The ruck role is an issue but it's not THE issue. It's the mid field's inability to win enough ball and get that first possession or 2 out quickly on the spread then deliver decent ball inside 50. It's the lack of speed, run & carry/overlap play off half back and through the middle. Our inability to hit lead up targets (or offer them over and over) as we work our way up the field. Our poor short passing skills.
You can teach any footballer with half a brain how to tackle, corral, defend a zone, leave your opponent and spoil in general play. It's the class inside, the outside run/overlap, footskills and finish coming i50 that needs fixing.
I think we are well on the way to a solid D in terms of defending balls coming in. On the rebound is a different matter. I think we are in the early stages of setting up a reasonable forward line that will start finishing off the good work. But there is a stack of work to do through the mid field and rebounding off half back, delivery coming i50.
You won't fix so many significant aspects of our game with many on the current list as they just seem inept in many of these crucial aspects of our game when up against the top 6 to 8. It will take at least 2 more drafts and drilling of skills/game style to get ourselves competitive with teams around the middle of the ladder (8 to 12) and start winning more than the odd game here and there against the bottom 4 to 6 clubs who are in a similar position to us.
The AFL's dogmatic expansion of the competition with the draft moratorium and free agency (allowing players to move to top 4 to 6 clubs instead of those outside only) hasn't helped our cause or others trying to bounce off the bottom.