- Sep 26, 2012
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- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
The written world ….I can't believe you have decided to open this can of worms all over again.
No Hawthorn supporter is saying Lewis is ahead of Larkey - they are only arguing that the gap between is not a "giant chasm" as is being made out.
That is being evidenced by Hawthorn supporters looking at goal average, possession average, contested marking average, contested possession average, marking average, tackle average and everything else to make a summation of the players (all of which Lewis leads bar 0.3 in goal average, though Larkey trailed only 12 games ago). Larkey's fantastic second half of the season is what elevates him above Lewis and is beyond what Lewis has produced thus far but it is not a 'giant chasm' as analysis of all the data clearly indicates.
The only argument being made for a 'giant chasm' is using the total of a solitary stat (despite extra games being played due to injury). No other player comparison ever does this. IF it did, Sav Rocca would be considered better than Wayne Carey, Brent Harvey would be considered better than Michael Voss, Ben Dixon better than Cyril Rioli, John Coleman would be rubbish and so on.
The counter examples used (Adrian McAdam, Lenny Hayes vs Jai Newcombe, etc) are completely disingenuous as you are only comparing the average of 1 stat, which is the complete opposite of what Hawthorn fans are trying to do. Not to mention, in the second example, a 300+ gamer is being compared to a 3 gamer which is so far from comparing 2 players with 15 games difference.
Is Larkey ahead at this stage? Yes. Could he remain so for the remainder of his career? Quite possible (perhaps even probable) Is there a 'ginat chasm' between what they have shown as players thus far? No, not really. Certainly not so much that Larkey would be the 2nd tall picked from these 3 clubs and Lewis would not even be top 10, which is what originally started this silly argument.