Prediction Riley Knight - The world's his oyster

[GameofSloanes]

There’s a lot going for Riley, just doesn’t accumulate enough. Which is why he is borderline best 22.
With Brad Crouch and Smith still out of the 22 he’s pretty close to the edge.

Best 22 next year

Brown Talia Doedee
Laird Keath Smith
Sloane Gibbs Seedsman
Jacobs Crouch Crouch
Lynch Walker Galluci
Betts Jenkins McGovern
Greenwood Milera Cheney
Atkins/Knight/Murphy/Douglas

If the crows get a FA that pushes him further down. If the crows get Rankine he has to beat out Galluci, Murphy, Atkins and Douglas for a spot.

I'd have him ahead of the first 3 already, and probably Douglas by the end of next year who will be getting towards the end of his career.
I'd argue he's about level with Milera & Cheney too.
Love his mongrel, and think he has done a good job vs Selwood & Beams. They may get the ball but I don't think either of them were damaging at all. Plus his niggle makes them concede frees and generally lose focus.

 

[1990crow]

I'd have him ahead of the first 3 already, and probably Douglas by the end of next year who will be getting towards the end of his career.
I'd argue he's about level with Milera & Cheney too.
Love his mongrel, and think he has done a good job vs Selwood & Beams. They may get the ball but I don't think either of them were damaging at all. Plus his niggle makes them concede frees and generally lose focus.

Cant argue hes ahead of Atkins, Cheney, Milera or Galluci.
Galluci provides better defensive pressure, kicks goals and is better by foot.
Atkins produces twice as much as Knight does offensively so if we have a full compliment midfiele hes a good fit for us.
Cheney plays back, a position Knight cant play. Its cheney or kelly.
Milera plays half back wing and is starting to really improve at a rate of knots. Will be a star for us and is ahead of knight by a fair distance now.

Knight is a half forward come midfielder and he needs to beat out Atkins, Galluci, douglas etc and right now he doesnt.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

There’s a lot going for Riley, just doesn’t accumulate enough. Which is why he is borderline best 22.
With Brad Crouch and Smith still out of the 22 he’s pretty close to the edge.

Best 22 next year

Brown Talia Doedee
Laird Keath Smith
Sloane Gibbs Seedsman
Jacobs Crouch Crouch
Lynch Walker Galluci
Betts Jenkins McGovern
Greenwood Milera Cheney
Atkins/Knight/Murphy/Douglas

If the crows get a FA that pushes him further down. If the crows get Rankine he has to beat out Galluci, Murphy, Atkins and Douglas for a spot.

Knight is best 22 easy. The only thing that has held him back is injury & continuity. Similar to Seed.

Your "gun" Murphy is fringe 22.

When the going gets tough, I would prefer to be relying on Knight than Atkins. He doesn't let us down in the big moments.

Knight does the little team things that often go unnoticed & don't get a statistic.

For those saying he lets his opponent get too much of the ball, what you need to consider is how effective their possessions were compared to normal... as he usually applying pressure such they are not as influential as usual.

 

[Morning_Fog]

Yep, Riley Knight is best 22 every day.

Missed maybe 9 weeks. 1 SANFL game and then straight back in to the AFL team.

 

[Coopers]

I am not here to bash Riley Knight (or any of our players) so please no one take this that way...But to me he is a player with decent speed and a good work rate who plays at a very high intensity but that is about where his good attributes as a player end as far as I can tell. He doesn't have much success as a tagger, he doesn't accumulate much of the ball and in my opinion he is a poor user of the ball with both his kicking and his decision making. That all being said I do like him as a character, I just wouldn't have him in my best 22. He does have a lot of staunch supporters on here though and even Damien Barrett is on board with Knight featuring in this weeks sliding doors article: "If Sloane coming back has been the key to this club's resurgence...then the lesser profiled Riley Knight can also take some recent credit after returning from injury. Developing very nicely."

For those who are big on Knight, I am interested in understanding why. Please try to convince me that I too should be a Knight fan.

You know what, I love the bloke and I agree with you.

But here's the Rub, our team is chock goddam full of:

• Talented blokes with not enough intensity - Atkins, Gov, Gibbs (sorry mate), Milera
• Hard triers with no skills who fade out - Kelly, (Otten, Mackay, Harto/Keath).
• Blokes who struggle to imact when the chips are down - Tex (sorry Mate), Brown, Tails
• Barometers - Lynch, Jacobs, Ed, Jenkins.
• And the others.

So: The above categorization is hugely unfair and no one of those guys deserves to be in either group, because, every one of those has transcended my unfair category at some point and dominated a match, and pulled us home for a win.

