I wouldn’t have Saad back. He has shown that he isn’t committed to playing a team first game, whereas Hind is. Nick has strung together some good games lately, and offered almost as much as Saad did for them on Sunday. He also provides a point of difference from our other defenders with his burst of pace, which makes him a difficult match up.
Saad is good, Redman and McGrath are better. Redman, McGrath and the 2021 version of Hind that we saw on Sunday is a pretty potent small back combination.
They had 2.5 from their small forwards and our small backs gave us 2 goal assists (Redman and Hind) and 7 score involvements. Big win.
Depends on what you want. I reckon Saad is a better attacking half back than McGrath but Redman is the best of the three. I think McGrath is the best defender and leader.
Imagine getting Saad back for a second round pick with fcfc paying a chunk of his ridiculous salary. It would drive fcfc fans so mental it would almost be worth it
I’m happy to accept the trade off. I don’t think hind is particularly important to our offence. Certainly not as important as he was in 2021. Running the ball off half pack most of the time isn’t what we’re trying to do.
Kelly provides a lot more defensively, at ground level and in the air. McGrath and hind both have their tackles broken too often for my liking. Motlop pulled off a don’t argue and turn on hind on centre wing on Sunday night which really irritated me. There’s no way in hell he does that to Kelly
Negotiating our way out of sticky situations when hemmed into our bp’s is challenging when we have so many one paced limited foot skills footballers who dont possess the ability to kick non preferred side.
We have a plethora of these.
I like Hind deep in defence for these scenarios.
Of course, when it’s time to attack, he finds an extra gear.
I do feel like McGrath’s ascension to bona fide Small forward stopper/attacker will render Kelly to a depth role, or replacing Hepp when he needs managing.
‘Horses for courses’ selection will mean that some games he is more suitable than Hind.
Depth is a nice selection problem to have !
Notably Saad was way below him with a rating of 73. Other than that, the key stats were about the same.
Saad is supposed to be the FCFC “match winner”. Commentators are saying his performances recently have been poor.
True, he really had almost no impact for his 22 disposals.
My impression was that Saad has slowed a bit, he is getting caught and his one on one win percentage has dropped compared with when he played for us.
Nick Hind seems to be giving away a lot less 50 m penalties, playing a better defensive game and is less likely to give away stupid turnovers by kicking into the guts, since the early seasons games. He has gone from marginal to pretty much a safe inclusion.
Remember when Saad and McKenna were lighting up the park in the Worsfold era with scintillating run and carry. Exciting, but none of that actually won us a final.
However, we do have players prepared to run and carry from half back when the conditions are right. McGrath, Redman, for instance, but look at the way we moved the ball in Q3 against Carlton. Overlap run, forward handball, changed angles and precise delivery inside 50 were the key method.
I agree that Hind was better, but I wouldn’t rely on AFL fantasy points for the comparison.
It’s just a flat score per stat, doesn’t take effectiveness/etc into account at all.
SuperCoach is better in that regard but still far from flawless.
Saad may just have been slightly better offensively than McGrath but McGrath has him as a defender. Overall McGrath is the better player IMO as he executes the primary role of the position, to stop his opponent