HUGH’S BIG NUMBERS
PATRICK Dangerfield is a once-in-a-generation superstar who cannot be replaced.
But, two seasons after he fled Adelaide to join Geelong, the Crows finally appear to have at least found the bigbodied midfielder who can impose himself on the contest and stand up to the heat in the kitchen.
Former NBL, US college and Australian Boomers basketballer Hugh Greenwood is proving to be Adelaide’s unlikely midfield saviour.
While Brownlow Medallist Dangerfield’s former Crows sidekick Rory Sloane has crumbled under the weight of heavy tags, Greenwood has shown signs of being an elite, hard-nosed on-baller — a missing piece to the club’s premiership jigsaw. The stats stack up. Plucked from the football wilderness by Adelaide recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie, Greenwood, 25, is statistically one of the hardest midfielders in the competition.
In his five games, Greenwood, well built at 190cm and 90kg, has the lowest gametime percentage in the league for midfielders, averaging just 65.1 per cent.
His season-high is 71 per cent on debut against Brisbane at the Gabba in Round 9, and season-low is 59 per cent against St Kilda in Round 12.
But Greenwood’s impact in limited minutes is being felt.
The man who turned his back on a very promising basketball career to be talked back into football by Ogilvie — who first spotted him on a football field as a 15-year-old in Tasmania and had him on his radar for eight years — ranks in the top six in the AFL in four key hard man categories.
Greenwood, listed as a category B rookie by Adelaide at the end of 2015 and making his AFL debut just 18 months after rejecting a NBL contract with the Perth Wildcats, sits sixth in the league in average tackles (7.6), second in tackle attempts (11.6) and third in average pressure points (68.1) per 100 minutes.
He ranks a clear first in contested possession average of total disposals with 65.9 per cent of his possessions won in traffic.
This is better than heralded hard men Dangerfield and Bulldog Tom Liberatore (58.8 per cent), Kangaroo Ben Cunnington (57.6) and Bulldog Mitch Wallis (55.8).
When it comes to tackling, only Geelong’s ferocious Scott Selwood (11.8), Sloane (8.3), Liberatore (8.1), Port Adelaide’s Brad Ebert (7.9) and Melbourne’s Jack Viney (7.8) average more tackles. That’s elite company. Champion Data ranks football novice Greenwood as being an elite or above average midfielder for ranking points, contested possessions, clearances and goals.
“His inside stuff has been the most impressive thing and the way he gets at the opposition,” Crows midfield coach Scott Camporeale said.
“He’s a good size and shape, big-bodied, and if you look through premiership midfield groups they’ve got those guys.’’