Ruck It, Yeah! - Ranking The Rucks, 9 and 10
Ranking the teams' ruck divisions. The numbers in brackets indicate where the players rated for total hitouts in 2007.
9 Melbourne
Jeff White (4)
Paul Johnson (32)
John Meesen (84)
White is one of the shortest ruckmen but is also one of the best. His leap and mobility make him a great player for the Demons in the ruck. One problem they have had over the years is getting White a bit of help. Meesen might be the answer there, but he will first have to win the backup ruck spot from Johnson and Jamar.
10 St Kilda
Justin Koschitzke (26)
Steven King (38)
Michael Rix (20)
With Gehrig returning it means Koschitzke can again play in the ruck. King brings all of his experience from the Grand Finals last year, he was practically given to the Saints so it is a low risk move by them. The ruckmen at St Kilda are often hurt, so the dependable Rix is still around as insurance.
Ruck It, Yeah! - Ranking The Rucks, 11 and 12
9 Melbourne
Jeff White (4)
Paul Johnson (32)
John Meesen (84)
White is one of the shortest ruckmen but is also one of the best. His leap and mobility make him a great player for the Demons in the ruck. One problem they have had over the years is getting White a bit of help. Meesen might be the answer there, but he will first have to win the backup ruck spot from Johnson and Jamar.
10 St Kilda
Justin Koschitzke (26)
Michael Rix (20)
With Gehrig returning it means Koschitzke can again play in the ruck. King brings all of his experience from the Grand Finals last year, he was practically given to the Saints so it is a low risk move by them. The ruckmen at St Kilda are often hurt, so the dependable Rix is still around as insurance.
Ruck It, Yeah! - Ranking The Rucks, 11 and 12
Once again the Saints are saying M Gardiner is ready to play, but it has been quite a while since he did anything on an AFL field. But the thinking must be that M Gardiner has to play more games than C Gardiner will in 2008.
Surely that should be the measurement of where they rank on this list! At absolute worst, the hawks pair should be in the top half of this list. Even Melbourne have WHite that is in the top 5 individual ruckmen but their other two would be in the bottom 5 of the ruck divisions.
Just keep that in mind. I am sure your fans won't be offended if you correct this mistake.
HTH
Molly
Surely that should be the measurement of where they rank on this list! At absolute worst, the hawks pair should be in the top half of this list. Even Melbourne have WHite that is in the top 5 individual ruckmen but their other two would be in the bottom 5 of the ruck divisions.
Just keep that in mind. I am sure your fans won't be offended if you correct this mistake.
HTH
Molly
Last season it was expected that Campbell would establish himself as a top ruckman, but for some reason he couldn't really distance himself from Taylor, and there were times when Taylor played more minutes.
Melbourne and St Kilda have that one elite player who can win a game in the ruck, so they just get ranked a tad higher than Hawthorn.
Hawthorn's ruck position is going to be looked at in detail soon, so if you would also like to comment on that post too it could be informative.
This is the beauty of the Hawks ruck pair. They both are better then solid and because of this, they can swap in and out and the side loses nothing. So its not like the Hawks are going along nicely and then Campbell goes off and then the side they are playing gets a lift.
On Campbell not being able to become as elite as you and others thought. I think that can be credited to the fact that Taylor improved more then people thought and so Campbell didn't get the game time to be hugely impactful.
I really have a feeling that if Big Max can come on the way its hoped, that Campbell will be used in the back line more!
JMTC
Molly