The season is at the midway point and we are starting to get an idea about who is likely to be drafted this year. We’ve seen a lot of good performances this year, although how do you decide what a good performance is? It is very subjective and difficult to compare a big five goal game from Tom Boyd to a 30 possession game from Lewis Taylor and a 15 possession game from Dom Sheed in the WAFL seniors. The idea of these rankings are to put all individual games on a scale to make it easier to compare the potential draftees.

In a similar way to dreamteam and supercoach scores, a player’s statistics from each match are analysed and the players gain a point score due to a formula devised by myself.  Points are gained for qualities that recruiters look for in a player, eg. contested marking, effective kicking and tackles gain higher points than ineffective possessions so players that burn the ball are negatively affected. Senior matches and reserve grade matches are weighted to compensate for the higher standard of football, so players like Dom Sheed and Trent Dumont are not punished for having a weaker statistical output in a more difficult competition. Over the course of the season the scores have been compiled and an average score for each player is noted and they have been sorted in order of average. Please note that some players will have inflated averages due to playing less games (school football and Under 18 Championships games are not included at the moment as the AFL have not released the full set of statistics for them).

Mid season rankings:

1. Dayle Garlett (Swan Districts) – Avg 133.4
2. Matt Crouch (North Ballarat Rebels)- Avg 126
3. James Tsitas (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 125.4
4. Tom Boyd (Eastern Ranges)- Avg 123.6
5. Lewis Taylor (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 119.2
6. Josh Kelly (Sandringham Dragons)- Avg 115.5
7. Tom Langdon (Sandringham Dragons)- Avg 115.3
8. Josh Scott (Gippsland Power)- Avg 115.2
9. Billy Hartung (Dandenong Stingrays)- Avg 113.7
10. Ben Cavarra (Eastern Ranges)- Avg 109.3
11. Lachlan Cassidy (North Ballarat Rebels)- Avg 108.3
12. Nick Favretto (West Adelaide)- Avg 108
13. Jack Billings (Oakleigh Chargers)- Avg 108
14. Sam Heavyside (Bendigo Pioneers)- Avg 107.8
15. Mitch Harvey (North Adelaide)- Avg 105.5
16. Eli Templeton (Burnie)- Avg 105
17. Zac Merrett (Sandringham Dragons)- Avg 104
18. Christian Petracca (Eastern Ranges)- Avg 103.8
19. Kade Kolodjashnij  (Launceston)- Avg 102
20. Christian Salem (Sandringham Dragons)- Avg 102
21. Blake Acres (West Perth)- Avg 101.9
22. Dominic Sheed (Subiaco)- Avg 101.8
23. Jacob Chisari (Bendigo Pioneers)- Avg 101.6
24. Luke McDonald (Werribee)- Avg 101.5
25. Darcy Lang (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 100.5
26. David Iaccarino (Western Jets)- Avg 100.5
27. Matthew Merlo (Calder Cannons)- Avg 99
28. Michael Gibbons (Murray Bushrangers)- Avg 97.2
29. Aiden Franetic (Oakleigh Chargers)- Avg 97
30. James Sicily (Western Jets)- Avg 96.7
31. Jay Kennedy-Harris (Oakleigh Chargers)- Avg 96.2
32. Darcy Hourigan (South Adelaide)- Avg 96
33. Merryck Buchanan (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 94.3
34. Louis Herbert (North Ballarat Rebels)- Avg 93.4
35. Bryden Squire (Murray Bushrangers)- Avg 91.9
36. Hugh Goddard (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 91.8*
37. Cameron McCarthy (South Fremantle)-  Avg 91.8
38. Nathan Freeman (Sandringham Dragons)- Avg 91.5
39. Ben Sokol (South Fremantle)- Avg 91.2
40. Toby Nankervis (North Launceston)- Avg 91
41. Zac Webster (Glenorchy)- Avg 91
42. Isaac Conway (Aspley)- Avg 91
43. Brady Grey (Burnie)- Avg 91
44. Pat McCartin (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 91*
45. Nick Robertson ( West Perth)- Avg 90.6
46. Nick Bourke (Geelong Falcons)- Avg 90.3
47. Mitch Norton (Western Jets)- Avg 89.6*
48. Luke Reynolds (Port Adelaide)- Avg 89.5
49. Jesse Tardio (Northern Knights)- Avg 88.5
50. Jake Greiser (Western Jets)- Avg 88.2

The top players by position this season:

Outside Midfielders:

1. Dayle Garlett
2. Josh Kelly
3. Billy Hartung
4. Jack Billings
5. Eli Templeton
6. Kade Kolodjashnij
7. Christian Salem
8. Blake Acres
9. Dom Sheed
10. Bryden Squire

Inside Midfielders:

1. Matt Crouch
2. James Tsitas
3. Lewis Taylor
4. Tom Langdon
5. Ben Cavarra
6. Lachlan Cassidy
7. Nick Favretto
8. Sam Heavyside
9. Jacob Chisari
10. Luke McDonald

Tall Forwards:

1. Tom Boyd
2. Josh Scott
3. Mitch Harvey
4. Darcy Hourigan
5. Cam McCarthy

Small Forwards:

1. Zac Merrett
2. James Sicily
3. Jay Kennedy-Harris
4. Merryck Buchanan
5. Ben Sokol

Tall Defenders:

1. Daniel McStay
2. Fraser Fort
3. Cameron Giles
4. Darcy Gardiner
5. Brenden Abbott

Small Defenders:

1. Louis Herbert
2. Nick Robertson
3. Jake Sharp
4. Matt Scharenberg
5. Isaiah Miller

Ruckmen:

1. Toby Nankervis
2. Darcy Cameron
3. Michael Apeness
4. Jake Thomas
5. Agape Patolo

Dayle Garlett tops the inaugural list after a blistering start to the season for Swan Districts which is sure to impress recruiters, although the question with Garlett was always attitude rather than ability. Matt Crouch and Billy Hartung feature highly but their average is likely to drop as they play more games due to the low sample size of matches (both have played less than five).

Vic Country skipper James Tsitas and his partner in crime Lewis Taylor are having super seasons which is reflected in the rankings, and they are closely followed by Sandringham over-ager Tom Langdon who is accumulating some impressive numbers this year. Smalls Ben Cavarra and Josh Kelly are likely to go early on draft day, particularly Kelly who has elite endurance and field kicking. South Australian midfielder Nick Favretto and Gippsland key forward Josh Scott should gain more attention if they keep up their form throughout the season.

Possible high draft selections to miss out on the top 50 include Glenelg utility Matt Scharenberg (56th) and Sturt’s Dwayne Wilson (82nd) who have only played two matches in the reserves and under 18s respectively, but impressed at the Championships. Northern Knights pair Ben Lennon and Marcus Bontempelli have not been playing for the team this season but should figure highly on draft day while Issiah Miller (54^th) and Trent Dumont (52nd) figure just outside the top 50 but are putting in solid seasons. Potential number one draft pick James Aish does not feature in the rankings because he has only played the three Under 18s Championship games and we are unable to get statistics for those matches.

These rankings are intended to be a guide to who is having the best season this year, rather than who the best players are in terms of ability. My opinion on the ability of these players has not affected the rankings and this is not what I expect the draft order to be, however they are a useful measuring tool for player performance and allow people to see who is flying under the radar this year.