So why is Knight great? Because he lifts those around him. He's got a bit of the Sloane's around him (and dare I say the Murph's. I love Murph too, for the same reason). Knight ACTS on the field. It might not even be a big act, but he's giving. He's an energy injector. He can raise that level of everyone around him. That's why I'm a huge fan.

So, I'll end this with a Sloane comparison: We all know why we love the bloke, he raises the team just by putting in. Knight has a bit of it, and while he's not an "elite" player like Sloane (yet - he's young) I'd have him top 22 every goddam time.

 

[BunjiMac]

I just like that Knight instantly changes the mentality of our midfield.

We take on a hunter mentality when he is there.

 

[hey shorty]

You know what, I love the bloke and I agree with you.

But here's the Rub, our team is chock goddam full of:

• Talented blokes with not enough intensity - Atkins, Gov, Gibbs (sorry mate), Milera
• Hard triers with no skills who fade out - Kelly, (Otten, Mackay, Harto/Keath).
• Blokes who struggle to imact when the chips are down - Tex (sorry Mate), Brown, Tails
• Barometers - Lynch, Jacobs, Ed, Jenkins.
• And the others.

So: The above categorization is hugely unfair and no one of those guys deserves to be in either group, because, every one of those has transcended my unfair category at some point and dominated a match, and pulled us home for a win.

So why is Knight great? Because he lifts those around him. He's got a bit of the Sloane's around him (and dare I say the Murph's. I love Murph too, for the same reason). Knight ACTS on the field. It might not even be a big act, but he's giving. He's an energy injector. He can raise that level of everyone around him. That's why I'm a huge fan.

So, I'll end this with a Sloane comparison: We all know why we love the bloke, he raises the team just by putting in. Knight has a bit of it, and while he's not an "elite" player like Sloane (yet - he's young) I'd have him top 22 every goddam time.

Talia struggles when the chips are down ?? Dont think so.

Dont think we know enough about Keath yet to judge him either

 

[Jeffcrowe]

Knight is a winner , need more guys on our list with his mentality

Best 22 every day of the week when fit , would be an even better player by now if not so many injuries so hopefully he gets a run at it

 

[bickley26]

Riley Knight is a prick who will always make sure his direct opponent is uncomfortable, doesnt matter who it is he will get the job done.. i love him..

 

[hey shorty]

Knight is a winner , need more guys on our list with his mentality

Best 22 every day of the week when fit , would be an even better player by now if not so many injuries so hopefully he gets a run at it

This is the key. No doubt he would have been a better player now if he hadn't spent 75% of the time in the injury room

 

[deeztreez]

There’s a lot going for Riley, just doesn’t accumulate enough. Which is why he is borderline best 22.
With Brad Crouch and Smith still out of the 22 he’s pretty close to the edge.

Best 22 next year

Brown Talia Doedee
Laird Keath Smith
Sloane Gibbs Seedsman
Jacobs Crouch Crouch
Lynch Walker Galluci
Betts Jenkins McGovern
Greenwood Milera Cheney
Atkins/Knight/Murphy/Douglas

If the crows get a FA that pushes him further down. If the crows get Rankine he has to beat out Galluci, Murphy, Atkins and Douglas for a spot.

Gee...if only we could get that complete team on the park

 

[On The Crouch]

I think people, including his opponents, underestimate Knight because he looks like he’s in a boy band.

 

[headache1]

If we had 22 blokes who played with the intensity that this guy does, we'd never lose a game.

 

[huludicidal]

Cant argue hes ahead of Atkins, Cheney, Milera or Galluci.
Galluci provides better defensive pressure, kicks goals and is better by foot.
Atkins produces twice as much as Knight does offensively so if we have a full compliment midfiele hes a good fit for us.
Cheney plays back, a position Knight cant play. Its cheney or kelly.
Milera plays half back wing and is starting to really improve at a rate of knots. Will be a star for us and is ahead of knight by a fair distance now.

Knight is a half forward come midfielder and he needs to beat out Atkins, Galluci, douglas etc and right now he doesnt.

Knight is A LONG WAY ahead of Gallucci, as will be evidenced next week when Gallucci is dropped for the returning Douglas (obviously this is subject to change if we suffer an injury or two tonight or at training).

Bookmark it.

Also, Gallucci’s footskills are not a strength at all (neither are Knight’s, but still) and Knight’s defensive pressure is far better than Gallucci’s. Gallucci has the edge in footspeed, agility and that’s about it.

To summarise, Gallucci is not yet best 22. Knight is.

 

[Golumless]

Knight is A LONG WAY ahead of Gallucci, as will be evidenced next week when Gallucci is dropped for the returning Douglas (obviously this is subject to change if we suffer an injury or two tonight or at training).

Bookmark it.

Also, Gallucci’s footskills are not a strength at all (neither are Knight’s, but still) and Knight’s defensive pressure is far better than Gallucci’s. Gallucci has the edge in footspeed, agility and that’s about it.

