By Jon Pierik
If there is one area of interest in Melbourne among rival clubs heading into the new AFL season, it’s this: How will the league’s best ruckman Max Gawn function alongside a new teammate who once had claims to the same tag?
Brodie Grundy needs no introduction. A two-time All-Australian and two-time Copeland Trophy winner, Grundy was as influential as any ruckman during his pomp at Collingwood. But the Demons’ need to replace ruck-forward Luke Jackson, now with Fremantle, Grundy’s frustrating 2022, his big contract, and the willingness of the Magpies under new coach Craig McRae to move on with Darcy Cameron as the frontline big man, contributed to Grundy heading to the Demons in a trade-period blockbuster.
The Demons hope Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn can be the league’s best one-two ruck punch.Credit: David McPherson
The Demons are confident he can co-exist in the same 22, or even 23 with the revised substitute rule, as Gawn, the six-time All-Australian and two-time Demons best and fairest winner, but just how well this double act works remains one of the intriguing storylines of 2023.
“It’s something we haven’t seen for a long time – two rucks of that quality. It could be what they need to stay in the premiership race, or it might be something that holds them back,” said one rival club football department figure.
This same official said there was little doubt each would flourish purely when in the ruck. Gawn remains one of the league’s best taps, while Grundy will bring his strength and ruck-roving skills to stoppages. His follow-up work, particularly off his own hitouts, was what made him so destructive.
But just how the Demons deploy each man when they are not rucking is a key question. Gawn and Grundy, no doubt, will want to be in All-Australian contention again, and the Demons will also want that.
If there is a blueprint for two gold-plated rucks to not only co-exist but dominate, it’s West Coast of 2012. That was the year premiership ruck Dean Cox and an emerging Nic Naitanui flourished to the point they not only dominated at stoppages, but contributed a combined 48 goals, each going on to claim a green blazer. That’s the last time two standout rucks played regularly in the same team, although the Eagles fell short of a premiership, with Sydney going on to edge Hawthorn on the sport’s biggest stage.
Champion Data statistics show Cox and Naitanui shared an almost even spread of ruck contests that season, with Cox competing in 48 per game, and Naitanui 45.
West Coast premiership forward Karl Langdon, now a long-time commentator, said that pairing worked because they both were able to play forward. They also differed in that Naitanui’s strength was his work in what Langdon described as a “10-15 metre radius” around stoppages, while Cox had the transition running power.
He said the Cox and Grundy pairing could work, but still questioned whether Grundy was in the Demons’ best 22.
Max Gawn has paid close attention to the way Geelong’s talls operated last season, including having ruck Rhys Stanley push into defence.Credit: Getty Images
“I know they have lost Jackson, but Grundy is not a great mark, Gawn is better. Is Grundy going to be used more in the ruck, and will we see Gawn play more forward, like Jackson used to?” Langdon said.
“But if they can play like what they have played when at their best, it will be pretty good.”
The one-time hard-running forward also questioned whether teams needed one, let alone, two ruck stars, pointing to the number of unheralded premiership ruckmen over the past three decades, including in the Eagles’ 1992 success, and Alastair Clarkson’s run at Hawthorn.
“You don’t really need gun rucks, to be honest. Even in ’92, we had Paul Harding. Paul isn’t a household name. And look at all of Clarko’s flags, [Ben] McEvoy, [David] Hale, Max Bailey, he just got a mature-age recruit generally from another club who could compete,” Langdon said.
Close observers note it’s Grundy who will have to adjust his game the most – and not only because Gawn is the captain and No.1 ruck. Grundy, in his six games of an injury-hit 2022, was involved in more than 66 ruck contests per game; Gawn had 50, giving ruck-forward Jackson plenty of opportunity to work on his craft.
How will Grundy adjust? Gawn has been used in defence, for the kick behind play, and has shown an aptitude to go forward. He has worked on his goalkicking, but has yet to deliver a bag. He had 12 goals last year, 11 in the premiership year of 2021. His best haul was 16 in 2016.
It should be noted that Jackson contributed only 11 goals last season, including only one in his last six games, but had 16 in the ’21 premiership year. Jackson now forms another elite ruck pairing with Sean Darcy.
A deeper dive shows Gawn was the third-worst target last year in terms of a team scoring when targeting a player. The Demons scored 35.4 per cent of the time they directed play to Gawn. Only Fremantle’s Matt Taberner (32.6 per cent) and Hawthorn’s Jacob Koschitzke (32.9) were worse. It’s also worth pointing out that Ben Brown was the fourth worst (37.1 per cent), but the fact that Magpies match-winner Jamie Elliott was the sixth worst (37.5) reinforces how debatable statistics can be.
Grundy’s best goal return was 12 in 2021 but, in the Pies’ grand final year of 2018, he had only nine. Yes, he spent the majority of games on the ball, but his powerful physique has not seemed equipped to being a major option inside attacking 50. That he has never averaged more than 1.23 contested marks per game, compared to Gawn’s career-best of 2.5 last year, the second-best in the league, highlights that the latter is likely more suited to going forward.
Gawn, instrumental in luring Grundy to the Demons, has maintained that both men now have the chance to develop new skills.
“It’s unique, we certainly haven’t really seen two rucks play together who both really love that ruck role but, as we both get older, we both develop different parts of our game,” Gawn said late last year.
“I see it working really, really well. I am really, really excited. I am really bullish about the fact it can work. My partner in crime over the last three years, Luke Jackson, is going to [share] the No.1 [ruck] in Fremantle, so there are double ruck combinations everywhere. I feel ours is one of the better ones.”
If Gawn or Grundy spend more time forward, rival clubs wonder what impact this will have on leading goalkicker Bayley Fritsch, Brown, veteran marking tall Tom McDonald and the emerging Jacob van Rooyen.
“There’s likely to be one or two missing out. I don’t know if all those talls can work in the same forward line, even if ‘Kozzy’ is down there,” one club official said.
Kozzy, of course, is Kysaiah Pickett, the dashing small forward, who this year has to determine whether he wants to remain a Demon.
Dual North Melbourne premiership wingman, and now prominent analyst David King has suggested the Demons will follow Geelong’s premiership playbook, and have either Gawn or Grundy, when not in the ruck, regularly positioned as a floating centre half-back, potentially allowing another defender to intercept. That was the role Rhys Stanley played for the Cats last year, allowing Mark Blicavs and Tom Hawkins to ruck around the ground.
Having a tall such as Stanley or Gawn in defence also restricts rival teams who have won a stoppage, for instance on the wing, from dump kicking the ball forward. It’s a tactic Gawn took note of last season.
“I feel like I have worked on that and have got better over time. Like I said with the Geelong thing, Rhys Stanley was able to play behind the ball as well, which I feel like is one of my strengths,” he said.
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley, who coached Grundy from his draft year of 2012 until 2021, said it will take time for the pairing to work.
“You take Luke Jackson out and you put Brodie Grundy in and the easy thing is to expect that they’ll do something similar. Max has worked forward, Brodie hasn’t done a lot of work forward yet,” Buckley said on SEN.
The Demons pride themselves on being an elite contested-possession team at stoppages, so having Grundy should ensure they remain potent - and fresh - in this area for the entire game. At 31, Gawn’s career could be prolonged if he spends less time getting physically beaten up at stoppages.
More time in defence is also likely to keep him fresher for a deep September run, as it will Grundy, who turns 29 in April.
And it’s in September when the results of this investment will be fully tested.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.