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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. 75 ruckmen in the pool, top 75 shown. Career average, players with 100+ games.

See how positional KICK works.

A caveat on pre-2000 ruckmen

AFL Tables stopped tracking rebound-50s, contested marks, one-percenters and some hit-out data progressively through the 1990s. Rucks whose careers finished before ~2000 have thinner raw stat lines than modern ruckmen — the formula gives them fair credit for what was tracked, but they're structurally underweighted here. The era normaliser lifts 1965–99 scores, but it can't invent missing data. If you want a truer read of older eras, the decade leaderboards control for era and may surface names this list buries.

# Player Team GP KICK-R career Raw KICK-R R40 KICK
ref
1 Max Gawn 2011-2026 Melbourne 250 100 83 100 71
2 Brodie Grundy 2013-2026 Sydney 246 88 76 81 67
3 Rowan Marshall 2017-2026 St Kilda 160 87 75 81 67
4 Tim English 2017-2026 Western Bulldogs 158 82 71 82 62
5 Jarrod Witts 2013-2026 Gold Coast 211 77 68 78 59
6 Toby Nankervis 2015-2026 Richmond 177 77 67 77 58
7 Todd Goldstein 2009-25 Essendon 336 76 67 59 58
8 Gary Dempsey 1967-84 North Melbourne 329 75 66 76 44
9 Sam Jacobs 2009-20 Greater Western Sydney 204 75 66 67 56
10 Dean Cox 2001-14 West Coast 283 72 63 74 58
11 Stefan Martin 2008-22 Western Bulldogs 200 72 63 59 56
12 Nic Naitanui 2009-22 West Coast 210 71 63 72 56
13 Aaron Sandilands 2003-19 Fremantle 257 71 63 72 54
14 Shane Mumford 2009-21 Greater Western Sydney 204 70 62 54 54
15 Matthew Kreuzer 2008-19 Carlton 181 68 60 79 55
16 Oscar McInerney 2018-25 Brisbane Lions 161 68 60 72 53
17 Peter Everitt 1993-2008 Sydney 276 67 59 54 48
18 Ben McEvoy 2008-22 Hawthorn 241 66 59 61 51
19 Paul Salmon 1983-2002 Essendon 324 65 58 49 42
20 Paddy Ryder 2006-22 St Kilda 271 65 58 56 52
21 Brad Ottens 1998-2011 Geelong 241 63 57 61 51
22 Jim Stynes 1987-98 Melbourne 264 63 57 56 40
23 Luke Darcy 1994-2007 Western Bulldogs 225 63 57 54 49
24 Jeff White 1995-2008 Melbourne 266 62 56 63 48
25 Mark Blicavs 2013-2026 Geelong 296 60 55 60 50
26 Len Thompson 1965-80 Fitzroy 301 60 54 42 37
27 Kurt Tippett 2008-17 Sydney 170 59 54 69 50
28 Josh Fraser 2000-12 Gold Coast 215 58 53 53 50
29 Simon Madden 1974-92 Essendon 378 58 53 50 36
30 Corey McKernan 1993-2004 Kangaroos 232 58 53 50 42
31 Matthew Rendell 1981-92 Brisbane Bears 177 58 53 46 36
32 Will Minson 2004-16 Western Bulldogs 183 57 53 69 47
33 Mike Fitzpatrick 1975-83 Carlton 150 57 53 54 36
34 Rhys Stanley 2010-25 Geelong 218 56 52 59 46
35 Shaun Rehn 1991-2002 Hawthorn 167 56 52 46 38
36 Steven King 1996-2010 St Kilda 214 56 52 43 44
37 Matthew Primus 1996-2005 Port Adelaide 154 55 51 54 42
38 David Hille 2001-13 Essendon 189 55 51 65 48
39 Brendon Lade 1997-2009 Port Adelaide 225 55 51 52 43
40 Rory Lobb 2014-2026 Western Bulldogs 204 54 51 51 45
41 Matthew Allan 1994-2005 Essendon 153 54 50 45 37
42 Jeff Sarau 1973-83 St Kilda 226 52 49 52 34
43 Michael Gardiner 1997-2010 St Kilda 166 52 49 44 42
44 Dean Brogan 2001-13 Greater Western Sydney 183 52 49 62 45
45 John Mossop 1979-88 North Melbourne 171 51 49 41 32
46 John Barnes 1987-2001 Essendon 202 51 48 43 36
47 Darren Jolly 2001-13 Collingwood 219 51 48 67 43
48 Ben Hudson 2004-13 Collingwood 152 51 48 64 44
49 David Hale 2004-15 Hawthorn 223 51 48 49 45
50 Peter Moore 1974-87 Melbourne 249 51 48 47 33
51 Justin Madden 1980-96 Carlton 332 50 48 35 31
52 Peter Jones 1966-79 Carlton 249 50 47 48 33
53 Scott Wynd 1988-2000 Western Bulldogs 237 50 47 56 33
54 Mark Lee 1977-91 Richmond 233 49 47 41 31
55 Jason Ball 1992-2005 Sydney 178 49 46 50 38
56 Steven Alessio 1992-2003 Essendon 178 49 46 44 36
57 Greg Stafford 1993-2006 Richmond 199 48 46 38 38
58 Troy Simmonds 1999-2010 Richmond 195 48 46 51 42
59 Damian Monkhorst 1988-2000 St Kilda 215 47 45 55 31
60 Sam Newman 1964-80 Geelong 300 47 45 43 31
61 Barry Goodingham 1967-77 South Melbourne 188 47 44 32 30
62 Ian Hampshire 1968-82 Footscray 224 44 42 53 28
63 Don Scott 1967-81 Hawthorn 302 44 42 44 28
64 Peter Keenan 1970-82 Melbourne 213 44 42 53 28
65 Rod Blake 1971-83 Geelong 176 43 41 56 28
66 Carl Ditterich 1963-80 Melbourne 285 43 40 42 28
67 Matthew Clarke 1993-2007 St Kilda 238 42 40 40 30
68 Peter Somerville 1988-99 Essendon 160 41 39 42 27
69 Michael Byrne 1977-89 Sydney 167 40 38 33 26
70 Greg Dear 1985-96 Richmond 190 39 37 30 25
71 Brian Mynott 1964-75 St Kilda 210 37 35 24 23
72 Norm Brown 1962-73 Fitzroy 181 37 35 40 24
73 Ian Paton 1976-85 Hawthorn 155 32 31 40 21
74 John Nicholls 1957-74 Carlton 328 31 30 32 20
75 Russell Crow 1960-73 Fitzroy 158 31 30 42 19

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. Filtering by position strips it out. Rucks here are ranked against each other, by the same formula, over the same data since 1897. No re-weighting, no Champion Data licences, no guesswork — just the subset of the same leaderboard that played in the same role.

Read the validation story →