The Phantom’s Round 21 Review: After Friday’s performance, Toby Greene might be my first picked next season
If Stephen Coniglio leaves the Giants and Toby Greene stays in the midfield on a permanent basis, he’ll be one of the top-scoring players in SuperCoach in 2020. And it’s not just based on his past five weeks.
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The speculation around Giant Stephen Coniglio’s future has intensified over the past few days with much of the talk suggesting Carlton could be in the box seat to land the star midfielder for next season.
If the talk — and that’s all it is at this stage — does eventuate into something more, it might not just be Blues fans who will be happy.
SuperCoaches would be jumping for joy, too. And not because of Coniglio’s scoring potential alongside Patrick Cripps.
Without Coniglio, coach Leon Cameron might have no choice but not unleash Toby Greene in the midfield on a permanent basis in 2020.
And, as Greene showed once again on Friday night, his SuperCoach scoring power as a midfielder is as great any player in the game.
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While his side was poor, the 25-year-old fought hard, tallying 38 disposals, 20 contested possessions, eight clearances and 122 SuperCoach points, in an outstanding performance in the long-sleeves.
It was Greene’s fifth consecutive SuperCoach ton and third in excess of 120.
And it all started when Coniglio was carried off the MCG in the opening minutes of the Round 17 clash with the Tigers.
Cameron needed a midfield replacement and Greene, who started his career at GWS as an on-baller, was the answer.
Greene finished with 34 disposals and 138 SuperCoach points — both game-highs — as well as 13 contested possessions and two goals.
And since that day, Greene’s five-round average of 122.9 sits inside the competition’s top-10.
But those who watched the former Oakleigh Charger in the early part of his AFL career, before he turned himself into a matchwinning forward, won’t be at all surprised with Greene’s recent numbers.
As a ball-winning midfielder, Greene averaged 94 points or more in two of his first three seasons in the game.
In an unbelievable run of form, he averaged 128 points in the final seven games of 2014.
From Round 16, after returning from an injury and a club-imposed suspension, Greene posted scores of 132, 107, 117, 161, 111, 141 and 131 to finish the year.
He finished with disposal tallies of 35, 32, 27, 35, 29, 42 and 32.
He then moved forward in 2015 and became a matchwinner and an All-Australian the following season.
While his scoring never reached the same heights, he recorded impressive averages of 83, 90 and 96 over the next three years, despite winning less possession.
Greene booted 104 goals in 64 home-and-away matches during this time and in 2016, the star Giant ranked first in the AFL for goal assists, third for inside 50s and fourth for score involvements.
His career to date shows he can do it all.
While his field-kicking can still let him down — as highlighted by his 22 clangers in the past three matches this year — if plays in the midfield in 2020, his sheer volume of numbers will mean he becomes one of the top-scoring players in the competition.
And if so, behind the returning Tom Mitchell and Sam Docherty, he’ll be The Phantom’s first-picked.
In the same game, while the air was cold thanks to snowfall, Hawk James Sicily was hot.
The enigmatic defender, who scored 77 points of less in three of his previous four matches, tallied a career-high 33 disposals and 16 intercept possession — the most by a Hawthorn player on record.
Sicily finished with a game-high 140 SuperCoach points — I hope you weren’t one of the coaches who traded him out.
While both Sicily and Greene divide opinion in the AFL world, they are amongst the best SuperCoach scorers in the game at their best.
THE PHANTOM’S ROUND 21
Score: 2272
Studs: Josh Dunkey (153), James Sicily (140), Jack Macrae as C (137)
Duds: Travis Boak (49), Shannon Hurn (56), Tim Taranto (70), Tom Lynch (74)
Originally published as The Phantom’s Round 21 Review: After Friday’s performance, Toby Greene might be my first picked next season
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