Wreck It Ralph: Every AFL club’s game changer and those who are lacking
Every club needs a player – ideally several – who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and drag his team over the line. JON RALPH writes the clubs without one are stuck in the wilderness.
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Nick Daicos changed the game on Saturday afternoon like Dustin Martin altered the course of finals for Richmond in his premiership-winning heyday.
A Collingwood side dead and buried against a scintillating Brisbane was suddenly resuscitated.
Two exceptional goals judging time and space – can I burn off this Brisbane foe, how much room do I have to dart through that gap? – brought the Pies back into the fight.
From 30 points down and with not a shred of momentum, they were alive again.
It was a sight to behold watching it on the MCG centre wing with no work obligations, no commentary on, just a footy lover appreciating this game at its very best.
He did it not far from that magical Grand Final moment as his instinctual mid-air handball to Jordan De Goey set up the game’s biggest moment.
He is Collingwood’s game changer.
In an era when football is all about capitalising on momentum swings, if you don’t have one, you are in strife.
In a star driven league they win Grand Finals, they drag you back into games, they change contests in the space of 10 minutes.
And to be brutally honest, his brilliance was only magnified by Brisbane’s so-called stars losing their heads.
Joe Daniher mixed inspiration with total frustration – and selfishness as he blazed away when teammates were in range.
Zac Bailey missed a sitter of a set shot and had an eternity to dispose of the ball before Isaac Quaynor ran him down to change the game with his own moment of brilliance.
And Cam Rayner kicked 0.2 including missing a sitter as the Lions kicked 0.4 instead of killing off the game in a third-quarter patch.
Brisbane simply has too many players who have a chasm between their best and worst.
So does your team have a game changer and if not, how do they get one?
ADELAIDE
Izak Rankine is the only player who can turn a game on its head in 10 minutes.
What might have been had he played more than 15 games this year for a remarkably accurate 29.9.
He has also averaged 3.7 clearances and 3.4 tackles.
But Adelaide does have too many workmanlike players who need some spit and polish.
If they can add Alex Neal-Bullen to their forward line it will be a masterstroke given he might have 100 more games left in him as an elite pressure forward who runs all the right patterns.
One word of warning on Jack Lukosius.
What a talent. What a ball user.
But at 24, it is asking too much to believe he will change his ways and become more consistent or a bash-and-crash contested player.
BRISBANE
Lachie Neale is Brisbane’s best player but can he change a game in 10 minutes? He is death by a thousand cuts with only 12 goals this year.
Charlie Cameron at his best has been a game-changer but he has only 34 goals so far this year.
Zac Bailey kicked 31.18 in his fourth season and looked like he might be a top-10 player in the game.
A powerful, elusive goalkicker who was at times impossible to tackle, he kicked 37 goals the following year then 29 with a great grand final last year.
But after only 17 goals in 17 games this year amid a high ankle sprain, he isn’t yet the player we believed he might be.
CARLTON
Captain Crippa.
What a champion.
Just like Charlie Curnow last year against Gold Coast when the Blues needed a hero to qualify for finals, Patrick Cripps performed against West Coast on Sunday night.
He has only one goal in the past five games but until round 18 was averaging nearly a goal a game – a clear career high.
It turned him from a clearance beast into a more well-rounded player.
The Blues still need to take down St Kilda to confirm their finals participation.
But the definition of a game-changer is putting together massive games when your side needs it most, and on that score Cripps is fresh off one of the best games of his 205-game career.
COLLINGWOOD
Nick Daicos has a sidekick in Jordan De Goey who are both capable of 20-possession, multiple goal games.
De Goey has done it nine times since the start of 2021, while Daicos has done it 11 times in 69 games despite spending his first year in defence.
It is an extraordinary stat given 10 of them have come in the past 44 games.
ESSENDON
Jake Stringer is capable but he bashed up West Coast (five goals), was excellent against Fremantle (four goals), but has 10 goals in the other nine games he has played since round 11.
Zach Merrett will finish his career as an Essendon champion but has kicked only 77 goals from 228 games.
Darcy Parish has kicked eight goals in the past three seasons.
For all their high draft picks, the Dons just don’t have a player who can take the game by the scruff of the neck.
FREMANTLE
Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong are scintillating players but they take a whole game to work you over.
Hayden Young might be the man for Fremantle given he has not only dominated in his first full season as a mid, he has regularly hit the scoreboard.
He didn’t kick a goal in his first six weeks but since then had 13 goals in 16 games while also averaging 24 possessions, five clearances and five tackles.
Open question – will he be the club’s best mid by the end of next year?
Fremantle will hope that one day Luke Jackson might be their best player, but even in a solid year he has kicked only 20 goals in 22 matches.
He could take the competition by storm one day, but he hasn’t yet.
GEELONG
It has to be Jezza.
This year Jeremy Cameron averages 2.3 goals a game (49 in total), 16 possessions, 2.3 forward-50 marks.
He can go missing – he has seven games with one or no goals but with 65, 53 and now 49 goals in his past three seasons at Geelong he is the club’s megastar.
You wouldn’t discount him taking the finals by storm if the Cats can take care of business against West Coast to lock in a double chance.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
They have the game’s in-form forward Jesse Hogan and the first-picked defender in Sam Taylor.
Toby Greene’s last eight weeks have been solid after a slow start to the year.
Yet to watch Tom Green’s performance against Fremantle in only his fifth season was to realise he can change games even as he only kicked a goal every three weeks.
He had 13 clearances, 23 contested possessions, another 435 metres gained (his eighth games in nine with at least 397 metres gained).
You can see him trying to take territory from clearances rather than go backwards or sideways.
He is a superstar and only last year he reeled off three exceptional finals to show he is also a big game player.
