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Done some more digging on Houston and I feel like the results make him a hard pick to gauge.
He played rebounding defender from rounds 1-10 and averaged 89 and then seemingly moved into the midfield and averaged 89 for the rest of the year starting with the game in China - where he had 22 centre bounce attendances and scored 98 (CBA's said by the phantom in an article)
The scores in the midfield are a bit all over the place but are seemingly very good when he's getting an inside mid gig.
Following the China game he put up a 75 vs Freo and the heat maps look like he played inside mid and perhaps a bit of wing and then he put up a 110 versus Geelong where he was tasked with keeping Tim Kelly in check and obviously played inside mid.
The next 3 games take a downward turn as he scored 54 vs Bulldogs, 57 vs Adelaide and 62 vs Richmond (where he came off in Q4) but looking at his heat maps he looked to be playing mostly on the wing and a little bit down back during these games. It was also possible he was carrying an injury as he missed the Brisbane game between the Adelaide and Richmond games and there was talk he'd miss the bulldogs game. At the same time at R15 the draft doctors started writing articles listing the number of Centre bounce attendances in games and they had Houston down for 6 vs Bulldogs, 0 vs Adelaide and 6 versus Richmond. These might not be 100% accurate but they're quite suggestive and he obviously wasn't primarily playing an inside mid role for these 3 games. It looks like he was playing on the wing but it's hard to know for sure, he might have been playing a bit in defence.
Houston then turned things around and put up an 85 vs GWS (but he had 29 disposals and 104 in DT), a 134 vs Essendon, an 88 vs Sydney, a 105 vs North Melbourne and a 117 vs Freo after a move to the inside midfield. According to the Draft Doctors website in this time he had 16 CBA's vs GWS (=1st for Port that game), 20 CBA's vs Essendon (3rd for Port that game), 21 CBA's vs Sydney (=2nd for Port that game) and 22 CBA's vs North (1st for Port that game). There is no article for round 23 but the heat map for that game shows he was mostly playing inside midfield.
So basically Houston scored really well and showed promise when he was played on the inside of the midfield in the 2nd half of the year and was decent as a rebounding defender in the 1st half of the year. Overall he averaged 101.5 from the 8 games where he seemed to play predominantly inside midfield.
I'd definitely want to see him playing an inside mid role in JLT with some news coming out of the club confirming this role before picking him. He was originally put in that role due to injury but he added the type of elite kicking and decision making Port lacks in their midfield and Ken Hinkley has noted this.
Any port fans feel free to share anything I've missed or got wrong
He played rebounding defender from rounds 1-10 and averaged 89 and then seemingly moved into the midfield and averaged 89 for the rest of the year starting with the game in China - where he had 22 centre bounce attendances and scored 98 (CBA's said by the phantom in an article)
The scores in the midfield are a bit all over the place but are seemingly very good when he's getting an inside mid gig.
Following the China game he put up a 75 vs Freo and the heat maps look like he played inside mid and perhaps a bit of wing and then he put up a 110 versus Geelong where he was tasked with keeping Tim Kelly in check and obviously played inside mid.
The next 3 games take a downward turn as he scored 54 vs Bulldogs, 57 vs Adelaide and 62 vs Richmond (where he came off in Q4) but looking at his heat maps he looked to be playing mostly on the wing and a little bit down back during these games. It was also possible he was carrying an injury as he missed the Brisbane game between the Adelaide and Richmond games and there was talk he'd miss the bulldogs game. At the same time at R15 the draft doctors started writing articles listing the number of Centre bounce attendances in games and they had Houston down for 6 vs Bulldogs, 0 vs Adelaide and 6 versus Richmond. These might not be 100% accurate but they're quite suggestive and he obviously wasn't primarily playing an inside mid role for these 3 games. It looks like he was playing on the wing but it's hard to know for sure, he might have been playing a bit in defence.
Houston then turned things around and put up an 85 vs GWS (but he had 29 disposals and 104 in DT), a 134 vs Essendon, an 88 vs Sydney, a 105 vs North Melbourne and a 117 vs Freo after a move to the inside midfield. According to the Draft Doctors website in this time he had 16 CBA's vs GWS (=1st for Port that game), 20 CBA's vs Essendon (3rd for Port that game), 21 CBA's vs Sydney (=2nd for Port that game) and 22 CBA's vs North (1st for Port that game). There is no article for round 23 but the heat map for that game shows he was mostly playing inside midfield.
So basically Houston scored really well and showed promise when he was played on the inside of the midfield in the 2nd half of the year and was decent as a rebounding defender in the 1st half of the year. Overall he averaged 101.5 from the 8 games where he seemed to play predominantly inside midfield.
I'd definitely want to see him playing an inside mid role in JLT with some news coming out of the club confirming this role before picking him. He was originally put in that role due to injury but he added the type of elite kicking and decision making Port lacks in their midfield and Ken Hinkley has noted this.
Any port fans feel free to share anything I've missed or got wrong
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