Ex-AFL recruiter and former Fitzroy ruckman Matthew Rendell has named who he thinks are the best ruckmen in the AFL this season.
Rendell believes that ruckmen don’t get enough credit for the work they do and cited Richmond’s Toby Nankervis as an example.
“Nankervis, how important (is he) for Richmond,” Rendell told SEN Afternoons.
“Has he been underrated in their flag teams? He comes back and they look a completely different team.”
Rendell thinks that there is a host of great ruckmen in the competition that make a genuine impact to their side.
“There’s about seven I could name that are all influential and they’re all different,” he added.
“(Brodie) Grundy, (Max) Gawn, (Sean) Darcy has probably been the second-best this year.
“Nankervis obviously. (Tom) Hickey was probably the second-best ruckman until Darcy has taken that spot. (Todd) Goldstein’s right there, he’s had a great year too and I was really impressed with him against Nic Naitanui, who’s the other one.
“Nic Nat was outstanding against Adelaide on the weekend and they must’ve scored five or six goals at least from his ruck work.
“There’s some really good ruckmen around, all of those ones that I’ve named and there’s probably two or three others that I’ve missed here.
“They’re all completely different aren’t they, It’s amazing. But they’re all of a very high standard.
“At the moment, I’d say that the best three this year has been Gawn, Darcy, Hickey and probably Grundy in at fourth.
“Grundy - Goldstein, Nic Nat has been a bit hot and cold, missed a few games and Nankervis has just come back and won’t be able to get into that top four or five.”
