AFLW Fantasy rucks: Premiums, mid-priced options, rookie radar

PICKING a ruck can often be the most decisive aspect of your AFLW Fantasy team structure. In previous seasons, rookie-priced options like Eilish O'Dowd and Matilda Scholz have been able to match the elite scorers in that season, while in other seasons, coaches who have scrimped in their ruck line have given up 40 or 50 points per week to the best scorers.

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With only 47 players to choose from selecting our rucks, and the potentially large gaps between the top tier rucks, the solid-but-unspectacular options, and low job security rookies, picking the right ruck combination each season has proven to be one of the most difficult choices for an AFLW Fantasy.

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Top of the line

Matilda Scholz
Mim Strom
Lucy Wales

Matilda Scholz (Port Adelaide, $1,102,000, 95.2 average)
In much the same way that she broke her way into the All-Australian team for the first time in 2025, Scholz broke out into the elite tier of AFLW Fantasy rucks. Her average of 95.2 put her third for Fantasy points for the season, and she scored the season's highest ruck score with 137 in round three against Gold Coast (it sure helps to kick four goals).

Why does Scholz have another level to go in 2026? There are a whole host of reasons. First and foremost, at only 21 years old, Scholz has shown that she is only gradually coming to grips with her skill and athletic dominance over the league. Last year started slowly for Scholz and the Power (scoring only 48 points vs Mim Strom in round one), but in the final month of the season, we saw that Scholz was capable of elite scoring, averaging 102 points per game, with two 100+ scores against two of the competition's most restrictive ruck match-ups in Brisbane and Hawthorn. Secondly, the AFLW's incoming rule changes for rucks will preference centre ball-up scoring for athletic leaping rucks like Scholz. Finally, Port Adelaide's potential shift to a game style which will involve more marking and composed ball movement could see Scholz, already one of the competition's best marking rucks, add 3-6 points per game from that source.

The chasing pack of ruck options, Mim Strom (Fremantle, $1,091,000) and Lucy Wales (Hawthorn, $1,050,000), are extremely close to Scholz. Strom was one of the more disappointing uber-premiums to start 2025, as she and Fremantle came to grips with the AFLW's new holding the ball rules and the corresponding drop in stoppages. However, towards the back end of the year, Strom regained some of her 2024 form, averaging nearly 110 points per game. This pre-season has seen her playing some time in the forward line, including against Richmond in the official practice match, which is a new look for her, and not one that inspires confidence. If you were already keen, it should not force you to waver, but is not a vote in her column for a starting pick.

Wales was very close to a spot in the All-Australian team last year, and nearly matched Scholz in her Fantasy points breakout (20 points to Scholz's 22 points) between 2024 and 2025. Why she currently sits at third on the rankings is down to her having the most potential red flags to start the season. A serious appendix injury at the end of 2025 apparently robbed Wales of a portion of her off-season training capacity. Additionally, Hawthorn added very capable forward/back-up ruck Jacqui Dupuy in free agency, which has seen Wales spend time in the forward line this pre-season.

On the outside looking in

Ally Morphett, Alice Edmonds, Steph Wales

Ally Morphett (Sydney, $1,081,000, 86.8 average)
Several seasons of recurring lower leg issues for Morphett heading into 2025 were seemingly cast aside as she only missed one game all season, which is the fewest she has missed in any season of her career. That being said, arguably the biggest constraint on Morphett is her low time on ground, which is so often a sign of fitness or injury concerns from the coaching staff. Morphett's Fantasy points per minute average (ppm) of 1.43 is extremely close to two highest averaging rucks of 2025 (Strom at 1.47 ppm, and Wales at 1.49 ppm). If she is ever able to get the 10-15 minutes on the ground that are afforded to the elite AFLW rucks, Morphett could comfortably add 20 points onto her average and launch herself into the highest echelon of rucks.

Steph Wales (Essendon, $827,000, 77.1 average)
The Essendon edition of the Wales twins started 2025 recovering from an ACL injury, but leapt straight to the top when she dominated St Kilda's inexperienced ruck pod to score 122 (the fourth highest ruck score of the year). This speaks to Steph ‘Killa' Wales' potential, as a highly capable ppm scorer, able to match her more highly drafted sister. With a fully healthy pre-season under her belt, it would not be wholly shocking to see Killa close the gap on Lucy and average in the mid to high 80s.

