2022 rucks

[enzedder]

Grundy, Gawn and Darcy are the three guns. Think nearly everyone will want two of them by years end.
Grundy for mine is potentially the safest pick and coming off 115 average is priced at 627k. He is durable and has no other ruck taking time away from him or impacting on his #1 ruck role.
He will in all likelihood step back up above a 120average and be one of the top 2 rucks again. I suppose he has some mental things to overcome but he just seems less risk than others.

Gawn is the best ruck in the competition and can have a major impact on games. He will no doubt have some massive scores in 2022, though with Luke Jackson playing 21 games last year and taking more #1 duties with Gawn playing forward, his rise and likely shared ruck duties may effect Gawn and have an impact by way of role and consequently points.
Priced about 20k odd more than Grundy… I think Grundy is more appealing.

Darcy is priced slightly less than Gawn after his 118average last season. He had some massive games with 193 and 183 coming back to back in R16-17. Whilst he played 21 games in 2021, injury concerns haven’t totally subsided for mine yet.
He’s had his share of injuries in the past and even had some scares throughout 2021 where time was spent on the bench mid game.
His scoring could be like no other ruck though. Darcy will be in many starting line ups and rightly so.

NicNat was mega consistent in 2021 scoring over 100 in every game after R6 with just 3 sub 100s in the early rounds. With his 115 average last season, he is priced the same as Grundy at 627k.
For mine though he doesn’t have the same upside and doesn’t represent as good value. He is priced close to his max.

As for others they will have their weeks but over the journey their owners will be bleeding points on the rucks mentioned above. Taking Hickey, Goldstein, ROB and McInerney will also cost an unnecessary trade if those same owners decide to pick up one of the genuine top 2/3 rucks later in the season after seeing the error of their ways.

One other possibility that is worth pondering if things pan out is Lynch and Preuss at R2&3 especially if they are named R1. Lynch had no real chance at Collingwood with Grundy but now at Hawthorn he just may claim #1 ruck duties. Preuss is cheap again. A steppingstone strategy may give coaches the chance to wait and see on who to get out of Gawn and Darcy. It’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

[Peter]

I think NN has upside as TOG gradually
Increasing and helps bye structure and
set and forget philosophy

[RaisyDaisy]

Jarrod Witts at R2 with Preuss R3 is a legit option too

At just 380k Witts' last two seasons saw him going 90-95, so you get a cheap R2 who can score, whilst giving you time to see who of Gawn/Darcy/Grundy you want to upgrade him to mid season