On BF someone compared him to Libba..
Average disposals: 22.9 (Libba) vs 22 (Conca).
DE%: 73.1% v 70.8% (Conca still better than other inside mids like Cunnington and Jones. Pendlebury has DE of 70.9%).
Average Marks: 3.6 v 4
Average Clearances: 5.7 v 4
Centre clearances: 1.7 v 1.6
Rebound 50s: 1.9 v 1.4
Tackles: 7.6 v 7.1
One percenters: 2.7 v 1.9
Inside 50s: 2.3 v 3.6
Now the commentators almost turn to jelly when talking about Libba. So I think he compares quite favourably. Very underestimated is our man Conca.
Are you trying to convince yourself or some of us?
The stat that is the most misleading IMO when it comes to players is disposal efficiency- perfect example is comparing Reece with Pendleburry.
Pendleburry's disposal makes Reece's look Little League like. Some players put their reps on the line when they get the footy by trying to hit up a target that will help their team go forward (Pendleburry) and other take the easy option and do dinky little kicks 15m sideways or backwards that don't benefit anyone BUT it does keep their efficiency quite high.
Reece is not the worst at it but don't kid yourself when comparing chalk and cheese.
This is where I get my great dislike of Ellis and go a lesser extent Astbury. They hurt the team as much as they help it. It's never been so true as this year with the way we have moved the ball.
Champion data changed the way they rate disposal efficiency a while back to take into account the degree off difficulty when making a kick.( i had the link bookmarked but a hard drive crash put paid to that )
even allowing for that, i prefer to look a players disposal efficiency in conbination with their contested possessions. (other stats that would help create an accurate picture would be meters gained and scoring chain involvement. )
even then its not perfect. someone who is getting the hard ball at stoppages is going to have a lot of rushed kicks under pressure, while another player may win a number of one on one contests and burn of their opponent for an unpressured kick, yet I'm sure they are both regarded as contested possessions.
As for the sideways kick, even that is not so cut and dried. switching play across the ground is one way to open up the play, rather than just kick to congestion, but it relies heavily on your teamates to work harder harder than their opponents to get to that space, or you just end back at square one (which has exactly been one of our problems this year)
sometimes its easy to condemn the bloke with the ball, but unless he is ignoring good options created by hard working team mates, its probably really not his fault. The options have to be there in the first place.