CAPTAIN JACK… or Nick or Joel or Matthew…

We all know how important the right captain choice is to our team and generally speaking play it safe with the ever reliable Swan or Ablett – they step up week after week and perform with the pressure of leading thousands of teams. But what about the real life captains? I thought it would be interesting given all the new boys on the block this year to look at how taking on the responsibility of captain might impact on their DT output. The majority of captains are now DT relevant!

How will SELWOOD, SWALLOW, GRIMES & TRENGROVE handle the pressure??

The below table shows the captains that have been appointed in the last two years and their DT output vs. the previous year before being appointed.

		DT points	DT points	DT points		Games	Games
Captain	1st Year	Year Prior	First Year	Variance %		Year Prior	First Year
N Van Berlo	2011	81	94	16.0		19	22
G Ablett	2011	119	112	-5.9		24	20
L Hodge	2011	103	94	-8.7		22	22
B Green	2011	99	78	-21.2		22	21
M Boyd	2011	115	116	0.9		23	22
J Watson	2010	91	95	4.4		22	21
C Ling	2010	89	83	-6.7		22	21
Average		99.6	96	-3.6		22	21

The last 7 newly appointed captains average 96 in their first year in the job. This is  a -3.6% decrease on their previous years output where the same 7 players averaged 99.6 points. 4 of the 7 had a greater than 5% decrease while only Van Berlo had a greater than 5% increase. Brad Green’s output disagreed most with the weight of the captaincy dropping a massive 21%.

The good news is that games played for a new captain is just above 21 so they are reliable – this is slightly down on their previous years average but you can thank Gary Abletts lack of finals action for that!

This article won’t change your team but it is a good thought starter – I know I for one would be pretty happy if Grimes can play 21 games!

Submitted by Insider Out.