Dean Cox was named in the forward pocket in 2012 and ruck in 2011, Nic had a lot of hit outs in 2012 show me "The Heat Map". Only poking the bear and having a bit of fun, good luck next week.
Player Watch 11 marks in a season gets you an AA Ruck position
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VicBased
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You discredit the hit-outs to advantage to suit your argument.
The only thing Naitanui does better than Gawn is pick the ball up and kick it out for a clearance.
Clayton Oliver lead the league in clearances, maybe that’s due to Gawn having the highest hit-outs to advantage
Nic’s extra 2.2 clearances is offset by Gawn’s extra 2.2 hit-outs to advantage.
But there’s more to the game than Clearances
Gawn has more score involvements, tackles, spoils and oh have we mentioned the marking?
View attachment 972011
Stats, stats, stats. The real answer is NicNat has CHARISMA and Gawny, well, not so much. There you have it.
Forward Press
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There was a bit of a debate that year whether their positions should have been swapped.
Good luck to your lot too.
So Gawn won it in the year that Nic Nat missed a third of the season after doing his ACL for the second time.
Spoil sport, I wish you hadn't told him that!
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I swear we were debating the ruck position?
You know that takes place INSIDE the circle, right?Next up, let's debate if Hawkins should be the FF AA because he doesnt get enough handballs in the middle.
You're have an absolute mare.
It's actually comedy gold, almost like he's self-trolling!!I swear we were debating the ruck position?
You're have an absolute mare.
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The Bont hasn't had a great year by his lofty standards and shouldn't be in the AA team, let alone in the forward pocket.
If his name wasn't Bontempelli he wouldn't be anywhere near it. I love the Bont, obviously, but you shouldn't be able to waltz into the AA team every year.
If his name wasn't Bontempelli he wouldn't be anywhere near it. I love the Bont, obviously, but you shouldn't be able to waltz into the AA team every year.
Half Forward not Forward Pocket and this is not about Bont and his name is Bontempelli, on your knees and beg for his gentle forgiveness to wash those impure thoughts of doubt from your mind.
2012 Nic Naitanui: 45 x Contested Marks
2020 Nic Naitanui: 7 x Contested Marks
Weigh anchor and get this ship back on course.
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If you picked the 2020 team on form alone and not name it wouldn't be very sexy.
How many going into 2020 had Menegola, Butler, Guthrie, Taberner, Ridley etc in their AA sides? The selectors want star power.
Guthrie got in on the wing.
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I know. There are surprise selections each year. But the AFL don't want a team full of Guthries and Menegolas regardless of how good those guys have been.
There was an 18/4 split, 18 x Finalist, 4 x Non-Finalist, same split the last six years almost as if it's a formula. Luke Ryan, Nick Haynes, Max Gawn and Christian Petracca were the four Non-Finalists 3 x certain, 1 x perhaps did not play enough games, but all worthy.
Its all about relative strengths and weaknesses, there are things Nic Nat does exceptionally well, like hit outs to advantage and contested stoppage work, and things he doesn't do so well like take contested marks or intercept marks in the hole which can be quite handy for a ruckman.
Admittedly its an odd stat for such a big presence to take so few marks in a season, but every players has areas they can develop or get better in.
To ignore it completely is just looking at it with rose coloured glasses, but you've got to weigh it up against everything he does and overall his strengths far outweigh his weaknesses.
Admittedly its an odd stat for such a big presence to take so few marks in a season, but every players has areas they can develop or get better in.
To ignore it completely is just looking at it with rose coloured glasses, but you've got to weigh it up against everything he does and overall his strengths far outweigh his weaknesses.
He used to take a lot of marks when he flew for everything. 2 knee recos put an end to that so now he just does defensive spoils in packs instead of actually trying to mark it.
Probably also attributed to the fact he had shoulder and back problems before the 2 knees as well. WCE fans are perfectly happy with him just doing what he's doing. Especially when we have other, more reliable, marking targets.
It makes no sense for him, for instance, to drop back into defense to take marks when we have McGovern and Barrass there. Same up forward with Kennedy, Darling and Ryan.
All he needs to do is stop the oppo from marking and force a stoppage as he's highly likely to win the hitout/clearance anyway, so it makes no sense for him to put his body on the line in a marking contest.
He doesn't run and spread like other ruckmen simply because he doesn't need to. He's usually the one dishing it out to the mids.
People look at Dean Cox as the prototype for the modern ruckman but NN is something else entirely and quite unique.
Wouldn't have it any other way.
I doubt you could find more irrelevant stats than you've selected.
Maybe, some specific backman stats like, for instance, spoils. Oh wait, that was in your other post.
Oh ponder this West Coast fans:
Nic Naitanui: All Australian Ruck
2012: 66 x Marks
2020: 11 x Marks
I am pretty sure it's the same bloke, but in the words of Pauline Hanson "Please Explain".
Gee, I wonder what event (or series of events) occurred between 2012 and the present for the player in question?
Do you suppose it may effect his play style?
Blackas87
Brownlow Medallist
I bet there is only one stat that isn’t irrelevant, centre clearances right?
Sorry bro, Nic is the starting ruck and you can't change it. FWIW, I still think Watts was the right choice for Melbourne
That was probably longer than it needed to be. It's okay to say he's not that good at something compared to other ruckmen without paragraphs of excuses.
Hes a lot better than them at some other things so it balances out and overall his strengths have more impact than his limitations.
Instead of charging into the jungle with the rest of the herd i chose to compare Nic Naitanui to Nic Naitanui from his two All Australian incarnations 2012 and 2020 you are correct a lot of knee injuries in the years in between which has robbed us and Nic Naitanui of probably his best years and limited his output somewhat. Getting rid of the bounce and the boundary throw ins are obvious ways to limit injury to both the Rucks and the umpires, Nic Naitanui's second knee was a short boundary throw in followed by a rushing in to compete (Instinct) i am surprised OH&S allows for such awkward practices to be totally honest.
Taylor
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There was a bit of talk at the time that neither Cox or Nic Nat was a better choice than Pavlich as a forward after Pav kicked 69 goals for the season, 51 of which in the second half of the year with 7 in the finals. Finishing 3 goals shy of the Coleman Medal.
The AA selectors wanted to pick the Cox/Nic Nat pairing for the ruck though so that's how it had to play out.
The midfielders as forwards, inside mid/accumulators as wings - not even selecting the brownlow medalist. The team actually shows how the AFL isn't corrupt.
Because if the AFL knew the results of the 2014 Brownlow Medal, they would have required him to be in the side. Fyfe was on the wing that year.
Priddis never even made the squad of forty when he won the Brownlow Medal, accumulators need massive volumes for it to be an even playing field.
Excellent point especially as West Coast are a low volume team, but never fear so are Richmond and their trophy cabinets are very full lately. We need "Stats and Facts" to properly analyse the game, but there is a tipping point where it becomes meaningless and easily corrupted.
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