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KICK Rating · All-time · ruckmen

All-time rucks — kick rating leaderboard

The top ruckmen right now, ranked by rolling 40-game KICK-R. Role-aware multipliers lift hit-outs and contested marks for rucks, and the output is calibrated so the 95th-percentile ruck sits at 76. Raw formula + overall KICK shown for transparency. 74 ruckmen in the pool, top 74 shown. Ranked by career-average KICK (position-scaled). Players with 100+ games. For the peak-form view see the main Peak-form leaderboard.

See how positional KICK works.

Peak 40 is not "greatest career"

This list ranks ruckmen by their best 40-game rolling window of KICK-R — the strongest ~1.75-season stretch they ever put together at this position. It's a peak-form metric, not a career-value metric. A player with one elite All-Australian stretch can rank alongside Brownlow-tier names here even if the rest of their career was modest. Longevity, premierships and sustained output aren't weighted — only the peak stretch is.

A composite "greatest career" metric (blending peak + career average + longevity + positional context) is planned for V1.9. Until it ships: for the cross-position peak-form view see the overall Peak-form leaderboard; for era-fair rankings within a decade see the decade leaderboards.

A caveat on pre-2000 ruckmen

AFL Tables only started tracking rebound-50s, contested marks, one-percenters and the full hit-out split progressively through the 1990s — those fields didn't exist in earlier-era data, so pre-2000 ruckmen score zero on them whether they did the action or not. The headline KICK formula (designed for modern 17-field box scores) underweights them as a result. Era rebaseline was investigated and held — both approaches tested produced worse top-20 lists. Read older-era ruckmen on the decade leaderboards where relative era ranking is accurate.

