After the injuries over the weekend, it got me thinking that although very unlucky for the individuals concerned (particularly the battles Tyson and Kent each have had this year and had seemingly overcome), we had dodged a bullet in terms of the injured players not de-railing our finals campaign – perhaps it is easier to say this with Viney ready to go and Hannan looking like he will come back in for Kent.  Maybe Tyson is a chance in any case.

It got me thinking about who is the most valuable member of the side – not the best player – but the player who if they went down to suspension or injury, it would have the most detrimental impact to us.

Obviously this is something that changes constantly with development, form and number of games played – AvB has been enormous since coming back in but has only played a few games & Harmes has hit a purple patch… do we measure him at this standard now, is there a like-for-like replacement on the list if they are out, how important is the running capacity of ANB or other role players, how experienced they are (I don’t put great weight on this) etc.  I have Hunt last in this list, but I feel like up to halfway through last year he would almost have been top 5.  Hopefully he can get back there next year.

It’s interesting to ponder – not just in terms of the players we’d least like to lose in the finals but also those who have missed a significant amount of footy this year.

Anyway, here’s my list as of form to date this year.  Would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts.

1.    Gawn

2.    Oliver

3.    Tmac

4.    Hibberd

5.    Viney

6.    Lever

7.    Brayshaw

8.    Harmes

9.    Hogan

10. Jetta

11. Melksham

12. Salem

13. Frost

14. Fritsch

15. AvB

16. ANB

17. Petracca

18. Omac

19. Lewis

20. Jones

21. Weiderman

22. Spargo

23. Kent

24. Stretch

25. Tyson

26. Vince

27. Smith, J

28. JKH

29. Garlett

30. Pederson

31. Smith, T

32. Wagner

33. Hunt

Gawn and Oliver are the only players we couldn’t replace, I think gawn is the MVP Of the whole comp and I think he will win it on Thursday night