Your thoughts on Gresham and Blakely
I probably don't have the guts to pick Gresham but if we continue to hear more about him playing in the midfield and he does well in the JLT I will consider him more strongly. He's at a pretty decent price and has a fair bit of talent.
We saw Blakely score well in the midfield in 2017 and especially well in the midfield and defence later in the year. This year his scoring in the back line wasn't that good and he seemed to only play in the middle for a couple of games at the end with decent scores. Overall I think he is just a bit injury prone, his role is a bit unclear and I don't see a big enough body of work to want to start him. He's also coming back from a knee injury, I could be wrong but he's not for me.
Don't mind Gresham as a pick but will be very interesting to see how Saints allocate midfield time/rotations between J Billings, J Gresham, D Hannebery, etc.
J Gresham:
2018 Averages:
Disposals: 17.59
SC Avg when disposals equal/exceed 18: 95.22 from 9 (low of 60 and a high of 131, 5/9 below 100, 1/9 120+)
SC Avg when disposals below 18: 68 from 13 (low of 36 and a high of 121, 12/13 below 100, 1/13 120+)
Contested Possessions: 6.95
SC Avg when contested possessions equal/exceed 7: 89.53 from 15 (low of 53 and a high of 131, 10/15 below 100, 2/15 120+)
SC Avg when contested possessions below 7: 56.86 from 7 (low of 36 and a high of 96)
Tackles: 2.5
SC Avg when tackles equal/exceed 3: 90 from 11 (low of 53 and a high of 131, 8/11 below 100, 2/11 120+)
SC Avg when tackles below 3: 68.27 from 11 (low of 36 and a high of 115, 9/11 below 100)
Goals: 1.59
SC Avg when goals equal/exceed 2: 94.91 from 11 (low of 54 and a high of 131, 6/11 below 100, 2/11 120+)
SC Avg when goals below 2: 63.36 from 11 (low of 36 and a high of 87)
In regards to Blakely if he receives sufficient midfield time similar to that he received in 2017 he should be able to push a 95-105 avg.
C Blakely:
2017 Averages
Disposals: 23.88
SC Avg when disposals equal/exceed 24: 109.55 from 11 (low of 68 and a high of 130, 2/11 below 100, 3/11 120+)
SC Avg when disposals below 24: 51.83 from 6 (low of 7 and a high of 88)
Contested Possessions: 8.35
SC Avg when contested possessions equal/exceed 9: 109.6 from 10 (low of 74 and a high of 130, 2/10 below 100, 3/10 120+)
SC Avg when contested possessions below 9: 60 from 7 (low of 7 and a high of 115, 6/7 below 100)
Blakely recorded a contested possession rate of 34.80% in 2017 which decreased to 23.66% in 2018 due to spending more time in defence/less midfield rotations.