Is Jordan Dawson wasted in the midfield?

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T

tiggsy

Senior List
Nov 24, 2007
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435
Adelaide Hills
AFL Club
Adelaide
I think we all know that Adelaide lacks big bodied midfielders to dominate clearance work. Jordan Dawson has been thrown into the role given his size, great use of the ball and aggressive focus on the ball and body of opposition players. However, having him at the coalface seems to have impacted on his disposal efficiency and potentially his influence on the game. I've just been looking through some data from a website that Bicks linked to (thanks Bicks), and Dawson's midfield performance doesn't really stack up particularly well either. The table below is sorted by centre clearances/centre bounce attendance for players who have attended at least 20 centre bounces this year. This shows that Dawson ranks 7th with a 7.9% rate of winning a clearance/CBA. Josh Rachele's rate is 20% higher at 9.5%, Jake Soligo's is 46% higher at 11.5% and Matt Crouch's rate is close to double Jordan Dawson's rate at 15.4%. Rory Laird and Izak Rankine are also over 50% better at winning clearances from centre. I'm not sure we can draw too much from Max Michalanney's stats given the small sample size.

Anyway, given this, is Jordan Dawson wasted in the midfield? Would we get better value from him running in from the edge of the square from a wing or half back? Is he better in space using his run and carry? There is no doubt that he is aggressive and strong at the ball, but that can be used all over the ground, not just at centre bounces. Are we robbing Peter to pay Paul and reducing the overall value we could be getting from our captain?

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His role isn't really to be that first touch clearance midfielder - ideally the Crouch/Laird role is extracting the ball from contests and Jordan is 2nd/3rd in the chain, hopefully delivering inside 50. DE% is always going to be lower in these types of roles given the types of kicks he's going for. Easy to get higher DE feeding out short handballs (Crouch) or hacking high balls to packs (Laird). The Crouch role is still vital - the Laird role less so (and could be argued is an actual hindrance to the team given how easy these are to defend/rebound).

Give me 10 Dawson kicks inside 50 at 50% DE over 15 Laird kicks that get classed as "effective" when barely any of these create genuine advantage for our forwards.
 

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Short answer: Yes, with an if.
Long answer: No, with a but.

I think his current role is likely the best position to play him.

But, a "hot take" I've been ruminating on lately is that Dawson doesn't really have a position at all. As in, he can earn a spot just about anywhere on the ground, but every position means sacrificing or weakening some dangerous aspect of his game.

In midfield: Gets a lot of the ball himself and it's hard/impossible to keep him out of the game. Rarely gets time and space to fully show off his elite kicking skills. Not the greatest if the other midfield is also damaging.

In the back half: Gets a lot of easy ball. Competent defensively. But also, Might get 25 effective disposals in a game but only have 10 of them be damaging in anyway. Some of the better forward lines just play around him, and at worst he can mess up the structure to the point of Adelaide losing a game they're in control of (Collingwood last year).

In the forward line: Strong target (he genuinely could end up as the number one forward option with one or two injuries), every kick is potentially damaging. Entirely dependent on service from the rest of the team and/or could be frozen out of the game completely.

On the wing: Similar to playing defensively, with the added risk that he'd be reliant on others finding him in a dangerous position.

Rucking: Sure, why not
 
Wing would be ideal imho but we're absolutely useless at utilising players outside the contest so we can't use him there

From congestion we:
Hack kick
or handball to someone equally under the pump (often ROB)

Draw the tackle, free the hands, give it off... nosireebob

By necessity we're playing him where he has to rely on as few team mates as possible
 
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
Wing would be ideal imho but we're absolutely useless at utilising players outside the contest so we can't use him there
Click to expand...

I guess long term that would be a better role for him. I was sort of thinking of the quarterback role that Luke Hodge played so well. Could be the most influential player on the field without being in the middle. The challenge at the moment is that we don't have an alternative to play through the centre yet.
 
Is Matthew Nicks wasting his time? No, but he is wasting our time as supporters.
 
tiggsy said:
I guess long term that would be a better role for him. I was sort of thinking of the quarterback role that Luke Hodge played so well. Could be the most influential player on the field without being in the middle. The challenge at the moment is that we don't have an alternative to play through the centre yet.
Click to expand...
We learnt the hard way with Andrew Embley how damaging a tall wingman can be and how much flexibility the role offers
 

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I do like the idea of, if we can get to a midfield competent enough without Dawson in there, Shaun Burgoyne him a bit.

Have his aerial strength and foot skills coming off half back and if things aren’t going well and momentum needs to change or during crucial moments late in the game roll him through the middle as a difference maker who is a bit fresher and less beaten up than guys that have been in there al day.

If the forwards aren’t gelling let him have a run at taking some marks inside 50.
 
Pugsley said:
You're a smart man
Click to expand...
Seth Meyers Lol GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers
 
It would be good to rotate him a little bit through games, he isnt a great clearance player himself so he’s reliant on someone giving him the ball anyway and he’s going to get more banged up if he’s played exclusively in the middle which then limits his effectiveness.

For me I’d love to see him in the CBA for around half his TOG with stints coming off the wing or HF and occasionally at HB if we need his leadership there late in quarters etc.

Potentially he rotates with Rankine - Rankine at the CBA then pushing more forward and Dawson coming off HF then playing up around the ball.
 
He's not wasted in the midfield, no. However, if we're not going going in with a setup designed to get the ball in his hands, then we're wasting him.

His ideal role is that player who starts inside, receives the ball as he's moving out of the contest, and then has time to dispose of the ball. We should be trying to engineer that outcome as often as possible.
 
BACCS said:
You want him to be the first touch midfielder from a clearance after someone like Soligo or Crouch has extracted the ball for him. Similar to Rankine.
Click to expand...
And in this case it’s the soligo/crouch credited with the clearance

For this reason dawsons clearance stats are always lower than his impact at CBAs/stoppages
 
If we had a better midfield then we would have the luxury of using him more outside. But we don't, so we use him where he does the most good. We looked a much worse side when he was playing in defence before he moved into the midfield.
 
Just had an epiphany.

The reason for our four person midfield that we're wedded to. No room for anyone else. You'll sit on a half forward flank and like it, young mid.

Ricciuto, Goodwin, Edwards, Thompson.

When the Ten Commandments of our Club were written in 2005-06, that was the set up.
 
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