Silly of me to do this really but I will bite.
Why is this a problem? He takes 80+ minutes because at the moment our other midfielders aren't up to it. Arguably the likes of Selwood, Embley, Rosa, Ebert, Swift are still getting more minutes then they deserve in the centre based on form. As other midfielders improve Priddis' minutes will fall
What? How does not being a tagger remove the tackling comment. If tagging was just about stopping an opposing player winning a clearance then I am quite sure Priddis would be a gun tagger due to his in-close tackling capabilities. He consistently leads our tackle count. I am not disputing your tagging comment because I feel he would be exposed in open play due to a lack of speed - just can't see how that 'makes a mockery' of my comment on his in-close tackling ability.
Why we are at my 'mockerys of suggestions' - what exactly was wrong with giving Priddis 5 votes this week? I was hardly on my own in thinking he was our best. He was the only Eagle to receive coaches association votes, was considered our best player by afl.com.au, perthnow.com.au and thewest.com.au - in fact I haven't yet found an outlet that didn't consider him our best player.
Why did you choose 50% as your benchmark - how many midfielders get more than 50% contested? At 45% contested possession - his contested possession % is easily the highest of our mids.
In addition his disposal efficiency at 72% is very good for an inside mid and of players with more than 200 disposals in our side he is 2nd only to Rosa (who gets far more of his disposals uncontested and hence under less pressure). I would argue his handballing is incisive. Several times he wins first possession from the centre and shoots out a handball to a midfielder who can get a clearing kick in space - our clearance wins this season backs this up. He has also greatly improved in buying himself time to find a better option rather than shooting out a close-range handball to a player about to be claimed which is becoming a rarity with Priddis this season (and is one of the main reasons for his rapid improvement in disposal efficiency this season). I am not quite sure what more you want from him with respect to handballing? No arguments with his kicking flaws and agree that it doesn't appear that anything approaching our 2007 midfield is going to occur soon ... but it doesn't make sense to me that we should be ditching the one mid who is performing because our other mids aren't performing
With respect, you are a stats whore with a limited capacity to actually understand how football works.
I used 50% as a benchmark just to make a point, the point being that even the most inside of inside mids get at least 50% of their ball uncontested. On the weekend Priddis had 17 uncontested possessions, thats possessions where our best attacking mid had a chance to really influence play with ball in hand. He didnt, he rarely does.
As to giving him 5, again, stats whores. He was so far from our best according to anyone who actually watched the game and isnt lazy and looks down the stats. He works hard, he gets the ball and then he does absolutely nothing with it. Zero hurt factor. I am hopeful that your "incisive" handball comment was meant as some sort of deeply ironic comment - I didnt get it if so, but if you meant it seriously than you are beyond help. Completely.
On this issue of 80 minutes a game and all that, the reality is that teams build chemistry, identity and win games from the starting midfield. We are playing starting attacking mids out of position to accommodate players with lesser ceilings. Swift, for example, had more creative ball use than Priddis on the weekend, but only got 59% game time and had to tag ... this is because of Priddis. He cant tag, he cant play forward, he cant play wide, he cant defend, he has one string to his bow, getting the ball in close. But he does that 10 or so times a game, handy but it achieves little because he has no vision, he creates rarely AND he gets it more often uncontested, in space... which is ALWAYS terrifying.
Also on the weekend, S Selwood had long stretches away from the middle to accommodate the fact that Priddis was in there ... Scooter was arguably our most effective mid on the weekend but barely played mid in the third quarter when the Pies rolled over us ... Masten too, again, had to start as a half forward ... he was 20 times the player Priddis was at age 18 playing as an inside mid who released others to space .... he rarely gets to play that role for us because players like Priddis, A Selwood and even Ebert seem preferred at times ...
Priddis will be 26 when next season starts and he isnt getting better, he is an ordinary version of Shane Tuck (which is harsh), he is the slow version of Richie Vandenburg (not a complement). If you want to see whats required from a slowish inside mid reference Sam Mitchell ... then compare the gap to Priddis.
Perhaps one of the worst aspects of Priddis is the damage done to a guy like Kerr. Kerr should be the number 1 in and under inside attacking mid, but he has to try and play an outside role because Priddis cant. Makes him easier to tag and reduces his use of some of his best assets .... but people like yourself dont see this. You miss other teams rolling the dice and running off him in game breaking bursts... throwing kids like Hill in the middle last year and saying "just run forward" ....
He gets the ball, he is below AFL level at everything else. Again, in a midfield flood game style he can turtle tackle brilliantly. A barely useful skill. He gets run off 4 or 5 times a game (and I am being kind) at stoppages because teams roll the dice against him, knowing that the downside risk of him winning the ball is minimal but a quick player running into space with no chance of being caught is a certain goal most times ....
He has been at the core of our problems for 2 years. He is the most damaging (to our side) midfielder we have because of the key role he has and the abject lack of ability he has to do so ...
Other midfielders would improve more quickly if they had greater exposure in their proper positions, rather than trying to make them adjust, so we can keep Mr Dependable in his sole position... its so obvious and yet the stats whores cant see it ... look at his numbers ... as i have said numerous times, on stats he compares pretty well with Judd .. which tells you a lot about stats...