Analysis Centre Bounce/Wing Attendance Megathread 2026

[ZoBlitz]

Previous threads:

Centre Bounce/Wing Attendance Megathread 2025
Centre Bounce/Wing Attendance Megathread 2024
Wing Attendance Megathread 2023

 

[Section 5]

Just to have something until ZoBlitz return from holidays. Just the CBA's though

CBAs - DFS Australia

Centre Bounce Attendances are available from the 2020 season. Average refers to the percentage of CBAs each player has attended for the season (considering only those games they have played). Each round is denoted as percentage of CBAs attended for that round. Centre Bounce Attendance Percentage...

dfsaustralia.com

Was it you who went on some canal wetlands trip last year?

BRISBANE

 

[ZoBlitz]

Ok, so this took me longer than I was expecting but I was keen to make some changes this season. I’ve embedded a Googlesheet to the first post of the thread which will have all the stats from every round on the individual tabs. I’ve also included some charts to add some colour and variety. I

I’ve added a tab for the season percentages although my current process for updating it is a little more fiddly than I was hoping (and the borders aren't appearing correctly for some reason) but maybe I'll work out something better by the end of the year. Note that the averages are based on the games played, so for instance Daniel Annable’s 57% attendance on the wings is averaged off the one senior game that he was selected for.

I’ve also revamped the averages for the wing attendances to represent the fact that players can’t attend both wings every centre bounce (I just realised I probably should have changed “centre bounce” to something else but honestly I can’t be bothered at this stage as there would be a fair bit to update).

Please let me know about any feedback you have or if you notice that some numbers seem off as I’m sure I’ve made some mistakes along the line.

 

[ZoBlitz]

I’ll use this post to do a quick summary of the rounds so far and get back to the usual routine after this week’s game.

Round 0, 2026 - Western Bulldogs

First note is that the new Kayo interface is pretty great for the wing checks as it doesn’t block the scores when the video player is full screen which is very helpful when skimming through to find goals. Unfortunately the “key moments” on the timeline still don’t synch properly which is crazy as it’s been broken for years now. Also the camera direction wasn’t helping me out with all the zoomed in shots and I was worried that this might be the default for Gabba games this season but the Collingwood game wasn’t as bad, thank god.

Pretty usual wing setup of Berry-L.Ashcroft-Reville for this one although Oscar Allen

4

Oscar Allen

Age

27

Ht

196cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.1

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

2.8

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.2

4star

has taken up Ah Chee’s role as the defensive forward winger late in quarters.

Hugh’s injury meant that Zac received more CBAs than would have been planned, I imagine.

Round 1, 2026 - Sydney

Injuries and suspensions meant some rejigging on the wing and in the midfield. The wings initially started as Reville-Berry and debutant Daniel Annable. After quarter time Berry was playing more inside while Levi moved from the inside onto the wing. With Sam Draper not completely match fit, Darcy Fort

32

Darcy Fort

Age

32

Ht

204cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.6

2star

K

5.8

2star

HB

2.9

3star

CL

2.9

4star

HO

17.8

5star

D

9.2

2star

K

6.0

2star

HB

3.2

2star

CL

3.6

4star

HO

21.2

5star

D

7.6

2star

K

5.4

2star

HB

2.2

2star

CL

2.2

4star

HO

15.6

5star

took the majority of ruck contests although since that game Draper has been the main ruck in terms of centre ruck contests attended.

Round 3, 2026 - St.Kilda

Initially the wings start off as Reville-Bailey-L.Ashcroft with Berry doing a tagging job on Wanganeen-Milera, which did involve him taking some centre bounce attendances on occasions. After half time, Berry stopped the hard tag and moved back to the wing, replacing Bailey who moved to the inside.

Round 4, 2026 - Collingwood

Pretty simple one with Berry-Reville-L.Ashcroft on the wings and the usual suspects playing inside midfield.

Round 5, 2026 - North Melbourne

Another mostly simple one although when Zorko went down with injury, Bruce moved into defence and we had some cameos with Hugh, Zac and Linc covering the other wing attendances.

Round 6, 2026 - Melbourne

We started with the usual L.Ashcroft-Berry-Reville but with all the injuries we had, both Zac and Hugh ended up spending some time on the wing in the second half.

 

[Section 5]

Excellent thanks again
You put in so much time in for this, and wings are well, different.

Wings are counted as midfielders but i think they are a category of their own.
They are not forwards, defenders and not true midfielders.
As such as they have their own territory which is quite large. Half an oblong egg if you like

 

[Section 5]

The lineup v Crows will be interesting tomorrow.
I am going with Levi, Bailey. Tunstill relief and forward relief

Reville to Defense and wing relief

McCluggage some time on the wing while Bailey gets some of his minutes
With all those players involved Levi could also do small stints in the middle

 

[ZoBlitz]

The lineup v Crows will be interesting tomorrow.
I am going with Levi, Bailey. Tunstill relief and forward relief

Reville to Defense and wing relief

McCluggage some time on the wing while Bailey gets some of his minutes
With all those players involved Levi could also do small stints in the middle

I've historically not been great at predicting how we will structure our wings after significant team lineup changes but Bailey probably jumps out as the next cab off the rank to replace Berry (as the third with Levi and Bruce), just in terms of someone who's played some time there this season. If that happens, then Tunstill replaces Answerth in defence and McKenna takes on Bailey's forward time possibly? Other option is Tunstill comes in as the third winger and McKenna takes Answerth's position in defence.

So saying that, we'll probably do something completely different!

 

[KissKiss]

I've historically not been great at predicting how we will structure our wings after significant team lineup changes but Bailey probably jumps out as the next cab off the rank to replace Berry (as the third with Levi and Bruce), just in terms of someone who's played some time there this season. If that happens, then Tunstill replaces Answerth in defence and McKenna takes on Bailey's forward time possibly? Other option is Tunstill comes in as the third winger and McKenna takes Answerth's position in defence.

So saying that, we'll probably do something completely different!

Im half advocating for Fletcher back to the wing and then both ins to the backline. But McKenna has really been a forward 9ver a back for a while now

 

[ZoBlitz]

Round 7, 2026 - Adelaide

Super easy one for the wings this week. I'll give myself partial marks for suggesting Tunstill would play on the wing but I didn't predict Linc moving back and McKenna taking his position forward. Last time we only used three players on the wing was round 15 against Geelong last year.

Pretty normal midfield setup and if you're winning easily don't need to do too much fiddling with the structure.

 

[ZoBlitz]

The real interest in this week's game is who will replace Oscar as our defensive winger late in quarters??

 

[Nathan Barley]

The real interest in this week's game is who will replace Oscar as our defensive winger late in quarters??

I was thinking Gallop would be a good option now if he was playing forward

 

[Grasshopper17]

The real interest in this week's game is who will replace Oscar as our defensive winger late in quarters??

I saw...

Cam Rayner doing this late in the game on Sunday.

 

[KissKiss]

I saw...

Cam Rayner doing this late in the game on Sunday.

Was going to say the same thing. He's the most experienced at it so makes sense

 

[Grasshopper17]

Was going to say the same thing. He's the most experienced at it so makes sense

Hopefully he does it better than he did in the 2023 Grand Final and doesn't kick it straight to Essendon players!

 

[BuntonRules]

Bruce has got the smarts, dunno about Cam.

 

[Section 5]

I don't think it matters greatly who drops back to defense in those last 2 minutes of each quarter.
It's Fagans way of being proactive in trying to not be conceding late goals in each quarter.

Extra man back in defense helps in that area without a leader on field making the decision when they think it's needed.

Won't always stop a score but it takes the guesswork out of, will we do it or not.