Max Gawn says ruckmen have dominated AFL for years, and 2018 class highlights their talent
AFL ruckmen have never been better. Melbourne’s No.1 big man MAX GAWN reveals his toughest days, his greatest rucking satisfaction and the day that “would get a gig at the Comedy Festival”.
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IN LATE 2014 I made the trip west to take on the West Coast combination of Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui.
Daunting at any time, this was also Cox’s last game in front of a parochial home crowd. Then there were his teammates, who were hellbent on feeding the ball to him at every opportunity.
It remains one of the hardest days of my career, not only going against two exceptional rucks with serious centre-bounce craft, but two with an insane ability to move around the ground.
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I gave absolutely everything in the last quarter and “Coxy” still had 12 touches in about 10 minutes. I learned a heck of a lot from that game and basically haven’t lost my spot in the team since.
If I ever bump into Dean Cox again I will ask him to hand back my lungs and quads that I left on Subiaco Oval that afternoon.
There’s a lot of talk that this may be the “Year of the Ruckman”. As a massive fan of ruckmen, I beg to differ. I think we have seen great ruckmen dominate this game for years.
Granted, perhaps after Scott Wynd and Jim Stynes almost 30 years ago, there was a period where we went missing from the back page of the papers. But the likes of Cox, Aaron Sandilands, Brad Ottens and Luke Darcy put us back on the map. These guys, and the fact I didn’t seem to stop growing, inspired me to be an AFL ruckman.
Perhaps the reason for all the hype in 2018 is because it could be one of the first times in years when virtually every side has a non-negotiable No.1 big man who performs week in, week out.
Callum Sinclair, Brodie Grundy, Todd Goldstein, Aaron Sandilands, Matt Kreuzer, Stefan Martin, Toby Nankervis, Ben McEvoy, Nic Naitanui, Jarrod Witts, Paddy Ryder, Tom Bellchambers and Sam Jacobs.
Then there’s the guys who haven’t necessarily been the No.1 all year, like Rhys Stanley, Billy Longer and Tom Boyd, who can all produce best-on-ground performances. The only team really left out in the cold is Greater Western Sydney and Dawson Simpson is very capable of joining the list above, but he’s only new into the role on a consistent basis because of an injury to Rory Lobb.
All 18 of these guys have different strengths and weaknesses and I use different tactics every week to combat them. Sandi is different to Grundy, McEvoy is different to Stefan and on it goes.
My greatest rucking satisfaction is a clean centre-bounce clearance. A picture-perfect hit to Clayton Oliver on the fly, with a long kick inside 50 that is marked by Tommy Mac in the goalsquare. That is poetry. Something like that has me smiling all the way back to the next centre bounce and easily beats anything else I can individually produce on the ground.
Ruck work has evolved, of course, and our role has changed through the years. Yes, a hitout to advantage can help generate a clearance, but 70 per cent of the time the ball hasn’t gone to advantage or the opposition ruck has actually won the hit.
These days, we are told the more we can join in and help around the contest, the better. If I go home and we have won contested ball and clearances, I’ll have one extra glass of merlot.
There’s a theory out there that the new rules brought in to stop players jumping in third-man up has led to our resurgence. I won’t deny it hasn’t helped, but for the majority of us, it’s not just the ruck work that’s improved, it’s that around-the-ground influence as well. Becoming an extra midfielder and a marking target is where I believe my brethren has grown.
The ruck position is so unique to our game. It’s now one of the only genuine one-on-one battles left.
My rivals are getting fitter, too. About 50 per cent of our game is ruck craft, so 50 per cent of our training should be on those stoppage situations, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Most of the guys have a serious engine and they only get taller and stronger as the game goes on, although apart from Stef Martin we will never feature in the Grand Final sprint.
Mind you, I’ve been involved in some different kinds of sprints on Grand Final day down the years.
Unlike our smaller cousins in other positions, we play our best footy later rather than earlier. Grundy and Nic Nat are the exception given they basically played from the get-go. But pretty much everyone else has taken their time to develop.
I went through four years of losing every single ruck contest at training against Mark Jamar. At times I thought I had to be the worst ruck to have ever stepped foot on the MCG.
One day Rob Warnock not only won every hitout against me, but I was on my backside at every second contest. There was another stretch there where I handed Todd Goldstein nine Brownlow Medal votes in three games against North Melbourne.
Do yourself a favour and go watch Melbourne v North Melbourne, circa 2014. My performance that day would get a gig at the Comedy Festival. The best ruckmen on the ground that arvo went Goldstein, Drew Petrie, daylight, Jack Fitzpatrick, daylight ... and then Gawn.
Earlier that year I almost single-handedly lost us a 40-point lead at three-quarter-time when I was powerless to stop Will Minson put together one of the best quarters from a ruckman I’ve seen, mirrored with one of the worst for me.
But the reality for us big men is that once you get more comfortable with your body and, in my case, stop doing your ACL every second contest, you start to play your role for the team and gain confidence. Playing against the best helps you learn and you learn quickly out on the ground.
With time and the good guidance I got from the likes of ruck coach Greg Stafford and Mark Jamar, your craft gradually improves. For me, it has gone from not jumping at centre
bounces and only being able to hit to one zone, to now feeling comfortable in the centre circle and comfortable with most hit zones.
The swell of excellent ruckmen this year and all the older and wiser heads among us means there’s no young Max Gawns to feast on.
We also play a lot of second-tier footy, either early in our careers or because teams have two or three decent ruckmen and you can only play one. This is where I started my long career-battle with Witts, Grundy, McEvoy and today’s opponent, Longer. I played Billy in the VFL early on in our careers — it was a great battle then and has been in all encounters since.
My shin looks like a car crash and there aren’t many games where I don’t roll an ankle, hurt a knee or get a corky, but I love it. I love being a ruckman and I love playing my role within the team.
Every week there is a battle with the man standing opposite you. None are easy and I have the same nerves as I did when I was confronting Cox and Sandilands in those tender early days.
Nullify your opponent and help your midfielders clear the ball. It’s a pretty simple mindset.
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Originally published as Max Gawn says ruckmen have dominated AFL for years, and 2018 class highlights their talent