#1 Andy McGrath - from April 2022

Ants · October 15, 2022, 3:13am

See below.

Ants:

Tagger:

Parish and Merrett turned into elite midfielders under the same program as Andy (parish even had a worse development program than Andy). McLuggage would have turned into the same gun he is if he was here.

It’s got nothing to do with development, it’s just that Andy isn’t a midfielder at AFL level.

McGrath was headed for being an elite midfielder, then he got injured and then we played him down back.

In 2020 he was averaging 5.0 clearances a game (equal #13th in the league), 23.1 disposals (14th) and 5.1 tackles (14th) pre-injury. Rounds 1-14.

In 2021 pre-injury he averaged 5.2 clearances (37th), 26.1 disposals (34th) and 5.3 tackles (20th) pre-injury. Rounds 1-11.

His 2020 in particular was stellar pre-injury. Top 15 in the league. Last year he was a little behind that, but still solidly top 40 pre-injury. Probably sacrificed his game a bit for Parish in 2021.

Clearances, tackles and disposals.

Ants:

Tagger:

Ants:

And I’m saying that’s BS.

Luckily the objective source - the stats - agree with me.

I mean if you want to ignore the stats I showed you weeks ago (that you ignored) that supported what the test showed about his poor ball use

I went back and found the post. Which wasn’t actually directed to me.

Tagger:

It’s hard being a number one pick, because you’re not just assessed as an individual player, but you’re also assessed as the pick.

There are valid criticisms for Andy with his ball use. In every year of Andy’s career he has averaged more turnovers per game than score involvements. The best players have their fair share of turnovers, but also help contribute to scores.

Andy currently is 80th in the league for disposals per game, but is 282nd for score involvements but if 12th for turnovers. So it appears to be a combination of too many turnovers and too few score involvements.

That’s where Andy needs to improve and build on todays good game. Thought he did a lot of good work

In reply, pre-injury:

2020: McGrath averaged 4.5 turnovers (ranked 17th in the league) and 3.2 score involvements (ranked 221st)
2021: averaged 4.7 (40th) and 6.0 (43rd)

So:

pre-injury your statement was wrong for 2021.

Both stats were trending the right way, up for SI and down for TO

2020 was poor. But others ranked equal 17th for turnovers in 2020 were Oliver, Cotchin and Curnow. Comparing all 4 players:

Player Disposals Clearances Score Involvements Turn overs

McGrath 23.1 5.0 3.2 4.5

Oliver 25.0 6.5 3.8 4.5

Curnow 18.6 4.2 3.7 4.5

Cotchin 18.3 4.3 3.3 4.5

McGrath looks fine against a pretty elite group. ALL of them had lower SI than TO in 2020.

So I again say, Blitzers are being harsh on McGrath.

He ranked well against that group.

Player	Disposals	Clearances	Score Involvements	Turn overs
McGrath	23.1	5.0	3.2	4.5
Oliver	25.0	6.5	3.8	4.5
Curnow	18.6	4.2	3.7	4.5
Cotchin	18.3	4.3	3.3	4.5