Preview Changes: R5 vs Richmond - Saturday April 16, 4.05pm ACST @ Adelaide Oval

Will Crouch or Sloane be dropped this season?

  • Crouch will be dropped

  • Sloane will be dropped

  • Both Crouch and Sloane will be dropped (separate weeks)

  • Both Crouch and Sloane will be dropped (together)

  • Neither will be dropped this season


Results are only viewable after voting.

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Game style Changes
Today the sanfl side played a lot more attacking brand of footy with handball and getting back through the corridor.
Will we see this tomorrow as well ?

So how the hell do we go from 40 points up at half time to Glenelg kicking 10 unanswered goals in the 3rd?! Unbelievable.
 
The 10 other players who get the most disposals along with Laird are as follows:

Bailey Smith
Zach Merrett
Travis Boak
Darcy Parish
Lachie Neale
Jack Macrae
Ben Keays
Sam Walsh
Christian Petracca
Clayton Oliver

They are among the best of the best. Their kicking efficiencies range from 76.2% (Macrae) to 49% (Petracca). Laird, at 60.7% sits 7th from these 11 players. For meters gained, Laird sits 10th of 11, with only Walsh worse.

However, of this group, Laird sits top in score involvements. He sits 3rd in goal assists and 3rd in score launches. He sits 4th in clearances. I reiterate, he is a very good midfielder who is involved in a lot of good attacking play. He is much, much better than you’re making him out to be.

Yeah, that's just not true.

Laird doesnt lead that group in score involvements, he's 140th in the league. McCrae and Neale are equal fourth.

Laird is: 140th in the league in score involvements, 100th in goal assists (with a paltry 2), and 57th in clearances. He has less than half the clearances of McCrae, Neale, or Boak.

To be fair, his statistics are, of course, impacted by the substantially smaller sample size from the games missed. He didnt lead SI in his last full season either.


63rd in the league last year in goal assists.


He's the definition of a high volume, low impact player.
 
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Yeah, that's just not true.

Laird doesnt lead that group in score involvements, he's 140th in the league. McCrae and Neale are equal fourth.

Laird is: 140th in the league in score involvements, 100th in goal assists (with a paltry 2), and 57th in clearances. He has less than half the clearances of McCrae, Neale, or Boak.

To be fair, his statistics are, of course, impacted by the substantially smaller sample size from the games missed. He didnt lead SI in his last full season either.


63rd in the league last year in goal assists.


He's the definition of a high volume, low impact player.
Aren't you discussing this year (extremely small sample size) and not 2021??? Agree, Laird isn't consider an A grader but he also isn't a B grader, he is a solid B+ grader.
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See? Even the board's resident pro-club idiot doesn't think he's an A-Grader.

He's not smart enough to work out that you go to a larger sample size to overcome the possibility that two games against winless teams isn't representative, but he does know he's not an A-Grader.
 
See? Even the board's resident pro-club idiot doesn't think he's an A-Grader.

He's not smart enough to work out that you go to a larger sample size to overcome the possibility that two games against winless teams isn't representative, but he does know he's not an A-Grader.
And you weren't smart enough to know the discussion was about 2022, hence why Fyfe wasn't on the list as he hasn't played this year and Dangerfield was excellent R1 but been sh*t since...???? lol but I did correct you again saying Laird is definitely a solid B+ grader and more closer to A grader than B grader.
 
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And you weren't smart enough to know the discussion was about 2022, hence why Fyfe wasn't on the list as he hasn't played this year and Dangerfield was excellent R1 but been sh*t since...???? lol but I did correct you again saying Laird is definitely a solid B+ grader and more closer to A grader than B grader.

Does anyone else hear banjos?
 
Yeah, that's just not true.

Laird doesnt lead that group in score involvements, he's 140th in the league. McCrae and Neale are equal fourth.

Laird is: 140th in the league in score involvements, 100th in goal assists (with a paltry 2), and 57th in clearances. He has less than half the clearances of McCrae, Neale, or Boak.

To be fair, his statistics are, of course, impacted by the substantially smaller sample size from the games missed. He didnt lead SI in his last full season either.


63rd in the league last year in goal assists.


He's the definition of a high volume, low impact player.
Yeah, except you're talking entire league now, rather than mids.

You're also ignoring the type of player Laird is. He's a coalface distributor, not an outside distributor.

