Ruckmen in 2022 is a weird, funny landscape. Usually, we would have the likes of Todd Goldstein or Nic Natanui in the mix (who we will touch on in a separate blog) but to me, it looks like we only have three rock-solid candidates to be absolute locks if you’re looking to win it all this year! In GameDay Squad’s AFL scoring system, ruckmen who move around the ground and aren’t afraid to put the ball on the laces are going to be handsomely rewarded! Those low-disposal hit-out merchants will suffer drastically. So, let's look at some unsurprising targets to help you go all the way in season 2022!
1. Brodie Grundy
Our very own ruck-pig Brodie Grundy should undoubtedly be close to the top of every GameDay Squad coaches wish list going into season 2022! He’s the most dominant pure ruckman in the league finishing 1st in hit-outs league-wide last year, while also adding almost 20 disposals and 4 tackles a game to his massive hit-out totals. What’s scary is he finished with 12 goals last season, which is a career-best for him. At only 27 years of age, he’s still coming into the best years of his career and I'm willing to bet he’s the #1 GameDay Squad ruckman come the end of the year!
2. Max Gawn
Like Grundy, who for me is cemented as the #1 seed at the ruck position, Gawn is cemented in at #2. Grundy and Gawn have been #1 and #2 as fantasy ruckman for years and it’s definitely not changing in 2022! Gawn finished last year as 2nd in the hit-outs per game category league-wide. Interestingly he closed the year ranked 10th in percentage of time spent on the field, which might seem like a cherry-picking stat but that is a massive effort for a ruckman! Gawn is about as safe as it gets for fantasy, he plays a lot of football, he can push forward and kick goals, he moves well around the ground, he can take contested marks. He’s my #2 this year.
3. Sean Darcy
It’s funny what a little bit of health and a string of games can do! Sean Darcy finally took the leap last year that so many had predicted and he did it in a big way. Career-highs in every major stat category; Disposals, goals, tackles, marks, hit-outs and he’s only 23 years old. He had some massive games in the back end of last year as well, in round 16 he had 20 touches, 40(!) hit-outs and a goal against Carlton and in round 17 he had 25 disposals, 9 marks and 27 hit-outs against Hawthorn. If that is any indication of what’s to come in 2022, sign me up!
Certainly slim pickings at the ruck spot this year but if you manage to be one of the lucky ones who packs one of these three guys, consider yourself gargantuanly lucky! You will already have a big leg up over the rest of the competition and you can set and forget your ruck position for the rest of the year! Good luck.
GameDay Squad is an NFT fantasy sports platform that is being released for the 2022 AFL and NRL season. Subscribe below to keep up to date with all things GameDay Squad and NFTs in sport.
Listen to the GameDay Squad Footy podcast on Spotify, Apple, or on our YouTube Channel.