Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley - and Eagles boss Adam Simpson - face major rethinks after losing their lead ruckmen
HALL of Fame Legend Malcolm Blight looks at the influence of the modern ruckman in Australian football and explains the headaches facing Port Adelaide and West Coast Eagles coaches without their bigmen.
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PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley and his West Coast counterpart Adam Simpson boarded long flights across the Nullarbor on Sunday evening with the same recurring thought: How important is a ruckman to winning an AFL premiership?
Hinkley lost his All-Australian ruckman Patrick Ryder in Perth with a new injury (hip rather than Achilles tendon) that could deny the Power its first top-four finish in more than a decade.
Simpson has lost the true heartbeat of the Eagles, Nic Naitanui, with a new knee injury that wipes out another season (2019, after not playing an AFL game last year).
There are some - and they are respected judges - who dismiss the importance of a ruckman. They will argue that it is what happens at ground level - not in the air with a 50-50 contest for the hit-out - that determines the flow of a game.
And this is where ruckmen have been redefined.
Find a ruckman who is measured by more than his hit-outs - or hit-outs to advantage - and you have a game changer. And the AFL has two of these ruckmen today: Max Gawn at Melbourne and Brodie Grundy at Collingwood.
Clearly the current AFL coaches rate these two ruckmen because of their influence beyond the hit-outs. Gawn and Grundy are the only ruckmen in the top 10 of the coaches’ award that is regularly dominated by midfielders.
Gawn averages 17 disposals; Grundy 21. Grundy makes his mark at ground level by averaging 13 contested possession (ranking ninth in the league) and six clearances. Gawn was involved in 13 scoring chains in Melbourne’s win against the Western Bulldogs. Compare this with two of the AFL’s leading forwards - Ben Brown at North Melbourne and Lance Franklin at Sydney with 10 each - and there is a greater appreciation of how Gawn influences matches.
These two ruckmen can compete as genuine midfielders with key performance statistics not attributed to the big men this century. They can stand alongside the top-10 draftees everyone wants as a “small” in the midfield.
More than 20 years have passed since the AFL has had a ruckman with a premiership medal, All-Australian honours and top votes in the Brownlow (but as asterisk denying him the chance to take home Charlie). This was Corey McKerman at North Melbourne in 1996.
Gawn could be the Brownlow Medallist. He certainly is the major contender for the All-Australian ruck spot. And he has a major part to play in Melbourne ending a 54-year premiership drought.
Grundy probably has some challengers in the Magpies pack for the Brownlow. He could be an All-Australian. And he certainly has a significant role - well beyond a ruckman - in how Collingwood stands up in September.
So the importance of a ruckman is clear - and clearer if that ruckman redefines the game as Gawn and Grundy do.
Across the 11 contenders for the top-eight berths to September, the measure of the ruckmen beyond hit-outs becomes a handy pointer to which teams are to be the genuine contenders. At North Melbourne, Todd Goldstein is influencing the scoreboard. So is Sam Jacobs, who is finding the form that allowed Adelaide to make a strong start to the season.
But - to ease Hinkley and Simpson - there is still a way forward with the old-fashioned ruck system ... provided there is an energetic midfield with pristine ball-moving skills. This is Greater Western Sydney where Dawson Simpson and Rory Lobb compete and leave that manic Giants midfield, with sharp ballreaders as Dylan Shiel, to do the work at ground level.
There is nothing like having a ruckman put the ball down your throat. It is like a free kick in the middle of the ground. And it is the best way to get the adrenaline flowing.
Simpson has Scott Lycett for this role - and Lycett to gain handsomely as he measures the value of free agency at a time when the Eagles cannot afford to lose him.
Hinkley has a huge decision to make - does he persist with the tireless veteran Justin Westhoff or does he finally take Charlie Dixon from attack to make him the lead ruckman in Ryder’s absence?
Dixon’s output in attack suggests Hinkley can take him from the goalsquare. He can be creative with a new-look attack built on smalls, such as Sam Gray (rather than Robbie) in the goalsquare where he will compete and score. Even Steven Motlop is worth trying in a role around the goalsquare to torment defenders.
Simpson and Hinkley have to get back to the old model of having a ruckman who competes.
Meanwhile, Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin and Collingwood boss Nathan Buckley have the new-age ruckmen with Gawn and Grundy competing for far more than just hit-outs. It is a significant difference.
ends