Changes for Rnd 22 V Adelaide

[penga]

He was injured last week and played only half a game. He shouldn't be judged on this one game.

50% is 50%. With little pressure coming through the centre with an insipid Freo. Doesn't matter that he is injured.

And I agree with you on Newman vs Towers (you clearly haven't noticed my consistent vitriol towards him) and personally would prefer to see Kenny out there than the deer in headlights that we've had to endure this season. Clearly Horse sees a structure that Towers fits in to, though. Cunningham will likely replace him, with the quicks vs slows balance Horse is implementing.

[Ludwig]

50% is 50%. With little pressure coming through the centre with an insipid Freo. Doesn't matter that he is injured.

It's just a small sample size of 12 disposals weighed against a usually good disposal efficiency over the course of the season, so I don't think it's indicative of how he's been playing. Quite often our best players, Parker, Kennedy and Hannebery have the worst DE% in games.

An interesting thing about footy stats is that they can often be misleading. One for instance is the clanger count. You would think a high count would reflect poorly on a player. But if you look at the league totals, it almost mirrors a Brownlow Medal count. I'll give you the top six: Dustin Martin, Tom Mitchell, Taylor Adams, Luke Parker, Dayne Zorko and Patrick Dangerfield. The top clanger specialists nearly constitute an All Australian side.

Defenders usually have good DE%s because they get a lot of disposals to open players, while players in contested situations often have to dispose of the ball under pressure, or just get a bail out kick, which hurts this stat. Yes, 50% is 50%, but it may not tell you all that much.

[penga]

An interesting thing about footy stats is that they can often be misleading. One for instance is the clanger count. You would think a high count would reflect poorly on a player. But if you look at the league totals, it almost mirrors a Brownlow Medal count. I'll give you the top six: Dustin Martin, Tom Mitchell, Taylor Adams, Luke Parker, Dayne Zorko and Patrick Dangerfield. The top clanger specialists nearly constitute an All Australian side.

I know what you're saying, and am not in complete disagreeance with you, and am a big fan of Newman's. However, all of those boys you listed are contested ball kings. The higher the contested possession, the higher the clanger rate. Newman is an outside player, so therefore his DE% should be higher, even than the high 60s, IMO. As I said in my original post, he is creative and at least tries to do something with the ball, rather than the Nick Smith down the line, or the Towers kick off one step at halfback. I firmly believe Newman has a massive future for us, but his dropping and late recall did a treat earlier in the season, and perhaps the coaches are trying to motivate him again. I'm just trying to walk in the coaches' shoes.

[stevoswan]

Joey had to come back in......they're just playing it safe with Newman.