Dermott Brereton: Eagle Jeremy McGovern is more valuable than Danger, Fyfe, Dusty and Buddy
When you think of the best player in the AFL, the common argument is it’s between four men: Danger, Fyfe, Dusty and Buddy. But Dermott Brereton believes there is one player even more valuable than those four.
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Who is the best player in the AFL? Dangerfield, Fyfe, Dusty or Buddy?
But who is the most valuable player. Who has the biggest effect on footy at the top level right now? Who is the most valuable commodity as a footballer?
Jeremy McGovern.
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Others are better regarded as pure footballers, but if we take into account the way the game is tracking, McGovern is the most valuable player in the AFL. He’s the new No.1.
The current style seems to be all about having a good position on the field in readiness to defend if you turn the ball over. No one wants to turn it over, but it is inevitable with the amount of pressure.
Teams are taking more uncontested marks in their back half of the ground than ever before. Collingwood took 174 marks in Round 2 and is averaging 122 a game. West Coast is taking 112, GWS 103 and Brisbane 100. And 16 clubs are averaging more than 20 marks a quarter.
The longer a team massages the ball around the back half of the ground normally means the opposition has more time to set up against a forward thrust.
Eventually a long conservative kick comes down the line and the two teams are prepared for a break even contest, take the ball over the boundary line, set up for a clearance and back themselves in to either win the clearance, or limit the damage if the opposition wins the ball.
An intercepted mark puts the kicking team immediately out of position and vulnerable to counter attack.
This is where McGovern is worth his weight in gold.
He intercept marks like few before him.
In general play, he stalks the line of the players further upfield and normally takes an intercept mark that should go down in the stats’ as a contested mark, but the others don’t read the flight well enough, so McGovern marks the ball without contact.
To watch him in isolation is extraordinary.
He pays zero regard for his direct opponent. They end up trailing him into the marking contest that their teammate has kicked the ball to.
He reads the opposition player’s eye-line further up the field as well as their body front, knowing where those kicks are going to land.
At the other end, the Eagles have the best key forward combination in the comp — Jack Darling and Josh Kennedy. But it is their hybrid forward Liam Ryan who has me spellbound and confused.
I cannot decide whether I love watching him play or despise it.
On one hand, he can take a screamer. Against Collingwood this season he launched on the goal line, tapped the ball back into Darling from a certain rushed behind situation and the play results in a goal.
In the Grand Final he took a fantastic contested mark and delivered the ball to Dom Sheed for the winning goal.
On other occasion’s when the ball is on the ground and in dispute, he will deliberately run himself off the line of the footy for fear of contact.
He can cower away from laying a heavy tackle.
These are issues that the Eagles must rankle with. They obviously believe his football exploits as a craft outweigh his lack of physical effort when the chips are stacked against him.
In last year’s Grand Final, Magpie Brayden Maynard stood under the drop of the ball in the middle of the MCG.
Ryan put the crosshairs on him and poleaxed him while Maynard was wide open and completely vulnerable.
I applauded both Maynard’s courage and Ryan’s aggressive deed in a Grand Final.
But in the third quarter, Ryan was tested with a ball that was over his head but reachable. Running back Ryan was almost as vulnerable as Maynard had been earlier.
Except this time when it was Ryan’s time to go, he didn’t. He opted for self preservation over a sacrifice.
If you consistently evade physical contact and you are non-competitive when the contest is in dispute and you are vulnerable, you eventually will lose your place in the team.
Still only 22 years of age, he has a lot to learn.
His footballing wizardry is wonderful, especially while the team is winning.
But the coaching box and selection committee will be tested if the team loses as many as they win.
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