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Light duties: Fritta, Rivers, Tomlinson, Woey, K.Turner, Verrall. Salem, TMac, Chandler, Hibbo, full training. BBB, Tomlinson, Fritta, and Rivers have now joined the main group after the warm ups. Mithen, Fitzsimons, and McNamara, (AFLW) have joined in for some drills. All under the guidance of Williams. Fritta now goal kicking. Three squads, handball game, soccer game, and Williams’ skill training. Dunstan in rehab, right calf. BBB and Tomlinson leave early, when the others start running harder. The full squad drill is, short passes in a pocket, that lends up on a corner of the fifty, then they kick and run around to the points of the square, which finishes with a lead to the forward area and a kick on goal. All rotate through the ground. That is it, 35 minutes. A few finish with some goal kicking. Tracc, Oliver, Kossie, J.Smith, Farris-White, Grundy. Bowey, and the women (still with Williams). Viney, ball handling with a trainer. May, Lever, Hibbo, and Petty chat.

If we don’t appeal this, it will be the first time in many many years that I will be deeply disappointed with the club. We haven’t put a foot wrong IMO in a long time. I was very happy to accept the Kosi penalty, but if we don’t defend a kid who plays the game with good intent and bravery, I would be incredibly upset. JVR deserves better and if we accept this suspension we are telling him 6 games in, that he has to spend the rest of his career second guessing if he should attack the contest or not. I would hate to lose that side of his game because it is a big part of what makes him so special.

At least the dees will get some coverage on 360 and on the couch this week. Pity it will only involve a million replays of the incident and silly back and forth about football acts, head being sacrosanct (is the neck adjacent sacrosanct?), Ralphy guessing the outcome, blah, blah, blah. And then they can get back to the Pies. By the by, my take is Rooey could have ruined him but actually appeared to take great care not to get him in the head. So, he did exactly what players are apparently supposed to do - show a duty of care and accept the risk that if someone is hurt, and in particular concussed, they will face a penalty. In contrary to the pathetic jump to conclusion commentary of Dunstall and Derwayne, Roey DID NOT HIT BALLARD'S HEAD, nor did Ballard's head hit the ground. Watching live it was pretty clear their concern was his neck - hence the, totally appropriate, care, they provided and the long break in the game that ensued (imagine how differently this would have played out if he had got up and taken himself off the ground - the 'optics' would have been completely different and it we would have not had to sit thru bonehead ex footballers moralizing and 50 replays and close ups of a distressed JVR ) But bottom line is he wasn't injured badly, no concussion and will play this week. And i would argue that's all because Rooey DID show Ballard a duty of care.

No it was sighted, just not cited.

Correct call from the club to appeal. It seems the only things in the AFL's favour are: The vision which suggests JVR took his eyes off the ball; and The need for a stretcher and what I assume will be a minor injury from which Ballard has recovered (as opposed to no injury at all). There is not, and cannot be, a blanket rule that taking your eyes off the ball means your actions become a reportable offence. The onus on every player is to exercise a duty of care to other players. In some instances, the duty of care requires you to look at the player before you contact them. We cannot say that players must lock eyes on the ball in all instances. Here, in attempting to spoil, JVR checks the ball's flight, then looks at Ballard to try to spoil his marking attempt. As others have already argued, it is eminently arguable that he was trying his best to look out for Ballard, rather than the opposite. So, taking your eyes off the ball might be evidence of a reportable offence in circumstances where, for example, you're at a stoppage and you strike your opponent (the player might defend themselves by saying they were trying to get separation but if you're not looking at the ball it's more likely you're trying to strike your opponent). But in this instance I can't accept that makes JVR guilty of an offence. The stretcher showing up we can hopefully deal with to say that either the contact ended up being minor enough to fall below a reportable offence or, as a back-up argument, was only "low" (which would be a fine), or even more alternative was only "medium" (one week). But I'd like to not get to that point.

