Interesting revisiting Healy's article from Friday about ruckwork dying given we've been pumped in the hitouts most weeks and got absolutely smashed at the centre clearances by the Swans. A combo of Simmo and Patto not neutralising Everitt and Jolly's tapwork and our mids being crap yesterday at reading the opposition ruckmen and not getting their hands on the footy.
Most premiership sides of recent times have had a quality ruck duo which is something we don't have at the moment..
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The great ruck myth
Gerard Healy
Friday, May 30, 2008
RUCKWORK is dying. When rovers were given armchair rides by legends John Nicholls and Polly Farmer in the 1960s and ‘70s, the craft of ruckwork was celebrated.
And ruckmen were rightly lauded as lions who ruled the football jungle.
But research shows that in today’s football, despite what we are continually told, it is a very different story.
For many reasons, including defensive strategies of coaches at stoppages, the effectiveness of ruckwork is more myth than reality today.
FACT Let’s start by looking at some facts and the most compelling of all is that only 22 per cent of hitouts go to advantage across the competition.
ON average only one in five, at most, of the clearances in football can be in any way attributed to ruckmen, according to the AFL’s official stats provider Champion Data.
You can argue the merits of the definition - a successful hitout is classed as one that goes to a teammate who is able to get a possession - but it’s not going to change the fact that this figure - one in five - is almost a knockout blow for those who believe the ruckwork myth.
And that is without even trying to estimate how many “hitouts to advantage” are the work of the clearance player who turns a non-directed tap into a first possession.
If you are still seduced by the ruckwork myth, consider the two key jobs of the ruckman at a contest: winning the tap and then successfully directing it. Of the 523 ruck contests the best tap ruckman has competed in this season, he achieved both objectives just 71 times.
DEAN COX WEST Coast ruckman Dean Cox, the best big man we’ve seen possibly since Simon Madden, would command a $1 million salary if he was on the open market, but how much of his value can be assigned to ruckwork?
In 2008 Cox has won a hitout to advantage from 10.3 per cent of his ruck contests.
Of major interest, though, is the fact that this figure is 25 per cent down on his average from 2003-07 when he had Chris Judd, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr at his feet.
This suggests a significant proportion of successful hitouts are dependent on the receiver and not the provider.
AARON SANDILANDS SOME say the tallest man in the game hasn’t delivered, but, in the ruck alone he is playing at All-Australian standard this year. For the record only - for this statistic is the most useless one in the game - he’s had 74 more hitouts than anyone else in the competition.
But so what - who cares which ruckman gets their hand on the ball first if it doesn’t go anywhere?
It’s value is only that it points to the potential of the man. More important is his 22 more hitouts to advantage than anyone else in the competition - without question, he has done his job.
But the most damning stat in football right now, and one of the core reasons the Dockers are having the problems they are, is that despite Sandilands’ dominance, they are the worst team in the game at clearances.
FACT Fremantle has won the hitouts in every game but has lost the clearances in every game.
THIS is an indictment on the Dockers’ clearance players and their coaches, and it simply has to be addressed before the year is out.
It is also a strong indicator that ruck efficiency is about a marriage of two equal halves, not the master-servant relationship that is usually portrayed.
Sandilands is the one man who could single-handedly return ruckwork to its former significance, but only if those around him - on and off the field - better utilise this resource.
BRAD OTTENS OTTENS, back in the Geelong team tomorrow, was given enormous credit for his Grand Final ruck dominance, but it was perception, not reality.
He played extremely well, but it had little to do with his hitouts or traditional ruckwork.
FACT Brad Ottens had 19 hitouts in the GF - but not one to advantage, according to the research that requires the tap to result in a possession and disposal by a teammate.
THERE were countless assessments of how Ottens and Steven King dominated the ruck over Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan, but that’s not what the numbers tell us.
What the Geelong pair did do was play well around the ground and at stoppages, nullifying a potential advantage of Port Adelaide and providing their clearance players with a neutral playing field.
And as far as ruckwork goes that’s all you really need or want—a competitive effort the gives you an even chance at ground level.
TROY SIMMONDS
THAT’S exactly what you get from the Tigers’ ruckman, who is flying again this year. He rarely wins a tap to advantage—just one in 10—but neither do his opponents.
He jumps early and hopes to neutralise bigger ruckmen, then works at getting the clearance himself.
