Time and time the question comes up- What the heck are we suppposed to do about rucks this year?

Never before have we been this spoiled for choice in the rucks. It was lock in Cox and the flavor ruck of choice, and its gangbusters from there.

This year, weve a great supply of premium rucks to chose from, all with their unique downsides, and nice handful of bargain rucks- who as with all players returning from injury, look to carry their own risks.

Tonight we have myself, lucas and last years SuperCoach Chris weighing in on the discussion over the break.

(And read the post under this one for a league update as well as a brand new FREE competition!)

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So, its a tough topic tonight, so I think Ill weigh in first.

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When Lucas first raised this as a topic to discuss, my initial plan was to mock up a gag dartboard, complete with each of the "choose-able" rucks displayed, and Port Adelaides Daniel Bass on the outside- Its just that hard a topic.

Sadly my mad skillz in paint arent quite as mad as I had hoped and that gag will never see the light of day.

The good news is that youll get a serious response from me.

Now, I figured the two ways to take this discussion is to discuss the three viable rucking strategies available.

Firstly, let me say- those of you with the plan to run with two bargain rucks and a prayer- I wish you guys luck, I dont think I would ever have a cajones to do such a thing. Plus I definitely see better value in mid-priced players in every other position. Though if you do do it, either plan to start with Tippett, or look to upgrade to Petrie in that forward line!
- The players from this category I would count as Ottens, Hille, Naitanui, White, Seaby, Mumford, Leuenberger, Warnock and now Skipper

Next, we come to the Set and Forget. Here we have two premiums *hopefully* batting out the entire year for you. I say hopefully because we all saw what happened last year in the rucks! This strategy, there isnt much to fault. Its the safe option. Even if one of your rucks was to suffer in scoring from reduced TOG or a new team, or a ruck returning from injury, or some young upstart improving, youre sure to find yourself scoring well with the escape plan of easily being able to trade out into another ruck.
- Premium rucks of choice include Cox, Sandilands, Clark, Jolly, McIntosh, Ryder, Tippett, Kreuzer and Brogan (Sorry Fraser ).

However, its the third option that is most intriguing for mine, One premium One Bargain.
For starters, you limit your risk on both fronts. You get your pick of the premium Rucks and you also oget your pick of the mid-ranger. However, when the time comes along to upgrade (Whether through price-peak or injury) - Suddenly, you have incite into which of the premiums havent fallen over as so many rucks tend to do!

Well, thats the theory anyways. </blockquote>

Next up, Lucas

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There are a few options I am considering at the moment:

First it would be the simple tried and true of a super-premium Sandilands and a very solid Kreuzer. The danger with this combination is that it costs a lot and does not allow me a heavily premium midfield to go on a "whacking day" in the first few rounds against people who have loaded up with rookies.

To do this it may need either Hille to be installed into R2, or potentially to play Warnock in R2 but use Lobbe in R4 to allow a Tippett forward line player into the role. This would allow Tippett to be the future R2, or upgraded to Petrie later in the season.

Warnock would have to show me more to take that R2. Leuenberger is also on my radar but to be honest has never impressed me. At least in his Freo career Warnock looked to have the goods.

So its either Sandi-Kreuz, Sandi-Hille or Sandi-MPP. These are my three options currently.
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And finally, Chris

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So there are generally 2 options in the rucks....a premium strategy, or a premium/undervalued strategy. This year sees the introduction of a new strategy, being MPP. So lets look at the advantages/disadvantages of each:

Premium Strategy : As the name suggests, this would be safest, highest points accumulating strategy. You would be thinking 2 of Cox, Sandi or Clark here. VERY expensive strategy, but pretty much guaranteed 200+ points from your rucks every week which is invaluable. If one of your rucks goes down, you have a back up aswell, because you simply pick up the other premium that you decided against (money permitting of course) only requiring 1 trade (hopefully). The downside is obvious, the money. Is that money on the 2nd premium better spent elsewhere?

Premium/Undervalued Strategy : So you pick up your premium, which in years passed is always Cox. This year a bit more thought needs to go into it with Sandi closing quickly on Cox, and Mitch Clark having a super 2nd half of 09. This is the strategy I personally adapted the last 2 years with 08 seeing Simmonds and 09 being H-Mac. This allows you to spend that saved $200-250k elsewhere which is perfect. This year there would again seem an obvious undervalued ruck in David Hille. There is also talk of a more expensive, undervalued ruck this season being Kreuzer. Less risky than Hille, but of course more expensive. So this is a risky strategy as the undervalued ruck is generally returning from a knee injury, and we all know thats not good a thing. If you trust the 2nd ruck tho, this is the strategy to go.

MPP : The only 2 options here to start are Petrie and Tippett. Petrie is missing the first few games, so hes a no-no and Tippett can still deliver games of 30-40. Neither of these are premium, nor undervalued, so i cant see too many people having an MPP starting ruckman. Different equation on the bench though. Everyone knows the ruck bench should have as few dollars there as possible so it should be 2 rookies on your bench. If we stick in Lobbe of PTA, we have a little bit of flexibility if we then choose Tippett as a forward. The MPP debate has raged for many a week, so im not going into detail, suffice to say the MPP bench player is a strategy Id suggest lots of people will be taking on this season.

Personally, my thoughts on rucks are set and forget so 2 premiums is the obvious choice. A slightly riskier option would be premium/Hille. If Hille plays well and scores u a 70+ average then this is clearly the best option. Can you trust Hille though?
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And thats it- three fairly solid opinions on the ruck situation. Hopefully you can take something out of this that will help you in your situation!

And dont forget the MPP option! Even if its a matter of saving one of your forward line for a Petrie upgrade- Rucks have always been a minefield of players not playing 22! Dont leave yourself with a donut in the rucks because you didint plan ahead!

(Also, keep in mind that this was mostly written prior to this weekend- I just kept dragging my feet on posting it! )