Sloane V Griffen as 5th MID

will1990 · February 24, 2013, 07:15:15 PM

please feel free to add players around or under that price... i will post my team shortly.

LF · February 24, 2013, 07:44:21 PM

Sloane over Griffin
Griffin gets tagged out of the game to easy and it affects his scoring

tbagrocks · February 24, 2013, 08:26:21 PM

Rory Sloane = :-*

GoLions · February 24, 2013, 08:45:09 PM

Sloane

My Chumps · February 24, 2013, 08:53:12 PM

Sloane has a bigger upside and will never cop the #1 tag over Dangerfield and Thommo.

meow meow · February 24, 2013, 09:44:47 PM

47 possessions against SYDNEY while being tagged is a pretty good effort for someone who can't break a tag.
2 tons against Raines is decent.
Cooney is up and about and will demand some attention unlike last year.
Are teams going to allow Higgins and his elite kicking skills to roll through the mids without a tag?
27 possessions per game isn't bad (13th best in the league). He's still improving in this area.

Griffen played more as an inside mid last year. His contested possession numbers are way up but he still managed to be ranked 5th in inside 50's per game in 2012 after being ranked #1 in 2011. The downside was that he only kicked 8 goals and had fewer goal assists last year but the 4 seasons prior it was 18, 17, 23, 24 goals.
With the improvement of Wallis and Libba we might see Griff play a little more outside again, allowing him more shots on goal.
Liberatore was ranked 14th in the entire AFL for clearances per game (better than Cotchin, Tuck, Judd, Hayes, Jack etc) and 35th for contested possessions. Wallis was ranked 30th and 41st. These guys will improve and with Cross, Smith and Boyd they will handle the grunt work allowing Griffen, Higgins and Cooney to be the impact players.

Griffen is a perfectly rounded footballer now. He gets more possessions than ever before, more contested possessions, still manages to be in the top 5 for inside 50's. The only thing he went backwards in was goals kicked. If he can kick 20 goals for the year he will be a top 10 mid.

Look at the guys who were the elite scoring mids.
Ablett - 26 goals
Watson - 20 goals
Beams - 27 goals
Swan - 25 goals
Dangerfield - 22 goals
Kennedy - 24 goals
Cotchin - 21 goals

Goals are the ONLY thing that these guys do better than Griffen. He's up there with possessions, contested possession, clearances, effective disposals, every stat that matters really. Griff has kicked 20+ in the season so he is very capable of doing it again. He has improved his ability to break a tag, and his ability to get more possessions. If the goals come, he will be a top 10 scoring midfielder.

Griffen was the 15th best mid in 2011. He kicked goals back then but won fewer possessions, mainly down on the contested stuff. Combine his 2011 and 2012 seasons and he is the total package.

Mat0369 · February 24, 2013, 11:18:57 PM

Harley Bennell if you really want to go with a smokey. Is a goal kicking midfielder who can rest forward. Slightly cheaper but could surpass both of them in terms of scores this season.

meow meow · February 24, 2013, 11:24:12 PM

Bennell hasn't been tagged yet. Let's see how he goes when that happens.

Yes, teams can and will play someone head to head against Ablett and send their tagger to someone else. Murphy/Judd v Ablett and Carrots on Bennell for example. It's not that far fetched.

Mat0369 · February 24, 2013, 11:33:29 PM

Quote from: meow meow on February 24, 2013, 11:24:12 PM
Bennell hasn't been tagged yet. Let's see how he goes when that happens.

Yes, teams can and will play someone head to head against Ablett and send their tagger to someone else. Murphy/Judd v Ablett and Carrots on Bennell for example. It's not that far fetched.

When Bennell impressed me most last season was when Ablett was actually out of the team. That Freo game is a stand out. They tried everything to stop him but they just couldn't. The fact he can go forward and kick goals makes him harder to tag and Ablett will still demand the attention. Who would you rather tearing you apart, Ablett or Bennell? You also have a fit Swallow coming back in and he was out for that period, the GC midfield is starting to take shape quite nicely.

meow meow · February 24, 2013, 11:53:53 PM

Quote from: Mat0369 on February 24, 2013, 11:33:29 PM
Quote from: meow meow on February 24, 2013, 11:24:12 PM
Bennell hasn't been tagged yet. Let's see how he goes when that happens.

Yes, teams can and will play someone head to head against Ablett and send their tagger to someone else. Murphy/Judd v Ablett and Carrots on Bennell for example. It's not that far fetched.

When Bennell impressed me most last season was when Ablett was actually out of the team. That Freo game is a stand out. They tried everything to stop him but they just couldn't. The fact he can go forward and kick goals makes him harder to tag and Ablett will still demand the attention. Who would you rather tearing you apart, Ablett or Bennell? You also have a fit Swallow coming back in and he was out for that period, the GC midfield is starting to take shape quite nicely.

He is a future star, no doubt. Future, not 2013.

His average is severly inflated by the game he played against Melbourne where they let him play loose in defense and didn't bother picking him up when he went forward. That's not going to happen again.
He's not going to kick many more goals than he did in 2012 so the improvement won't come from that area.
He's not big enough to be a contested ball winning beast. He's purely an outside mid and their ceiling is about 105.

Mat0369 · February 25, 2013, 12:01:38 AM

If he was a DPP option this season, which he unfortunately is not I would have picked him up straight away. I can see him having a big season, it will be risky, but I still think he can do it. Then again I will not be looking at any mids around that price range myself.