Adelaide's Most Important Player

[Vader]

Who do you think is Adelaide's most important player - the player we can't do without? I can think of several possible candidates, all with solid reasons why they are vital to our team, so I thought I'd throw it open to the vote.

Thompson - Our hardest midfielder, who leads from the front. Without Thommo winning the contested ball at the centre clearances our midfield degenerates into a Port-like bunch of downhill skiers, with nobody capable of winning their own ball and everyone waiting for it to be handed to them. Watch the R5 game against Footscray (which he missed because of injury) if you need to be reminded of his importance.

Johncock - Arguably the best small defender in the league, he not only shuts the opposition's best small forward out of the game but also generates most of our run out of defence. We consistently struggle to get the ball beyond the HB line whenever Johncock has a bad game (or doesn't play).

Rutten - Our general in defence. Not only does he take the opposition's best KPP forward every week, rarely conceding more than 1 or 2 goals per game, but he provides leadership and direction to those around him in the back half of the field. Without Truck, our defence has a tendency to leak like a sieve.

Knights - Provides the extra dimension to our forward line which makes it almost impossible to stop. It's no coincidence that the turning of the tide (against us) in the Collingwood final last year coincided with Knights leaving the field due to injury. His ability to kick long goals from outside 50 limits the effectiveness of the opposition's flooding tactics, providing us with an avenue to goal when all others have been shut down or suffocated.

Tippett - Tippett's presence in the forward line provides us with a structure that we can work around. We know we can kick it long to the top of the square and he will always be there to provide a contest. We know that he'll have 2 (or more) defenders hanging off him at all times, leading to one of our other forwards generally being free.

Griffin - OK, not Griffin in particular, so much as the 2nd ruckman in general. Playing 2 ruckmen gives Maric a chance to have a breather and allows us to play Tippett as a full-time FF. In that context, you could argue that the 2nd ruckman is one of our most important players - no matter who he is.

Is there anyone I may have missed? Dangermouse may well turn out to be our most important player in years to come, but he's not there yet - and the question is "Who IS Adelaide's Most Important Player", not "Who WILL BE Adelaide's Most Important Player". Feel free to vote for "other" if you think that there's another candidate I may have missed.

 

[sbenno]

I would have to go Knighta. As you say Vader, the extra that he adds to our forward line is invaluable, was really integral to our side last year. His presence solves many issues in the side, particularly our lack of CHF, susceptibility to flooding, and providing a crucial link between mid and forward.

Most important for mine, although it may simply be a case of absence making the heart grow fonder...

 

[spexau]

I think the semi last year proved it was Knights. As soon as he went down we lost our attacking flair and confidence and obviously the game.

 

[macca23]

The only other ones I can think of are

Goodwin - has been in superb form this year across HB and probably leads our B&F. Has been a good captain as well, and I do believe that if he had played last week we would have won the Show-down, not lost it.

Mackay - maybe not the most important but he is very important to our structure. Carries the ball a long way and acts as a a link between defence and attack.


No one man makes a team and the absence or presence of any one of those mentioned could alter the result of a game at times.

However, forced to pick 1 I'll go one of

- Thompson, because if you lose the middle, you've virtually already lost the game. When Thommo fires he makes a huge difference to the team

or

- Tippett, as his contesting presence allows us to kick long to the hot spot in front of goals.

Maybe Tippett, by a bee's willy from Thompson. Very difficult to split.

 

[Vessel]

Chris Knights

Purely due to the effect he has on the defensive structures used by the opposing team. The games we have won this year always have felt won due to volume of ball going into the forward line as opposed to having a dangerous forward line.

Arguable it is easier to say Knights because we have seen the impact of him not being in the side but I would also say he is the player we have no ready replacement for. The other players we have replacements for, not as good replacements but still somone who can stop the opposition from being able to play the game on their terms when that player is out.

The only time I have seen the opposition defense in any kind of worry this year was against Geelong and for many reasons I would see that game as an exception not a rule.

The opposition flooding which occurs inside our forward 50 in games has rendered our marking forwards (form aside) virtually useless this year. Knights would make our forward line look potent again whenever we were moving forward.

 

[The Karma Bus]

Almost a coin flip over Knights and Johncock i think..
Johncock so vital to our run and QUICK rebound as well as shutting down his opponent..

But i'd maybe just say Knights the most important, if playing the role he did last year..
Punishing player, X Factor..

When Thommo is in form he is vital also in the guts..
If Andy Otten didn't injure his knee i think he could have been up there too and will be in the future.. Rate this guy massively, will be a big addition to 2011 (yes may take some time though)..

 

[beartoo]

Difficult job to evaluate what each player brings to the team and its importance relative to other players. I went for Rutten because of his importance both as a player and as the leader of the defence. Without him the opposition would score a lot more frequently than they do and we would have more problems clearing the ball from the opposition 50.
Look at the kick-ins for example. When there is no other option, boot it to Rutten even if opposed. He rarely fails to mark the ball. He also frequently acts as link man coming out of defence, and against a lazy opponent we often see him upon the wing booting the ball into/towards the forward 50.
His other strength is negating the key opposition forward. It is extremely rare that Ben Rutten has his colours lowered.

 

[Papa Juggs]

Vince.

He's like Judd in 2005.

If he wins the ball and bounces out of a couple of tackles it goes a long way towards kicking a goal.

 

[cmndstab]

He's not popular at the moment, but I still think it's Nathan Bock. I don't think it's any coincidence that we have both stagnated as an attacking team this season and also slid backwards in terms of our defense. We need a fit Nathan Bock and the lack of exactly that has been a big factor in our lacklustre year in my opinion.


