Champion Data: Stats for Richmond’s Tim Taranto reveal Kane Cornes had a point with controversial criticismKane Cornes’ criticism of Tim Taranto was blasted as clickbait, yet Champion Data stats reveal the Richmond star has a major deficiency, writes SHANNON GILL.
Shannon Gill
HeraldSun
May 11, 2023 While the back and forth pantomime over the worth of Tim Taranto raged over the weekend, it seemed to degenerate into another referendum on outspoken commentator Kane Cornes rather than what it probably should have been.
That is: should we rate players on the amount of times they get the ball or by what they do with the ball; and more cerebrally, whether we unfairly skew importance or quality of performance with who gets the ball most often.
Champion Data’s numbers allow us to sort fact from fiction in the Taranto case, but also illuminate what good and bad ball usage looks like across the league.
Taranto talliesWith ageing stars in their midfield, Richmond effectively handed the keys to its engine room to Taranto and fellow former Giant Jacob Hopper for the foreseeable future.
On top of a handsome contract, it also meant a permanent midfield role for Taranto, who had previously played a hybrid mid-forward role at the Giants. The shift has resulted in a raft of career-highs.
Thus far in 2023, he’s on pace to record his best average numbers for disposals, contested possessions, clearances, score involvements and tackles.
Across the AFL, he’s ranked sixth for disposals and fifth for tackles; as such, Champion Data rates him elite in these categories. In that respect, he’s doing exactly what the Tigers required, replacing their grunt in the middle as Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin phase into other roles.
But there’s another statistic that is the root cause of this debate: a kicking efficiency of just 46.2 per cent. The more you get the ball, the more that can be highlighted.
Untidy TimTo put it bluntly, Taranto’s kicking is dragging down the rest of his game.
The AFL Player Ratings system tries to provide some sort of equality across positions beyond raw disposals. Taranto playing in the midfield will always get the ball more often than Dylan Grimes playing a lockdown defensive role, so the ratings reflect the opportunities and expectations of each position.
Disposals are all well and good but bad ball use, the sort that can cause turnovers and opposition goals and contribute to losses, is marked harshly.
So, despite his elite ball-winning numbers, Taranto’s ratings points of 10.9 rank him just 50th of the 73 pure midfielders in the AFL. Diving deeper, his ratings measures across most categories are quite good compared to his peers, yet his ball use is ranked 68th.
Kick rating measures the expected outcome based on the difficulty of kicks. Taranto’s rating of -10 per cent is the second-worst of all players in the AFL to have had 100 qualified kicks.
The Beauty of BontSo what does the best look like? Look no further than second-favourite for the Brownlow Medal, Marcus Bontempelli.
Bontempelli has the highest impact per kick or handball for a midfielder across the AFL, notching 0.80 ratings points per disposal. By comparison, Taranto is going at 0.36, with only Andrew Gaff and Ollie Wines ranking lower among mids.
This strikes to the heart of the debate about disposals, often used as the default stat to determine who played well in a game.
Bontempelli sits 31st in the league for getting the ball but would universally be regarded as one of the best two players in the game this season alongside Nick Daicos, who sits first in the league for disposals.
Taranto sits sixth on the disposals table, yet the ratings points per disposal are what triggered Cornes’ infamous declaration that he wouldn’t be the 150th best player in the game.
Quandary around qualityRichmond’s defeat of West Coast last week is in some ways a microcosm of Taranto’s season.
On the surface, his 32 disposals, 20 contested possessions, 10 clearances and two goals would appear to be the perfect answer to any critics. To most fans, he would have appeared the talisman of a badly-needed win.
But that pesky kicking efficiency? It was at a season low 36 per cent.
Taranto gained 13.0 rating points from his ball-winning but lost 4.1 rating points from his ball use.
His end-of-game ratings points were 10.3, compared to Dion Prestia’s 23-disposal, three-goal game that achieved a 24 point rating, chiefly due to his overall efficiency with the ball.
The Coach or the Data?This is where the crux of the Cornes v Damien Hardwick debate comes into focus.
Taranto’s rating of 10.3 last week ranked him 12th for the Tigers, supporting Cornes’ assertion; which was not particularly provocative when you really think about it.
Cornes was saying that Taranto sits outside the top 20 per cent of AFL senior and rookie-listed players, bringing into question the seven-year investment the Tigers have made. The ladder and Champion Data figures would seem to buttress that.
On the other hand, Hardwick and Eagles coach Adam Simpson combined to give Taranto seven votes as the second-best player on the ground for the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year Award.
In their eyes, he was the Richmond player winning the ball when it mattered and physically imposing himself on the contest.
To bastardise a phrase, Hardwick and the Taranto defenders are saying, ‘’Tis better to have had the ball and lost it (sometimes), than never to have had the ball at all’.
Both views are justifiable.
https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/champion-data-stats-for-richmonds-tim-taranto-reveal-kane-cornes-had-a-point-with-controversial-criticism/news-story/b2228ec55ce5190a2c834befbbffbf05
