The Phantom’s SuperCoach Pre-Season: Rory Laird or Lachie Whitfield in defence?

In the fourth week of his SuperCoach Pre-season, The Phantom gives his verdict on your head-to-head dilemmas. Today, it’s Adelaide ball magnet Rory Laird up against dashing Giant defender Lachie Whitfield.

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In the fourth week of his SuperCoach Pre-season, The Phantom gives his verdict on your head-to-head dilemmas. Today, it’s Adelaide ball magnet Rory Laird up against dashing Giant defender Lachie Whitfield.

The Phantom's SuperCoach Face-off: Laird v Whitfield

Rory Laird (Adel $587,600) v Lachie Whitfield (GWS $542,100)

If you had only seen both players live in action once, it’s unlikely you would hesitate in selecting Whitfield.

The 187cm 24-year-old is quick, dances around opposition players and delivers the ball with precision on both sides of his body.

It’s not hard to see why he was taken with the No. 1 selection in the 2012 national draft.

After recording six SuperCoach tons and an average of 98 in 2017, playing as an outside midfielder — like he had for the first four years of his career — Whitfield was moved to half-back last season.

And what a move it was.

The star Giant, who increased his disposal average by three, earned All-Australian selection for the first time after ranking fifth in the competition for metres gained and uncontested possessions per game.

Whitfield pushed his average to 100 for the first time — a number which would have ranked him as the fifth defender last season — after posting 11 SuperCoach tons.

But as good as his numbers are, they don’t quite compare to Laird’s.

In fact, not many others in the competition do.

Since 2017, only Tom Mitchell and team-mate Matt Crouch have averaged more disposals and no other player in the game has averaged more disposals post-clearances than the star Crow defender.

The 25-year-old is just always in the right spot.

After increasing his disposal average from 27 to 29 in 2017, Laird pushed the figure to 32 last season, ranking him fourth in the competition.

The All-Australian defender, who finished sixth in the Brownlow Medal and won Adelaide’s club champion award, added eight points to his SuperCoach average despite the Crows winning three less home-and-away matches last year.

And he’s improved his consistency, too.

Laird posted six SuperCoach tons and scored 84 points or more in all-but one game in 2018.

It’s a mark he failed to reach seven times the previous season and one that Whitfield couldn’t reach in five games in 2018.

Whitfield should benefit from the new kick-in stats more so than Laird, given he took 37 more in 2018.

And with Laird taking the most marks from kick-ins at the Crows last season, it will also be interesting to see how the potential new tactics affect these numbers.

However, neither is likely to swing the pendulum in Whitfield’s favour.

Although Whitfield had a greater impact forward of centre, averaging more score involvements and metres gained, Laird recorded more disposals, contested possessions, uncontested possessions, intercept marks, intercept possessions, groundball-gets and rebound 50s in 2018.

The Phantom’s Verdict

Laird. Whitfield is a star but he’s not the reliable ball-winner that Laird is.