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Who is the missing link that can elevate your club from pretenders to contenders? Each year there are players who step up to play a vital role in each club’s quest for the finals.
Sometimes they’re fringe players who step up to become vital cogs and sometimes they’re new recruits that add another dimension to the team or simply plays their role so that another player can get off the leash.
They might even be a player returning from injury that provides that extra stability and experience that a young team needs. Today, a big Adelaide midfielder, set to cement himself in the team, and a returning Lions playmaker are the players who hold their teams hopes for 2015.
Adelaide
Cam Ellis-Yolmen has shown this pre-season that he is ready to stand up and make an impact for the Crows. The Crows have been patient with the athletic midfielder since he was drafted with pick 64 in 2011 and he’s finally ready to repay them.
At 189 centimetres and 94 kilograms, with just about the longest arms you’ve ever seen, ‘Curly’ will play an important role in the team as an inside midfielder. The young Crow has seemed determined to add to his one AFL game, in which he was the sub, with strong performances across the NAB Challenge, averaging 22 disposals, two thirds of which have been contested.
Similarities can be draw between him and Jobe Watson or Sydney’s Josh Kennedy, with all three being late draft picks and taking time to develop. All three, imposing figures who love to thrive in the contest, play a very similar role in extracting the ball and giving it off to outside runners. It is impossible to imagine that he will match their lofty standards this year, but he will be given time to develop his game given the foot injury to Brad Crouch and the unlikeliness of Scott Thompson playing in the opening round with a hamstring complaint.
His inexperience will be the only thing holding him back in the early rounds with the Crows crying out for a big-bodied midfielder. As already seen throughout the NAB challenge, particularly against Port where he racked up 21 contested possessions, his work in the contest has allowed some of his teammates to play a more uncontested brand of football.
Against Port Adelaide Richard Douglas was able to do just this, collecting less contested possessions than his 2014 average. This allowed him to be involved in 13 separate Adelaide scores, a game high, while also going at a disposal efficiency of 77 per cent, 14 per cent higher than in 2014.
Most importantly, however, Eliis-Yolmen will allow star Crow Patrick Dangerfield to have some freedom from the contested ball in the same way that Anthony Miles freed up Trent Cotchin last year. In 2014 Dangerfield was consistently swamped by multiple opponents as he attempted to extract the ball. With Ellis-Yolmen now playing the role as chief extractor, Dangerfield will be involved in more one-on-one contests, where his strength and acceleration will prevail more often than not, returning him to the dangerous playmaker he was in 2012 and 2013.
Cam Ellis-Yolmen will not be Adelaide’s missing link by ripping open games, but by simply allowing others such as Dangerfield and Douglas to do that instead. If he can become this contested beast that I have spoken about, Adelaide have a fair chance of making finals for the first time in three years.
Brisbane
Daniel Rich is one of several players on the return from injury who are key to their club’s fortunes this year. A top ten draft pick and rising star winner, Rich has undoubted talent as a midfielder and more recently, a half-back.
Rich’s kicking is up there with Hamish Hartlett, Brett Deledio and Matt Suckling as the best kicks in the AFL and it is a legitimate weapon off half-back. Unfortunately he was struck down with a season-ending knee injury in Round 3 last year. While a strong argument could be made for Dayne Beams being Brisbane’s missing link, the Lions already had an imposing midfield which had people talking about finals in 2013 after they won the NAB Cup.
What they missed most last year, apart from a key forward that the off-season has not delivered, was some class and penetrating ball movement off half-back. With Pearce Hanley injured for the first half of the season, Rich will be even more important. With a diminutive forward line, Brisbane will not be able to kick a winning score with stagnant ball movement.
It will be up to Rich to provide this quick ball movement off halfback with his reading of the play and elite left foot that slices through the middle of the ground. If he is able to do this, off the back of an ACL injury, then Lewis Taylor, Josh Green, Dayne Zorko and Allen Christensen will have a chance to propel the Lions up the ladder into finals contention.
An added bonus for the Lions is that Rich will be able to rotate through the midfield where his ball-winning ability will be on show to relieve tireless midfielders such as Dayne Beams, Jack Redden and Tom Rockliff. This will be the king on the cake for coach Justin Leppitsch, who will see Rich’s kicking as his team’s missing link.
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