Most Important Player

[4#Didak#4]

Who is our most important player?

At the start of the year Jolly was a popular nomination and who I thought was the guy we could least afford to lose. Now we are actually losing a few it will be interesting to see how we are effected.

My top 5 most important players:

1. Pendlebury - Usually I don't have mids as the most important as they are more replaceble than rucks & key posi players. But have been watching Pendles closely the last few weeks and the way he brings other players into the game is amazing. Saturday night was a prime example - all those handballs out of traffic, hit targets & opened up the game for everyone else. He is the architect in the middle and the glue that holds it together.

2. Reid - Yes he is ranked high, but this is a bit to do with our tall key posi backs. Without N. Brown, Reid is vital. His ability to take on guys like Riewolt & Franklin makes him very important to us. If he goes down we will be exposed against any tall forward.

3. Jolly - The guy makes us a better team. His work at stoppages & clearances is fantastic. However, Wood has shown while no match for Jolly he can do enough to make sure we are not getting flogged by the opposition big man. If we had no back up ruck Jolly would be #1.

4. Cloke - Growing in influence. He is the strongest forward in the game. Very few can match him. Best contested mark in the competition. There is very few of these type of guys in the league. Only because we have L Brown & Dawes is he ranked this low.

5. Shaw - Tempted to say Thomas, but Shaw is a general down back & a consistent performer. Never beaten one on one. Thomas is more the cream on top.

 

[forwardflanker]

Jolly, then daylight

Last year I would of said Cloke and Dawes are nearly as important but with Tarrent coming in the off season and able to play forward in the event of injury its not as big a deal anymore.

Basically we have top quality cover for injuries pretty much everywhere except for the ruck.

 

[HeavyPop]

I think Jolly. Especially come finals.

 

[shawthing09]

Yep, Jolly. We have won without him but Wood's form hasn't been great. Wood, if anything has shown why Jolly is so important. The gap between Jolly and our next best ruckmen is huge. We have some kind of depth in every other area on the field.

 

[iGNITER]

Id say Jolly and Cloke.

Reid is very important now. Especially with N.Brown being unavailable.

 

[Histrionics]

Jolly.

 

[Paddywhackers]

That's a tough question.

We are winning without Jolly and Cam Wood is improving.

Cloke has turned himself into a monster.

Pendles is in the top five players.

Swan has been carrying injuries and has gone backwards.

Thomas had a purple patch where he was the best player in the league.

And than there's Ben Reid.

Strong argument at the moment that Cloke is ourmost important player. IMO,

Maybe I have forgotten how important Jolly is.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Id say Jolly and Cloke.

Reid is very important now. Especially with N.Brown being unavailable.

No question it is these two. We will find out how important Swan and Thomas are next week.

 

[MarkT2]

Throw around the order but come September our most important players will be Jolly, Cloke, Pendlebury, Swan, Didak & Thomas. We will beat Melbourne this week without Jolly, Swan and Thomas and without Didak playing a big part. Granted Melbourne are not at 100% full strength but that illustrates the gulf. We'll have 2 of our 6 most important players firing and win.

 

[4#Didak#4]

I agree Jolly is ultra important. However Wood is there for cover. He can do an adequate enough job for us to still win the clearances & stoppages and not get smashed there.

Coming into a big final against a side like the Hawks and you had a choice:

A) Jolly & Keefe
B) Wood & Reid

I would go with B. As our next best tall defender is not good enough to do a job on a Roughead/Franklin. Wood is at least able to compete (not necessarily win) against most ruckmen. Thats all we need from him. Franklin/Roughead would have a field day with no Reid.

If Nathan Brown comes back from his knee, this is not as big a problem and I would choose Jolly.

 

[iGNITER]

No question it is these two. We will find out how important Swan and Thomas are next week.

True.

Although we do have a bit more depth with our Midfield positions than we do with our Ruck/ KPF stocks.

We still have Pendles and Bally in the middle. Throw in Wellingham and Steele and that is a very handy midfield. With plenty of players being able to rotate through.

The real thing we will be missing with Swanny and Thomas will be their running. Two of the hardest running midfielders in our side.

 

[Knightmare]

I'd lean to Thomas in a close one with Pendlebury a close second.

Pendlebury is now our best player (I would argue over Swan even - when fully fit) but I would say Thomas our most important because he is our most influential. His defensive pressure adds so much to our team and really defines why we are a special team. He leads this charge and without him I think we would lack allot in this area. I'd also add to that the energy he injects into games as well as his special offensive sparks he often has whether it be taking a specie, kicking an amazing goal or bursting away from packs, he just gives the rest of the team that much more energy through his individual actions. Big game player who always lifts when he needs to and closes games out better than any other player in the league.


Jolly doesn't have a nearly sufficient replacement and people are right to point that out. But I would argue being without Thomas or Pendlebury is worse, because they are super stars of the competition who influence winning more rather than just being just a high level player by position.

