AFTER becoming one of the AFL's premier ruckmen last year, Adelaide's Sam Jacobs has struggled to cope with expectation.

Not from the outside or from teammates – but from himself.

In the absence of Kurt Tippett, Jacobs tried too hard to pick up the slack the now-Sydney Swan left behind and his output suffered.

He averaged 13 disposals, four marks and 31 hit-outs a game last season but had been well down this year until his 20-disposal game against St Kilda last weekend.

Having "narrowed his focus", the 10th best ruckman in the competition according to Official AFL Player Ratings said he had again started to find his best form. 

"I probably just broadened my focus too much and went away from the things that enabled me to play well last year, and that's my ruck work," Jacobs said.

"I probably worried more about the structures going on in the team and trying to realise and understand what's happening game day and how I can help the team ... that took me away from what I do well.

"[I've] narrowed my focus and stripped it right back and now I've got a clear focus and I know what my role in the team is again."

As well as thinking about too many elements on game day, Jacobs said he was trying to do too much physically as well.

The 25-year-old conceded he was spending too much time on the ground in the early part of the season.

With Tippett no longer at the club, Jacobs has had to learn to ruck in tandem with new teammates – something he said had taken time to get used to.

"Early in the year I probably took on too much ruck work and that was to the team's detriment because I was a bit more fatigued later in games than I was last year," he admitted.

"It was new working with Josh Jenkins earlier in the year because even when he played last year 'Tippo' (Tippett) was always there.

"I think I'm getting a really good balance now in knowing when to go off and also the coaches are helping with that as well."

Jacobs said Jenkins was slowly discovering how to best use his athletic ability to prove a force when thrown into the ruck.

While Tippett had the ability to match it with the biggest ruckmen in the game, Jacobs said his new partner in crime had to use his athleticism more than his body size.

Jacobs had just started to see significant improvement in Jenkins' ruck work when Taylor Walker suffered his season-ending knee injury, effectively restricting Jenkins' role to the forward line.

"At the start he probably tried to play too much like a physical ruckman rather than using his agility as his strength," he said.

"I thought he was starting to get a good groove in there and then unfortunately with 'Tex', now he's our main man up forward."