There’s no stat for that
This article was originally published at This Week In Football.
What better way to kick off a new column than having a niche axe to grind?
It happens numerous times each season, I’ve already caught a few this year, but every time it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
An expert commentator says something to the effect of “he won’t get a stat for that” in reference to something that is categorically recorded as a stat and has been for over a decade.
Today I’m talking about knock ons. Champion Data’s public glossary gives us the working definition:
“Knock on: When a player uses his hand to knock the ball to a teammate’s advantage rather than attempting to take possession within his team’s chain of play.”
Knock ons can also be recorded as contested. Effective contested knock ons are also included in a player’s possession count, as demonstrated in the below venn diagram I prepared earlier (frankly, I don’t see what the confusion over the definition of possessions is, it all seems perfectly clear to me).
What to do with our newfound knowledge of knock ons and their statistical validity? I’m going to make a completely objective list of the top knock ons (from 2021 onwards – the most comprehensive data set I have access to only goes back that far).
I’ve got 11,432 knock ons coming up in my data set so clearly we’ll need to set some criteria to cut that down to a more reasonable size.
I’m only going to consider contested knock ons, that is ones that happen when the ball is in dispute rather than the ball has been directed to a player by their teammate. That leaves us with 9,411.
Next let’s restrict it to knock ons that take possession away from the opponent, as that’s a more drastic change of game state than simply keeping possession and gaining territory. Down to 3513 now.
Next, let’s cut to the chase and say only knock ons that contributed to a goal-scoring chain. This no doubt excludes many meritorious knock ons, but if we’re getting to a manageable number sacrifices are going to have to be made, and after all do any stats other than goals really matter? This gets us down to 329.
Let’s be really unfair here and filter not just on the result of the individual chain, but the result of the match. We’re only going to consider games where the margin was a goal or less in favour of the team that scored a goal following a knock on. Down to 35 and now we’re really talking.
In a moment I can only describe as serendipitous, I applied one final filter – only looking at the final quarter of games which brought us to an even 10.
I’ve ranked them (again, extremely scientifically) based on three criteria:
Technique – Does it go to a teammate’s advantage? Were there better options available (like taking possession)? How much pressure was it under?
Play context – How much did it impact the play? Were other teammates around that would have caused the intercept anyway? To what degree did the player’s efforts contribute to the eventual goal?
Match context – How much time is left in the final quarter? What is the current margin? Is this a go-ahead goal (or the final go-ahead goal)?
Where necessary the tiebreaker will be the vibe of it.
So without further ado,
The completely objective top (and only) 10 (contested) knock ons (that launched a goal-scoring chain in the final quarter and the scoring team drew or won by a goal or less) in the history of the AFL (from 2021 onwards)
#10 Jeremy Howe v Hawthorn 2022 R12
Not so much a knock on as an unpenalised throw, combined with it being pretty early in the quarter consign this to the bottom of the list.
#9 Ed Allan v Fremantle 2024 R11
I actually rated this one high on technique, it’s the one on the list that really gains some territory which I feel is the more archetypal knock on. It scores lower on context, particularly match context as Collingwood were already three goals up and a long way to play in the quarter.
#8 Callum Wilkie v Gold Coast R13 2024
High on match context (go ahead goal with a few minutes remaining) low on play context due to the goal coming from a long-range down the field free, and the technique not great either as it was a second bite at what should have been a cleaner disposal.
#7 Kyle Langford v North R12 2023
Like Howe’s earlier, this scores a 0 on technique because it’s absolutely a scoop that should have been called as a throw. The context of a F50 recovery and a late go-ahead goal bring the score up though.
#6 Ben Miller v Carlton R1 2023
Low on technique (three on one with the one opponent on the ground, so really could have been a gather and handball) but the context bring it up significantly.
#5 Dan Houston vs St Kilda R7 2022
Decent technique (under direct physical pressure and in challenging conditions) and a F50 recovery see a solid score.
#4 Ben Miller v Hawthorn R23 2021
Critical point in the game here, but the knock on and the context within the play were average.
#3 Patrick Lipinski v Hawthorn R12 2022
Judged the ball really well and sent it to advantage, does get dinged on technique slightly because he puts it down to chance a bit by grounding the ball rather than delivering straight to his teammate.
For context if he didn’t manage to redirect it there wasn’t really anyone else who could. A go-ahead goal helps too, marked down slightly for how much time was remaining.
#2 Nick Blakey v Geelong R16 2023
High marks for technique – the ball is speeding away, he’s under direct physical pressure, and he taps it perfectly to a teammate’s advantage.
Some extra points from being the one to deliver a good kick inside 50, as well as the fact that Guthrie would have had a great look forward had Blakey not cut the ball off.
Loses some points because there’s still 7 minutes left to play and honestly because Fox’s shot wasn’t the actual goal. I’ve clipped it for brevity but somehow there’s another two kicks before they score between Fox’s shot dropping short and being marked by McLean, and McLean deciding he doesn’t want to take the shot either.
#1 Sam Powell-Pepper v Adelaide R21 2021
I’ve got this as the best technique of any of the ten, sharking an opponent’s handball and putting it right down your teammate’s throat is sublime.
If SPP didn’t intercept, the Crows had a really good path out of defence (despite being two players down with a really nasty collision seconds before).
The only thing I could mark against this was that it happened at the start of the quarter rather than at the end but it is still a very worthy winner.
Not bad for something that purportedly isn’t even a stat.
