Prediction 2025 Most Important Player

[Danger in Texas]

If he can get his 20 thatll do.

I dont think Rankine plays 80-90% midfield next year either, 50-60% would be ideal.

Yeah exactly

Would love to see a pretty even mix of minutes between Dawson/Rankine/Soligo/Peatling/Crouch

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Reckon Bond needs to be rated higher. He's our best option for smaller, more nimble forwards, and has shown he can do the job. Without Hamill, we're limited in that area. Can't argue about the others too much.

 

[Coopers]

Important different from best right?

Filthy at #1. If he hits his potential and does what he looks like he can do... he'll be the best forward in the game. Will it happen? If he's injured we rely on old Tex. If he's just... playing poorly, we are dysfunctional.

Rankine at #2. If he plays those "I'm untouchable and the best player on the field, involved in everything" games more often than not, we are doing well.

Solid cases for Murray, ROB and Fog being hugely important as well. Don't know how we fix them being injured or being out of form.

 

[Smoooothy]

for the happy clappers
1 - Laird
2 - Smith
3 - RoB
4 - Murphy

for those of us who are actually in the real world
1 - Rankine
2 - Dawson (could easily interchange 1 and 2)
3 - Worrell
4 - Michaelanney
5 - Fogarty
6 - Thrillhouse
7 - Soligo

 

[Scorpus]

What's going to make us a finalist isn't players like Dawson and Rankine performing again to their usual high standard - they already did that and we didn't make finals - it's going to be other players taking their game to the next level

So from my perspective the most important players are those that have another level and need to reach it

1. Soligo - if he can take his game from being a 4th or 5th midfielder and elevate it to 1st or 2nd best mid, the overall strength of our side will go up massively

2. Peatling - if he can come in and do what we all want him to, we'll suddenly have a stronger midfield with more depth that bats deeper than just 1 or 2 players

3. Pick 4 - a top five midfielder in a midfield stacked draft should come in and have an impact in their first season and displace the 22nd best player in our side. It shouldn't be underestimated how massive a difference that could have on the team. Instead of us having our depth midfield rotation being guys like Berry, Schoenberg, Murphy and Laird we should have a future star in that role.

4. Curtin - the ceiling on this guy is enormous. If he can perform anywhere close to it, we'll gain another star into the team and it could be a huge improvement on a number of players across the field

5. Thilthorpe - with this likely to be Walker's last season, we need Thilthorpe to become the player he looks like becoming. That will be a massive benefit to our forward line, and the only reason I don't have him higher is because the midfield is more important to our success

If a couple of those five deliver a big year, it will be massive for us and should propel us up the ladder. Other mentions

6. Neal-Bullen - replacing probably the weakest player in our 22 with Neal-Bullen should change the dynamics of our forward line, that's if we get rid of Murphy of course which is no guarantee

7. Rachele - 20-30% more output from him and he's approaching star of the league levels, if we can get a top 10 pick up to his ceiling again that would be huge for the side

8. Cumming - if he's fit and firing he will change our ball movement off half back, finally adding someone else that has some pace and disposal, and it should mean the end of Smith. That's very important to us

9. Keane - showed he had all the offensive tools to his game, if he can cement his spot in the side and improve his defensive work, our backline will start looking elite with him alongside Murray and Worrell. If he falls away in quality we start looking a bit exposed down there.

10. O'Brien - he's been bloody terrible for years now, if he can work his way back into B&F form and start taking marks and doing literally anything around the ground, we won't have this useless lumbering turnover merchant in the team

 

[Danger in Texas]

What's going to make us a finalist isn't players like Dawson and Rankine performing again to their usual high standard - they already did that and we didn't make finals - it's going to be other players taking their game to the next level

So from my perspective the most important players are those that have another level and need to reach it

1. Soligo - if he can take his game from being a 4th or 5th midfielder and elevate it to 1st or 2nd best mid, the overall strength of our side will go up massively

2. Peatling - if he can come in and do what we all want him to, we'll suddenly have a stronger midfield with more depth that bats deeper than just 1 or 2 players

3. Pick 4 - a top five midfielder in a midfield stacked draft should come in and have an impact in their first season and displace the 22nd best player in our side. It shouldn't be underestimated how massive a difference that could have on the team. Instead of us having our depth midfield rotation being guys like Berry, Schoenberg, Murphy and Laird we should have a future star in that role.

