Clark wins new-age ruck battle

WHEN the Brisbane Lions faced the Sydney Swans at the SCG on Saturday night two significant outcomes were on the line.

Firstly, the hard-fought win earned the Lions a critical home final. During the 2009 season they have progressed from mid-ladder with 10 wins to the top six with 13-and-a-half wins.

Knowing the Lions playing list very well it is fair to say that the team has received contributions from each individual according to his optimum ability.

The leadership of Michael Voss and Jonathan Brown has been outstanding.

The second, more individual, contest was between two All-Australian rivals. The new-age ruck prototype, the Lions' tall quick and agile Mitch Clark, against the Swans' Darren Jolly, the traditional ruck shape; tall, slow and bulky.

There is no doubt the two-centre circle system has helped the ruckmen who can jump high off a few steps enormously.

Clark and his back-up, 195 cm Jared Brennan, both made Jolly look like his stops were stuck to the ground. They continually jumped higher to get first hands to the footy.

It was in the around-the-ground contest that Jolly's bulk and experience had to become dominant.

When Clark's agility and positioning allowed him to hold his own in the body-on-body part of the game the rest was utterly predictable. After the ruck contest, Clark becomes an extra running midfielder. He has the movement to get into the back-50 to block the space, or mark third up and can go into the forward-50 to become a dangerous marking target.

His emergence as a mobile ruckman, like Patrick Ryder at Essendon, has given his team an extremely valuable injection of speed and run.

If Jolly was an All-Australian rival then the match-up we saw this week provided great ammunition that Clark is now close enough to the most valuable ruckman in the game.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.