One of the reasons Paul Salmon left Essendon at the end of 1995 is he wanted to play as a full-time ruckman and not as a forward. In his five seasons at Hawthorn, Salmon won two club best and fairest awards in the ruck position. The 37-year-old returned to Essendon late last year, out of retirement, to bolster the ruck stocks. In his two games this season, Salmon has been impressive in the centre – smartly positioning himself around the ground and even kicked a couple of goals. Salmon did not intend to make a comeback but when approached by Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy he said the only way he would return to AFL was in a ruck role. Earlier this week, the Bomber radio team caught up with the 'Big Fish' to find out if it was easier coming back and playing in the ruck as opposed to coming back and playing at full forward as Tony Lockett done..

""The short answer is yes - it was going to be easier coming back and playing in the ruck - although easy is probably not the appropriate word to use because there is nothing easy about making a comeback. In terms of the practicalities about coming back from time out of footy - I think rucking lends itself to a return better because it is more of a pro-active position. You set the game up, you set your position up, you are around the ground, and you have a lot to do with the structure of the side - so they are critical issues. As a forward conversely you are very reactive to the game - how often it is coming inside 50m, the manner in which it is coming in, is the opposition flooding - there are a lot of factors that are going to impact on the success of Plugger's return.

I really hope he does well and I sincerely mean that - it is a big effort that he has undertaken given that he has been out of the game for two years. He actually put his hand up which puts a bit more pressure on him as well. I wouldn't want to be coming back in any other role than the ruck. Hopefully my experience is going to help the side in crunch time,"" Salmon said.