AFL 2023: Who kicks the clutch goals when they matter most at every club
Jamie Elliott is on a hot streak at kicking goals when it matters most, but he isn’t even the best Pie in the last five years. Check out who is the most and least reliable in the clutch at your club.
Normally St Kilda and Melbourne fans can breathe easy when Jack Higgins and Bayley Fritsch line up at goal.
The goalsneaks both convert shots at goal above the AFL average, until it matters most.
In clutch time in the last five years - defined as a margin of 12 points or less in the final quarter - Higgins and Fritsch rank down at the bottom of the pile in front of the sticks among players who have taken at least 15 shots.
Higgins has converted at just 19 per cent in the clutch, down on his normal accuracy of 52.6 and Fritsch collapses to 21.1 per cent, down from a normally scintillating 59.6.
Other regular offenders are Richmond pair Shai Bolton (six goals from 25 shots) and Jack Riewoldt (12 from 31), Sydney celebrator Tom Papley (eight from 23) and Carlton’s Harry McKay (eight from 22).
On the market for a hefty new contract, Harry Himmelberg is the worst Giant in tight situations, having converted a third of his shots, less than half of his normal accuracy of 69.6 per cent.
The king of the clutch in the last five seasons is Carlton superstar Charlie Curnow, who has nailed 12 of his 15 shots for an accuracy of 80 per cent, way above his normal accuracy of 53.6.
St Kilda speedster Dan Butler also stands tall when it counts, he usually converts 53.2 per cent of his shots but has nailed 77.8 per cent in clutch situations.
Melbourne wingman Ed Langdon steps up the most – his accuracy jumps from a paltry 38.2 in normal situations to a heroic 75 per cent when the game is on the line.
Veteran Crow Taylor Walker bagged his 18th clutch goal of the last five years in the final quarter of Sunday’s thrilling loss to Melbourne, the most of any player in the last half decade.
Walker has also had the most shots of any player (34), just ahead of Tom Hawkins (33 shots for 16 goals).
It will be no surprise to Collingwood fans and their heart doctors that the Magpies have been caught in tight games more than anybody else in the last five years.
No team has had more shots at goal in clutch time than the Magpies in that time and they have converted at 51.9 per cent, the third best mark of any team.
While Jamie Elliott has built an unrivalled reputation in the past 12 months as the man most deadly with the ball when the game is on the line, he actually ranks dead average - 61st out of 121 players - to have taken at least eight shots at goal in clutch time, having converted 47.6 per cent of his chances.
West Coast has had little chance to perform in close games in the last two years given the Eagles are on the end of regular thrashings, but over the last five seasons, the Eagles are the best when it counts, converting an outstanding 59 per cent of their 132 clutch shots in that time.
Geelong ranks dead last, the Cats having goaled from just 80 of their 194 attempts.
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