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The Long Road Home: Defenders

It’s that time of the season where all coaches sit down and work out how to polish their team off, preparing to fly down the home stretch with Bradbury-like joy as your opposition falls to the wayside. But it’s hard to soar like Bradbury when your team is full of Lay-Down Sallies.

The Long Road Home: Defenders

It’s that time of the season where all coaches sit down and work out how to polish their team off, preparing to fly down the home stretch with Bradbury-like joy as your opposition falls to the wayside. But it’s hard to soar like Bradbury when your team is full of Lay-Down Sallies.

We’ve all heard the talk about Goodes turning into a points scoring machine in the second half of the year, but is it actually true? Can Scotland keep his average pushing 100 until the end? Will your upgrade targets take you to glory?

I’ve done some research to see who might bring it home strong for you, and who’ll drop off like a fat kid forced by his mum to enter a little athletics race.

By taking a player’s average for the first half of the last two seasons, and comparing it to his average for the last half, we can get an idea as to who is worthy of a seat in your brand new FJ Cruiser, and who ends up wearing its tyre marks. This first article of four looks at premiums/upgrade targets in your defence.

Bradburys

The guys who come home strong.

Ave for Rounds 1-11

Ave for Rounds 12-22

Difference

Adcock

82

99

+17

Deledio

90

95

+5

Broughton

86

90

+4

Goddard

107

111

+4

It’s worth noting here that Adcock played 16 out of a possible 22 in Rounds 1-11 of the last two completed seasons, and only 7 out of 22 in Rounds 12-22. Looks his injuries occur mostly in the second half of the year. Broughton, on the other hand, likes to get his injuries over and done with earlier, playing only 12 out 22 in Rounds 1-11, and 18 out of 22 in Rounds 12-22.

Lay Down Sallies

The guys who drop off when the going gets tough.

Ave for Rounds 1-11 Ave for Rounds 12-22 Difference
Scotland

97

84

-13

Duffield

92

85

-7

Carrazzo

89

83

-6

A couple of Carlton players in the list here. Although Scotland has had scores topping the ton in the last two weeks, he seems to like to ease off towards the end of the year. The Duffman doesn’t seem to follow in his mate Broughton’s footsteps, also slacking off as the season goes on.

Steve Moneghettis

The guys who keep it steady from start to finish.

Ave for Rounds 1-11

Ave for Rounds 12-22

Difference

Rawlings

84

87

+3

H Shaw

82

82

0

Gibbs

103

101

-2

Enright

92

90

-2

S Fisher

87

84

-3

These guys are pretty consistent, keeping their averages steady throughout the season. The roller coaster that is Heath Shaw is interesting. While he can give you a stiffy one week then send you to the Calvin’s shed the next, he actually keeps a consistent average throughout the year.

I should point out that when looking through the stats, I ignored any games where points were severely affected by an injury, such as Adcock’s 5 points in Round 15, 2009. Also, I didn’t mention Suckling as he hadn’t played enough games over the past two seasons.

So, if past seasons are anything to go by, those who stuck with Broughton through his sluggish start to the year may start to smile a bit more as the season goes on, whereas Scotland owners may have a slight brown stain in the undies, hoping his slow second halves don’t continue into this season.

The next article will look at the premium midfielders, with some more interesting stats. Look out for a couple of guns that really lift, and a couple that make Lay Down Sally look like an energiser bunny.

Let me know in the comments below if there are any defenders I’ve left out that you’re interested in, and I’ll look them up!

TOMORROW: Midfielders.




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