Position 2023: Ruck Discussion

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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!
Still think he took advantage of alot of things falling his way.
154 on TDK
132 on Ladhams
131 on Sweet
119 on Kosi
148 on Finlayson

Can't help but think you switch in Pittonet,Hickey,English,McEvoy And Lycett and you get a very different Jarrod Wiits seasonal average.
 
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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.
I'd wager good money that having Rowell, Anderson, Swallow and Miller there instead of some of the trash they've trotted through in the past sure didn't hurt.

Would have also spent a lot of time adding strength and on hand work while recovering from the ACL which definitely wouldn't have hurt his cause.

It's also a highly variable stat so could be a complete outlier or could be a sign of change :LOL:
 
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Still think he took advantage of alot of things falling his way.
154 on TDK
132 on Ladhams
131 on Sweet
119 on Kosi
148 on Finlayson

Can't help but think you switch in Pittonet,Hickey,English,McEvoy And Lycett and you get a very different Jarrod Wiits seasonal average.
Maybe but he also put up 133 on McEvoy, 131 on NN and a 143 on OMc. As I said, there's no real rhyme or reason to it, he probably would have done worse but to me there's a far clearer 1st half/2nd half distinction and team playing well/team playing badly explanation than there is the ruck quality, some of his worst scores came against the worst rucks he faced so it really does seem random with the ruck quality filter.

Looking at the lists this year, it seems likely the ruck quality wont improve that much either so should get a similar amount of matchups against lower class rucks.

Rucks are a total crapshoot though, I've pretty much accepted that I'll be burning 10 trades here again :(
 
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How do you rate his first 7 opponents this year ?
Solid, but I thought it was a case of teams not being able to field their preferred ruckmen against him. Pretty sure the same thing happened the year before for Grundy. And the infamous Goldstein vs McKernan Friday night match. Sometimes rucks just get a good run.
 
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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.
Most of us had an extra premium running a M/F 7 or R/F7 last year, I'd be expecting him to probably fall another slot and be able to loop provide coverage maybe later in the season worst case.
 
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Most of us had an extra premium running a M/F 7 or R/F7 last year, I'd be expecting him to probably fall another slot and be able to loop provide coverage maybe later in the season worst case.
Last year was pretty exceptional though. Most teams had Sicily, Hewett, Daicos, Cripps, Witts, Brodie, Coniglio and even Nic Martin (1st half season) providing premiums from starting places that you very rarely get them. Throw in some serious in season value on Darcy, Rozee, Himmelberg, Cameron, Wines, Merrett and a couple of others and I'd argue last year was the easiest season ever to finalise a very strong side.

We also had no injuries for about 8 weeks to finish the season.

I think picking a R3/F7 from the start is a very ballsy tactic, I can't sell Cameron if you don't think he can land at F6 and if you get lucky enough to push him to F7, take the win :)
 
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I had Darcy Cameron in the forward line, not the ruck in some earlier teams; he's now been supplanted by Rozee. My issue was that from what I read, he doesn't have the fitness base to be the #1 ruck the whole season.
He seemed fine last year until he got injured but with an injury last year, a few others in his career and already one this preseason, that's becoming a real red flag on it's own.

You'd want to be damn certain about the rucks to pick him as a forward, imo. There's several really strong forward options that offer pretty good certainty if their roles are as expected so I can't really see the value to him as a pure forward play unless you know something about the rucks that I don't!
 
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The thing is Cameron gives you flexibility and like you say a look at the rest early in the season. Most of the others you’re paying close to if not top dollar for on a whim they‘ll be #1 or #2 rucks. Cameron really only needs to improve marginally to hold a F6/7 spot for the season and the coverage could pay for itself in spades. Other like Gawn/Grundy/Marshall/English that people are banking on the possibility is more risky IMO because at this stage they don’t have forward status and there is no guarantee they will.

I’ve got a couple of drafts with say a Cameron and another with say a Grundy/English just to see the effect on other lines, I much prefer Cameron at this stage for my structure.
 
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The thing is Cameron gives you flexibility and like you say a look at the rest early in the season. Most of the others you’re paying close to if not top dollar for on a whim they‘ll be #1 or #2 rucks. Cameron really only needs to improve marginally to hold a F6/7 spot for the season and the coverage could pay for itself in spades. Other like Gawn/Grundy/Marshall/English that people are banking on the possibility is more risky IMO because at this stage they don’t have forward status and there is no guarantee they will.
Your ruck cover could easily just be whoever of Grundy/Gawn/Darcy adds DPP though, feels highly likely at least one has it before we've completed our teams.

