Frontrunner yet to enter 16-man coaching process; \u2018difficult\u2019 Hird dilemma<\/a><\/p>\nJai Serong celebrates after kicking the winning goal in Round 13. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Connor Budarick (Western Bulldogs)<\/p>\n
In amongst hamstring and ankle injuries, Budarick has acclimated nicely at Whitten Oval, upping his disposal numbers by almost seven compared to last year at Gold Coast. <\/p>\n
Middlemas says: \u201cI\u2019m a big Connor Budarick fan. I know, unfortunately, he\u2019s injured again at the moment. He\u2019s going to miss a chunk of footy, and that\u2019s the only thing that counts against him. If we\u2019re looking for a rating out of 10, I think it\u2019s a seven, easy. And the only reason he probably loses points is probably because of his durability. Before he went out last time with an injury, unsurprisingly, the Dogs played good footy when he\u2019s there. He\u2019s a safe pair of hands. I think he\u2019s a pretty underrated guy by the footy fraternity externally, and yet people inside clubland feel like they know how valuable he is and the role player that he is for the Bulldogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corey Durdin (Port Adelaide)<\/p>\n
The 80-game South Australian has flourished back in his home state, going at 1.5 goals per game across 16 outings after never having eclipsed 1.0 per game as a Blue. <\/p>\n
Ralph says: \u201cThis is a low-profile bloke. (They gave up) Pick 29 (and got a second-rounder), which was in a swap with Ben Ainsworth. I\u2019m giving him a 9\/10. A lot of people said he was a list clogger, and that he wasn\u2019t going to give anything to Port Adelaide. That\u2019s why Josh Carr has been so good, because he\u2019s lifted up players like him. He\u2019s been huge, and I think he\u2019s surprised and put a lot of egg on a lot of faces for those who didn\u2019t think he could make the grade at AFL level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corey Durdin has surprised many with his play since joining Port Adelaide. (Photo by Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Jack Steele (Melbourne)<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old has won more disposals and clearances since joining the Demons, and he\u2019s played in every game this season. <\/p>\n
Middlemas says: \u201cThe former midfield champ, who\u2019d previously been right up there in All-Australian contention and had a couple of blazers. They got him for a future third-rounder \u2026 I\u2019d imagine the Saints are going to have to get a really, really good third-round kid if they want to try and measure up against what they had in Jack Steele and let walk out the door. He\u2019s definitely been a guy that\u2019s punching above his weight category this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Ainsworth (Carlton)<\/p>\n
The former top-five draft pick is showing what he can do in an expanded role around the footy, getting more of the ball and creating forward-half chances for his teammates. <\/p>\n
Ralph says: \u201cI had a chat with Harry McKay, and he said, \u2018If he\u2019d been in Melbourne for a lot of years, I think people would have realised what a great player he was\u2019. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s true. I think he\u2019s been a handy player as a top-10 draft pick. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s hit the highs that he has at Carlton, and maybe that\u2019s because Josh Fraser released him more into the midfield. (They gave up Durdin and a second-rounder) as part of that three-way swap – he\u2019s been a revelation \u2026 I think he\u2019s been fantastic, and he\u2019s been a lot better than he has at Gold Coast – I\u2019ll give him an 8.7\/10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ralphy on Merrett’s trade value to Hawks | 01:38<\/p>\n
Clayton Oliver (GWS Giants)<\/p>\n
The 221-game premiership star appears to have put his chequered past behind him, exploding in his first year as a Giant – with his numbers reminiscent of his 2021-23 Melbourne form. <\/p>\n
Ralph says: \u201cI\u2019m interested in your opinion on Clayton Oliver. A 2026 third-round pick (was what the Giants gave up), he\u2019s been extraordinary; he\u2019s been a ball-hog, all those things. And yet, this midfield keeps getting destroyed. Are you marking him down for the team performance, given that the centre-square outfit tends to get thrown out on a weekly basis?\u201d<\/p>\n
