The Great Ruck Debate.

[DJC]

Thought we handled the ruck situation pretty well yesterday, and if we are mostly going with one ruck it may be the blueprint for going forward.
Now assuming we take Voss at his word, DeKoning had some 'general soreness'.
So by giving him a break we were also able to get some senior game time into Pittonet as he comes back from injury.
Win-win.

Now if DeKoning was generally sore that also indicates that his workload will need to be managed so that one or both of them are ready to go come finals.
One of the key concerns with just one ruck is the toll it would take over a season for a solo ruckman.

Playing it the way we did yesterday means that some weeks we play only one ruck, others we alternate the rucks depending on the opposition, and some weeks maybe both play.
We are pretty lucky, and probably one of the few teams who have two ruckmen able to handle the solo role, if need be.

Yes, having two competent and competitive rucks is a huge positive.

However, unless your sole ruckman can “rest” forward, the one ruckman approach does affect forward structure.  For example, when Harry was rucking, Zac Williams was our CHF.  That reduces his ability to have an impact and puts more defensive pressure on Charlie.

Tom and Pitto both spend around 25% of the game on the pine so were effectively playing with one genuine key forward for one quarter.

Obviously, we are able to work around that with Cripps going forward and our mids and small forwards hitting the scoreboard.

It will be interesting to see how the ruck duties are shared from here on in ?