Analysis Jack Macrae Is Officially The Most Underrated Player In The AFL

[Oliver G]

How anyone in their right mind could look at his season and not pick him for AA will forever haunt me.

2018 Season (Averages Per Game - Champion Data)

Disposals - 32.8 - ELITE
Kicks - 15.7 - ELITE
Handballs - 17.1 - ELITE
Contested Possessions - 13.5 - ELITE
Uncontested Possessions - 19.6 - ELITE
Effective Disposals - 24.3 - ELITE
Disposal Efficiency - 74.2% - ABOVE AVERAGE
Effective Kicks - 10.8 - ELITE
Kick Efficiency - 68.9% - ABOVE AVERAGE
Ground Ball Gets - 9.6 - ELITE
Clearances - 6.2 - ELITE
Marks - 5.8 - ELITE
Contested Marks - 0.3 - ELITE
Tackles - 5.4 - ABOVE AVERAGE
Frees For - 2.1 - ELITE
Goal Assists - 0.7 - ELITE
Score Launchers - 1.8 - ELITE
Inside 50s - 4.4 - ABOVE AVERAGE
Rebound 50s - 2.4 - ABOVE AVERAGE

Only 3 games (including the game he got injured in) recording under 100 Champion Data ranking points.

If he doesn't win the CSM...................... I don't want think about it.

 

[ivan rassmussen]

How anyone in their right mind could look at his season and not pick him for AA will forever haunt me.

2018 Season (Champion Data)

Disposals - 32.8 - ELITE
Kicks - 15.7 - ELITE
Handballs - 17.1 - ELITE
Contested Possessions - 13.5 - ELITE
Uncontested Possessions - 19.6 - ELITE
Effective Disposals - 24.3 - ELITE
Disposal Efficiency - 74.2% - ABOVE AVERAGE
Effective Kicks - 10.8 - ELITE
Kick Efficiency - 68.9% - ABOVE AVERAGE
Ground Ball Gets - 9.6 - ELITE
Clearances - 6.2 - ELITE
Marks - 5.8 - ELITE
Contested Marks - 0.3 - ELITE
Tackles - 5.4 - ABOVE AVERAGE
Frees For - 2.1 - ELITE
Goal Assists - 0.7 - ELITE
Score Launchers - 1.8 - ELITE
Inside 50s - 4.4 - ABOVE AVERAGE
Rebound 50s - 2.4 - ABOVE AVERAGE

If he doesn't win the CSM...................... I don't want think about it.

Great work Oliver. It just highlights how incompetent and out of touch AA selectors are.

 

[giblj]

Honestly thought he'd overcome his underratedness this year with the amazing season he's had, but I was dead wrong. * off Gil.

 

[Anja_Nees]

F’ing joke.

 

[DelRe]

The usual question is, so who do you swap him with? My instinctive reaction was maybe the selectors like goal kicking mids but the obvious candidates to swap would seem to be Mitchell, Oliver, Gaff or Sidebottom (I don’t think you’d realistically put him in the same role for discussion as Cripps and Martin) and none of them have kicked many goals. One thing they have in common (other than Gaff) is they played every game. Maybe it was as arbitrary as that for the selectors to split them or maybe it’s that you could argue their season propelled the team into the finals (again very subjective and arbitrary). Long way of saying Macrae had a very good year but that doesn’t mean those selected didn’t as well.

 

[Kermit]

Shane Edwards out, Jacks Macrae in. I reckon that’s a fair swap

 

[Oliver G]

The usual question is, so who do you swap him with? My instinctive reaction was maybe the selectors like goal kicking mids but the obvious candidates to swap would seem to be Mitchell, Oliver, Gaff or Sidebottom (I don’t think you’d realistically put him in the same role for discussion as Cripps and Martin) and none of them have kicked many goals. One thing they have in common (other than Gaff) is they played every game. Maybe it was as arbitrary as that for the selectors to split them or maybe it’s that you could argue their season propelled the team into the finals (again very subjective and arbitrary). Long way of saying Macrae had a very good year but that doesn’t mean those selected didn’t as well.

Obvious swap is Edwards, but Macrae had a better year than Sidebottom, Higgins and Gaff both on impact and statistically.

 

[DelRe]

Obvious swap is Edwards, but Macrae had a better year than Sidebottom, Higgins and Gaff both on impact and statistically.

Is Edwards the obvious swap? I think that’s where you end up in that never ending spiral of can you swap across positions and are you picking a balanced team or just trying to fit in those that you think had a good year and end up playing someone out of position. I was trying to limit it to mids. I think you can make an argument with those players (philosophically even though there is no fairest element I would have been happier to leave Gaff in the squad but I don’t want to open that can of worms). As to your question is he underrated, I think that’s a harder argument to make given he was recognised in the squad and so is rated reasonably highly amongst mids this year. We also don’t know how close he was to making it and how line ball it was with those selected.