The argument about where he sits in terms of mids is the comp is simplistic. If a club is looking for an inside extractor, he's probably around 8-15 ish. Comparing him to elite power mids like Petracca and Bontempelli is not comparing apples with apples.

In our current structure we have the wrong mix, because we also have Crouch in that role and Sloane who has also slowed and diminished to a see ball, get ball mid. Essentially, Laird is getting 30ish touches competing for that inside ball with Crouch at most ruck contests.

I don't think there's a club in the league that wouldnt have Laird if an inside extractor was what they were looking for.

Also, go check your stats. They're wrong.
 
Does he? Does he get a run in the Melbourne midfield? Bulldogs? He's a B player. Gets plenty of it, terrible disposal, no hurt factor.

I wasnt targeting him particularly, my post was about the sum total of the three, but the idea that he's some unimpeachable elite is nonsense.
Yes, he’s a better player than Liberatore who’s one the dogs main go to mids.

Laird in the team isn’t the problem. The problem is we have no Bont/ Macrae above him.
 
Yeah, that's just not true.

Laird doesnt lead that group in score involvements, he's 140th in the league. McCrae and Neale are equal fourth.

Laird is: 140th in the league in score involvements, 100th in goal assists (with a paltry 2), and 57th in clearances. He has less than half the clearances of McCrae, Neale, or Boak.

To be fair, his statistics are, of course, impacted by the substantially smaller sample size from the games missed. He didnt lead SI in his last full season either.


63rd in the league last year in goal assists.


He's the definition of a high volume, low impact player.

Are you using total tallies instead of averages ? That’s a pretty disingenuous argument when he’s missed half the games.

If you by averages, Laird is currently number 4 for contested possessions and clearances, and 2nd in score involvements.
Hawkins is 1st SI, which means Laird the highest ranked mid.
Goal assists are not generally a high stat, the best player averages 2. Laird is equal with players 24-50.

Obviously a small sample size, but you wanted the same sample to discredit him. And he was pretty good last year.
 
Are you using total tallies instead of averages ? That’s a pretty disingenuous argument when he’s missed half the games.

If you by averages, Laird is currently number 4 for contested possessions and clearances, and 2nd in score involvements.
Hawkins is 1st SI, which means Laird the highest ranked mid.
Goal assists are not generally a high stat, the best player averages 2. Laird is equal with players 24-50.

Obviously a small sample size, but you wanted the same sample to discredit him. And he was pretty good last year.

Is that disingenuous? Or is it disingenuous to suggest that he's out performing people that have twice the metric that he has based upon two games against then winless teams and is performing at a level he's never touched in his career?
 
Yeah, except you're talking entire league now, rather than mids.

You're also ignoring the type of player Laird is. He's a coalface distributor, not an outside distributor.

The argument about where he sits in terms of mids is the comp is simplistic. If a club is looking for an inside extractor, he's probably around 8-15 ish. Comparing him to elite power mids like Petracca and Bontempelli is not comparing apples with apples.

In our current structure we have the wrong mix, because we also have Crouch in that role and Sloane who has also slowed and diminished to a see ball, get ball mid. Essentially, Laird is getting 30ish touches competing for that inside ball with Crouch at most ruck contests.

I don't think there's a club in the league that wouldnt have Laird if an inside extractor was what they were looking for.

Also, go check your stats. They're wrong.

Which stats do you think are wrong?

If we constantly define down his role we can make the number of players ahead of him look smaller- yet there's always a bunch.

How exactly do people think this rot is disproving the premise I put forward? He's a b grader.

I didnt contend he was the sole problem, but I damn sure am not going to have him presented as an elite.
 

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SANFL form is entirely unimportant to the club's future. Crouch, Laird and Sloane are not taking us to the promised land. Find out if any of these kids can play in the professional league.

laird and Keays are good to rotate the kids around. I can even handle crouch getting 2-3 more to see if he can work back into it. But Sloane needs to go so his 80% TOG all midfield can be divided up between 2 or 3 junior mids. Maybe keep Matt down at that 60% TOG too.

I was going to add that giving Sloane a few weeks off will get him back to being a worthy contributor. But he's broken down 2 games into the season, I guess they think he either finds a way or it is what it is and we just carry him as a starting mid until he hangs up the boots end of next year.
 
