WHEN Dean Cox hung up the boots at the end of last year, it seemed AFL Fantasy had said goodbye to its last legendary ruckman.
Cox was the ultimate mobile, high-possession tall who could be handed the captaincy tag with confidence. If not a Fantasy Pig, he was certainly a Fantasy Giraffe.
With Cox gone, Nic Naitanui has taken the Eagles' ruck baton and has been more than serviceable in Fantasy. But the dreadlocked one simply doesn't take enough marks to bring in the big scores. In fact he barely takes any.
2015 looked like the first season in some time where Fantasy coaches could take a serious liberty or two with their ruck divisions. Apart from Stef Martin, who looked prohibitively expensive, was there such a thing as a premium ruckman anymore?
My reaction as round one loomed was to simply look for plug and play options – i.e. two mid-priced ruckman and one cheap bench option who were likely to play 22 games and bring home anything close to a 70-point average. The money left over would be better spent in the midfield.
I went with a Brodie Grundy/Zac Smith starting pair with Matthew Leuenberger on the bench (along with Mason Cox for comedy value).
It worked out OK, although no scoring records were threatened. Grundy's been excellent, and Smith was soon swapped to Billy Longer when his early season form didn't measure up. (In hindsight, I could have swapped Smith for Tom Nicholls just like the Suns did and achieved much the same result).
Take on Sloane, Naitanui, Pendlebury and more in a Fantasy celebrity league
But as the season wore on, opponents were consistently racking up winning scores, when it appeared we had much the same midfield and forward set-ups. There was just one point of difference, and he was a 201cm Kangaroo who thrives on a heavy ruck workload and lots of running.
Todd Goldstein has given us a glimpse of his current heights before – in 2011 he averaged 99.4 and delivered seven scores over 100 as Hamish McIntosh again went down with injury and the Roos decided that David Hale didn't fit into their plans.
This year, the 27-year-old is clearly the competition's top ruckman, and is a chance for an unlikely Brownlow according to his coach, should Nat Fyfe keep falling foul of the Match Review Panel.
His 175-point Fantasy-fest against poor old Shaun McKernan last Friday night set the 2015 benchmark. Well, at least until Gary Ablett stepped out onto Metricon Stadium the next day.
The perfect initial ruck trifecta of Goldstein and Mark Blicavs, with Max Gawn on the bench at the start of the year would have taken just $1,172,000 out of your salary cap before round one. It would have made you $506,000 by now.
There's no prototype for Blicavs who may lose ruck status next year, and only time will tell if Gawn can maintain his breakout form. But what does seem certain is the retirement of Dean Cox doesn’t spell the end of elite Fantasy ruckman. In 2015, if you haven't got Goldy, you're really just playing for silver.
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Get 'em in
Chris Mayne (FWD, $421,000)
Dayne Zorko (FWD/MID, $497,000)
Kane Lambert (MID/FWD, $176,000)
Tom Fields (DEF, $160,000)
Joel Selwood (MID, $467,000)
Farewell for now
Jeremy McGovern (DEF/FWD, $285,000)
Travis Cloke (FWD, $393,000)
Jamie Elliott (FWD, $398,000)
Pearce Hanley (MID, $475,000)
Koby Stevens (FWD/MID, $442,000)