Some really brilliantly thoughtful and switched on responses in this thread. It's why Demonland is the place to go for proper footy analysis. You'd think an AFL TV or radio show would be, but sadly not. I remember Round 2 of 2019. My sister and I went down to Geelong in the pelting rain to watch us face the Cats. That night, we won clearance by +15, had +24 inside 50s, but lost by 80 points. For years, we bemoaned the fact we were too one dimensional and completely reliant on stoppages to be in games. 2019 was a year that saw us regularly win clearance (as we had during 2018) and yet we finished 2nd last. Chris Scott's MO for years at Geelong was to essentially slingshot off the back of opposition attacking thrusts from clearance. Goodwin for many years went the opposite way. Play territory by winning clearance and taking territory. Repeat entries and pressure on the opposition defence would eventually lead to scores. Play a high press that would lock the ball in our A50 and sit an anchor (ideally our quickest player or best reader of play) as the deepest goalkeeper. Aggressive and vulnerable out the back, if we lost key 1v1s or failed to capitalise on the territory dominance with scoreboard pressure. Goodwin evolved this approach in mid 2020 (the St Kilda win was the clear stand out in style, despite us only winning narrowly) and was perfected in 2021, where post stoppage pressure became king. Winning the post clearance battle was our concern and Goodwin would often speak about this in pressers. This post clearance focus enabled us to continue playing the territory game, but instead of being overly reliant on stoppages, we wanted to pressure the opposition stoppage as extremely as possible, to ensure they'd simply hand it back to our interceptors or our defence would have time to mop up ground balls. We won a flag playing this way and Chris Scott aped much of Goodwin's blueprint to win it last year. This year, we're sweating turnovers and essentially cashing in big on turnover. I'm not sure of the latest data and @WheeloRatings is usually all over this stuff, but as of mid April, we were league leaders for points from turnover. Tellingly, at the same stage, Gold Coast were the best stoppage team and second worst points from turnover team. Coincidence? It means we're less reliant on stoppages for scores and are more focused on scoring off turnover. Conversely, Gold Coast are more like us circa 2018. Reliant on stoppages for goals and vulnerable on the turnover. As an aside but also another facet of our shift away from an over reliance on stoppages is Max. As a ruckman, IMV he's too predictable. He's a great tap to advantage ruck, but as a result, the opposition can also read him like a book. This is where Grundy's different style really suits us and gives us a different gear if Max is being sharked. Arresting momentum in high pressure games could be crucial and having two such different rucks will constantly keep the opposition guessing and hopefully unable to build too much momentum against us. The other thing Grundy gives us is phenomenal follow up at ground level, which suits our post clearance defence method. So it's not just Clarry, Trac, Viney or Sparrow that's at you, but Grundy as well. The points from turnover is a key stat to watch for the remainder of the year. It's not one available on the AFL ap, but in live telecasts and on the scoreboard at games, it's regularly shown as a key pathway to scores, along with points from stoppages. We can get the ball out the front of stoppages and get dangerous, deep entries that lead to scores - think the 2021 GF. But everyone knows we can do this and tries to ensure this route 1 option is impossible. It felt like at times in 2022, we were trying to be too pure with these out the front clearances and would often see handballs or knock ons intercepted by the opposition, which left us vulnerable going back the other way out of the stoppage, or would simply lead to a breakdown and a stoppage that should have been a reasonable clearance going forward to the 6-6-6. We may have wanted to be more precise from stoppage last year, because our inability to win ground ball and defend rebound ground ball was lacking. Incidentally, this is likely why BBB and Tmac find themselves out of the side. In any case, I think we've made a number of key adjustments in 2023, from the perfectionistic out the front clearances and predictable, slower ball movement to the pockets, and reverted to a quicker more central ball movement (at least upon 50 entry) with better ground ball competitors in our forward 50 to capitalise at ground level. With this, the data seems to support a clear shift to feasting on turnover as opposed to goals from stoppage.

If the AFL is concerned about parents and their willingness to have their children play the game, they should be more concerned about the off-the-ball incidents which occur against the best players in every game. The constant bumping, niggling, elbowing and shoving is a far greater blight on the game than a poorly executed defensive spoil.

On a side note it is fantastic to finally have a key forward that likes throwing his body around. Not saying he plays outside the rules but JVR just loves the contact. Reminds me of a young Browny in some ways. You would never see any of our other key fwds jump in to spoil like that. He will will off tomorrow i reckon

A new experience Jaded?

I'm not quite sure how to get an image down to the really low file limit required for this site (help anybody?!) but regarding the video from behind the goals that Jonny Ralph claims 'proves' JVR had eyes on the man, if you actually pause the video just before the ball is about to enter Ballard's hands, it shows JVR is looking directly at the ball and he is in fact either touching or very close to touching the ball. It's just the vibe of the thing. Case closed.