GOLD COAST
Imagine if they had been able to keep Izak Rankine.
It’s exactly what their forward line needs right now.
Matt Rowell is a blood-and-guts midfielder who brutalises over the duration of a 120-minute game.
Noah Anderson is still their game-changer but this year’s kicked only 12 goals to go with his average of 29 possessions.
Ben King has had a very solid year with 54 goals but still has only 13 total tackles.
Like brother Max, he sits and watches when the ball hits the ground instead of putting on pressure or shutting off outlets.
Imagine if Damien Hardwick could get him to play with the tackling intensity of an Aaron Naughton to round out his game.
HAWTHORN
Will Day is a smooth mover and Crimmons Medallist but he has 13 goals in 70 games.
Josh Weddle is an excitement machine but he averages only 14 possessions so far in his career.
Dylan Moore’s numbers are exceptional – he averages 20 possessions and 1.4 goals a game.
Happy to argue the toss, but for all of their premiership credentials and weight-of-numbers performances, the Hawks don’t yet have a Cyril Rioli-style star who flips the game on its head in 10 minutes.
It doesn’t mean Nick Watson won’t be that player with another 40 games under his belt.
MELBOURNE
It used to be Clayton Oliver.
It could be Kysaiah Pickett, who has still had a very honest year with 34 goals and an average of 3.6 tackles.
But Melbourne’s performances since Christian Petracca went out of the side underline his importance to Simon Goodwin’s side.
In his second season he kicked 26.6.
Imagine the level he would be on had he retained somewhere near that accuracy across his career.
Even then he’s logged 730, 673 and 695 disposals in the past three years with 29, 19 and 28 goals.
But he has 184.164 across his career with plenty of total misses.
Last year he kicked 28.24 with 25 total misses and this year had kicked 14.12 with nine total misses.
Since the start of last year of the 100 players to take the most shots at goal he is in front of only Bailey Humphrey for the worst goal kicking accuracy.
No one is the perfect player – and he is Melbourne’s matchwinner – but even if he had kicked a 60 per cent accuracy, consider how many Brownlow Medals he would have won.
NORTH MELBOURNE
It is clearly Harry Sheezel, who is following Nick Daicos’ progression in every way after only 44 games in his career so far.
He kicked 13 goals in 11 games once he was injected into the midfield in round 11.
If he puts together a full season of that calibre – and the Roos win 10 games next year – he can win the Brownlow.
The Roos win tally is more in question than his capacity to put together that full season.
Where will George Wardlaw’s career be in 40 games?
He is among footy’s most watchable players but he’s still averaging only 19 possessions to go with his 4.8 clearances and 4.2 tackles a game.
Can he win a fraction more easy ball and get forward to kick more goals to turn himself from cult hero into regular match winner? He is capable of it.
PORT ADELAIDE
Zak Butters has 33 games with more than 15 AFL Ratings points since the start of 2022.
He is this club’s firestarter and inspiration.
Connor Rozee is no slouch either as he averages nearly a goal a game to go with his midfield gifts.
But Jason Horne-Francis is quickly becoming THE man who can turn a game on its head.
He has a trio of 10-clearance games against Essendon, North Melbourne and Carlton, he has kicked multiple goals in seven games, and he still averages 22 touches and 5.8 clearances.
It’s a ridiculous stat line for a kid who has only just turned 21.
RICHMOND
It used to be Dusty.
It should be Shai Bolton.
But he so often fails to meet the moment with his goalkicking.
This year he had 33.25 and eight total misses.
He averages only 79 ranking points and hasn’t had a 100-point game since round 2 against Sydney.
But without him Richmond is one-paced in the midfield and lacks a real presence up forward.
So if they do lose him to Fremantle they will want multiple first-round picks and one of them very early in the draft to ensure they can draft their next game-changer in a club that has very few of them.
ST KILDA
Not sure the Saints have that player on their list.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is a brilliant half back.
Jack Steele is lion-hearted.
Mitch Owens has bounced back from a quiet start to the year to kick 20 goals in only his third season.
Darcy Wilson will play every game as one of footy’s elite runners and is a real point of difference to the dime-a-dozen ball winners who populate the league.
Jack Sinclair has racked it up again this year – elite for possessions and pressure.
But while Rowan Marshall and Cal Wilkie are stars and Max King has game-changing talent, the Saints don’t have a player who can turn a game in 10 minutes.
SYDNEY
Where do you start?
Chad Warner?
Tom Papley?
Errol Gulden?
Isaac Heeney?
It is why the Swans should be disappointed with anything less than a Grand Final berth this year.
Warner has kicked 31 goals from the midfield and Heeney 28 as prototype AFL players who won it at will and punish their rivals on the scoreboard.
Gulden has kicked only 13 goals while averaging 27 possessions but is so damaging with his left foot that he can take over games in a quarter.
WEST COAST
Harley Reid is a freak.
His best this year has been off the charts and his worst is explained by the fact he’s just a kid.
In a year where the coach was sacked, his emergence has been the huge positive but close behind is Jake Waterman’s breakout season.
The Eagles still need 6-8 players of real quality but any incoming coach would believe he could build around a rampaging forward and one capable of 51.21 with more improvement to come.
WESTERN BULLDOGS
This side oozes talent.
Few players in the league meet the moment with such relish as Marcus Bontempelli, who has 45 games with 15 or more AFL Ratings Points since the start of 2022, nine more than the second-best player in Zak Butters.
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan is averaging a very respectable 2.1 goals a game so it is no disgrace that Sam Darcy is going past him at a rate of knots.
It is ridiculous to think that he has played only 26 AFL games but is capable of the 7.1 performance against the Roos that saw him taking four contested marks to go with his 20 possessions.
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