Originally Posted by
Bloods05
I hesitate to challenge your expertise on this point Ludwig, as it's very clear you hold passionately to the view that ruckmen are a superfluous feature of The Greatest Game; but I'm afraid it has to be said that you are over-egging the pudding.
It is a fact that most ruckmen in the modern era are not especially good at doing what they are there to do, namely tapping the ball to a teammate in an advantageous position at ball-ups and boundary throw-ins. Why this should be so is somewhat mystifying to me. There was a time when there would have been at least half a dozen ruckmen in the league who were consistently good at this: think Polly Farmer, John Nicholls, Fred Way, Don McKenzie, Alan Morrow, Carl Ditterich, Len Thompson, Brian Roberts - all playing in the same era of the '60s and '70s, plus Simon Madden in the 80s.
In recent years only Dean Cox stands out in this regard, although there have been a few others who have made a major impact in other ways - Naitanui, Mumford for example.
What I find mystifying is that the art of ruckwork seems to have largely disappeared from the game, and to that extent I agree with you. But a genuinely great, athletic ruckman like Cox - a rarity now, but not so rare in the past - can make an enormous difference to a team's performance, and it is therefore still worthwhile to keep looking for one.
Is it a lost art? Are there so few now who possess the skills that there is no-one left to pass them on? I don't know the answer to that, and I hope it isn't so.
I do agree that most ruckmen are a bit of a liability and most teams are better off without them, but those few teams lucky enough to have a good one enjoy a significant advantage, and the Swans should not give up the search for such players.
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