The appeal will result in a quashing of ANY penalty, which seems obvious to anyone with half a brain. The bigger question, which many of you have raised, is why was he given a penalty in the first place? Why is there no process of oversight to make sure these ridiculous judgements aren’t made to begin with? The cynic in me thinks it’s deliberate attention seeking…..clickbait driven by controversy. Otherwise it is just amateurish beyond comprehension.

Impossible to do so Red. The system is a total [censored] up. The inconsistencies in umpiring and in the review system would be comical, if it weren't for the fact that they are ruining the largest professional sporting activity in Australia. It defies reason that a professional body with the billion dollar income and resources of the AFL cannot/ will not work towards a solution to remove ( or even improve) this blight on our game.

Wtf is this absurdity that you can only take your eye off the ball if you have ill intentions, and not because you're momentarily tracking where your opponent is out of duty of care? Are they actively encouraging endangering yourself and your opponent by turning yourself into a missile by recklessly going back with the flight like Nick Riewoldts and Brown did? They were lucky they didn't kill themselves or their opponent. And lucky they marked the ball.

How about... we need to talk about Kevin's training reports 😋

I think it’s high time that all 18 clubs should lobby the AFL and media outlets for an immediate ceasefire on commentating in a purely subjective manner on match day reports. I understand it gets them clicks and obviously revenue as well but ffs the damage it is doing to the game is being amplified after every single charge - whether it be obvious or not. There’s now 4 frikken umpires on the field and not even they can pull a report of their ahole like the MRO can. So frustrating. 🤬

Great to see Eliza up and about after that serious back injury she suffered.

Thanks Kev Was JVR there in good spirits, or was he nursing a severely injured bicep with which he tried to murder that GW$ guy??

It was purely incidental. It’s wasn’t careless, neither was it intentional. And there was no malice involved.

Hard to think of a top level sport that is as badly adjudicated, on and off the field, as AFL football.

Just on scores from turnovers, Melbourne ranks 1st in points from turnovers, 3rd in scores (goals + behinds) from turnovers, and 2nd in points differential from turnovers. Melbourne doesn't score as often as Brisbane and Geelong from turnovers, but Melbourne's accuracy puts them on top for total points. Points from turnovers 512: Melbourne 483: Brisbane 481: Geelong 454: Essendon 440: Sydney 438: St Kilda 404: Greater Western Sydney 399: Adelaide 392: Fremantle 381: Carlton 380: Port Adelaide 363: Western Bulldogs 362: Collingwood 344: Richmond 336: Gold Coast 321: West Coast 314: North Melbourne 294: Hawthorn Scores from turnovers 128: Brisbane 126: Geelong 122: Melbourne 120: Sydney 119: Essendon 114: Adelaide 113: St Kilda 111: Carlton 109: Greater Western Sydney 107: Collingwood 104: Richmond 103: Western Bulldogs 102: Fremantle 100: Port Adelaide 91: West Coast 91: Gold Coast 84: North Melbourne 84: Hawthorn Points from turnovers differential +193: St Kilda +179: Melbourne +101: Brisbane +97: Essendon +73: Geelong +45: Adelaide +42: Sydney +15: Collingwood +12: Carlton +10: Western Bulldogs -13: Fremantle -15: Port Adelaide -31: Greater Western Sydney -32: Richmond -114: Gold Coast -154: North Melbourne -177: West Coast -231: Hawthorn Points conceded from turnovers 245: St Kilda 333: Melbourne 347: Collingwood 353: Western Bulldogs 354: Adelaide 357: Essendon 369: Carlton 376: Richmond 382: Brisbane 395: Port Adelaide 398: Sydney 405: Fremantle 408: Geelong 435: Greater Western Sydney 450: Gold Coast 468: North Melbourne 498: West Coast 525: Hawthorn

Feels like a bit of overkill with MRO and Press but very happy that we have appealed the decision. Striking, do they know what striking is, at worst should have been a fine for overzealous attempt to spoil.!!!!