Just to throw a random, speculative perception issue - if you listed the mids and asked the average supporter to rank on who is most damaging and the also asked them to rank which Dogs players they think are the biggest danger to their team in a game, how highly do you think Macrae would rank?

 

[Oliver G]

Just to throw a random, speculative perception issue - if you listed the mids and asked the average supporter to rank on who is most damaging and the also asked them to rank which Dogs players they think are the biggest danger to their team in a game, how highly do you think Macrae would rank?

If those average supporters were from 2018, I reckon they would put Macrae at #1. In Rounds 2,6,7,8,9,19,21,23 he was the most damaging mid for us, and not far off in the rest.

He goes 100% at every stoppage and his clearance work, field kicking and inside work has gone to elite this year.

In only three games this year (including the one he got injured in) did he record under 100 Champion Data ranking points.

 

[VitalDread]

 

[TMoney22]

Don't know about Shane Edwards, i'd have Macrae or Devon Smith easily over him

 

[BEaston]

Macrae should be in ahead of Dangerfield, Higgins and Edwards.

Martin shouldn't have been named on the ball. Put him in instead of Dangerfield on the flank as he was better than him in the resting forward-mid role.

 

[BEaston]

Gaff and Sidey would stay in as the pure outside mids.

 

[BrisDog]

Who is Shane Edwards?

 

[SCRAY72]

The usual question is, so who do you swap him with? My instinctive reaction was maybe the selectors like goal kicking mids but the obvious candidates to swap would seem to be Mitchell, Oliver, Gaff or Sidebottom (I don’t think you’d realistically put him in the same role for discussion as Cripps and Martin) and none of them have kicked many goals. One thing they have in common (other than Gaff) is they played every game. Maybe it was as arbitrary as that for the selectors to split them or maybe it’s that you could argue their season propelled the team into the finals (again very subjective and arbitrary). Long way of saying Macrae had a very good year but that doesn’t mean those selected didn’t as well.

Edwards obviously

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

Macrae has been absolutely robbed here, but I wouldn’t expect it to happen any other way.

The lad is a star but he’s not the type the media go for. He’s quiet, unassuming, determined and confident, but not arrogant or flash.

Now I’m not saying Dustin Martin isn’t a good player...but the amount of times he booms the ball to no-one. He’s a hit-and-hope merchant.

Macrae is the polar opposite of this type. He’d rather kick it 15 to a Dog than 50 to a contest. Not as spectacular...but it’s more productive given our system.

 

[Yojimbo]

Who is Shane Edwards?

Shane is a wonderfully skilled half forward flanker who plays for Richmond, I did not have him in my All Australian team, but he is not
in the same category as Jackson Macrae. Patrick Cripps, Clayton Oliver and Tom Mitchell with Dustin Martin and Dangerfield as the
mid-forwards who do you leave out. I did not select Cripps and put in Macrae, but I have a clear Bulldog bias.

Note: They always pick a couple of head scratchers to promote conversation, every year.

 

[dogwatch]

Note: They always pick a couple of head scratchers to promote conversation the fashionable clubs, every year.

EFA

 

[McCraeBF]

Same tools that didn't vote for Naughton and Lipiski all year.........................................

 

[SCRAY72]

Just compared Macrae's stats to Edwards.
Ouch.
Not controversial, just downright wrong.

 

[Bonts4]

GO HUNTER GO, just for the displayed flexibility.

Macrae hunter bonts McLean that order I reckon, macrae by a big margin

 

[Yojimbo]

Macrae hunter bonts McLean that order I reckon, macrae by a big margin

You hope so, but Hunter was Mr Bulldogs this year with victory in eight statistical categories, I recommend the listerine fresh mint.

 

[Barking Mad]

Just compared Macrae's stats to Edwards.
Ouch.
Not controversial, just downright wrong.

Macrae doesn't play the same position so that's unfair. Edwards is a gun and more than deserved his spot forward, we could well do with a player up forward of his ilk and skill.
In saying that, I too though he should have been a walk up start. Gaff and Sidebottom are pretty damn handy and you can't just go on numbers as we are a pretty high possession team. The one I thought was very inconsistent this year was Dusty. He started like a house on fire and finished strong but the middle parts of the year he wasn't much. His disposals we awful and he looked more suited to be playing for us the way he butchered the ball. Problem is his best is damn good and he's got the brownlow hanging around his neck, played in the last dance and his team sits on top.
At the end of the day it's picked by a panel of "experts" just at weekly votes in the paper are given by the "experts". Rarley will we agree with them all. How Dylan Grimes didn't get a gig down back also bemuses me but I guess he isn't flashy enough or picks up as many possessions as a Laird.

 

[scooter600x]

The player who shouldn't have been there was Robbie Gray
Martin spent plenty of time forward and should have been in Gray's spot with Macrae in the midfield

 

[gordo2016]

I am predicting both of these players are ready to hit their prime and over the next 3-5 years both of them will be AA. Missed out this year, but Jack will get his rewards in the future.