4. Curtin - the ceiling on this guy is enormous. If he can perform anywhere close to it, we'll gain another star into the team and it could be a huge improvement on a number of players across the field

5. Thilthorpe - with this likely to be Walker's last season, we need Thilthorpe to become the player he looks like becoming. That will be a massive benefit to our forward line, and the only reason I don't have him higher is because the midfield is more important to our success

If a couple of those five deliver a big year, it will be massive for us and should propel us up the ladder. Other mentions

6. Neal-Bullen - replacing probably the weakest player in our 22 with Neal-Bullen should change the dynamics of our forward line, that's if we get rid of Murphy of course which is no guarantee

7. Rachele - 20-30% more output from him and he's approaching star of the league levels, if we can get a top 10 pick up to his ceiling again that would be huge for the side

8. Cumming - if he's fit and firing he will change our ball movement off half back, finally adding someone else that has some pace and disposal, and it should mean the end of Smith. That's very important to us

9. Keane - showed he had all the offensive tools to his game, if he can cement his spot in the side and improve his defensive work, our backline will start looking elite with him alongside Murray and Worrell. If he falls away in quality we start looking a bit exposed down there.

10. O'Brien - he's been bloody terrible for years now, if he can work his way back into B&F form and start taking marks and doing literally anything around the ground, we won't have this useless lumbering turnover merchant in the team

I mean, if all of the above happens for the 10 you mention but Dawson and Rankine play less than half a season each, we don’t make finals

But I get your point

 

[Scorpus]

I mean, if all of the above happens for the 10 you mention but Dawson and Rankine play less than half a season each, we don’t make finals

But I get your point

That's a different kind of importance.

If our two best players got injured for half the season you may as well write off the year, hit the draft and go again. Very unlikely any team would succeed under those circumstances.

What's important for us is taking the leap from bottom 8 to premiership contender and that doesn't happen without improvement from at least 5-8 squad members that currently aren't our best

 

[Danger in Texas]

That's a different kind of importance.

If our two best players got injured for half the season you may as well write off the year, hit the draft and go again. Very unlikely any team would succeed under those circumstances.

What's important for us is taking the leap from bottom 8 to premiership contender and that doesn't happen without improvement from at least 5-8 squad members that currently aren't our best

Is that the ‘most important players’ in a vacuum though, or specifically ‘most important players we need to see improvement from’?

Even if it’s different, it’s a valid way of looking at it

 

[Scorpus]

Is that the ‘most important players’ in a vacuum though, or specifically ‘most important players we need to see improvement from’?

Even if it’s different, it’s a valid way of looking at it

I think it's a distinction between our "best" players and "most important" players.

Dawson and Rankine are our best players.

But we've had them both for a few years now and finished outside finals. They are important, but how far does that importance stretch?

The way I see it is that all else equal to previous seasons, the difference between Dawson and Rankine playing at their peak or being injured is how high we finish in the bottom 10.

The difference, all else equal, between Thilthorpe being injured and Thilthorpe becoming a star of the competition and playing at his peak could be enough to take us to finals. Apply that to 2 or 3 players and the difference in performance could be massive. Achieving that is super important.

So I'd personally rank growth for players in the squad as being more important to success than our existing star players being available to play.

To be fair though I guess Kane did say in the OP it's who we could least afford to lose.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I think it's a distinction between our "best" players and "most important" players.

Dawson and Rankine are our best players.

But we've had them both for a few years now and finished outside finals. They are important, but how far does that importance stretch?

The way I see it is that all else equal to previous seasons, the difference between Dawson and Rankine playing at their peak or being injured is how high we finish in the bottom 10.

The difference, all else equal, between Thilthorpe being injured and Thilthorpe becoming a star of the competition and playing at his peak could be enough to take us to finals. Apply that to 2 or 3 players and the difference in performance could be massive. Achieving that is super important.

So I'd personally rank growth for players in the squad as being more important to success than our existing star players being available to play.

To be fair though I guess Kane did say in the OP it's who we could least afford to lose.

Yes, this is the key measure... who can we least afford to get successful next sesson.

Eg. The only reason I ranked ROB so high is because we have little backup ruck options & would seriously derail our season.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Is that the ‘most important players’ in a vacuum though, or specifically ‘most important players we need to see improvement from’?

Even if it’s different, it’s a valid way of looking at it

See my last post.