Ben Hudson works along similar lines at the Bulldogs, and it’s worth noting that in terms of scores from clearances—a more effective measurement than simple clearances—the Tigers rank well above their standing on the ladder and the Bulldogs are No. 2 in the competition.
So, just where does ruckwork fit into the scheme of things, given that so much time, effort and money is put into gaining an advantage there.
In reality there is very little difference between ruckmen in their tapwork, and their influence at stoppages ranks a distance third behind clearance players and random influences, including the third man up.
And that’s not surprising, given the changes to the game. SAM NEWMAN NEWMAN was the first to teach ruckwork as a science and worked with Simon Madden to add the science of angles and positioning to Madden’s enormous talent to dominate the game.
But everyone now has the same information, and ruck coaches teach the same theory, so any advantage has been largely neutralised.
We are left too often with a stalemate in which ruckmen either link arms and wrestle to no conclusion at boundary throw-ins or, limited by the centre circle, jump early and often don’t even touch the ball in a meaningful way.
And, unfortunately, much good ruckwork goes unrewarded due to tight tags and scrimmages that lead to the excessive number of secondary bounces; in last week’s Fremantle- Carlton game nearly half of all ruck contests resulted in a secondary bounce.
Despite the myth, clearances are predominantly (in four out of five cases) about players other than the ruckmen, a scenario exacerbated because no one allows ruckmen to belt the ball into space any more, a centre clearance tactic that underpinned Brisbane’s strategy in their premiership era, and one that Fremantle and Aaron Sandilands should consider.
THE CRUNCH PUNCH SANDILANDS is so dominant in hitouts he has become far too predictable, and adding the “crunch punch” to a predetermined space to his repertoire could help Freo’s clearance problem dramatically, and reassert the value of ruckwork.
Consider this little mindtwister - in the 30 minutes the forgotten Keppler Bradley was in the ruck last week against Carlton, Fremantle dominated clearances.
When the best tap ruckmen in the game was in control the Dockers were slaughtered.
The “block of flats” is so dominant it takes away the random element; too often he hits the ball to the same space.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Adam Bentick stood in the same spot at every Sandilands ruck contest last weekend.
The crunch punch to space is the best way to immediately increase the options the opposition has to consider.
But are the Dockers prepared to take a risk when no one else will?
So far this season there have been only 18 crunch punches to gain a hitout to advantage.
That’s two per week.
Ruckwork is dying because no one wants to take a risk. The Dockers are dying because they are slaves to fashion rather than boldly letting Sandilands become the rucking equivalent of “Twiggy”.
But what of ruckmen in general - are they worth having or was Grant Thomas right when he elected to play Jason Blake in the ruck at the expense of hitouts.
GAME OF THE YEAR DESPITE what I’ve said so far, the most dominant game of any individual this year, Buddy Franklin included, was by Aaron Sandilands. Yes, a ruckmen.
His Round 6 game against Geelong was phenomenal. He was head and shoulders (literally and metaphorically) above anyone else on the ground.
But that wasn’t because of his hitout numbers, or even his ruckwork in general, but the complete Sandilands package.
He dominated hitouts, winning 48 with 11 to advantage (roughly one in four), but it was his 20 contested possessions and 13 clearances that took his game to the top echelon.
The story was similar in Ottens’ preliminary final last season. He won 24 hitouts with six to advantage, but he actually cleared six stoppages himself and won 15 contested possessions around the ground.
He was considered best on ground but his ruckwork played only a handy part, at best, in the total performance.
THE FUTURE DEAN Cox provides the evidence and answers to the debate about a ruckman’s worth as he remains one of the game’s most dominant players.
Like most of the top ruckmen today, his ruckwork plays a minor role in clearances with a marginal dominance in hitouts to advantage.
He also has an impact in getting his own clearances, but it is his work as a hard-running, skilful tall midfielder that allows him to exert such an influence on the game.
He adds pace and carry to the West Coast midfield while other ruckmen slow their midfields down.
The influence of ruckwork has never been at a lower ebb, limited by the enormous work of coaches to neutralise stoppages and the centre circle.
The influence of the best ruckmen is still potent, but for very different reasons to the past.
There will still be magical moments when the memories of Nicholls to Gallagher, Farmer to Goggin and Madden to Watson are invoked, but sadly they are all too few.
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