Monday rant supported @Redleg. I reckon most of the issues stem from increased media attention and proximity in as commercialised a market as we’ve lived through. Which is a mighty double-edged sword. On the plus side, we get a screen spectacle like never before. It’s fantastic. Not like being there of course, but as close to that as possible. The downside is that everything is subject to scrutiny, on and off field. Umpires are hopelessly prone to second-guessing, and adjudicating according to expectations from too many quarters, media/TV particularly. They’ll never be perfect of course, but ludicrously, they still aren’t full-time professionals, so obviously struggle to maintain consistency, within and between themselves, across games and through the season. The corporate-executive nature of the AFL is I think more egregious. It’s too profit oriented, at the expense of almost everything that guarantees satisfaction with and for the future health of the game. As you say, what a ridiculous waste of money on executive process. Imagine what the grass roots clubs around the country would do with a share of that $4 million? Then look at the fixturing. Collingwood and Essendon simply don’t play in Geelong. Other clubs (we seem to be in that camp), play there every year. In a competition that has excellent equalisation measures otherwise, this is just plain wrong. The AFL makes a fantastic profit every year because the game is intrinsically, culturally embedded. We love it for that. The AFL does not however respect or seem to understand that it should be managed and administrated beyond profit through media. Could go on….

Me too, there's a small article in the paper about how much his run is contributing to our winning last quarters - he may not have pace but he has great endurance and doesn't stop running

Ross Lyon is who we are taking advice from now? Fritta is not getting dropped ffs.

People confuse me sometimes, do they think all the games we win is going to be convincing or something? I read people saying Geelong and Collingwood would bend us over, cause those teams haven't had bad games or games they shouldn't have won. Or we're not playing like a premiership side. Who the f wants to play like a premiership side in May? Top 4 is the goal and then give it a real crack. Please name 1 team who's won all their games convincingly? Such potatoe cakes out there.

The OP is misguided IMO. We have lost the clearance count three times this year - to the Dogs, Brisbane and Gold Coast. Those sides are ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd for average clearance differential this year. If we are less dominant at clearances this year, it is IMO for three key reasons: We are rotating a lot more players through the middle and are resting Gawn, Oliver, Petracca and Viney far more than we did in 2021-22 We are trying to be a more varied and diverse side that doesn't rely exclusively on clearance/CP dominance to score (it's working so far) We've played half this season so far without Gawn

From an eye witness (me, on the Punt Rd hill side of the ground almost directly opposite the play) RDB did not touch him. RDB was tackled with the ball from front on, tried to punch it away, could not because Dean had his hands on the ball as well and Dean threw his head back to stage for a free kick. It was all a phony report. Hurts till this day. RDB was tough, fearless and unrelenting but he was a pure, clean scrupulously fair footballer. A belated pardon would not go astray.

If last year was any indication, it's a hard no from me. Should play 2 to 3 Casey games and then come into the seniors.

i still find it very strange that the mro is entrusted to just one person. just looking for trouble.

Do you know the sport with the most serious knee and ankle injuries? Netball.

And his kicking is top notch. Was at the game Saturday and thought he played OK. His pass in front of us to JVR was perfect only for JVR to spill the chess mark. Thought Hunter was better than Langers and IMV will stay in the side.

It's not that it always seems to us like it's MFC players getting the rough end of the pineapple. It's that the TV commentators seem to be doing a semi-officlal "first cut" assessment of these incidents. Christian then seems to follow their lead. I can't recall a "nothing in that" incident getting charged by the MRO, and all the "gee, that'll be looked at" incidents get looked at. Is the MRO allowing himself to be prejudiced by the open slather trial by jury conducted by the TV shows? Is he doing his job and watching each match in isolation, without commentary (and without watching the Sunday star chamber panel shows)? Or does he take the lazy way out and let the media inquisitors make the decisions for him?

They’re rooyening the game.

I was at the game and close by. It was just a desperate spoil. Was it clumsy or wreckless? No, he looked where his opponents were and focussed solely on punching the ball. To say "he made him earn it" is utter BS. If Roo was going to make him earn it, he would have launched sideways and absolutely destroyed him with a hip and shoulder spoil. He actually put himself in danger by staying open to the contest with a sole intention to get a fist on the ball and took the contest chest on. It was a fantastic spoil nothing more.

Claremont vs East Perth Colts on 6 May 2023 Claremont Daniel Curtin played through the midfield by Claremont ends with most disposals and BOG with significant impact. 26 possessions, 18 contested, 12 clearances and 10 tackles. I keep saying it this kid is a gun with so many strings to the bow SVR - not a great day for key talls with wet weather but continued to present and contest at ground level, kicked 1 and probably should have got at least 1 more Cody Angove - 2024 draft eligible played as the high half forward and created headaches for East Perth, really clean at ground level, numerous involvements in score assists and won plenty of contested footy. Small frame and size but really smart football brain East Perth Darcy Craven - just accumulated to get East Perth back into the game after quarter time and smart user of the footy got plenty of footy on the inside and fed it to the outside runners but also found himself involved on the outside Will Cassidy - like Craven got his hands dirty as the inside mid and got them back into the contest. Really good tank and can play inside or outside in the midfield but strength is more towards the inside game Alexio Yiannikis - small Charlie Spargo type forward who presents up the ground and makes smart decisions going inside 50. Has a knack of finding space and making decisions before getting closed down, kicked a gem from the boundary in tight space when it looked like the defender had done everything to force him wide and create a stoppage

