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