# Player Team GP Peak KICK-R Raw Peak yrs KICK-R career KICK
ref
1 Max Gawn 2011-2026 Melbourne 256 100 93 2024-26 100 71
2 Brodie Grundy 2013-2026 Sydney 251 82 81 2018-19 88 68
3 Tim English 2017-2026 Western Bulldogs 161 81 80 2022-24 82 62
4 Matthew Kreuzer 2008-19 Carlton 181 79 76 2017-19 68 55
5 Rowan Marshall 2017-2026 St Kilda 166 78 75 2023-24 86 66
6 Toby Nankervis 2015-2026 Richmond 177 77 74 2022-25 77 58
7 Jarrod Witts 2013-2026 Gold Coast 214 76 73 2018-19 77 58
8 Gary Dempsey 1967-84 North Melbourne 329 76 72 1972-74 75 44
9 Dean Cox 2001-14 West Coast 283 74 69 2010-12 72 58
10 Nic Naitanui 2009-22 West Coast 210 72 68 2014-16 72 56
11 Oscar McInerney 2018-25 Brisbane Lions 161 72 68 2023-25 68 53
12 Aaron Sandilands 2003-19 Fremantle 257 72 68 2009-11 71 54
13 Will Minson 2004-16 Western Bulldogs 183 69 65 2012-14 57 47
14 Kurt Tippett 2008-17 Sydney 170 69 64 2014-16 59 50
15 Sam Jacobs 2009-20 Greater Western Sydney 204 67 62 2016-18 75 56
16 Darren Jolly 2001-13 Collingwood 219 67 62 2011-13 51 43
17 David Hille 2001-13 Essendon 189 65 60 2008-11 55 48
18 Ben Hudson 2004-13 Collingwood 152 64 58 2010-13 51 44
19 Jeff White 1995-2008 Melbourne 266 63 58 2002-04 63 48
20 Dean Brogan 2001-13 Greater Western Sydney 183 62 57 2009-12 52 45
21 Brad Ottens 1998-2011 Geelong 241 61 56 2001-02 64 51
22 Ben McEvoy 2008-22 Hawthorn 241 61 56 2017-19 67 51
23 Rhys Stanley 2010-2026 Geelong 219 60 55 2018-20 57 47
24 Todd Goldstein 2009-25 Essendon 336 59 55 2014-16 76 58
25 Stefan Martin 2008-22 Western Bulldogs 200 59 54 2014-16 72 56
26 Rod Blake 1971-83 Geelong 176 56 52 1980-81 43 28
27 Scott Wynd 1988-2000 Western Bulldogs 237 56 52 1998-99 50 33
28 Jim Stynes 1987-98 Melbourne 264 56 52 1991-92 64 40
29 Paddy Ryder 2006-22 St Kilda 271 56 52 2015-18 65 52
30 Damian Monkhorst 1988-2000 St Kilda 215 55 51 1992-94 47 31
31 Shane Mumford 2009-21 Greater Western Sydney 204 54 51 2013-16 70 54
32 Mike Fitzpatrick 1975-83 Carlton 150 54 51 1979-80 57 36
33 Luke Darcy 1994-2007 Western Bulldogs 225 54 50 2001-02 63 49
34 Matthew Primus 1996-2005 Port Adelaide 154 54 50 2001-02 55 42
35 Peter Everitt 1993-2008 Sydney 276 54 50 2004-05 67 48
36 Josh Fraser 2000-12 Gold Coast 215 53 50 2003-05 58 50
37 Ian Hampshire 1968-82 Footscray 224 53 50 1979-81 44 28
38 Peter Keenan 1970-82 Melbourne 213 53 50 1980-82 44 28
39 Jeff Sarau 1973-83 St Kilda 226 52 49 1976-77 52 34
40 Brendon Lade 1997-2009 Port Adelaide 225 52 48 2005-07 55 43
41 Rory Lobb 2014-2026 Western Bulldogs 207 51 48 2017-20 55 45
42 Troy Simmonds 1999-2010 Richmond 195 51 48 2005-07 48 42
43 Simon Madden 1974-92 Essendon 378 50 47 1983-84 58 36
44 Corey McKernan 1993-2004 Kangaroos 232 50 47 1998-2000 58 42
45 Jason Ball 1992-2005 Sydney 178 50 47 2001-04 49 38
46 David Hale 2004-15 Hawthorn 223 49 46 2012-14 51 45
47 Paul Salmon 1983-2002 Essendon 324 49 46 1997-99 65 42
48 Peter Jones 1966-79 Carlton 249 48 45 1968-70 50 33
49 Peter Moore 1974-87 Melbourne 249 47 44 1979-81 51 33
50 Matthew Rendell 1981-92 Brisbane Bears 177 46 43 1982-84 58 36
51 Shaun Rehn 1991-2002 Hawthorn 167 46 43 1998-2000 56 38
52 Matthew Allan 1994-2005 Essendon 153 45 43 1999-2001 54 37
53 Steven Alessio 1992-2003 Essendon 178 44 42 1999-2000 49 36
54 Michael Gardiner 1997-2010 St Kilda 166 44 42 2001-04 52 42
55 Don Scott 1967-81 Hawthorn 302 44 41 1970-72 44 28
56 John Barnes 1987-2001 Essendon 202 43 40 1999-2001 51 36
57 Sam Newman 1964-80 Geelong 300 43 40 1968-70 47 31
58 Steven King 1996-2010 St Kilda 214 43 40 2000-02 56 44
59 Peter Somerville 1988-99 Essendon 160 42 40 1994-96 41 27
60 Russell Crow 1960-73 Fitzroy 158 42 40 1968-70 31 19
61 Carl Ditterich 1963-80 Melbourne 285 42 40 1970-72 43 28
62 Len Thompson 1965-80 Fitzroy 301 42 40 1972-73 60 37
63 Mark Lee 1977-91 Richmond 233 41 39 1983-84 49 31
64 John Mossop 1979-88 North Melbourne 171 41 39 1982-84 51 32
65 Norm Brown 1962-73 Fitzroy 181 40 38 1966-68 37 24
66 Matthew Clarke 1993-2007 St Kilda 238 40 37 1997-99 42 30
67 Ian Paton 1976-85 Hawthorn 155 40 37 1982-83 32 21
68 Greg Stafford 1993-2006 Richmond 199 38 36 1998-2001 48 38
69 Justin Madden 1980-96 Carlton 332 35 33 1984-86 50 31
70 Michael Byrne 1977-89 Sydney 167 33 31 1982-84 40 26
71 John Nicholls 1957-74 Carlton 328 32 30 1965-68 31 20
72 Barry Goodingham 1967-77 South Melbourne 188 32 30 1971-73 47 30
73 Greg Dear 1985-96 Richmond 190 30 29 1988-90 39 25
74 Brian Mynott 1964-75 St Kilda 210 24 23 1970-72 37 23

Why a separate ruckmen leaderboard?

KICK Rating's overall leaderboard is award-aligned — Brownlow votes, All-Australian squads, and AFLCA Champion Player selections all heavily favour midfielders, and KICK tracks them. That's the right number when you want "who does everyone agree is the best player going around?".

But if you're looking for the best ruckmen, that mid-heavy bias is the wrong lens. Positional KICK applies role-aware weight multipliers (intercept marks ×5 for defenders, marks-inside-50 ×2.5 for forwards, hit-outs ×1.4 for rucks) plus a per-position percentile rescale on top of the base formula, so "elite at this position" reads similarly across all four buckets. Every multiplier and anchor is on the positional methodology page — the point isn't "no guesswork", it's transparent guesswork.

Read the validation story →