AFL and young players take too much notice of stats and fantasy football, writes Patrick Dangerfield

LAST week Patrick Dangerfield scored more SuperCoach points than Shaun Higgins. And as he writes here, he doesn’t think that’s right.

Patrick Dangerfield says it’s all about impact. Picture: Getty Images

LAST week a video of US college basketball coach Geno Auriemma talking about body language and kids obsession with being cool went viral.

In less than a day it had more than 24 million views and I can understand why. It was brilliant and I can relate a lot of what he is talking about to the AFL.

For kids coming through the junior ranks, football is all about possessions. It’s cool to get 30 each game and if you don’t, well, it’s not cool.

Our possession obsession in the AFL is getting out of control.

There is no doubt statistics have a part to play in our game but at the moment there seems to be a statistic about everything.

It’s worse in the NBA or NFL. Over there they can tell you that James Harden is 30th all time in assists in the fourth quarter in Miami. Crazy.

Fantasy football is a part of our world nowadays, all my cousins play it and they love it but we can’t judge good performances on the back of SuperCoach.

I was at last year’s draft in Sydney and when we were talking about the latest draftee the information that came through included their fantasy rankings for the TAC Cup finals series.

It said he averaged 120 ranking points throughout September. That tells me nothing. All I want to know about is his impact.

But possessions and SuperCoach points are what the kids love these days and I watch my cousins in the U/14s and U/16s play and they figure out their fantasy rankings after each game.

There is even an app where you can put in your possessions from the game and it spits out your points so they spend hours talking about their averages, comparing it with AFL players.

Tom Liberatore made an impact against the Swans. Picture: Michael Klein

This shouldn’t be a driving factor for a game, you shouldn’t be going to a game thinking that my aim is to get 30 possessions.

Just because a kid averages a lot of the ball in the TAC Cup, it doesn’t mean he’s had the most impact on the game.

The challenge for draftees coming into the AFL system is to get out of their heads that it’s not about who has the most amount of possessions, it’s about playing your role in the side.

If you are playing at halfback you don’t need to touch the ball 25 times, you have to be strong defensively and then make your possessions count when you do get them.

Every AFL player has had games where the possession column looks healthy, the fantasy points are over 100 but you know that doesn’t tell the real story.

Take last Sunday for example.

North Melbourne’s Shaun Higgins was the most influential player on the ground — he had 27 possessions, seven tackles, two clearances and two goals which amounted to 130 SuperCoach points.

Shaun Higgins in action against the Cats. Picture: AAP

That was 10 less points than what I was given for 37 possessions, six tackles, 11 clearances and one goal.

The SuperCoach points went my way but Shaun had a much bigger influence on the game, with the coaches rightly naming him as best on ground in the AFLCA voting.

It’s been a pleasing trend over the opening two rounds with impact seemingly getting acknowledged ahead of the sheer weight of possessions.

Trent Cotchin’s game against Collingwood was a perfect example. He didn’t have 40 touches, he had 26 and kicked two goals but his influence on the game was profound.

West Coast’s Elliot Yeo was another who wasn’t the leading possession winner, he might have had 25 touches but his tackling pressure was sensational.

Tom Liberatore had 16 tackles for the Dogs against Sydney.

Rory Sloane had 15 tackles and 25 possessions for Adelaide which included nine kicks that were all effective.

Impact. Impact. Impact.

So being cool in the AFL doesn’t mean you have to have the most touches.

Trent Cotchin was the man against Collingwood, writes Patrick Dangerfield. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

As Auriemma points out on his video, body language in kids is more important than points, kicks, marks or handballs.

He explains how when he watches tapes of games he looks at his bench and the body language of those players not involved in the contest.

If they’re not engaged in the game, he doesn’t play them.

The best piece of advice I can offer youngsters coming into the game is that positivity wins the day.

There is no better example than Nakia Cockatoo at Geelong. He exudes positive energy and actually celebrates other people’s success rather than only enjoying his own.

If you find people who do that then you’ll win more games than you lose and you’ll have an enjoyable club to be around.

And you won’t be talking about possessions.