George Wardlaw – Deck of DT 2025

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Why should I pick him?

Wouldn’t it be great if before the 2017 season someone had come to you and said ‘hey, this Clayton Oliver kid is gonna go nuts’. Maybe they did though? Thinking back now, if they had would you have jumped on or thought ‘nah, he’s too expensive of a midpricer to take the risk on’.

Every year there’s examples of these high priced midpricers who either make the leap to keeper status or go no where but this year I’m betting George Wardlaw will make the leap.

What has made him jump off the page for me though? It’s his scoring profile and potential.

Wardlaw is a highly contest player who loves a +4 cuddle. Averaging 6 a game so far that’s a free 20 points before he’s even touched the ball.

Our hope in picking Wardlaw is that his natural improvement in the form of a 3rd year breakout will lead to an increase in his disposal average. When averaging under 20 disposals Wardlaw is a 75 point player. When averaging over 21 Wardlaw is a 95 point player. His best game last season came against Collingwood in round 14 where he scored 117 points from 30 disposals. If we’re starting with him this year we’ll be hoping for more games like that.

I mentioned Clayton Oliver previously because one of the biggest changes between his breakout season and the year previous was his time of ground (TOG) stat. Most dominant midfielders in the comp average close to 90% TOG. 2016 Oliver averaged 70% TOG and took that average to 85% in 2017.

Last season saw Wardlaw average 70% time on ground in games so with the extra preseason under his belt we’ll be hoping he can get that TOG number closer to 85%.

This former #4 draft pick should be stepping up his responsibilities this year but while LDU and Sheezel are also taking centre bounces he’ll hopefully keep avoiding any tags or attention coming his way.

Why shouldn’t I pick him?

Durability is this biggest red flag when considering Wardlaw.

He missed the end of his draft year and start of his debut season with a serious hamstring injury, he missed the rest of his debut year suffering a knee injury while ramping up.
Last year was a step in the right direction with Wardlaw finally getting a decent run of games until a training accident saw him miss multiple games due to concussion followed by delayed symptoms.

Price is also a pretty big negative. At $803,000 he’s at the pointy end of midprice and will effect your team structure or make you miss out on other popular midpricers like the currently 40% owned Clayton Oliver at $797,000.

Another concern could be how many North Melbourne players you currently have in your side. Sheezel, Xerri and Daniel are all currently over 40% with McKercher also very high in ownerships as well as rookie Finn O’Sullivan. How many Roo’s are too many for you?

Deck of DT Rating.

JACK

He’s a Jack right now but by the end of the season if the stars align we could be looking at a King.
The bonus to Wardlaw’s price is that if you don’t see the increase needed in the first few rounds you can pivot to whoever the rising midpricer you find is really easily.
At a current rate of 1.2% ownership, Wardlaw could end up being the sneakiest POD of the year.

Anthony can be found on 91.3 SportFM each Sunday during the AFL season on Behind the Goals.
Here’s an episode from their off season Trade and Draft review series on each team.

Anthony

Joining the DT Talk writing team in 2013, you can now catch Anthony every Sunday morning during the season for his show on 91.3 SportFM, "Behind the Goals". @anthonydsmith86.