Veteran Brad Ebert has become Port Adelaide’s new main man in the middle, resulting in a career-best season
NO-FUSS midfielder Brad Ebert has become the centre of attention at Port Adelaide, writes Andrew Capel in his Number Crunch statistical analysis.
HE is Port Adelaide’s Mr Reliable who is a football ironman and has long performed his duties with little fanfare.
Now, at age 27 and in his 10th year in the AFL, Brad Ebert has become the centre of attention in Ken Hinkley’s team.
In his sixth year at the Power after switching from West Coast at the end of 2011, Ebert, whose surname carries legendary status at Port, has become his club’s main man in the middle.
The result is his statistical numbers skyrocketing to a career-high.
Burdened with some midfield tagging duties following the retirement midway through 2015 of four-times club champion Kane Cornes, Ebert has this season become a bullocking centre-square specialist.
He has spent nearly twice as much time at the coalface than at any other time in his Power career.
His 87 per cent of midfield time (classified by Champion Data as time spent in the centre square, rather than on the wing) is 33 per cent more than his previous highest of 54 per cent in 2014.
Remember 2014?
That was the year when Port last made the finals and went within a kick of making its third grand final, losing a heartbreaking preliminary final to eventual premier Hawthorn by three points.
Ebert, who spent large parts of 2015-16 on the wing, resting forward and tagging, has spearheaded the Power’s return to September action.
Only Ollie Wines (91 per cent) has spent more time in the middle of the ground for the club this season.
But Ebert’s 81.4 per cent of centre bounce attendances is the best among midfielders at Port – seven per cent more than Wines and 30 per cent higher than the next-ranked Power player, rookie sensation Sam Powell-Pepper (51 per cent).
Ebert’s centre square influence has helped the Power rank No. 2 in the AFL in clearances (average 39) behind only Greater Western Sydney (42).
The son of former Port Magpies midfielder Craig Ebert, nephew of four-times Magarey Medallist Russell Ebert and cousin of 166-game Power forward Brett Ebert, Brad ranks in the top two at Port this year in four key statistical categories – disposals (24.9), contested possessions (10.7), clearances (5) and tackles (7.3).
He is Port’s leading tackler, with Wines narrowly edging him in the other three statistics.
Overall, Ebert is recording career-highs in all four categories, along with SuperCoach points (101), percentage of possessions won in a contest (43.1) and pressure points (59.4).
The man who has missed just one game in his six years at the Power (with a badly-bruised lung in round 17 last year), playing 135 of a possible 136 games, rates 2017 as his best and most consistent season.
“I feel that I’ve been playing reasonably well and have managed to be consistent, which is good,’’ Ebert told The Advertiser.
Ebert, who was drafted from Port Adelaide's SANFL team at pick 13 at the 2007 national draft by West Coast, where he played 76 games in four years before asking for a trade home, said the seeds for his move back into prime time centre-square starter were sown during pre-season training.
“The coaches were looking to change the dynamics of the (on-ball) set-up and getting some bigger bodies in there, so I got the call-up and I've enjoyed it,’’ he said.
“Last year I had a bit more of a run-with role with instructions to nullify the opposition’s most dangerous midfield player but this year it’s about playing more as a set midfield ballwinner, alongside Ollie and ‘Pep’ (Powell-Pepper).
“I still get the occasional run-with role, like on (Bulldog) Marcus Bontempelli last week, but mostly I’ve been given more freedom and while attending so many centre bounces has been pretty taxing on the body, I've loved it.’’
andrew.capel@news.com.au