Welcome back to the 2017 Big Tap leaderboard. Round 1 - Saw the return of Sandilands, great to have you back. Big Maxy Gawn continues where he left off and 2 Crows make it on the leaderboard - Jacobs and Atkins (OOP and Emergency). Got a feeling that Atkins may not get many more points this year. Round 2 - No great changes this week with the big boys getting it done. Jarrod Witts was a bit unlucky to not get a point and where was Pruess?? He spent half a game against Geelong without anyone contesting him! Round 3 - With an injury to Gawn, Sandi and Kruezer have bounced to the lead. Surprise packet Witts has joined the pack with 2 points. Could this just be his season? Round 4 - Sandi, the oldest ruck out there (guessing) has taken the lead! Can his old bones keep this up all year? Witts continues to get the job done with Goldy, Leuenberger and Nankervis now join the party. Round 5 - The rise of the Nank! For those of us lucky enough to have him in your FWD line on SC, he has been fantastic. Busting out a massive 127 on the weekend and providing @TigersTooTough a fantastic Ruck option for 2017. Sandi continues his awesome form for 2017 and is currently the man to beat! Round 6 - Well the Nank used his elbows to great effect this week, although it wasn't enough to get the points over Grundy. Zach Smith was lucky to get the 1 point this week with a lacklustre 37 whilst Sandi continues to dominate. Who will stop Sandi? My guess is that only a LTI will stop Sandi this year! Sinclair top scored this week with a massive 142 and possibly a POOYA to go along with the points. Round 7 - Grundy vs SPS - Sampson vs Goliath... and who wins? well, the little man of course! SPS only gave up 5 feet in height, but was the bigger man on the day to take his first (and maybe only) Big Tap point. Well done young man! Sandilands has had his first stumble of the year allowing the field to catch up, whilst we see our first tie of the season with Goldi and McEvoy unable to be separated. Round 8 - Unfortunately SPS couldn't back up last weeks efforts and I think he may be stranded on one point for the remainder of the season. Sandi continues his great 2017 season performing well enough to get the wins on the board. Grundy continues his LWLWLWLW streak to get to 4 points, he is now due a loss next week! But, c'mon who could not be excited by Sauce Jacobs 141 on the weekend? You should all be! Round 9 - Thud! Back to earth for my boy Sauce Jacobs. Knocked off by Big Boy McEvoy. Some huge scores from Smith, Mummy, Goldy and Kruezer showing why the latter 3 are Premo rucks and unfortunately for Witts he failed to board his flight back from Chickety China. Sandi keeps the lead with the pack close on his heals! Sorry for the hiatus. Round 10 - The SPS wheels have come off the track with the young man now producing very low scores the Armadillos need some ruck help desperately! This was the week for OOP Ruckman with at least 3 teams going in without a big man. Round 10 also started (with some lovely hindsight) the slide of the Nank! Round 14 - OMGaaaaawn!! The big man is back, and the competition is scared! Can big Maxy storm home? Will Sandi be seen again? Will every team start playing ruckman? This is the week of the big questions! We now have a 3 way tie with Sandi, Mummy and my man Sauce all on 8 points. Gonna be a close one this year! Round 15 - RIP 2017 Aaron Sandilands. You battled hard in 2017 with that massive frame and 38yo legs, but you are cooked. So who can finish the season off? Mummy or Jacobs would seem the favourites but Gawn is back with another impressive score this week. Round 16 - Well the two front runners have hit a stumbling block that was Goldy and the Nank as Mummy and Sauce Jacobs both failed to get the job done this week. The pack is closing in and the 2017 Big Tap award could be anyones!!! Early season flyer Witts has been quiet lately but is still just hanging onto the pack. McEvoy with his 1001 to 1 odds at the start of the season will please those that took the punt on him as he firms into 2.30. Round 17 - What a close finish we are having. All the big boys played this week versus one another. Mummy V Ryder, Sauce V Martin, Big Boy V Gawn. Goldy was back, now gone again as he failed to get the job done over the Nank. Round 18 - Callum Sinclair 148! Sauce 133! both men showing that the big boys can score as well as their Mid team mates. Nank gets the 1 point even though putting up a score of 54. Gawn makes it back to the winners list and Mummy takes the overall lead! If Mummy can just keep fit, its all his with only a few rounds left! Round 19 - So, the only thing that really mattered was the top 4 and who would score and who would not! Mummy and Jacobs copped donuts whilst Big Boy and Kreuzer both got the job done. Standby the finale!!! Round 20 - It is done! Write up to follow. Now to the leaderboard: McEvoy - 12.5 Mumford - 12 Jacobs - 11 Kruezer - 11 Goldstein - 8.5 Sandilands - 8 Grundy - 8 Nankervis - 8 Witts - 8 Ryder - 7 Gawn - 6 Smith - 5 Sinclair - 5 Leuenberger - 4 Bellchambers - 4 Martin - 3 Boyd - 3 Tippett - 3 Stanley - 2 Hickey - 2 Giles - 2 Vardy - 2 Trengrove - 1 Atkins - 1 Petrevski-Seton - 1 Lycett - 1
Lol. I feel for you mate, at least I can share my pain around! A 'W' on the board is all that young Tom is worried about and he reassures the both of us that it is a long season ahead and he won't be the only player to suffer at the hands of the beard!
Ryder returns and stakes his claim as a top 10 ruck...now if only my second ruck was fit I could play Paddy up forward!
In response to @martyg I'm torn on bringing Stefan into the ruck, or allowing Mummy to hold down the spot for the year. At the start of the year I thought about this - flipped a coin (which Mummy won) - and thought that I'd just stick with one primary ruckman to see if he can win the big tap. I had about as much faith in each of them to play out a complete year... lets see...
If it makes it easier for you to maintain your faith, then I'll happily take Martin off your hands.....
Maybe for rucks - I only have FOUR pure mids in my team, so not really spoilt for choice there... "swings and roundabouts"