Reid I'd say is very replaceable. - Keeffe. Unproven. Obviouisly not Reid good. But I believe he is good enough to replace and hold his own at AFL level. Much closer to Reid's level than Wood is to Jolly's for mine.

 

[look at him goooo!]

Like 4#Didak#4 touched upon, I think our most important player is largely based on the opposition we have, however there is a pretty consistent top 5. In no order I think Reid, Cloke, Pendlebury, Jolly and Shaw would be our most important players, with the order depending on the opposition we play. Against someone like Geelong, I'd have Jolly as our most important, against St.kilda i'd say Reid, against Richmond or Dogs you could argue that neither Reid or Jolly are the most important, due to their lack of dominant ruckman or CHF. Pendles is our most important midfielder and Cloke has just about been our most important player this year. Cloke makes us a better team, his ability to turn a long bomb to a contest in our favour is the best in the comp and without him we would have broken down a fair bit going forward this year.

 

[Krueger]

I can remember back when a few nob jockeys were calling for Cloke and Reid to be traded or that hey were no good.

 

[forwardflanker]

I agree Jolly is ultra important. However Wood is there for cover. He can do an adequate enough job for us to still win the clearances & stoppages and not get smashed there.

Coming into a big final against a side like the Hawks and you had a choice:

A) Jolly & Keefe
B) Wood & Reid

I would go with B. As our next best tall defender is not good enough to do a job on a Roughead/Franklin. Wood is at least able to compete (not necessarily win) against most ruckmen. Thats all we need from him. Franklin/Roughead would have a field day with no Reid.

If Nathan Brown comes back from his knee, this is not as big a problem and I would choose Jolly.

thats totally opponent dependent. I'm sure most would take A if we were playing Geelong, Freemantle, West Coast. Only the Hawks have the potential to expose us badly up but there are several finals sides that have the potential to expose us in the ruck if Jolly misses.

 

[Rusty22]

Jols and Trav
Jolly top 3 ruckmen in the game, an absolute gun, cant wait to have him back in a few weeks time.

Trav , i never thought he would become this good, best mark in the league, big bastard, and his kicking is getting better, gunna be a joy to wach the twin towers- him and dawesy own the finals

 

[Raymond Rougeau]

Id say Jolly and Cloke.

Reid is very important now. Especially with N.Brown being unavailable.

100% personal prefs aside we know we don't have quality cover for jolly given...

Other clubs supporters lol us for cloake too by they don't understand how much of a pivot he is for the other 5 forwards and everyone else making a run up front... His ability to present and grab is massive and the kicking... Hes doing his bit to fix his action so good on him...

And Reid is the unsung hero of the year so far for us

 

[shawthing09]

I'd lean to Thomas in a close one with Pendlebury a close second.
Reid I'd say is very replaceable. - Keeffe. Unproven. Obviouisly not Reid good. But I believe he is good enough to replace and hold his own at AFL level. Much closer to Reid's level than Wood is to Jolly's for mine.

Totally disagree on Thomas. He played a few games at a really high standard but even then he seemed to lift in conjunction with Pendles and Ball.

It's probably more to do with what I value as important in winning a match but I'd find it hard to classify a guy as outside as Daisy as a 'most important player.' That's in no way suggesting that he is soft ( I have been a huge defender of him in this regard since day one) or completely outside, but his main strength is his link, outside run and carry. Even though he does those things well they are very reliant on the ball getting outside in the first place.

I agree on Reid though (and pretty much every player in our back half) we have a very good structure and balance down back with a lot of versatility I think we could cover any one single player pretty well.

 

[johncitizen]

Trav easily our best.

 

[Ed D]

I think if Jolly comes back fully fit people will realise how important he is to us, and it makes you think what type of results we'd be getting if he was playing right now. Wood has been serviceable to above average in his games, but Jolly not only wins the taps and nullifies his opponents but also kicks goals. That Geelong game Ottens wouldn't have played the game he did with a fit Jolly in the side.

 

[Octavia]

Shaw, no doubt

 

[WakeUpPies]

We were never good enough to win a premiership until this man came to our club and hit form.


Darren Jolly easily, I for one still remember the days of playing Guy Richards and David Fanning, Wood is better than both but is still getting stomped by the Minsons of the AFL.

 

[Bert1]

It's hard to determine exactly who would be our most important player as there are quite a few who are holding down very important roles in different areas across the field but still surprised that one guy I'd have right up there has barely got a mention at all.
For homework this weekend I'd like everybody to take note of and pay extra attention to watching Luke Ball's effort in every contest he takes part in this week.

 

[Rusty22]

We were never good enough to win a premiership until this man came to our club and hit form.


Darren Jolly easily, I for one still remember the days of playing Guy Richards and David Fanning, Wood is better than both but is still getting stomped by the Minsons of the AFL.

FFS dont remind me hahaha, still gives me niightmares

 

[10571z]

true jolly was the key to the pies premiership success