Analysis Grand Final player rankings

[Saintly Viewed]

SV, your ratings are very similar to those in the HUN, and I actually agree with practically all and your comments except: Pendlebury (too high), Sier (too low - he only had 55% game time and was our highest possession winner with 16 at half time. I gave him a 7 for the time he spent on the ground) and Goldsack (who I thought worth about 4 as he was pretty much smashed by Kennedy).

I'm loving the different points of view and scoring.
Yikes if it's like the Herald Sun
Have avoided the papers today, it's tattooed in my brain the loss, reminding isn't good.

If I was brave I'd watch the replay again to see and adjustments.
I'm in two minds about Goldsacks game. On one hand he did all the one percent stuff and battled height and made contests on the other Kennedy was a difference maker.
Might have been a tad generous.
Truthfully I'd have preferred Moore if fit for Goldsack in a key position. Tyson on a flank roll is fine. But he's no star and I admit he's heart and soul. That is a good thing.
You could be closer to the truth in scoring than me, 6 seems a bit generous on my part.

Sier and Pendlebury have very similar numbers. My eye saw Scott create play here and there and get into stopping the ball and harassing the opponents; that's my take, no great game but not a fail.
Sier did good with a few non perfect things that just pushed him down a point. As I'm such a fan of his I might be trying not to show too much bias in marking him, maybe I over compensated?

I just try after the game, to then be thinking about the game (I do this in many of our games) and then passing through a quiet thought process of each of our players. I just go in my head with the numbered order of the players in the game and store them.

Makes me think about each player game on game. I have the AFL app so I do use that, generally watch a replay once. I do look at the stats but try not to be too influenced just by numbers. I do care about tackles and 1% plays and see if it marries up in my thinking in the review. That's why when I post you'll see I will praise high good tackling.

Another player in the GF that's caused consternation which I get is Aish.
On one hand you'd think, not much of a game. But in my thoughts, I kept thinking he had a role to curtail an Eagle and kept him to a stinker. Hence I thought he was passable. Just my take.

Strange where we didn't see the great Grundy or the Side was bottom level, and we lost by only 5 points.

Best three for us in my view, heads held particularly high were: Adams, Mayne, Langdon.
The next two best I felt was a bit of a raffle.

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

The HUN gave Aish 5 (or 5.5?) saying he played his role, Sidebottom 4, Pendlebury 5 (?), Goldsack 5 (I thought too generous), Sier 7 (same as me!) and Adams, Langdon and Mayne maybe 8 - 9.5, with Adams the best. I was too stingy to pay $3.80 for the paper so I just read the ratings and comments in Coles. But your scores are very similar. I would have bought the Age, but though they had a 6 page lift out, it didn't include ratings. If we had won I would not have hesitated to buy both papers. Winning premierships therefore can potentially improve your literacy.

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

Easily the lowest HUN rating went to Thomas - 2.5.

 

[ZEV]

I'm in two minds about Goldsacks game. On one hand he did all the one percent stuff and battled height and made contests on the other Kennedy was a difference maker.
Might have been a tad generous.
Truthfully I'd have preferred Moore if fit for Goldsack in a key position. Tyson on a flank roll is fine. But he's no star and I admit he's heart and soul. That is a good thing.
You could be closer to the truth in scoring than me, 6 seems a bit generous on my part.

I agree 100%. For the past two or so years we've been playing Goldsack as a KPD but as much as we hate to admit it he is naturally a BP or HBF that can occasionally cover a tall.

Expecting him to be able to beat bigger stronger Coleman medalists at finals level intensity whilst halfway through recovering from ACL surgery was probably too much even for a warrior like Goldy.

 

[Jonno94]

If we were ranking them in reference to their usual input (which I think is the only important metric here) then Sidebottom, Grundy, and Pendlebury were easily the worst. Goldsack also gets a mention for allowing Kennedy 11 marks and taking 0 himself.

Langdon, Adams and De Goey were very easily the best.

 

[swiftdog]

I prefer subjective rankings to number rankings but here we go:

2. De Goey - A player clearly built for finals and the big stage. Had a chance to possibly kick the sealer but I think he knew he was on the wrong side so amde the right decision to play on. Our best forward on the day.

4. Grundy - Stats will say he won the ruck battle comfortably but we struggled to win centre clearances like we normally do. No idea whether that's on Grundy or the mids though. Regardless, Grundy's strength as a player is his work around the ground and the Lycett/Vardy broke even, if not outperformed him, in this regard. Given the Eagles aerial dominance I think he needed to do a bit more in the air on the day.

6. Goldsack - Did everything that could be expected but he isn't quite the best matchup for a player like Kennedy. Kennedy got the chocolates in this duel but the reality is I think he's our fourth choice behind Dunn, Moore and Reid for this matchup. Still, he battled hard and left it all out on the field as we knew he would.

