Comparing SPS & Fisher's first 20 games disposals and contested possessions, and Dow's games to date, with Gibbs looks pretty good.

Comparing SPS & Fisher's first 20 games disposals and contested possessions, and Dow's games to date, with Gibbs looks pretty good.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/pressure-builds-on-blues-but-bolton-safe-for-2019-20180522-p4zgsf.html

Pressure builds on Blues but Bolton safe for 2019
By Jon Pierik
22 May 2018 — 4:58pm

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Chris Judd has declared Brendon Bolton safe for next year but president Mark LoGiudice could face his toughest test yet if the on-field struggles continue.

Premiership coach Robert Walls has questioned the Blues' rebuild, pointing out several of the players the club has brought in were recycled, while losing such talent as Bryce Gibbs, Zach Tuohy and Eddie Betts.

What do the horizontal lines represent in numbers terms? 5-10-15?
Interesting comparison but lacks that detail.

That graph didn't play AFL, so I can't respect it.

And, while we're at it, it's not tall enough either.

stats are amazing things, that don't always tell the story.

... like:

Gibbs was playing across the half back line for his first 5 seasons – had he been on the ball, you'd have to imagine his numbers would have literally doubled.
Of our three new kids, Fisher has the worst stats, but he always plays direct with the footy. I'd hazard a guess Fish's metres gained and efficiency is more superior than Dow or SPS.

and, all of this makes me wonder about the development of Gibbs. he wasn't thrown into the middle off the bat into bigger, hardened bodies. Saving those miles in his legs has led to him having an excellent career - longevity wise.

I wonder how much of our kids we're burning out, and as they hit their prime, how oft injured they'll be bcos of it.

so we play the kids across half back and lose by 200 points and no one will question Bolts and the club because we are protecting the miles in their legs...

2007 was a slightly different landscape to today but Gibbs played a heap of midfield under Pagan in his first year. And that Carlton side didn't have a Cripps, or Judd, as a primary focus in the middle. Life got a lot easier for Gibbs after he'd played 20 games because Judd came along and Ratten played him (definitely not exclusively) in defence.

Widen the picture a little

We complain that our mid-20s players aren't good enough and that's the main reason we're shit. Let's look at the 23-26 year olds.

Docherty - recruited by MM
Cripps - Recruited by MM
Byrne - MM
Plowman - Bolton
Shaw - Bolton
Phillips - Bolton
Lamb - Bolton
Kerridge - Bolton
Mullet - Bolton
Oshea - Bolton

What's the point of a list re-build that needs re-building 3 years later?

2 points:

1: The problem with the MM era isn’t the 2 stars you’ve listed, it’s the 15 other blokes brought into the club who weren’t up to the standard and had to be moved on.

2: I have real doubts on the recruitment of Shaw and O’Shea, but the rest are necessary. We traded out our proven mid-tier players and attacked the draft with the picks we received in return. We then had no mid-tier players left on the list and had to fill those gaps on the cheap (not giving up valuable picks we could invest in youth). That’s led to a weak group of players in that age bracket and will only be properly rectified with time.