Max Gawn. Stefan Martin. Ben McEvoy. Nic Naitanui.
All ruckmen, and all having massive influences for their sides to begin season 2018.
The revival of the big man is back and Ben McEvoy is glad to see it.
“I think it is great,” McEvoy told SEN on Thursday morning.
McEvoy is averaging a career-high 34 hit-outs per game while gathering 13 disposals per game, the second-highest rate across his 11-year career.
The 28-year old believes more responsibility has been handed back to ruckmen, which has translated into a greater influence on games.
“I think teams have gone back to playing one ruckmen with someone else doing a bit of pinch-hitting,” McEvoy said.
“Also, probably with less rotations, we’re spending more time on the ground, which is beneficial.
“But it is just great to see a few of the big fellas up and about.”
After a second-place finish in the 2017 Peter Crimmins Medal count, the two-time premiership Hawk believes he is at the top of his game.
“I think, in the last 12 months, I’ve probably played the best footy of my career.”
This weekend, McEvoy faces the biggest challenge of his season so far in the form of Melbourne ruckman Max Gawn.
Gawn leads the league with 48.3 taps while also picking up 16 possessions per game.
“I’ll go back and have a bit of a look at what Maxy has done over the past couple of weeks, and maybe look at some games where we’ve played each other in the past,” McEvoy said about his preparation ahead of the match-up.
“I’ll also have a chat to ‘Monkey’ (Hawks ruck coach Damian Monkhorst) to see where we think we can bring the big fella down but certainly that’s a great part of the challenge.”