To summarise, Gallucci is not yet best 22. Knight is.

I disagree. They're a strength and in a big way.

It's not the classic long raking kick, but his short kicking game is superb.

 

[hey shorty]

If we had 22 blokes who played with the intensity that this guy does, we'd never lose a game.

We wouldn't win a game because we wouldn't get the ball much

 

[hey shorty]

Knight is A LONG WAY ahead of Gallucci, as will be evidenced next week when Gallucci is dropped for the returning Douglas (obviously this is subject to change if we suffer an injury or two tonight or at training).

Bookmark it.

Also, Gallucci’s footskills are not a strength at all (neither are Knight’s, but still) and Knight’s defensive pressure is far better than Gallucci’s. Gallucci has the edge in footspeed, agility and that’s about it.

To summarise, Gallucci is not yet best 22. Knight is.

Galluccis footskills are better than Knight's

 

[ad victoriam]

While Knight has the ability to be a top player, he still has a way to go.
aggression and run a tick, His biggest advantage is the same as Kelly's there ability to run hard all day.
Finals to date, not a tick one good final a few debatable poor to average and a s**t GF.
Only 2 times in 30 games has he gotten over 20 disposals. Yes I know disposal is not everything and the stats don't show how good he can be. but he still needs to get his hand on the ball.
At this stage, he tracking the same as an early version of MacKay but does not get the ball as much and Douglas who a slower but has more football smarts.
The advantage he is only 23 and has only played 35 games in 5 years due to injury and a late introduction,
So their room for improvement which he needs to totally regarded as a top player, including getting his hands on the ball more.
Maybe he is best 22 today but unless he improves he will have a lot of competition for the last 5-6 places. going forward.
And his competition comes from that small forward midfield role.

Remember he in that group of small players who need to do more to keep their position.

 

[headache1]

We wouldn't win a game because we wouldn't get the ball much

How did you come up with that from what I said? I said we'd never lose a game if we had 22 guys who played with his intensity. Not we'd never lose a game if we had 22 Riley Knight's.

Look at Richmond. They aren't winning on top end talent alone. They're winning because their role players are niggling, harassing, hunters who never stop running and applying pressure.

 

[hey shorty]

How did you come up with that from what I said? I said we'd never lose a game if we had 22 guys who played with his intensity. Not we'd never lose a game if we had 22 Riley Knight's.

Look at Richmond. They aren't winning on top end talent alone. They're winning because their role players are niggling, harassing, hunters who never stop running and applying pressure.

The thing is, Richmond stop their opposition, Knight doesnt

 

[Golumless]

The thing is, Richmond stop their opposition, Knight doesnt

He's had what two tagging jobs this season, and won both of them comprehensively.

Right now, he's stopping his opposition.

 

[hey shorty]

He's had what two tagging jobs this season, and won both of them comprehensively.

Right now, he's stopping his opposition.

Selwood SMASHED him. He broke even with Beams....... but both had huge disposal counts. Wouldnt say thats stopping them

 

[Cap]

Selwood SMASHED him. He broke even with Beams....... but both had huge disposal counts. Wouldnt say thats stopping them

You are the only person ive heard suggest that Knight didnt do at least a passable effort in minimising Selwood.

 

[Golumless]

Selwood SMASHED him. He broke even with Beams....... but both had huge disposal counts. Wouldnt say thats stopping them

God no. Selwood did not "smash" him at all. That's just being seduced by a disposal count (which is a very meaningless stat without context).

This was the key points of Selwood game, and note he's a pure inside so the game is not stopping the disposals (seeing stopping disposal is near impossible to do against an inside midfielder). The game is destroying Selwoods efficiency.

A kick/disposal ratio of 44.8% (season average - 48.7%)
Despite the above stat - A decrease of 7.4% in DE% (going from 69.6% to 62.2%)
44.8% contested disposals - a slight increase from his seasonal average of 43.5%.
6 clangers (season average - 4.5)
9 turnovers (season average - 4.7)
3 clearances (season average - 5.2) and of this, all were centre clearances
Despite a higher then usual inside 50, and meters gained count, Selwood only managed 4 score involvements (season average 5.5). Added to the heavily inflated turnover count, this is indicative of a lot of under pressure bombs into the forward line.
0 tackles (season average - 5.5) this is loosely attributed to Knight shepherding etc, but equally could just be from the belting we received on the inside.

Sure Selwood got more disposals then his season average. Once you go past that stat, however he had nothing short of an terrible game. As that was Knight's job, he belted Selwood.

I'm more inclined to be persuaded with broke even with Beams.

 

[Dank Academy]

Knight is to ADL what Dellavedova was to the Cavs in 2015/16. Willing to do the 'undignified' hard work that other 'more talented' players would never consider doing.