Ruck development over last decade

[Pies4shaw]

What you actually have to do is look at how the Collingwood averages stack up against the AFL averages, year by year. I think you'll find, eg, that the Collingwood average in 2000 was about two-thirds of the AFL average. It isn't, now. It's closer to half as much again as the AFL average. That's not about the number of stoppages - it's about the relative competency of the rucks.

Thus, in 2000, Collingwood had 480 hitouts. Melbourne had 870 (with a couple of finals, of course).

You also have to have a look at the reasons for the outliers. Once again, I can't really be bothered doing all the numbers but if you take 2015, what you will find is that you had a number of teams with great ruckmen at the peak of their powers (Adelaide, powered by Jacobs, had 1,000 hitouts, Brisbane, powered by Martin and Leunberger, had over 1,000, Carlton, rucking Kreuzer, Casboult, Warnock and Wood, had nearly 880, Collingwood, rucking Grundy and Witts, had just under 850, Freo had over 1,400 - Sandilands had over 1,000 on his own, etc etc). Fremantle averaged 64 hitouts per game. In 2014, another outlier year, Freo (again led by Sandilands) had nearly 1,300.

Thus, you could actually rank where Collingwood stood, year by year, relative to the rest of the competition. In 2000, eg, we were hopelessly last - no other team had less than 600 hitouts and we had just 480. After us, the next lowest was Freo with 612 (led by that all-time great Clem Michael).