Under the blanket: Jess Allan (Adelaide, $561,000, 52.2 average), Alice Edmonds (Western Bulldogs, $793,000, 73.9 average), Tahlia Hickie (Brisbane, $744,000, 69.3 average), Imogen Barnett (Collingwood, $720,000, 67.1 average)

Mid-priced options

Lauren Bella (Carlton, $347,000, 32.4 average)
While she may be only just more expensive than a rookie, Bella's AFLW experience makes her worthy of discussion as a mid-pricer. Bella has previously led the AFLW in hitouts, moved from Carlton to the Gold Coast after she fell well and truly out of favour with the Rhyce Shaw coaching regime in 2025. The Blues need to replace Breann Harrington's spot in their best 21, and if they are looking to continue their strategy of playing two rucks, pairing Bella with Jess Good would make sense. Importantly, if Carlton's pre-season match can be trusted, if was Bella who was the predominant ruck contest attendee, and it was Good who was replacing Harrington's more forward-half role. If Bella can attend around 40 per cent of the Blues' ruck contests this year, she will be able to increase her average by 10-15 points from 2025, and present as a solid R2 option, or an R1 for the bold and the brave.

Eilish O'Dowd (GWS, $664,000, 61.8 average)
O'Dowd dropped 10 points per game as she lost some of her ruck contests to the less experienced Grace Kos and Fleur Davies. Talk from the Giants in 2026 is that O'Dowd will be deployed more frequently as a midfielder, in a team looking to add speed and agility into their centre stoppage make up. This is a truly mid-priced madness option, and not one I endorse to start the season, but a positional shift on the horizon makes O'Dowd a player to monitor intently in the early rounds of the year.

Under the blanket: Sabrina Frederick (Collingwood, $537,000, 50.1 average), Ariana Hetherington (Collingwood, $363,000, average), Piper Dunlop (Geelong, $365,000, 34 average), Emmelie Fiedler (St Kilda, $436,000, DNP 2025)

Rookie options

Georja Davies (Gold Coast, $260,000, DNP 2025)

Davies is the fourth Davies sister to grace the league, and arrives at the level as the most herald draft prospect of the lot. Showing herself as being a capable player across all three lines, at 184 cm tall, as a draft recruit, Georja ought to have impressed Fantasy coaches with her efforts vs Carlton in the official practice match. Her elite score (86 points) was the second highest recorded for any ruck across the weekend, matched her composure playing predominantly as a tall defender for a Suns' team that seemed intent on using their tallest defenders (Davies and Clara Fitzpatrick) as their main distributors from D50. Adding that type of pre-season scoring on top of the job security that comes with being a top 10 pick is enough to make Georja the top rookie option in my eyes.

Jacinta Hose (Melbourne, $200,000, DNP 2025)
Melbourne was without its two first-choice rucks from last year when it played Port Adelaide, as both Lauren Pearce and Georgia Campbell return from injuries. Tasked with the unenviable task of matching up against Matilda Scholz in that game was currently untested rookie Jacinta Hose, who has missed the last few seasons with consecutive ACL injuries. Hose was not able to best Scholz (which was not expected), but put up an admirable score of 50, and looked pretty mobile around the ground. Currently Hose is the most highly owned rookie priced ruck in AFLW Fantasy, but will that last once we have definitive return to play timelines for Pearce and Campbell, as it will be difficult for the Demons to pick all three options when healthy.

Maisy Evans and Yasmeen Janschek (GWS, $200,000, DNP 2025)
The Giants' rookie ruck merry-go-round spins on for another season. GWS appears to have cast aside Eilish O'Dowd and Grace Kos to play more time as midfielder, and ran with a 50/50 ruck tandem of Evans and Janschek when they played the Western Bulldogs in the practice match. Neither come to the club with substantial fanfare or draft investment, Janschek was pick No.55 in the '25 draft and Evans was taken at No.2 in the newly formed pre-season draft, but didn't look out of place when competing against Alice Edmonds. I hold little confidence that either will be granted the sole ruck role to start the year, in particular as O'Dowd did not play vs the Bulldogs, but I was impressed by Janschek in particular, who showed very capable marking skills. Two players to watch.

Also consider: Paige Price (Gold Coast, $200,000, DNP 2025), Maddie Quinn (Sydney, $215,000, DNP 2025), Grace Kos (GWS, $258,000, 24 average), Madison Torpey (North Melbourne, $282,000, 27.7 average), Caitlin Tipping (Geelong, $309,000, 28.8 average)

Liam's Rucks

The draw of a premium ruck pick is too great to pass up in the new era of larger AFLW Fantasy squads. I will hopefully be able to limit my trades in this line to rookie downgrades at R2, as I start my pick for the best averaging ruck, Matilda Scholz. Right now, my bench selection is Georja Davies based on her stellar practice match performance. If Hose, Paige Price or one of the GWS rucks is confirmed to be the locked in ruck starter for a few weeks to begin the season, I may pivot there.