Will Hayward Round 23 Rising Star nominee

[AnnieH]

Good on him.
I hope we win it again this year
Just to show the AFL that you can ban us from trading, but you can't ban us from turning what we get into superstars.

[swanwolf]

3 goals 100% kicking efficiency.

Avoiding the Will Wayward moniker from training already, I see! Jolly good.

He may be young and slight but he's got the right attitude. Remember that and he'll always have a home here.

[longmile]

Seems like longmire was satisfied: Three kicks enough for 'coach's pet' Rising Star - AFL.com.au

[penga]

Will's season was a great taste of the future. It is worthy to note that Jake "The Package" Stinger kicked 24 goals from 16 games, this season, to Will's 22 goals from 17 games. A handy contribution, to say the least.

[mcs]

Will's season was a great taste of the future. It is worthy to note that Jake "The Package" Stinger kicked 24 goals from 16 games, this season, to Will's 22 goals from 17 games. A handy contribution, to say the least.

If his development goes as well as planned and as this year suggests it will, Hayward will become a regular 30+ goal kicker for us, as he is already an excellent mark, despite having a body not yet really ready for the rigours of AFL footy.

Was fantastic to see him rewarded for an excellent debut regular season. Yes he has been a bit up and down, and recently the signs are there that a long season has been tiring him - but assuming he is picked (and I think he will be), I expect he will give it a red hot go in finals, and you just never know what could happen.

[Boddo]

Will's season was a great taste of the future. It is worthy to note that Jake "The Package" Stinger kicked 24 goals from 16 games, this season, to Will's 22 goals from 17 games. A handy contribution, to say the least.

Personally I think he'll turn out a better player than stringer. They call stringer the package but he ain't the full package. His defensive pressure in the forward half is not great. Like I've said previously I rated Hayward higher than Florent last year n was hoping the club took him with their first pick n was very disappointed when we didn't but it all worked out in the end.

[bloodspirit]

I think this nom is very well deserved! He is a classy player and too good to overlook even if it wasn't his best week (although 3 goals is nothing to be sneezed at). He plays his role well and that includes applying a lot of defensive pressure that doesn't get shown in the stats. Then he takes his chances in front of goal - which is what you really want from a forward. Someone said two of his goals were gimmes because he didn't win his own ball. That is narrow thinking and the shots weren't easy. He's quick, he marks well, he works hard and competes for the ball. I'm happy we've got him, I'm happy he got the nom and I'm happy if we keep selecting him. Go Will!

[The Runner]

I figure Rising Star nominations are often based on a cumulative assessment of performance, particularly over the latter end of the season. Hayward deserves it on that metric. His drop off over the last couple of weeks is a little puzzling. Not being at the ground, it's hard to form a view on why he only picked up 3 possessions. I did wonder whether his confidence may be down after the poor game against Adelaide, although he took his shots well. If it is a confidence thing, perhaps this is well timed. Notice he had 13 pressure acts (a stat he routinely finishes in the top third of Swans), suggesting his defensive pressure remained high.

13 pressure acts is not actually very high. If that's your main role, you should be hitting 20+ weekly.
A blogger on onballer.com recently posted a stat he refers to as Around the Ground Work. It finds a medium between loose ball wins st contests and uncontested marks, giving an indication on work rate. The top 5 are guys like Duncan, TMitch, Yeo, Rocky etc.
The bottom 5 are predominately talls - Vardy, Hipwood, Longer, N Brown, and in dead last.. Hayward..
He's had a good start but has a long long way to go with work rate and use under pressure.

[Ludwig]

Will's season was a great taste of the future. It is worthy to note that Jake "The Package" Stinger kicked 24 goals from 16 games, this season, to Will's 22 goals from 17 games. A handy contribution, to say the least.

Hayward has The Package covered.

[snajik]

If he produced that effort every week - 3 possessions and 3 goals - he's earned his spot already. Across the duration of a season, that's Coleman Medal form.

I suspect also in Wil's favour his TOG statistics are lower than most of our regulars.

[ugg]

If he produced that effort every week - 3 possessions and 3 goals - he's earned his spot already. Across the duration of a season, that's Coleman Medal form.

I suspect also in Wil's favour his TOG statistics are lower than most of our regulars.

Of the Swans players who have played more than 1 game, Will averages the 5th lowest TOG.

Kurt Tippett 64.11% TOG (9 games)
Dan Robinson 69.00% TOG (5)
Sam Naismith 72.62% TOG (13)
Gary Rohan 72.86% TOG (14)
Will Hayward 74.71% TOG (17)
Callum Sinclair 75.24% TOG (17)
Oliver Florent 75.44% TOG (9)
Nic Newman 76.39% TOG (18)
George Hewett 76.59% TOG (22)
Kieren Jack 77.24% TOG (17)

[YvonneH]

Maybe Will has that 'star' factor. He doesn't need too many touches to get results. His defence will get better once he puts on some weight and muscle.

I was going to say ONCE HE PUTS ON SOME SUBSTANCE, but thought better of it.

[mcs]

13 pressure acts is not actually very high. If that's your main role, you should be hitting 20+ weekly.
A blogger on onballer.com recently posted a stat he refers to as Around the Ground Work. It finds a medium between loose ball wins st contests and uncontested marks, giving an indication on work rate. The top 5 are guys like Duncan, TMitch, Yeo, Rocky etc.
The bottom 5 are predominately talls - Vardy, Hipwood, Longer, N Brown, and in dead last.. Hayward..
He's had a good start but has a long long way to go with work rate and use under pressure.

Sounds like a bit of an odd measure - uncontested marks are not necessarily a result of good work rate - think of how many uncontested marks defenders get in many side when the ball is just chipped side to side. Hayward is playing primarily as a small/medium forward, who is very rarely going to get opportunities for uncontested marks. Without seeing the analysis, it isn't an entirely surprising outcome.

[penga]

Of the Swans players who have played more than 1 game, Will averages the 5th lowest TOG.

Kurt Tippett 64.11% TOG (9 games)
Dan Robinson 69.00% TOG (5)
Sam Naismith 72.62% TOG (13)
Gary Rohan 72.86% TOG (14)
Will Hayward 74.71% TOG (17)
Callum Sinclair 75.24% TOG (17)
Oliver Florent 75.44% TOG (9)
Nic Newman 76.39% TOG (18)
George Hewett 76.59% TOG (22)
Kieren Jack 77.24% TOG (17)

On this, and a slight aside, I was intrigued by the Crows' TOG against us. Their major ball winners were predominantly at the bottom of TOG, which makes me think why don't we do that, and keep our best players fresh(er)?

[AB Swannie]

On this, and a slight aside, I was intrigued by the Crows' TOG against us. Their major ball winners were predominantly at the bottom of TOG, which makes me think why don't we do that, and keep our best players fresh(er)?

This is my main concern of playing two rucks. In the Adelaide game, Sinclair and Tippett had TOG percentages of 67% and 66% respectively. Sam Jacobs was 84%. This means that we chew up a lot of rest time by having one of our rucks off the ground. Throw in Hayward with 66% TOG, it means that there is significantly less rest time for our midfielders and runners. We were lucky in this game that we found a way to win at the end because our mids should've been cooked.