AFL/VFL have been doing us for a long long time.Example 1963 RDB rubbed for belting roger Dean cost us a final.Wish he had have hit him the little diver,and put him 3 rows back in the soutthern stand.

Ballard has not suffered an injury and Dew expects he will play this Friday night. They should throw it out before he even gets there

Petty isn't getting dropped

Our last easy game before a tougher run of matches, including a huge Friday night in Adelaide against a fired up Power who will be going for a seventh straight win by then. There's been a lot of talk about our poor clearance work last week, but I think people underestimate how good Rowell is around the stoppages - it took our Carey boy Viney to nullify his hard grunt work after half time and even then Anderson proved damaging and part of that is that Witts is a great tapman - although not a patch on Gawny when it comes to marking. I reckon this is the last week for a while that we have to experiment with to our set up. Like many here, I was keen to see how Petty would go up forward given he looked promising in that role in 2019 before injury cut him down. But what has become clear is that he doesn't have the quick-thinking peripheral vision assessment ability to quickly link up and send the ball downfield to the next option - he is not alone here, plenty of bigs struggle in this department. But I am happy for us to ditch that experiment now and send him back to the VFL to get his confidence back as a defender. He may need a week or two back there as he seems to have lost that gung-ho style and we need him for Finlayson (PA) and potentially Frampton (Coll), Cameron (Geel) and Hipwood (Bris) in the big games. The obvious new experiment is Joel Smith as a forward - yes I know he'll probably be out injured before I finish this - but Smith and his pace and tackling ability is going to be key, if fit, against the Power (Bergman), Pies (Maynard or Murphy) and possibly Stewart (Geel). Ultimately I am still not sure if Smith, like Petty, is quick-thinking savvy, so his linkwork may not be good enough, but he has to be tried and the Hawks game is the best soft-kill game to get him going, although CJ will make him work hard. Smith is bigger and stronger now, so hopefully he can provide enough of a marking option. And the loss of a genuine third tall is no big deal because our best talls are Gawn and Grundy when they rest and we need them both on the field a little more than their current 75-80% game time. We should still have enough marking prowess anyway with JVR (BBB will replace him if he loses his appeal), Fritter and the Gawn/Grundy combo. As to other changes, our backline is really coming along and McVee's pace is pivotal as that is our weakness, as Essendon showed us a few weeks ago. The penny seems to be dropping for Rivers, who after his late-game howler against the Suns was super committed from then on - although he still needs to up his awareness to the level of Angus and Bowser. Hibberd returns if fit to replace Turner, if not I'd give Disco another go - he started poorly against the Suns but I thought he was starting to find his way after halftime before being pulled. The other obvious change is that Jordan comes out after a couple of solid but not sensational games. His spot probably goes back to Harmes with Spargo getting the subs vest. In: J.Smith, Harmes (Spargo as sub), Hibberd (if fit), Ben Brown (if JVR banned) Out: Petty, Jordan, Turner (if Hibberd fit), JVR (susp)

I don't have another question for you this week I just wanted to give you a shout out for the wonderful and insightful interview you conducted with Steven May during the week. Steven was very forthcoming and honest in his answers. Kudos to all involved in getting him on the podcast. Love your work.

Well maybe not wasting $4 million on consultancies, to simply appoint the 2IC in the office next door and paying millions and millions on Executive salaries, could provide plenty of money to fix some of their problems, which as you say are ruining our great game. I know the game has moved on, but years ago one guy and a couple of secretaries ran the game and everyone knew the rules and what to expect. One umpire on the ground, worked better than 4 umpires now, overruling each other from 200 metres away, seems to do now. I know there has to be progress, but it should lead to everything being better, not worse. Just a little monday rant.

Yeah little surprised with the Hunter bashing at the moment.