The 10 other players who get the most disposals along with Laird are as follows:

Bailey Smith
Zach Merrett
Travis Boak
Darcy Parish
Lachie Neale
Jack Macrae
Ben Keays
Sam Walsh
Christian Petracca
Clayton Oliver

They are among the best of the best. Their kicking efficiencies range from 76.2% (Macrae) to 49% (Petracca). Laird, at 60.7% sits 7th from these 11 players. For meters gained, Laird sits 10th of 11, with only Walsh worse.

However, of this group, Laird sits top in score involvements. He sits 3rd in goal assists and 3rd in score launches. He sits 4th in clearances. I reiterate, he is a very good midfielder who is involved in a lot of good attacking play. He is much, much better than you’re making him out to be.

Laird isn't a go forward mid, he rarely, if ever, finds himself ahead of the contest with ball in hand. His kicks are mostly either the high hack forward from the stoppage that our mids love or short kicks with little forward progression to players well in the clear. That's just how we play, all our mids play the same way. Even a run forward mid like Keays has a poor metres gained stat.

Also, when discussing kicking and metres gained, you can't just use total disposals, you need to filter out handballs. Those with higher h:k ratios will need that metres gained figure factored to take into account there's very little metres gained from handballs. The vast majority make no ground at all or go backwards.
 
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Laird isn't a go forward mid, he rarely, if ever, finds himself ahead of the contest with ball in hand. His kicks are mostly either the high hack forward from the stoppage that our mids love or short kicks with little forward progression to players well in the clear. That's just how we play, all our mids play the same way. Even a run forward mid like Keays has a poor metres gained stat.

Also, when discussing kicking and metres gained, you can't just use total disposals, you need to filter out handballs. Those with higher h:k ratios will need that metres gained figure factored to take into account there's very little metres gained from handballs. The vast majority make no ground at all or go backwards.
I’m not suggesting that Laird has a great penetrating kick, but the stats show that this year - admittedly small sample size - compared to other mids who get a bunch of the ball and who are considered elite by most, he creates a lot of scoring opportunities. Here’s hoping he continues in that vein.

Note: Just quickly checked last years stats and Laird still holds his own, or outperforms many of the other major ball winners in the same stats I listed. Again, he creates a lot for the team and cannot simply be dismissed as “not damaging” as many suggest.
 
Yeah, that's just not true.

Laird doesnt lead that group in score involvements, he's 140th in the league. McCrae and Neale are equal fourth.

Laird is: 140th in the league in score involvements, 100th in goal assists (with a paltry 2), and 57th in clearances. He has less than half the clearances of McCrae, Neale, or Boak.

To be fair, his statistics are, of course, impacted by the substantially smaller sample size from the games missed. He didnt lead SI in his last full season either.


63rd in the league last year in goal assists.


He's the definition of a high volume, low impact player.
Given he’s missed games, you need to look at averages. Admittedly, it’s a very small sample size this year. Last years stats show that compared to the other high possession mids listed he still more than held his own and actually out performed many in creating chances. I’m not arguing that Laird has a wonderful kick, or is super skilled, I’m just suggesting that any belief that he isn’t a damaging player is wrong.
 
Lol. such bad opinions
I’m not the guy that insists that Mitch McGovern is still worth a top 5 pick

What a LOL , credibility shot

As for anyone that wants to stick up for Fogarty ………..

The guy that couldn’t get a kick because of the poor midfield kicking, then went to sanfl and couldn’t take a mark or get a kick there

And before that couldn’t get a kick in junior footy

But yeah Laird is the problem LOL
 
Laird made the AA squad last year as a midfielder.
Yep which puts him in the top 25 of midfielders in the comp …. Clearly even

Nothing he’s done this year diminishes that either

He’s not elite , he’s not an elite kick etc

But he’s very good midfielder and he’s certainly not a ‘terrible’ kick

Anyway wasting time discussing it as he’s not our problem , we have plenty and he’s not one
 
I’m not the guy that insists that Mitch McGovern is still worth a top 5 pick

What a LOL , credibility shot

As for anyone that wants to stick up for Fogarty ………..

The guy that couldn’t get a kick because of the poor midfield kicking, then went to sanfl and couldn’t take a mark or get a kick there

And before that couldn’t get a kick in junior footy

But yeah Laird is the problem LOL
Why did he get drafted so high?
 

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Preview Changes: R5 vs Richmond - Saturday April 16, 4.05pm ACST @ Adelaide Oval

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