How Geelong solves ruck question around Sam De Koning, Rhys Stanley and Mark Blicavs before Port Adelaide final
Sam De Koning was back last weekend — as a ruckman. Will the Cats push Rhys Stanley out for him? And, what does a surprise shift for Mark Blicavs tell us? JOSH BARNES analyses Chris Scott’s options.
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Chris Scott’s never-ending ruck conundrum has come with a fresh twist this week as he debates the best way to mix and match his ruck minutes.
Beanpole Sam De Koning proved his fitness in a VFL loss on Saturday after minor knee surgery and played that game in the ruck after a five week stint mid-year in the centre that bore some fruit.
Premiership big man Rhys Stanley has performed well in the middle in the back half of the season as he wrapped his head around the new ruck rule this season that initially hampered his jumping.
And the twist is in Mark Blicavs, who has been removed from the midfield in the final weeks of the home-and-away season.
Scott had maintained over the last four years that Blicavs was best for his team when played as a midfielder and second ruck but from rounds 22-24, he played 85 per cent of his time in defence and 15 per cent in the ruck.
That took him out of the ground-level midfield and wing rotation and in round 24 the former fullback found himself manning Eagle spearhead Oscar Allen at times.
In the first four months of the season, Blicavs played zero time as a defender.
Perhaps no coach in the AFL is as renowned for trickery and tactical tweaks as Scott, who may have been preparing a ruck rotation out of defence with Blicavs and De Koning under our noses in the final weeks of the year.
The Cats threw De Koning, who at 23 and 204cm is possibly the club’s most important asset, into the ruck for his first proper stint after the bye this year.
In that period the Cats went 3-2 and De Koning was rated as the sixth-best ruck in the league.
The Cats have won eight of the 12 games Stanley has rucked this year.
In that stint from round 15-19, De Koning was elite in disposals, averaging 20.6 and rated above average for contested possessions with 10 per game.
Normally a low possession winner in defence, De Koning had at least 20 disposals in all five games, the only five times in his 62-game career he has broken that barrier.
Scott said the Cats had given him ruck minutes to prepare De Koning if they needed to pull the trigger in a big moment.
“It is not as if we are trying things we haven’t tried for the rest of the year if we decide to play De Koning ruck more instead of back,” he said.
Ultimate swing man Blicavs said this week that De Koning was developing his ability to move between positions.
“He hasn’t had to switch too much between games but he is building his strength as well in being able to be that versatile swing player,” Blicavs said.
Flag-winner Stanley, who appeared to have been supplanted at one point this year by Toby Conway, bounced back late in the season and was ranked the 14th best ruck in the league in the final month of the season.
The other question for Scott and his team of assistants to ponder before selection is the Port Adelaide forward line.
Power coach Ken Hinkley has all-but guaranteed Charlie Dixon will return to the side for the qualifying final, likely tipping Dante Visentini out, with a further question mark about the mix up forward with Todd Marshall putting his hand up to push one of Mitch Georgiades and Esava Ratugolea out of the forward half.
With a couple of big bodies likely to come out of Port Adelaide’s goalsquare, plus the prospect of Jake Kolodjashnij being needed to quell Jason Horne-Francis when he rests forward, the Cats will need one of Blicavs and De Koning to be in defence for long periods on Thursday night.
Scott has history in tipping out Stanley just before a big final – he infamously left the ruck out of the 2019 qualifying final against Collingwood due to fears of wet weather, a game that was played on a bone-dry MCG and the Cats lost by 10 points.
Port Adelaide’s midfield ran rampant in the first half of the round 9 meeting between these two sides, setting up a 49-point lead that Geelong just couldn’t reel in.
Stanley played that game but was subbed off before halftime, with Scott this week adamant that call was less to do with his form – up against Visentini in the ruck – and more to do with making a drastic change up to overcome an eight-goal deficit.
Scott will know his midfield has to break even with the stars in Power colours and that will start with his choice in the ruck.
It may be the surprise ruck in De Koning who gets his team there.
Originally published as How Geelong solves ruck question around Sam De Koning, Rhys Stanley and Mark Blicavs before Port Adelaide final
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