Analysis Toby McLean: Thoughts?

[AFDogs]

I acknowledge that McLean's form has been pretty ordinary this season and there are many contributors to this forum who are questioning his value. However, before we start to consider trading him here is a sobering consideration: we went hard last trade period for Chad Wingard and were willing to offer him what I assume a lucrative package and yet, on all important comparable statistics thus far, McLean's output has been superior.
Check out the comparisons if you wish:
https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy...2=11&type=A&pid1=4057&pid2=3644&fid1=S&fid2=S

I don't think many could have predicted Wingard's downfall this year. New club, new scenery, joined a team with amazing skills and we all thought he would flourish.

As for Toby, had an absolutely awesome year last year in which he was top 4-5. Could be some yips. He definitely needs to play every week, he has earnt enough credits in the bank to not warrant being dropped.

Hopefully with Libba down for a bit, we see a better Toby McLean.

 

[TempletonTheRat]

Didn't rate his 2018 season?

come on Scrag, you know he is only as good as his last game around here.

 

[dogwatch]

With Libba down I’d like to see McLean take his minutes in the midfield. Bring Rhylee west in to cover his role at half forward with some stronger pressure and toughness.

Hopefully some more time in the guts pulls him out of the slump he’s in at the moment!

This makes sense to me.

It gives both players the opportunity to prove themselves. It could however put McLean on thin ice when Libba's ready to return if he hasn't improved his game.

The problem is if McLean does play well in the midfield does he get put back to half-forward when Libba comes back? And what if he goes back to being mediocre when returned there?

I don't really subscribe to this view that he's a midfielder or nothing. He clearly doesn't match it with the likes of Dunkley, Macrae, Bont, Libba and Hunter. Lipinski played a promising game in the midfield on Saturday and Smith is going to be a better midfielder than McLean soon too, so Toby has to have more strings to his bow.

Let's hope he works hard at it and doesn't take the Dahlhaus approach to the problem. (I can't have it my way so I'll go elsewhere.)

 

[mcgleereturns]

Let’s compare his stats to other half forwards in the league not our over possessing midfield. Very comparable to Dahlhaus role at Geelong in a much better forward line - Dahl has more tackles and definitely we need more of that pressure from Toby. Would like him to score more goals and his confidence has dropped in recent weeks. That fumble in the 2nd quarter on Saturday was unusual but he did manage to recover to soccer through just. Earlier in the year he was setting up goals with well directed kicks but lately not as much.

We do have a tendency to overgeneralise based on recent events and personal biases on this board and look for individual game weaknesses rather than strengths overall. Personal opinions on whether he is overrated is fine but not an absolute fact. Being overrated is not necessarily a bad thing either. I personally think Cripps is overrated ( last weeks 4 goal 39 possession effort aside) but is still a fabulous player. Toby is best 22 every day of the week - he was 9th in the B&F last year and that was with a late season drop off in form and when nearly everyone in Top 10 are midfielders there’s competition for votes.

Back to my first point, his stats vs Bont, Macrae, Hunter, Dunkley, Daniel et al are currently unfair. He’s stuck mainly in a crowded forward line with little classy support trying to contest for a possession while the others are chipping the ball between them from half back to half forward arcs. So his drop off in stats compared to last year is expected, just as Dunkley was earlier in year when living in the wasteland that is our forward line. Bont has suffered from living in that area as well.

I wish he kicked more goals and put on a bit more forward pressure a la 2016 Clay/Dahl/Picken - which is a major reason for our current problems - but a 17 possession per game half forward is far from a sackable offence.


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[Dazb86]

Think he's been fine this year. Just the positional change has his stats down on where he was last season. Still a smart footballer and best 22 every day of the week.