When Bailey Smith kicked seven targets in two weeks to propel the Western Bulldogs into the 2021 grand remaining, the AFL had a brand new star on it palms.
Two seasons later, who’s Bailey Smith?
That’s the query Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne posed on this week’s episode of Pure Footy, and he says the reply isn’t clear.
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE OF PURE FOOTY ABOVE
“Is he a centre bounce player – the numbers suggest probably not. Is he a ball-winning midfielder? Probably not,” Hoyne mentioned.
“And is he ball user? So far this year he hasn’t been able to really generate anything of note.
“He’s going for the third-hardest kicks of any player in the competition this year. Only Christian Petracca and Stephen Coniglio are going for harder kicks than Bailey Smith has attempted this year, and he’s only been involved in seven scores in three games.
“That’s not the Bailey Smith we saw in 2021 when he kicked four goals on prelim final night.”
Hoyne revealed numbers that present Tom Liberatore, Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae and Adam Treloar all have a significant optimistic affect once they attend centre bounces when it comes to successful clearances and impacting the scoreboard.
But the identical can’t be mentioned for Smith.
“All four Bulldogs midfielders other than Bailey Smith have a significant positive differential in terms of clearance and scores when they go into a centre bounce. Bailey Smith is the only one that’s in the negative,” he mentioned.
When Tom Liberatore has attended centre bounces over the previous 5 seasons, he has improved the Bulldogs’ clearance differential by 100. For Marcus Bontempelli the determine is +68, Jack Macrae is at +52 and Adam Treloar at +50.
“The Bulldogs are minus 31 when Bailey Smith is at a centre bounce and they’ve been outscored 22 times more when Bailey Smith is actually in the centre bounce as well,” Hoyne mentioned.
When it involves successful the ball on the surface and utilizing it to wreck the opposition, Smith’s numbers aren’t flattering, both. He ranks 145th within the AFL for ball successful this 12 months and 121st for ball use.
On one other large episode, Hoyne and Fox Footy’s David King reveal how Ross Lyon has modified St Kilda, the acquainted downside dealing with Essendon, Geelong’s depth problem and why Ed Richards must be in All-Australian competition.
Plus Jaimee Rogers from TAB joins the panel to debate the most recent odds for the premiership, high eight and the massive video games in spherical 4.
Originally revealed as Pure Footy: Stats males David King and Daniel Hoyne on the massive spherical 2 tendencies
Source: www.news.com.au