Interesting take in the Like/Dislike section of the Hun today. I'm unsure Demon youngster Van Rooyen's spoiling attempt on Gold Coast's Ballard should earn a ban Van Rooyen was offered two matches after it was deemed he was careless and hit Ballard with high impact rather the\an severe. Yes, he has a duty of care to opponents, but if Ballard didnt suffer an injury the spoil would have been deemed high and simply a free kick paid. Van rouen had every right to contest the ball and while it's been said he didnt have eyes for the ball, there is no rule that says your eyes have to be on the ball when contesting it. The fact is, players competing under a high ball like these two did are in the lap of the gods when it comes to injury, Ballard was unlucky. Van Rooyen's action was not malicious. Accidents do happen in footy. That's by Mark Robinson.

Absolutely this. His duty of care was to look at Ballard once he committed to the spoil to assess where both the player and the ball were likely to land. If he blindly goes for the spoil both players could have clashed heads and both would have ended up with bad concussions. How the [censored] is this a better result than JVR taking a split second to look at Ballard to ensure his own safety, as well as the safety of his opponent? We really think Foggerty has no peripheral vision and didn't know he was about to hit a Collingwood player when he went for that spoil last week? This notion of eyes for the ball is frankly idiotic. JVR didn't line him up off the ball. And honestly if that was Lever or May executing the spoil, their fist would have likely connected perfectly and nobody would even speak of it. But a 6 game forward who is a big boy goes for it and stuffs up, and he deserves 2 weeks off.

The problem is giving to the MRP the ability to upgrade the impact to high based on capacity to cause injury even when the injury actually incurred is minor. This has led to the ludicrous situation whereby any hit on a player can potentially be graded high impact and lead to a two or three week suspension. They are virtually turning the game into a non contact sport.

Someone posted on one of the fan Facebook pages an article from the Herald Sun stating that we're going to 'strongly appeal' and use the Tom Lynch incident as an example of a case. I'll try and find it.. Found it. Article by Jay Clark.

Lots of insightful commentary here, reminds me of the tactics and all that jazz thread. I will add, I don’t think we are just increasingly varying the midfield rotations to ensure our big 4 have fresher legs in the 4th quarter, although I do agree that is part of it. I think we are also addressing what happened last year when we just ran out of legs toward the end of the season. Giving our main midfielders a bit of reduced time in the middle of things makes us both less predictable and and hopefully reduces their fatigue levels across a long season. Last night I felt we were beaten on the spread by Anderson, often leveraging their knowledge that we go -1 around the clearance. He played it particularly well and deserves credit for some really well executed plays. He was doing what Clarry and Trac often do and trusting his team mate to win the ball so getting on his bike early and spreading for the receive. We could have put some time into him and I thought that was what goodie was going to use harmes for when he subbed him on but he obviously has other plans.

That free for holding the ball they gave to Ellis I think it was made me puke. He had hold of him for all of a millisecond and the ball was handpassed clear. If it was Dusty who was tackled, no free holding the ball and the naritive would have been about how strong Dusty is and they they just can't contain him in a tackle, because of his brute strenght to break out of it. In actual fact, the Ellis tackle on this occasion really wasn't even all that good and our player (I forget who) basically just slipped it and got a handball clear. The free kick should never have been played anywhere on the ground, let alone right in front of goal in a close game. I was quite ok receiving the Gawn free as an evener upper for that one. Fact was in the final quarter we out played them for the most part, kicked poorly, which kept them in the game when they shouldn't have been, they then got a bunch of goals through part fluke and part bad defending on our behalf and had a chance to steal the game when the shouldn't have been in it.

Related to this, there's some criticism lurking of Oliver that he is accumulating disposals and not really being potent, but it isn't as if he is being a seagull out there - he is accumulating in very difficult circumstances. Not only is he going at 50% contested possessions, but he's also earning almost 5 intercepts a game - that is defender numbers. In fact, after a quick scroll through the rankings, Oliver is the only inside mid player with anything close to that number of intercepts. Even for more open-role players who aren't always defenders, there is only really Brayshaw and Acres up there. If you combine intercepts (4.9 vs best 9.6) and score involvements (8.25 v best being 9.0) you get Clayton Oliver. Add to that the contested possessions, clearances and tackles of his old core role, and you get Clayton Oliver then a lot of daylight. Oliver's game has changed and it is becoming much more rounded, and potentially more valuable than the simpler clearance beast. It is possible that Oliver is quietly making the changes to become the most complete midfielder ever, right in front of our eyes, and we aren't noticing because it doesn't involve total domination of the usual statistics.