Lachie Neale has weighed in on the AFL’s new third-man up rule, saying the effects of the change will remain unclear until the commencement of the 2017 home and away season.

The rule outlaws players outside of a nominated ruckman to compete for the ball at ruck contests, with some commentators predicting that the ruling will favour the AFL’s taller ruckmen, such as Fremantle’s Aaron Sandilands. 

But Neale said at Wednesday’s media conference that his side has benefited from utilising a third-man up in the past.

“I was just saying to the guys before, it’s going to be an adaption for us as well because we used the third-man up quite efficiently last year and in the previous years,” Neale said. 

“We’ve got some pretty tall mids with David (Mundy), Nathan (Fyfe) and Connor (Blakely) as well, so we’ve used it to our advantage at times over the last few years. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.”

Champion Data backs up Neale’s comments, highlighting that Fyfe has been the AFL’s most effective player with hit-outs to advantage as a third-man up from 2013 to 2016.

In 2016, Connor Blakely ranked eighth and David Mundy 14th in the AFL for hit-outs as a third-man up, while 25.7 per cent of Fremantle’s hit-outs came via a third-man up - the third most in the league behind Geelong (32 per cent) and St Kilda (30.7 per cent).