A tactic used by Sydney during their AAMI Community Series loss to GWS caught Nick Dal Santo’s eye.
The Swans have struggled to work out their ruck set up in recent years, with the likes of Sam Naismith and Callum Sinclair spending long periods on the sidelines with injuries.
They traded for West Coast depth big-man Tom Hickey going into the 2021 season, but Dal Santo noticed a unique strategy at ruck contests inside their forward 50 on the weekend.
“Sydney had an interesting tactic on the weekend. I don’t know how many times they did it, they definitely did it a few times where they had no designated ruckman in their forward 50 at a throw-in,” Dal Santo told SEN Breakfast.
“So they allowed (GWS ruckman) Kieren Briggs just to go for it himself. What would you do if you were the sole ruckman in the defensive 50? You’d try and grab it.
“So you know what Luke Parker did? Luke Parker started about five metres in front of the stoppage, identifies that Briggs is the only person allowed to touch the footy and, as he is taking possession of it, a steamroller just went straight through Briggs and piledrived him.
“It happened a few times. Callan Ward went into the ruck a few times, so I don’t know whether the Giants were thinking ‘well we don’t want our big man just to stand there and get battered the whole time, let’s get someone a little more crafty and use Ward’.
“I’m just going to keep a close eye on this. Whether this is a tactic going forward and whether the Swans are thinking ‘how can we mix this up’.
“They get an extra number behind the ball with Tom Hickey dropping behind the footy.”
The Giants won the game by 28 points with draftee Tanner Bruhn kicking four goals in his first outing.
Parker did his bit for the Swans, finishing with 22 disposals and three goals of his own.