2013 Player Profile: Rory Laird

[Mr.Craig]

Rory Laird



Birthday - 29/12/93
176cm/76kg
Club - West Adelaide/Adelaide
Position - Defender
Fanplanner Price - $101,600

Laird only qualified for last year's draft by 2 days and ended up being selected with the Crows first rookie selection. He enjoyed an excellent Under 18 Championships in 2011, averaging 16.3 disposals, 4 marks and 2 tackles per game. He got a taste of reserves footy that year with West Adelaide, playing 7 games as a 17 year old. This season Rory has made the step up to league football with ease, being named in the best on 7 occasions while recording DT scores of 62, 56, 101, 43, 66, 51, 59, 86, 62, 61, 54, 49, 84, 63, 109, 58, 71, 56.

Considering most kids his age are playing Under 18's, those stats are quite impressive and match up well with fellow team mate and highly fancied young gun Brad Crouch ( Laird Ave: 66.1 Crouch Ave: 68.3 ). His numbers could be vastly improved with a bit more tackling and improving his kick/handball ratio.

The downside is that Rory will need to be elevated to get a game and this may require an LTI or lack of form by one of the Crows regulars. However, if he does gets promoted preseason and is named Round 1 or alternatively hits the bubble mid-season he could be well worth getting in your side.

Media -

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/151091/default.aspx
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/crows-rookies-enter-the-big-league/story-e6frecoc-1226222337162

YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaNSu3SbrwQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZp4xfIeBVU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxnmSzEU5vc

[Ziplock]

lol, I literally crunched these same stats for laird last night (since I have him in euros :P )

is there actually an accumulated stats table for SANFL, like that'll give his average stats, or his total stats, or a player page or something? cause when I was doing it I had to open every game he played in, ctrl-f his name, then drop his stats into an excel sheet, since I couldnt find that :/.

[Mr.Craig]

lol, I literally crunched these same stats for laird last night (since I have him in euros :P )

is there actually an accumulated stats table for SANFL, like that'll give his average stats, or his total stats, or a player page or something? cause when I was doing it I had to open every game he played in, ctrl-f his name, then drop his stats into an excel sheet, since I couldnt find that :/.

I've been doing the same thing, it takes forever. :(

As far as I know they don't have anything like the WAFL do which is a shame.

[Adamant]

Very nice work Mr. Craig, hopefully he debuts around the byes.

Congrats on the 100th thread. ;)

[henry]

Yeah hopefully he will sneak a game or two although I reckon the Crows defence is pretty much set and there would be others such as luke thompson ahead of him. Could be an ok downgrade target though.

[Mr.Craig]

AFL Fantasy Source ‏@fantasy_afl

Rory Laird from the Adelaide Crows killed it at Adelaide's intra club match today. good rookie option who can find the footy #AFLFantasy

[tbagrocks]

From what i've seen he was mostly as good as Crouch all year at West :o

Expect him to overtake the Jaensch's and Martins in a year or two and definately Reilly's long term replacement, he's also one of my favorites I really like the way he plays, really doubt him playing mush this year though still very young and small and a few already matured at half back atm

2014 fantasy gold :-*

[Mr.Craig]

Bump.