The damning statistics that show just how much Port Adelaide is missing Paddy Ryder

PORT Adelaide is feeling the pinch, with its ruck numbers not stacking up without injured All-Australian Paddy Ryder.

Brisbane’s Stefan Martin uses his greater strength and guile to take prime ruck position against makeshift Port Adelaide ruckman Justin Westhoff at Adelaide Oval in round three. Picture: James Elsby (AFL Media/Getty Images).

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KEN Hinkley didn’t mince his words.

“I should say this really clearly, we haven’t got a ruck ready to play,’’ the Port Adelaide coach said after last Sunday’s loss to Essendon at Etihad Stadium.

“I think people should stop calling for that because if you watched our SANFL team you’ll see some young rucks who are not ready to play.

“I’m not going to play people who don’t deserve to be out there and who can’t physically compete when they are out there. Don’t get confused with what we’ve got underneath.’’

Hinkley was responding to calls, most notably from four-times Power club champion Kane Cornes, to play one of Port’s emerging ruckmen, in particular high-leaping 21-year-old Billy Frampton, as a replacement for injured star Paddy Ryder.

Dougal Howard rucks against Tom Bellchambers on Sunday. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Charlie Dixon wrestles with Tom Bellchambers of Essendon at a boundary throw in. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Teenager Sam Hayes, 18, and rookie-listed Peter Ladhams, 20, are the Power’s other recognised ruckmen but they, like Frampton, are untried at AFL level.

With All-Australian ruckman and reigning club champion Ryder being sidelined since round one with Achilles tendinitis, the Power has used the pinch-hitting triple-headed monster combination of key forward Charlie Dixon, swingman Justin Westhoff and key defender Dougal Howard to carry the ruck load.

Port, the last team to lose a game this season and sitting fifth with a healthy 3-1 record, has managed to win two of its three matches without Ryder, whose leaping ability and tap work is as a good as any ruckman in the league.

But the raw statistics paint a damning picture of just what the Power has lost during Ryder’s absence, which is expected to stretch for at least two more weeks — Saturday night’s home clash against Geelong and the round six encounter with North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

With Ryder leading the way last year, Port ranked first in points differential from stoppages at +9.8.

From rounds two-to-four this year — with Ryder sitting in the stands — the Power ranked 17th in the key statistic, with a -9.7 differential.

Not surprisingly it has slumped significantly in all key ruck categories, including clearance differential (sixth to 17th), points from stoppages (first to fifth) and points conceded from stoppages (fourth to 18th).

Number Crunch: Port Adelaide ruck crisis

Westhoff has done most of the fill-in ruck work, averaging 54 per cent of his game time there.

This compares to Dixon’s 37 per cent and Howard’s 20 per cent.

Dixon has the best hitout win percentage of the trio, with 48.1 per cent, followed by Howard’s 38.6 and Westhoff’s 23.1.

When it comes to hitouts-to-advantage win percentage, the high-leaping Howard (14 per cent) leads the way.

But none of them compares to Ryder, who had a 54.4 hitout win percentage last season and 16.6 per cent hitout-to-advantage rating — both above the league average.

Hinkley has defended the Power’s decision to allow Ryder backups Matthew Lobbe (traded to Carlton) and Jackson Trengove (who signed a free agent deal with the Western Bulldogs) to leave at the end of last season.

Ruckman in waiting Billy Frampton in action for Port in the SANFL. Picture: Tom Huntley

“I think it is pretty clear we made the right decision for the future of the footy club,’’ he said.

“We do have confidence in our young ruckmen, we have an incredible amount of confidence, and at the moment we’d love one of them, particularly Billy, to be ready to go a bit earlier than he is.

“But he came off shoulder surgery in the pre-season and missed about 16 weeks of competitive training and he’s not quite in the form that he was last year.

“Billy knows exactly what we are looking for from him and it could be just one really good game where we go, ‘you know what, let’s give him a chance’.’’

Hinkley is adamant Port’s makeshift ruck set-up didn’t cost it the Bombers’ match — its first loss of the season.

“The ruck contests didn’t lose us the game, we were pretty serviceable in there,’’ he said.

“But the week before we could have lost (the Power beat Brisbane by five points) because (Lions ruckman) Stefan Martin was dominant.’’

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