As we count down to round one for 2013 kicking off in a month’s time, our ruckman seem to be going down left, right and centre. Nic Nat, Aaron Sandilands, Hamish McIntosh – all injured, even Ivan Maric hasn’t had an injury free pre season (through Shane Mumford in there too now!).
With 95% of SuperCoach’s selecting Leuenberger as their second ruck, it now seems likely that 80% will be locking in Todd Goldstein as well.
Don’t get me wrong this is a quality combination, but as I’ve mentioned before POD players are gold. With this lack of fit premium ruckman at the moment, who is there to lead your ruck duo?
Sam Jacobs, ‘Sauce’, the bustling ruckman from the crows is one man who seems to have been overlooked in many mock teams I have seen. But with recent injuries to fellow premium rucks and many coaches wanting to select Cox as a forward, Jacobs is the best pure ruckman for your round one side.
He will turn 25 early in the season and with 60 games under his belt, he is at the prime of his career. He averaged 102.1 in 2012, but most impressively he had just five scores under 90 while never dropping below 75, he is also super reliable.
Jacobs is a hit out monster, he ranked number one in the AFL in 2012 for total hit outs averaging 31 a match. While he is now a huge ball winner, he wins plenty of contested ball, 44% of his possessions were won from a contest in 2012, also playing a huge amount of game time – 88%. You may be wondering is there room for improvement in his game, given he averaged 102, extremely good yet not elite. There certainly is, his tackle rate was down from 4.1 and 3 in 2011 and 2010 respectively to 1.4 in 2012 and he only managed seven goals from his 24 matches. Now with Kurt Tippett leaving the Crows, expect to see Jacobs spend a little more time resting in the forward fifty. With strong improvement in these areas in 2013 we could see his average rise above 110.
Many coaches when selecting there rucks will look to select Goldstein or one of the DPP of Ryder or Roughead, but don’t hesitate to lock in the Adelaide big man, he doesn’t draw a lot of publicity but gets the job done week in week out and is entering his prime for a ruckman.
Expect a career best season from Jacobs.