The problem with looking solely at statistics like that, is that you miss the bigger picture.
South Australia had so many inside, contested ball winners that not all of them were able to get a game. James Battersby had to play down back, Trent Dumont played further outside while Peter Bampton couldn't even crack the side. And that's because Campbell Combe, Luke Dunstan and George Hewett were absolutely dominating the stoppages. There was limited room for other players to come in and show what they can do.
Meanwhile, we have James Aish who is an elite player on the outside. Considering the rest of the team, why would they not play to his strengths? Yes, he is an uncontested player. But he is capable of winning his own ball if needed, and he is no worse than Lachie Whitfield in that regard in my opinion. If he were playing for one of the Victorian sides, then that contested possession rate wouldn't be so low and would probably be higher than that of Kelly.
cheers Chris.
So it seems that Aish and Kelly are both very good on the outside with Kelly having the edge in endurance and Aish in contested ball and perhaps class, going by what others have written.
Wold that be a fair assessment?