Middlemas says: \u201cNah, high grade for me. I\u2019ve got him right in the nine-towards-ten category. This is the best, statistically, that he\u2019s been throughout his career. The question was \u2018could he ever get back to that again?\u2019 I think the resounding answer has been yes. I think they\u2019ve got as much as they could possibly hope for out of him. I think their problems are separate to that – can they get their ruck mix right? Who plays alongside him? I think the issues are separate to Clayton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clayton Oliver has gotten back close to his best as a Giant. (Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Liam Ryan (St Kilda)<\/p>\n
Age hasn\u2019t slowed down the West Australian – in fact, he\u2019s on career-best pace from a goalkicking standpoint. He\u2019s averaging 2.2 goals per game after never having previously averaged more than 1.7 in a season. <\/p>\n
Ralph says: \u201cA future third (was what the Saints gave up). He\u2019s been outstanding. As a St Kilda fan, you\u2019d love what he\u2019s done. He\u2019s not always consistent – that\u2019s the lot of a marking small forward, but his best has been sublime \u2026 he\u2019s probably 8.5\/10.\u201d<\/p>\n
WORST VALUE<\/p>\n
Callum Ah Chee (Adelaide)<\/p>\n
Durability hasn\u2019t been a concern for the 28-year-old, who played 26 games in each of the past two Lions seasons, but he\u2019s been limited to just four games in 2026. <\/p>\n
Middlemas says: \u201cI\u2019m sure when the Crows decided to go and get him, they were getting a guy that had that premiership DNA that was able to get them over the top \u2026 It\u2019s pretty hard to sit here and say \u2018look, I can guarantee he\u2019s going to make a run for it in the spring\u2019. I hope, like everyone else, I\u2019ve got my fingers crossed for him, but there\u2019s been no evidence at the moment that he\u2019s been able to shake off his soft-tissue woes in his short stay at the Crows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom De Koning (St Kilda)<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old, who joined on an eye-watering deal, has seen his metrics suffer this year – and right when he was building some momentum at his new club, injury struck. <\/p>\n
Ralph says: \u201cHe has a rib injury now, and his last four weeks were very good. But interesting talking to Nick Austin \u2026 he said \u2018our midfield hadn\u2019t really noticed a difference in terms of the midfield output from Marc Pittonet\u2019 – who\u2019s on, you\u2019d imagine, $500,000 – to De Koning, who got that deal at $1.7 million. I think his best days are ahead of him, but even at his very best \u2026 I don\u2019t think he really eclipsed what Pittonet was doing, so it\u2019s been a smart decision not to match that deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom De Koning hasn\u2019t had the smoothest start to life as a Saint. (Photo by Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
James Worpel (Geelong)<\/p>\n
The former Hawthorn hard nut has featured in just six senior matches this year, and hasn\u2019t been picked since Round 9. <\/p>\n
Ralph says: Andrew Mackie said he\u2019s not doing much wrong; they\u2019re really happy with him \u2026 He\u2019s not a well-rounded player in terms of spread-from-contest \u2026 and so, they just haven\u2019t had many injuries. If they do lose a couple of players, I\u2019m sure he\u2019d be there. They have Jhye Clark and Jack Bowes playing twos, even Gryan Miers and Brad Close. They\u2019re spoilt for choice. Maybe at some stage late in the season he\u2019ll get a crack at it, but they\u2019ll hope their injury list is as short as it is, and maybe he just keeps getting squeezed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Changkuoth Jiath (Melbourne)<\/p>\n
The speedy rebounder hasn\u2019t had the uninterrupted run he was hoping for, though he played his best game as a Demon last Saturday against his old side. <\/p>\n
Middlemas says: \u201cHe\u2019s an interesting watch, too. Another one who has unfortunately had injuries- he hasn\u2019t had a run at it. But he got the dream situation that he went to a club, they got a spike straight away \u2026 they\u2019re playing a brand of footy where you\u2019d think this is the perfect plug-and-play kind of guy, and as much as he\u2019s been forecast every year as a breakout player and everything else, it hasn\u2019t quite happened yet for Changkuoth. So, hopefully in the back end of the season he can get that going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not all recruits are judged equally in the footy landscape. Some fight in different weight classes. In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-786131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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