Id argue its less risky than hoping a guy is F6.

If we have the luxury to put a 400K+ player at F7 the year has played out far better than I anticipate or you're winning the 50 grand haha.
 
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The thing is Cameron gives you flexibility and like you say a look at the rest early in the season. Most of the others you’re paying close to if not top dollar for on a whim they‘ll be #1 or #2 rucks. Cameron really only needs to improve marginally to hold a F6/7 spot for the season and the coverage could pay for itself in spades. Other like Gawn/Grundy/Marshall/English that people are banking on the possibility is more risky IMO because at this stage they don’t have forward status and there is no guarantee they will.

I’ve got a couple of drafts with say a Cameron and another with say a Grundy/English just to see the effect on other lines, I much prefer Cameron at this stage for my structure.
I'd actually argue most of the rucks can be argued to be underpriced to significantly underpriced on their best case scenarios. I just think that given almost all have ordinary durability records that arguing the best case scenarios is very difficult. The couple that don't have durability issues don't really have as much upside.

I've added Draper to my team and I really liked what it enabled to be honest in my latest draft. Just really sures up rookies and premium picks.
 
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He seemed fine last year until he got injured but with an injury last year, a few others in his career and already one this preseason, that's becoming a real red flag on it's own.

You'd want to be damn certain about the rucks to pick him as a forward, imo. There's several really strong forward options that offer pretty good certainty if their roles are as expected so I can't really see the value to him as a pure forward play unless you know something about the rucks that I don't!
I'm not certain on the rucks but I am bullish on a few having a lot of potential; and a Ruck with good potential is probably better than most forwards. Whether they live up to the potential is another story. All preseason I've been picking two of English, Darcy and Marshall.
 
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Has anyone thought of selecting a ruck that may get R/F status throughout the season that could be a top 10 forward in ruck to start with to swing him forward during the season? I'm thinking Grundy may get R/F status so I'm thinking of starting him with either English/Marshall. I think if Grundy doesn't score R/F status through the year Gawn would almost certainly get R/F status to which I'll try to get Gawn into my forward line during the season.
 
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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.
It's true he was still scoring well even when not getting all that many possessions because of the high number of HTA's.
 
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I had Darcy Cameron in the forward line, not the ruck in some earlier teams; he's now been supplanted by Rozee. My issue was that from what I read, he doesn't have the fitness base to be the #1 ruck the whole season.
In terms of fitness base.
DC has spent the whole pre season training with Daicos x2 and TMitch.
Have zero doubts on his fitness or his drive to be R1 at the pies.
It's his scoring ability and role that need judging
 
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I like DC as s fwd straight up, if you're going with him. The frontline rucks are likely going 105-120. He averaged 96 as no 1 ruck last year, which is good enough for F6, but well off the pace as R2. Provides good coverage through the season with the RF loop too. But will probably be managed, with the Texan being the main ruck occasionally.
Problem is there are so many undervalued fwds, that he's hard to fit in.
 
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I like DC as s fwd straight up, if you're going with him. The frontline rucks are likely going 105-120. He averaged 96 as no 1 ruck last year, which is good enough for F6, but well off the pace as R2. Provides good coverage through the season with the RF loop too. But will probably be managed, with the Texan being the main ruck occasionally.
Problem is there are so many undervalued fwds, that he's hard to fit in.
I just dont think Cameron Rucks enough without Cox ultimately and think to actually be a relevant pick he needs to going off the numbers, Cox had the greater split 5 of the last 8 games of the season and had significant Ruck time in all 7 other games including their 3 finals, hard to see how hes suddenly totally out of favour and not in their plans whatsoever just because they recruited McStay who has always been a better Forward than Ruck.

What can Cameron realistically average in a duo with a split role? 90? I just don't really see the value.

Not going to talk anyone out of the pick but the numbers just don't add up for me.

3 of his 108+ scores came in the 4 game stretch when Begg was in the side or they used Brown and he took a massive work load of the Ruck contests.

Without Cox he averaged 110 but with him it dropped to 92.

15 Games is a pretty big sample size of them going with one structure.
 
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