However, I also like your "out of the box" Griffin option. At first I screwed up my nose, but the fact is, you're absolutely right. Think about how much better we've done with two dedicated ruckmen compared to one over the last two years. Griffin's abysmal performance in round 1 combined with the injuries to our other backup rucks are major reasons that we went on to lose the next five games, in my opinion. We couldn't play Griffin on the back of that performance, but we needed someone, anyone to stand up and play that role to take the pressure off Tippett and Maric.

 

[FlyingCrow]

Rutten

Anyone remember what it was like without him back there. When Bass was our FB. There is no other player on our list that can do his role as good as him. He spends the entire game out there and rarely do we have key forwards he is standing kick big bags. Take him out and the rest is irrelevant.

 

[FlyingCrow]

He's not popular at the moment, but I still think it's Nathan Bock. I don't think it's any coincidence that we have both stagnated as an attacking team this season and also slid backwards in terms of our defense. We need a fit Nathan Bock and the lack of exactly that has been a big factor in our lacklustre year in my opinion.

Would have to agree with this. But I dont think we will ever see a fully fit and in form Bock again. Father time is catching up, prematurely.

 

[Crowman32]

I think Scotty Thompson. He is the hardnut of the side and when he fires in the middle we generally win and when he is stopped we tend to struggle a bit. Winning the ball out of the middle is so important and Thompson is extremely good in that area.

 

[cmndstab]

Would have to agree with this. But I dont think we will ever see a fully fit and in form Bock again. Father time is catching up, prematurely.

Don't know about that... I reckon we'll see one as early as next year. He looks awful this year because his preseason was absolutely wrecked, but short of reinjuring himself in the next month there's no reason why he can't start this preseason at 100% and come out firing next year. Age is on his side, and he hasn't played an enormous amount of footy to grind up his body or anything. He's always been very fit.

Of course, that's all assuming we don't have another preseason like last year with an injury every bloody day again.

 

[Godallblighty]

Who do you think is Adelaide's most important player - the player we can't do without?

Is there anyone I may have missed? Dangermouse may well turn out to be our most important player in years to come, but he's not there yet - and the question is "Who IS Adelaide's Most Important Player", not "Who WILL BE Adelaide's Most Important Player". Feel free to vote for "other" if you think that there's another candidate I may have missed.

Or, who WAS Adelaide's most important player...

Sooo....Knights? Not this week and not this year.

This is like all the people who keep saying AA CHB every time Bock's name is mentioned. Totally irrelevant at the minute.

Thompson or Tippett for me.

 

[SydCrow]

HENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

actually I voted for Thommo

contested footy is our most important metric and he is our man

then Stiffy (we will realise how important this weekend)

then Tippett

 

[SebastianVettel]

Take your pick of Thompson or Johncock - when he hasn't been on the grog.

 

[cmndstab]

Or, who WAS Adelaide's most important player...

Sooo....Knights? Not this week and not this year.

This is like all the people who keep saying AA CHB every time Bock's name is mentioned. Totally irrelevant at the minute.

Thompson or Tippett for me.

I guess I'm reading the question as, based on exposed form over the past year or two, who is the player who in 2010 who should be giving us the biggest impact.

The fact that we've fallen away so dramatically this year says to me that we've probably been let down by our important players.

If the question is who has been the most important player in terms of positively affecting our performances this year, then as others have said, Thompson and Johncock are clearly the front-runners, with Thompson ahead by a nose in my estimation. Douglas not far behind them either.

 

[Wood_Duck]

When Bernie Vince is getting plenty of football we win games. Cant believe he wasnt even on the list.

 

[amer]

Knights or Vince.

 

[Vader]

By popular demand I've added Bernie Vince to the poll.

 

[Vader]

Or, who WAS Adelaide's most important player...

Sooo....Knights? Not this week and not this year.

This is like all the people who keep saying AA CHB every time Bock's name is mentioned. Totally irrelevant at the minute.

Thompson or Tippett for me.

I would argue that Knights is still important to our team - as shown by our lack of success in his absence this year.

 

[crowman86]

Tommo, when he doesn't play we just get smashed in the middle. Easily our most important in my eyes.

 

[amer]

Would've said Tippo last year, but Tex plays the full forward position pretty well himself. We struggle to cover the Knights role and Bernie is a genuine blue chipper when he's up and about, has a big say.

Thommo is important, but our win/loss ratio doesn't seem to be as strongly correlated with his form as it is the form of a few others.

 

[McCavity]

For me its a dead heat between Knights and Vince. I don't think that its a coincidence that when they were both up and about last year, that we were at our most dangerous.

This year no Knights, and for a large part of the season either no Vince, or a severely out of form Vince. Result - only 7 wins at this stage of the season.

 

[Big Sledge #32]

I voted Thompson but I tend to agree with Stabby about Bock being most important to our team. I think the emergence of Davis this year has made us forget a little bit about how important Bock is to our team. Not only is he one of the only players in the league that can match it with Buddy and the other key forwards he can also be more damaging than them on the rebound. Yes I am thinking of Bock circa 2008 and parts of 2009, but for that period he was my favourite player. His absence has been a major factor in the decline of our defence, this year he still doesn't have the fitness base to do the rebounding which is sad. Injury has transformed him from one of the most damaging players in the league to a stay at home backman for most of the game.

Which is why I think he should be put in cotten wool until pre season because a fit and firing Bock is the key to a premiership push in 2011 and beyond.