, with a career best of 16.

I expect he’ll be better for the run.
 
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I’m also not really arguing for or against Cameron, but one factor that I think has gone under the radar is scope for natural improvement.

Before last season, he had played a total of 27 AFL games. He had only got to 10 hitouts on 4 occasions, with a career best of 16.

I expect he’ll be better for the run.
While I agree to an extent its not like hes a kid, had years of footy as a 1st Ruck and is almost 28, not going to have a great deal of improvement left in him for mine.
 
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Yep, soon as the standard of opposition went up he came back to the pack pretty quickly.
There's actually very little rhyme or reason to his scoring and who he faced for the most part. He just seemed to fade out the 2nd half a bit but mostly it was actually just his ratio fell right off which was mostly a symptom to the team turning to crap in the 2nd half of the season. I'm expecting the Suns to actually improve a fair bit this year and 2nd season back from the ACL, which limited his preseason last year, should help with that also.

His scoring was all over the shop though.

He faced several rucks twice and the variance was insane from early season to late. NN 131/85, Goldy 117/90, OMC 143/86 and Cameron 136/63.

Against the top rucks he averaged 109 and against the weaker rucks he averaged 111, 10/12 games so no real clear bias there.

There's definitely risk but he was averaging 120 when the team was playing well. Bit of chicken and egg going on and probably comes down to what you expect from the Suns this year but I personally expect them to be more competitive, for the first time in a while they've actually managed to keep their list together and build on it, if anything they actually improved this o***eason and they'll get King, Powell (although he's gone down again) and Weller back as well as hopefully having Lukosius back rather than the shadow that played last year. That would be 4 huge additions, Anderson, Berry and Blakely add some good depth as well as that has been a big issue for them.

Definitely not Max Gawn, let's not kid ourselves but I still really like the pick. At least I feel pretty solid he will play as the #1 ruck all season, especially compared to the alternatives!
 
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I’m also not really arguing for or against Cameron, but one factor that I think has gone under the radar is scope for natural improvement.

Before last season, he had played a total of 27 AFL games. He had only got to 10 hitouts on 4 occasions, with a career best of 16.

I expect he’ll be better for the run.
Cameron's positive is that you're not picking him as a ruckman in SC, he's just filling a gap while you gather information. That 95-100 range is still the like falling place for F6 so Cameron's threshold for a winning pick is a lot lower than the other guys where it could well end up at 120 if a few of the rucks actually stay fit and fire like they can. I'd argue that all of Witts, Gawn, Grundy, NicNat, Marshall, English and Darcy are capable of being 115+ if things fell their way and the jump to 120 from there isn't very far at all. The problem is trying to pick who's actually going to do that!

The negative of picking Cameron is you're more than likely filling your F6 spot at the start and you're effectively taking another forward which has implications if DPP changes shift the landscape like they did last year (I don't think there's quite as many likely changes this year at least but there'll be some) and also limits on the rookie slots and value plays that pop up.

There's also the bust factor and, increasingly, it's becoming clear that durability is also a problem. It's always difficult picking those players that are considerably better fantasy players than real life players as well as coaches don't care about the SC and watching your ruck beaten consistently is challenging albeit when Cox is the only other real option that at least alleviates that a fair bit.
 

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Re Witts, I believe @Connoisseur posted some info during last season that his H2A rate was through the roof.

Personally I find that the awarding of H2As seems quite subjective, so maybe he had a good run with the judges, or maybe he was just in unusually good form with his taps.
 
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