Opinion Most Valuable Players in the AFL

Except he wasn't.

Petracca, Oliver, Bont, Steele, Parish, Macrae, Wines were all CLEARLY better than him this year.

And before you bring up Walsh' brownlow ranking, let's not forget Angus Brayshaw came 3rd in brownlow once, and he was most certainly not the 3rd best player in that season.

Brownlow votes are often inflated due to a lack of internal competition (Cripps was garbage this year) and is more of an indication of how many BOG games you had rather than your genuine impact throughout the entire season.

Ultimately I just have no confidence in Walsh to deal with tags in the future. He has outside run, but that can be easily restricted with close attention paid, and he will never become that contested beast and dominate games like Petracca, Bont, Oliver can.

40th in Clearances Per Game
26th in Contested Possessions Per Game

Are not the stats of a top 5 midfielder, and this is without much if any opposition attention this year.
Nah Walsh was in the top 5 players for the year

Oliver, Petracca, Bont, Wines & Walsh

Steel you could argue might have been better than him
 

gungho

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5 most valuable afl players in my opinion:
1. Aaron Naughton
2. Ben King.
3. Bont
4. Jackson
5. Max king.

I think a premium has to be there for key forwards. Petracca, wines etc are already in peak. Walsh in top 10 but just don’t think he has as many game winning abilities.
 
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tombomb

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It's easy to forget how good Rowell looked.

Other than him and the other obvious ones, I think Sean Darcy is incredibly valuable.
 
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It's easy to forget how good Rowell looked.

Other than him and the other obvious ones, I think Sean Darcy is incredibly valuable.

Rowell's first 5 games were amazing, but he looked like an old man out there this year. I really hope he gets an injury free run at is as he's an incredible talent.
 

Heaps of fun

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Rowell's first 5 games were amazing, but he looked like an old man out there this year. I really hope he gets an injury free run at is as he's an incredible talent.
I've been thinking about Rowell and trying to think of any gun midfielders that had a year as bad as his 2021 before going on to become that sort of top 20 player in the league type.
 
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I've been thinking about Rowell and trying to think of any gun midfielders that had a year as bad as his 2021 before going on to become that sort of top 20 player in the league type.

I really don't think he should have been playing this year. Every time I watched him he looked so slow... whether that is confidence in his knee or whether the knee was still bothering him though I'm not sure. I'm hoping he can regain his explosiveness and confidence with a good pre season as his talent suggests to me he could well be a top 20 player going forward.
 

dee64

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5 most valuable afl players in my opinion:
1. Aaron Naughton
2. Ben King.
3. Bont
4. Jackson
5. Max king.

I think a premium has to be there for key forwards. Petracca, wines etc are already in peak. Walsh in top 10 but just don’t think he has as many game winning abilities.
You have Bont on your list, but not Petracca or Oliver, who are younger?

The best young KPFs (King brothers and McKay) played in teams that didn't make finals. The gun mids are clearly the MVPs in the AFL.
 

Prochard123

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Nah Walsh was in the top 5 players for the year

Oliver, Petracca, Bont, Wines & Walsh

Steel you could argue might have been better than him
Nah disagree, Parish in particular has probably been a top 3 player let alone top 5.

He was able to be that sole reason for Essendon to win the midfield battle when other mids were not stepping up, and while he was copping taggers consistently.

Steele was also better than Walsh.

Ultimately, Walsh flourished with Cripps taking opposition's best mid, and Curnow playing the occasional defensive roles.

Walsh was a top player this year and deserving of all australian, but until he can (1) win his own ball (2) win his own clearances (3) hit the scoreboard more often (4) demonstrate he can do all of the above while opposition attention, then he is not even in the SAME CONVERSATION as Oliver, Petracca, Bont, Wines, Steele, Parish etc.
 

Prochard123

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Walsh got 32 more coaches votes than Macrea and came 6th in the voting. Coaches votes are are much better indication than Brownlow votes.

You're under rating Walsh.
Yes I agree, the reason why I brought it up is because someone was going to do it at some point. So it was more of a disclaimer in case someone wanted to use brownlow votes to justify Walsh being a top 5 player.

That being said, coaches votes are equally as biased given it factors in the level of internal competition at the club (Miller 5th, Petracca 8th).
 

Prochard123

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Classic Bigfooty post - games of footy aren't won via stats.

The same game Serong was plonked on Walsh for 1 and a half quarters where he got worked over to the point Longmuir couldn't bare it anymore and had to to make the change.

Walsh continues killing it and ends up kicking the match winning goal in the last quarter copping 2 Brownlow votes in the process.

Gun.
If Walsh didn't kick that goal he would've been one of the worst midfielders on the ground lol, if this is the standard we have for a "current top 5 player in the comp" then my god the likes of Steele, Parish etc would be spewing
 

gungho

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You have Bont on your list, but not Petracca or Oliver, who are younger?

The best young KPFs (King brothers and McKay) played in teams that didn't make finals. The gun mids are clearly the MVPs in the AFL.
You are right McKay should be in there. Bont is the only mid and in my humbly opinion is better than those 2 but they are both great players.
 

