Insider: Robbie Gray — the man who makes the scoreboard tick for Port Adelaide

AFTER overcoming a string of injuries, Power forward Robbie Gray is starting to show his prodigious talent.

“HE doesn’t get 30 but his possessions are really telling. They hurt you and that’s what makes him such a damaging player.’’

With those words, Crows ace Patrick Dangerfield summed up a rival’s thoughts towards early season Port Adelaide sensation Robbie Gray.

While Gray’s talent has never been questioned, he is this season enjoying a career year and “putting teams to the sword’’, as Dangerfield terms it.

Until this season, Gray - blessed with the X-factor which can turn games - had flirted with stardom but never consistently produced it.

How that has changed.

After six rounds of the top-of-the-table Power’s so-far spectacularly successful season, small forward/midfielder Gray leads the AFL in the key statistic of score involvements, averaging 9.5 a game.

The stat - which calculates how often a player is involved in an unbroken chain of play which results in a score - highlights how good things happen when the ball is in Gray’s hands.

He is in elite company, with in-form guns Joel Selwood (Geelong), Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn), Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda) and Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood) also nestled in the top 10, where the surprise packet is Crows tall Josh Jenkins, who is averaging 9.0 score involvements.

Classy 26-year-old Gray also has had more direct score assists than any other player (13), ranks equal-third in goal assists (seven) and is the league leader in goal average (2.0) for players who average 20 or more disposals.

His goal average and 21.2 disposals a game are easily career highs, eclipsing the 1.5 goals he averaged in 2009 and his 18-disposal average in 2011.

Gray has kicked 12 goals this season and nine behinds, which shows how he has been peppering the sticks as well as dishing out scoring opportunities to teammates.

“He’s one who just gets under the radar because Port has got so much top-end talent with Travis Boak, Hamish Hartlett, Brad Ebert and Chad Wingard,’’ Dangerfield said.

“But he’s been one of their best players this season because of his ability to do something special with the ball.

“He’s a goalkicker and he just makes things happen for his teammates because he’s a good ball user and he makes good decisions.

“He’s a player you have to be wary of all the time because even if he is having a bad day - not that he’s had too many of them this year - he has the capability of turning a game in five because of his magic.

“We’ve always known he’s a good player but injuries have held him back and now he’s got his body right we’re seeing just how good he is.’’

Coaches around the league have officially recognised the standout year Gray - in his second season back from a knee reconstruction and finally free of the niggling injuries which have plagued his eight-year, 96-game career - is having.

Gray has polled AFL Coaches’ Association votes in five of the first six rounds.

Only captain Boak (23) has polled more AFLCA votes than Gray (21) at the Power this year while no Port player has polled in as many games.

Gray is on All-Australian pace and forms a formidable small forward combination with Wingard, who was last year named an All-Australian in just his second season, and Angus Monfries.

Champion Data’s heat map shows he is not just a one way, offensive player.

Forty-two per cent of his disposals have been won in the defensive half of the ground.