Pure Footy: David King, Daniel Hoyne lift lid on AFL stats, trends after Round 19

Expert commentators are stumped trying to split the AFL’s top big men, but Champion Data says the answer is obvious. Watch Pure Footy.

Trying to choose which of the AFL’s top ruckmen will line up for the opening bounce in the All-Australian team is one of the biggest calls for selectors of the team of the year.

Superstars Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy have been dominant at stages, Tom Hickey has been a surprise packet at the Swans and Sean Darcy is on fire for the Dockers in the second half of the season.

But Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne says unfairly maligned big man Nic Naitanui is head and shoulders ahead of the pack.

“I love the conversation at the this time of the year, there’s four weeks to go and people are starting to get their All-Australian teams going,” he said on a new episode of Pure Footy, the weekly analysis show exclusive to heraldsun.com.au.

WATCH THIS WEEK’S EPISODE OF PURE FOOTY ABOVE

“We’re talking about ruckmen and we’re talking about Sean Darcy, who is flying at the moment and coming home strong, Max Gawn is automatically up there in a lot of people’s eyes as the All-Australian ruckman. For me it’s not even a question in terms of who’s an All-Australian ruckman this year.

“How anyone can argue with him not being All-Australian is beyond me.

“This guy just gets judged so harshly.

“In every category for a ruckman — he’s first in every area, and by a long way.”

Nic Naitanui fights against Max Gawn.

This season Naitanui is the No. 1 ranked ruckman for contested possessions, clearances, centre clearances and hitouts to advantage, and second for score involvements.

And another number makes his performances even more astounding.

“He’s playing 68 per cent game time. His peers, the top five ruckmen in the competition, are all playing at least 80 per cent game time — Max Gawn is playing 91 per cent — and he’s still by far and away the No. 1 ruckman in the competition in all those areas.

“It’s great to see new blood up there, but I think sometimes people can just get sucked in by the new faces and forget about the existing stars who have been there for more than a decade.”

Also on this week’s show, Hoyne and Kangaroos premiership champion David King put the Demons’ recent form under the microscope, reveal where the Bulldogs can get even better and Port Adelaide’s secret finals weapon plus the surprise premiership threat outside the top four.