WalshistheGOAT

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If Walsh didn't kick that goal he would've been one of the worst midfielders on the ground lol, if this is the standard we have for a "current top 5 player in the comp" then my god the likes of Steele, Parish etc would be spewing
Do indulge as to how you judge Parish's monster performances against gws and Collingwood late in the year? Or perhaps the game where Parish and Walsh went head to head and Walsh won out in just about every statistical category including good contested ball and clearances which he's supposedly no good at.

Also re the freo game... Yeah... somehow I don't think ur recollection of the game is quite right. Maybe check again.
 

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Prochard123

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Do indulge as to how you judge Parish's monster performances against gws and Collingwood late in the year? Or perhaps the game where Parish and Walsh went head to head and Walsh won out in just about every statistical category including good contested ball and clearances which he's supposedly no good at.

Also re the freo game... Yeah... somehow I don't think ur recollection of the game is quite right. Maybe check again.
What am I even looking at here?

Do you mean the game where Walsh had:

- 1 clearance (lowest out of all midfielders in both sides)
- 225 metres gained (2nd lowest out of all midfielders in both sides, Cripps lowest)
- 64% disposal efficiency (3rd worst out of all midfielders in both sides)

It was a pure outside game, where Walsh was a HUGE LIABILITY in the middle - Carlton lost clearances 26 to 45. The only thing that kept you guys in the game was Fremantle's inaccuracy (8 goals 16 behinds).

And even on the outside, on top of poor ball use, 225 metres gained just isn't good enough given how hard he got destroyed in clearances.

And IN ADDITION to all of this, Walsh had the highest TOG (90%) on the ground, meaning he had more game time than any midfielder yet he still got dominated in the key metrics for assessing midfielders.
 
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Nah disagree, Parish in particular has probably been a top 3 player let alone top 5.

He was able to be that sole reason for Essendon to win the midfield battle when other mids were not stepping up, and while he was copping taggers consistently.

Steele was also better than Walsh.

Ultimately, Walsh flourished with Cripps taking opposition's best mid, and Curnow playing the occasional defensive roles.

Walsh was a top player this year and deserving of all australian, but until he can (1) win his own ball (2) win his own clearances (3) hit the scoreboard more often (4) demonstrate he can do all of the above while opposition attention, then he is not even in the SAME CONVERSATION as Oliver, Petracca, Bont, Wines, Steele, Parish etc.
Parish top 3 for the whole of 2021?

I can't even take the rest of what you had to say serious after reading that

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Nah disagree, Parish in particular has probably been a top 3 player let alone top 5.

He was able to be that sole reason for Essendon to win the midfield battle when other mids were not stepping up, and while he was copping taggers consistently.

Steele was also better than Walsh.

Ultimately, Walsh flourished with Cripps taking opposition's best mid, and Curnow playing the occasional defensive roles.

Walsh was a top player this year and deserving of all australian, but until he can (1) win his own ball (2) win his own clearances (3) hit the scoreboard more often (4) demonstrate he can do all of the above while opposition attention, then he is not even in the SAME CONVERSATION as Oliver, Petracca, Bont, Wines, Steele, Parish etc.
So Walsh needs to hit the scoreboard more to be in that elite bracket and yet he averaged more goals per game this season than Parish who you think is in that bracket.

2 extra contested possessions and a couple extra clearances per game makes him elite but Walsh needs to do more to get to that level?

You say Parish was the sole reason the Essendon midfield were winning yet he had an AA level mid next to him all season who ended up winning the B&F so was seen to be better across the year
 

WalshistheGOAT

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What am I even looking at here?

Do you mean the game where Walsh had:

- 1 clearance (lowest out of all midfielders in both sides)
- 225 metres gained (2nd lowest out of all midfielders in both sides, Cripps lowest)
- 64% disposal efficiency (3rd worst out of all midfielders in both sides)

It was a pure outside game, where Walsh was a HUGE LIABILITY in the middle - Carlton lost clearances 26 to 45. The only thing that kept you guys in the game was Fremantle's inaccuracy (8 goals 16 behinds).

And even on the outside, on top of poor ball use, 225 metres gained just isn't good enough given how hard he got destroyed in clearances.

And IN ADDITION to all of this, Walsh had the highest TOG (90%) on the ground, meaning he had more game time than any midfielder yet he still got dominated in the key metrics for assessing midfielders.
Walsh played half forward and wing almost that entire game to drag serong away from the contest and get loose in open space. You clearly didn't watch the game or you watched it with ur black and white tinted glasses. He was pretty clearly dominant during that game and that's why he was being tagged
 
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If Walsh didn't kick that goal he would've been one of the worst midfielders on the ground lol, if this is the standard we have for a "current top 5 player in the comp" then my god the likes of Steele, Parish etc would be spewing
Walsh kicked more goals and is much better by foot than Parish.
 

Sean_09

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It's easy to forget how good Rowell looked.

Other than him and the other obvious ones, I think Sean Darcy is incredibly valuable.

Second that, Freo's most valuable player without a doubt in my mind. Just turned 23, won his 1st B&F this year and still has incredible upside left to develop. More so with Ruckman don't tend to peak until their late 20's.
 
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Second that, Freo's most valuable player without a doubt in my mind. Just turned 23, won his 1st B&F this year and still has incredible upside left to develop. More so with Ruckman don't tend to peak until their late 20's.

Clearly one of the most valuable players in the AFL, I can’t understand how more people haven’t listed him.
 
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