7. Treloar - Pretty good without being great. 11 tackles on the day but maybe that was due to being second to the ball on some occasions. Didn't quite have that zip we've come to expect from him but happy to put that down to recovery from injury.

8. Langdon - Speechless, what a game. Anyone else thinks he defends like Jimmy Clement? If we win, he deserves the Norm Smith, fantastic game.

13. Adams - Maybe a little quiet in the first half but certainly lifted in a big way after half-time and easily the best of our mids for me. Great game and likely would have been battling with Langdon for the Norm Smith had we won.

14. Aish - Solid day, seemed to win his one-on-ones. Don't know who he was on but sometimes a "quiet" day locking down an opposition forward is a good day. I think this might have been one of those days.

16. Mayne - What a year, and last couple of weeks, Mayne's had, thought he was fantastic on GF day. Won his battles, was calm and used the ball well, can't ask for any more from him. Seems to be playing with a great deal of confidence at the moment (how else can you describe his willingness to repeatedly and succesffuly side-step opponents in defensive 50?), if he can carry that into 2019 he'll stay a best 22 player.

18. Varcoe - Quality, not quantity. Had a very good grand final to go along with a very good finals series. Didn't get many opportunities but certainly knows how to make his chances count. A winner on the day.

19. Greenwood - Think he's had a good finals series but was beaten in the middle on the day. Not a bad game, but could have had more of an influence. Maybe more a victim of Shuey's brilliance.

20. Pendlebury - A Norm Smith medallist so clearly knows how to get it done on Grand Final day. Didn't think he had an overly bad day but just didn't have the impact we come to expect from him.

21. Phillips - Solid and ran hard all day, think this was one of his better games in the second half of the year. Seemed to win more one-on-ones than normal so I think his day can be classified as a good one.

22. Sidebottom - Well beaten by Hutchings. Nothing much to say other than a bad day at the office. Will need to learn how to beat a tag because it's going to be coming more often in 2019.

24. Thomas - To be fair, I think Thomas has suffered more than most as we've funnelled our play through Cox and De Goey more often in the last month. As such he didn't have many opportunities but still couldn't quite make an impact when he did.

25. Crisp - Solid day at the office for him. Can't remember who he was on but seemed to win his battles more often than not, has really stepped it up in 2018.

32. Hoskin-Elliott - Went hard and tried to make an impact, did some nice things. A pass.

35. Stephenson - Started the game like a house on fire but didn't make much of an impact (with limited opportunities mind you) after quarter time. Will be better for the run and will improve as he puts more bulk on.

36. Sier - Good game and was leading our possession count at half time. A bit quieter in the second half but not unexpected from a first year player. Think we've found a real "Hine-special" here.

37. Maynard - All guts and had a good day. Rarely beaten and part of a solid defensive unit on the day.

38. Howe - Was he on Darling? Thought he was a winner on the day, Darling didn't do much outside of a third quarter purple patch. Maybe struggled with kickouts a bit but I sense this was due to our structure rather than the poor execution on Howe's part.

41. Mihocek - Maybe didn't quite have the impact he could have, don't remember seeing too much of him. He'll be better for the run though.

46. Cox - Unsighted in the first half, almost the game changer in the second half. What a story this year. Me and my brother half-joked after he took a big early grab in the third quarter that he was now "on" and ready to go berserk prelim-final style. We were almost correct. Huge goal in the fourth quarter and had a chance to kick what I think would have been the sealer for the other side. He kicks that and he goes down as a Collingwood legend in the same way that Stewy Dew is for the Hawks (I'll stop torturing myself now). Better forwards than him have been spooked on the big stage and I think his ability to work himself into the game in the second half is to be commended.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

Great write up swiftdog

 

[Mark W]

It's not unpopular. It's true. In my eyes, he doesn't go into 2019 as a best 22 player.

True? A load of tosh in my opinion. Thomas had 13 disposals. That is more than Varcoe, Rioli, Ryan and Venebles and equal with Jetta. Small forwards do not thrive in Grand finals...The position is not called starvation corner for nothing. Thomas was certainly no worse then the other small forwards...The only 2 snaps at goal we had all day were from him, 2 behinds. Its a game of inches...

And if in your eyes he doesnt go into 2019 as a best 22 player, who precisely is this plus 38 goal a year crumber that we have who is going to replace him? It isnt Elliott cause he is a marking forward, NOT a crumber. We have not had a crumber since Krakouer. For years we have watched the ball hit the ground on our forward line and rebound out like a rubber band watching Blairy haplessly trying to lay a tackle. Buggered if I want to watch a crumberless Collingwood again in a hurry, so unless Atu Bosenavualagi is a plug n play gun, or Daniel Wells finds the fountain of eternal youth, we dont really have a JT replacement on the list.

 

[Black_White]

Easily the lowest HUN rating went to Thomas - 2.5.

Had several chances to make an impact by taking the shot. And is a sharpshooter, but for some reason he didn’t, or wouldn’t.
Could have been the difference, but went into his shell.