Insider: How Brodie Smith drives the Crows forward

BRODIE Smith is the Crows’ great metre eater. He averages 578m a game.

BRODIE Smith is the Crows’ great metre eater.

The fourth-year defender/wingman is using his power running and precise long kicking to gobble up crucial ground for his team.

After five rounds, dashing excitement machine Smith ranks second in the AFL in the key statistic of metres gained, averaging 578 a game.

This sits just short of league leader and Brownlow Medal fancy Steve Johnson of Geelong.

Johnson is averaging 585m, highlighting his enormous impact this season.

In re-signing Smith to a contract extension last month, Adelaide list manager David Noble described the 22-year-old 2010 first-round draft pick as “one of the club’s most important players’’.

Exclusive Champion Data statistics show why.

Smith’s average gain of 578m a game — which is how far forward he is taking his team through carrying the ball, kicking and handballing — is 112m more than the next best Crow, midfielder Richard Douglas.

Smith — averaging a career-high 23.6 disposals — has had 14 running bounces and a combined 44 inside 50s and rebound 50s.

His retention rate — the percentage of possessions which find a teammate — of 71.2 is the highest among the top 13 metre eaters in the competition.

Teammate Matthew Jaensch says Smith is the best kick in the league.

Not only does he gain plenty of ground for his team, he gets value for his disposals.

The importance of metres gained should not be undersold.

In an era of meaningless stats, Leigh Matthews — the man voted the greatest VFL-AFL player of all time and a four-time premiership coach — argues that metres gained is one of the most important indicators of a player’s worth.

“You want players who gain metres for your side — players who can break the lines and put the opposition under pressure,’’ Matthews said.

“You want players who can move the ball.

“You don’t want players who kick backwards and sideways — they are crap stats.’’

Under Champion Data’s measurements, a player will register a minus rating for any disposal which goes backwards and no rating for a sideways possession.

In other words, there is no reward for cheap possessions.

Cats midfielder Steve Johnson moves the ball forward more than any other player in the AFL. Picture: Quinn Rooney.

The leading metres gained players are all good users of the football, with Sydney’s Nick Malceski ranking third (average 567m) followed by Collingwood’s Clinton Young (552m), St Kilda’s Leigh Montagna (551m) and Brisbane’s Pearce Hanley (544m).

Vice-captain Brad Ebert heads Port Adelaide’s metre eaters with an average of 491m gained.

Defensive playmaker Matthew Broadbent (472m) is second at the Power, boom recruit Jared Polec (447m) third and the long-kicking Hamish Hartlett (372m) fourth.

Hartlett said coaches put a high value on players who can hurt the opposition with their run and carry and booming kicks.

“It’s a stat which teams look at pretty closely, metres gained,’’ he said.

“Certainly stopping those types of players who can break lines and kick balls over zones is something that each teams looks at pretty closely and you have to do everything you can to try to nullify those types of players from the opposition.’’

Hartlett said Port is mindful of the damage Johnson could create at Adelaide Oval in the clash of first versus second on Sunday.

“Steve’s pretty hard to stop because not only can he find the ball but he can do some pretty freakish things with it, so we’ll delve into how we are going to put a stranglehold on him,’’ he said.