Here's to you, Brett DeledioBack Page Lead
Luke Prendergast
Monday, 05 September 2011 He looks like Brad Pitt's Achilles, runs like Peter Matera, and is rarely beaten one-on-one. He’s a beautiful kick, strong mark, creative by hand, versatile, consistent, and boots team-lifting goals from outside 50. As a defender he has conceded just 14 goals this year while averaging 25 possessions.
And on Sunday against North Melbourne, he became the eleventh-youngest man to reach 150 games in VFL/AFL history, having missed just four matches since his debut as a 17-year-old in 2005. Yet there are still people who doubt Brett Deledio.
It’s Peter Perfect Syndrome: the notion that anyone who makes things look so easy is capable of more and is thus underachieving. Mark Waugh suffered from it yet when the crunch came he usually delivered. Deledio’s the same. Witness his performance against Collingwood this year, or St Kilda, when he held Brendon Goddard to 15 touches while gathering 27 himself, or West Coast, racking up 31 disposals to Andrew Embley’s 16. He averages more possessions against top-eight teams than the bottom nine.
Deledio regularly makes the extraordinary look routine, whether it’s winning the ball from the opposition (seventh in the AFL in 2010) and releasing a teammate with his underrated handball, or putting five metres on an opponent and hitting a Tiger lace-out with his opposite foot.
Critics say he can’t handle a tag, yet being tagged virtually every week (even when he plays in defence) since his second season has not prevented him winning two best-and-fairests and recording high finishes every other year. Critics argue he’s played in poor Richmond sides but his 2008 victory came in a team that won 11-and-a-half games, alongside a Matthew Richardson who nearly stole the Brownlow.
Some say he’s soft, yet statistics (not to mention watching him play) belie this false impression. When caretaker coach Jade Rawlings ended Terry Wallace’s use of him as all-over-the-field Polly filler and threw him into the midfield from round 15, 2009, Deledio won more contested ball from that point on than any player in the competition. His two last-quarter tackles against Melbourne a fortnight ago won Richmond the game, and earned praise from coach Damien Hardwick for his defensive efforts and leadership.
There’s no doubt team success influences our rating of players. Harry O’Brien beat Deledio to a half-back-flank position in the 2010 All-Australian team with an average of 15.6 disposals per game, compared with Deledio’s 25.3. Deledio has not had a single game in the past two seasons (and only five in the past four years) in which his possession count has dropped as low as O’Brien’s average in his AA year. No meaningful ‘Australian’ side (i.e. one that actually had to play) would select O’Brien ahead of Deledio.
The one valid caveat is that Deledio is yet to perform in finals, but ‘Lids’ can take consolation in the knowledge that the only younger man to reach 150 who had also yet to experience finals was Russell Greene, who finished his career with three flags. There’s time yet to convince the doubters.
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