I know what you're saying Corp but ruckmen are notoriously slow to develop and those who develop and are capable of making an impact at a young age like Jackson and even Darcy are the exception. Even Sandi did not emerge as a capable ruck at AFL standard until he was around 23 or 24 and came to us off the rookie list. Benning not a good example as a Next Gen graduate as we don't really seem to be seeing a lot of guys making the jump to AFL level from this avenue. Their development seems to stagnate and most end up delisted quite early. This is a worry to me as I think we are potentially losing quite a few talented players from this happening
Regarding Max Knobel he did have a bit of a breakout game a few weeks back when he played WAFL league while Liam Reidy was on standby for the seniors. This game was against East Perth matched up against previously AFL listed Scott Jones and he outmatched him 43 hitouts and 4 disposals to Jones 28 hitouts and 7 disposals. This was despite Jones having a size advantage of 205cm, 115kg to Knobel 206cm, 93kg and only 20 years old. Not bad at a very early stage of development as a ruck prospect.
