Carlton Supporters Club

I read the article when it came out and confess almost yawning. Slow news days tend to yield ho-hum articles like this. For moi, Crippa polled so many votes because he had a bloody good season plus no other midfielders (injuries/form etc.) taking votes from him.

Quote from: Baggers – on December 23, 2024, 08:00:16 am

I read the article when it came out and confess almost yawning. Slow news days tend to yield ho-hum articles like this. For moi, Crippa polled so many votes because he had a bloody good season plus no other midfielders (injuries/form etc.) taking votes from him.

Yep
Which highlights a couple of issues....

Firstly the Brownlow is a bit of a joke.
It's a midfielders award...with a couple of half forward/back cameos.
It's the guys under the umpires eyes who get the votes.

Quote

Top 10
1.Patrick Cripps (Carlton) - Midfielder
2. Nick Daicos (Collingwood) - Midfielder
3. Zak Butters (Port Adelaide) - Midfielder
=4. Caleb Serong (Fremantle) - Midfielder
=4. Isaac Heeney (Sydney) - Forward/Midfielder
6. Tom Green (GWS) - Midfielder
7. Adam Treloar (Western Bulldogs) - Midfielder
=8. Errol Gulden (Sydney) - Midfielder
=8. Matt Rowell (Gold Coast) - Midfielder
10. Jai Newcombe (Hawthorn) - Forward/Midfielder

Would we rather have the Brownlow medallist or a flag?
The obvious answer is both...but I think even Cripps himself would rather the flag.

The fact is that he was the dominant force in our midfield.
Other midfielders contributed, but most were injured, or down on the form of previous years, for large parts of the season.
Cripps was streets ahead.
No-one was taking votes off him.
Now if players like Cerra, Walsh and Hewett (who was actually pretty reliable) can have improved seasons and some of the young players come on, then Patrick doesn't win the Brownlow....he may win something better.

So essentially 'all awards' are 'midfielders' awards.

I guess the point is this.
Was Cripps the best player this year?
There's a good  case to say he was.

Was it the best season ever by a player?
I don't even think it was the best season ever by a Carlton player.

I liked this by Daniel Horne at the rime.   Game plans are set around the superstars so they shine and there is less talent and more role players on each list

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2024/09/24/how-afl-trends-led-to-insane-brownlow-results-and-why-champion-data-analyst

“When I saw Patrick Cripps had 45 votes and Nick Daicos had 38, it took me a little bit by surprise … but the game has changed significantly over the last seven, eight or nine years,” Hoyne told SEN Sportsday.

“Teams only need or only have four to five superstars that are going to win you a Prelim or that are going to win you a Grand Final that you're setting the game up for.

“10, 15 or 20 years ago, there was more of an even spread of talent across the ground.

“I think we can all agree that the lack of depth across the competition is pretty noticeable at the moment.

“I remember 15 years ago going, ‘How is that guy not getting a game’, but you rarely see that now.”

Simply put, Hoyne thinks that coaches are setting their game plans up to help their superstars shine, with role players working to get the big guns into positions to produce game-breaking moments.

Yes I remember hearing that, spot on. If I recall correctly, he also stated that your success or failure lies with the bottom 6 of your best 22. That is, if you have the best bottom 6 (role players) in the comp, you get success.

I think the biggest thing that holds teams back is a lack of innovation and original tactics, too many AFL coaches are copycats merely trying to reimplement or reproduce the success of some other!