Richmond's spine rated 7th best by Champion Data (Fox)

[one-eyed]

AFL Spine Rater: Every club’s key quintet ranked and analysed

March 12, 2020
Ben Waterworth
FOX SPORTS

Carlton might’ve finished its Marsh Community Series in poor fashion, but it has an outstanding backbone to launch a surge up the ladder.

Meanwhile, Collingwood and Brisbane might be top four contenders again, but there appears to be a few holes in key spots.

With the help of Champion Data, foxfooty.com.au has rated, analysed and ranked every AFL club’s ‘spine’ ahead of the 2020 season.

There are a few things to note and clarify around the ranking process.

— We have classified the ‘spine’ as the following: Full-back, centre half-back, centre (in this case, each team’s highest-rated centre bounce midfielder), centre half-forward and full-forward. We opted not to use ruckmen, as the traditional footy spine refers to the invisible vertical line on a coaches whiteboard from full-back to full-forward, which includes the centre.

— Champion Data has used the Official AFL Player Ratings to form a spine ranking system. The points are based off the 2019 season.

— Champion Data’s ultimate list isn’t based off list or position rankings. It’s purely the analysis of the top-two key-position players in each half of the ground, as well as the highest rated centre bounce midfielder, based off the player ratings.

— For example, the two highest rating key defenders for Collingwood, according to the Official AFL Player Ratings system from 2019, are Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe. Therefore Moore and Howe are Collingwood’s best CHB and FB in this example.

— Foxfooty.com.au has also done its own objective ratings system, based off if all players named are at full fitness and top form in Round 1, 2020.

RICHMOND

FB: Dylan Grimes (10.0 AFL Player Ratings points)

CHB: David Astbury (7.4)

C: Dustin Martin (16.8 )

CHF: Jack Riewoldt (9.2)

FF: Tom Lynch (9.0)

Experience: 922 AFL games

Champion Data’s combined Official AFL Player Ratings ranking: 7th (52.4)

Analysis: You can understand why this Tigers brigade has slipped down slightly, especially considering Riewoldt’s injury-interrupted 2019. But boy this looks good on paper. Grimes and Astbury filled the Alex Rance chasm with aplomb last year – and you’d expect them to do the same in 2020. You’d think Lynch, who was an incredibly consistent goalkicker for the Tigers last year, will only improve after a second pre-season, with the key forward a hot Coleman Medal chance. And Martin is a superstar – no two ways about it. They probably deserve to be ranked a little higher.

Foxfooty.com.au’s ranking: 2nd


Champion Data                   Fox Footy
1. Sydney       61.0             West Coast
2. West Coast  57.5             Richmond
3. Carlton        56.6             Sydney
4. Geelong      55.2              GWS
4. GWS           55.2             Geelong
6. Collingwood 54.6             Carlton
7. Richmond    52.4             W.Bulldogs
8. Port Adel.    52.2             Melbourne
9. Fremantle    51.6            Port Adelaide
10. Adelaide     49.9            Essendon
10. W.Bulldogs 49.9            Collingwood
12. Hawthorn   49.6            Adelaide
13. North Melb 48.9            Hawthorn
14. Brisbane    47.6            North Melb
15. Essendon   45.9            Brisbane
16. Melbourne  45.7            Fremantle
17. Gold Coast 45.3            St Kilda
18. St Kilda     40.8            Gold Coast

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-afl-spine-rater-every-clubs-ley-players-ranked-champion-data-player-ratings/news-story/da43b4974c90cb5632410b103d992c32

[Andyy]

Ummm, Carlton?

[Simonator]

Duck me dead you see some funny stats these days but that is honestly the worst I've seen

[Andyy]

What a joke. Weitering is a good player, Jones is an average player who had a good year IMO, Cripps a star no problem, Curnow I like the look of him but honestly 18 goals in 11 games and that includes 7 in one game vs WB so otherwise hardly more than 1/game, then Levi Casboult FMD that's the worst - averages 11 touches/game, 0.75 goals and 8 hitouts...wow. And he's rated higher than Lynch? LOL

CARLTON

FB: Jacob Weitering (9.8 AFL Player Ratings points)

CHB: Liam Jones (10.1)

C: Patrick Cripps (16.7)

CHF: Charlie Curnow (10.2)

FF: Levi Casboult (9.

[Rampsation]

Curnow is always injured

[Tigeritis™©®]

Our squad has awesome talent but at the end of the day if we aren’t playing the Richmond way and applying consistent manic pressure on the opposition ball carrier to force turnover even we look ordinary.

The point is that we have proved that you don’t need the best goal to goal line in the league to be successful. Star players will always be star players but a great team wins premierships.

We know how we should play and that our system works regardless of whoever is in it.
If we aren’t executing the game plan and systems that makes us unique and made us successful we are not ever as good as we think.