Toast Cripps (VC), Saad, Charlie named in the 2022 AA side!

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Sorry, but I still think that's poor logic. Just because a guy has a quiet week or two, it disqualifies him for an award looking at their performance over the year?

But even if we wanted to go down that (silly IMO) path and say the last fortnight counts for much more, I'm still not sure your argument stacks up...

On the weekend....

Cripps had 35 touches, 27 contested possessions (his personal best AND TOP 10 ALL TIME!!!!), 12 clearances and almost single-handedly brought us back into the game in Q3. Against Melb he had 26 touches, 12 tackles and 10 clearances. AFLCA BOG against Coll and also polled against Melb. If Dale Kerrigan was here, he'd say 'I don't know what the opposite of choke is. But whatever it is, that's what you've done Crippa'....

Saad had a solid game against Coll; 21 touches albeit not a lot metres gained and Collingwood's small fwds kicked a bunch of goals. Solid against Melb; 22 touches, 7 R50s, 5 tackles 3 1%ers. I need to check this, but I think he polled in the most Carlton losses after Cripps and maybe Docherty. The opposite of a downhill skier.

Charlie actually had high output games the last two weeks, but obviously he kicked for goal VERY poorly. You could argue that his kicking cost us a finals birth, but 1) are we really going to argue that if he converts a single shot from a behind to a goal and we make finals, that completely redefines his entire season? 2) He kicked 64.42 (great conversion) over the year 3) He is one of the main reasons we were even in finals contention in the first place.

Note: Docherty polled 7 votes and 5 votes in the losses to Melb and Coll. Does that make him a spud because we lost two important matches?

Just like it's silly to think a player is a champion because he won a premiership, it's ridiculous to downplay players because their team didn't win or make finals.

They all had strong individual games, and certainly did stuff the stat sheet. Ultimately though, all three were part of an all time collapse - their team went 2-6 to finish the year, and lost the last 4 matches straight, to cost their team its first top 8 finish in a decade.

All 3 played in all of those critical games. All 3 made critical mistakes in the last quarter of the last two matches, lost by less than a kick (as examples: Cripps - tackled HTB trying to be a hero, Curnow missing after selfishly playing on, Saad allowing Elliott goal side for the winning goal - and there's plenty more you can point to). In all 3 cases, the mistakes they made were things that they have been criticised for in the past and refused to move on from (Cripps: heroball, Curnow: rushing snaps for goal instead of set shots, Saad: caught out of position/lazy defending) that put a rubber stamp on things for me.

In each case, there's other very deserving candidates. Tom Lynch averaged more goals per game than Charlie and importantly, didn't choke his team's season away (and not just in the last 2 weeks, but over the last 2 months). 3.9 and 2x no score from 14 shots at goal across two matches we had to win to make our first finals series in a decade? I think Charlie had an amazing season, it is a phenomenal journey, but he didn't stand up when it mattered and so I wouldn't put him in my AA team.

You can make a similar case for both Cripps and Saad. There were other players who were very good, and who weren't part of their team falling apart when it mattered. Cripps was amazing for 10 weeks or so, pretty ordinary for 10 weeks or so, then both amazing and not quite 'there' in the last month. Saad... he's got huge strengths and weaknesses, and those were fully on display this year, and again I just lean away from him given the way things went at the end (should a team who repeatedly can't defend a 4 goal lead with everything to play for have ANY defenders recognised, let alone two?).

Another way of looking at it would be "how on earth did a team with 3x All Australian's/5x nominees, plus the defending Colelman Medallist and another player who most think should have been nominated, fall apart so badly in the last 8 weeks of the season that they could only manage 2 wins, both against bottom 3 teams".

With other things being pretty close to equal, I would just prefer they weren't in the team. As I think I said, I'm sick of our players getting individual awards (and hefty pay-cheques) when they haven't achieved anything that even remotely resembles team success. If others feel differently, that's fine and I understand the desire to celebrate something in a pretty miserable week.

And weirdly, if anything I feel like Docherty was our most deserving candidate (probably equal with Cripps) - if nothing else because he was good across the year, and went up another notch after switching positions in the last two weeks (there's some criticisms you can make of Docherty too... I just think he is up there for us).
 
I see Luke Darcy got his love child Connor Rozee in.
 

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Sorry, but I still think that's poor logic. Just because a guy has a quiet week or two, it disqualifies him for an award looking at their performance over the year?

But even if we wanted to go down that (silly IMO) path and say the last fortnight counts for much more, I'm still not sure your argument stacks up...

On the weekend....

Cripps had 35 touches, 27 contested possessions (his personal best AND TOP 10 ALL TIME!!!!), 12 clearances and almost single-handedly brought us back into the game in Q3. Against Melb he had 26 touches, 12 tackles and 10 clearances. AFLCA BOG against Coll and also polled against Melb. If Dale Kerrigan was here, he'd say 'I don't know what the opposite of choke is. But whatever it is, that's what you've done Crippa'....

Saad had a solid game against Coll; 21 touches albeit not a lot metres gained and Collingwood's small fwds kicked a bunch of goals. Solid against Melb; 22 touches, 7 R50s, 5 tackles 3 1%ers. I need to check this, but I think he polled in the most Carlton losses after Cripps and maybe Docherty. The opposite of a downhill skier.

Charlie actually had high output games the last two weeks, but obviously he kicked for goal VERY poorly. You could argue that his kicking cost us a finals birth, but 1) are we really going to argue that if he converts a single shot from a behind to a goal and we make finals, that completely redefines his entire season? 2) He kicked 64.42 (great conversion) over the year 3) He is one of the main reasons we were even in finals contention in the first place.

Note: Docherty polled 7 votes and 5 votes in the losses to Melb and Coll. Does that make him a spud because we lost two important matches?

Just like it's silly to think a player is a champion because he won a premiership, it's ridiculous to downplay players because their team didn't win or make finals.
Agree.

There was some numbskull commentator on 3AW who wasn’t sure Charlie deserved AA selection based on his last couple of games.

Pretty sure its based on performances over the whole season, which is why it’s called the AA team for 2022. Maybe they should have an AA team for Rounds 20 to 23. :cool:
 
Probably a fair representation of the top 3 in our best and fairest - Cripps, Saad and Curnow - I’m just not sure what order they will finish in.
 

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