Can Naughton win the Coleman

[bornadog]

Had a pretty good season even though he seemed to have a bung knee and other ailments.

Can he go one better in 2023 and win the Coleman?

For the record in 2022:

* 23 Years old end of November

* 100 Games

* Kicked 51 Goals 34 Behinds

* Ranked 5th in Total Contested Marks

* Ranked 12th in Total Marks Inside 50

* Ranked 9th in Total Tackles Inside 50

Some highlights:


https://youtu.be/akiUNiVw5jY

[bornadog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBbqly57bgo

[mjp]

Would a better question be:

IF Aaron Naughton won the Coleman, would that be enough for 'everyone' to stop saying he needs to go back to defence?

[Scraggers]

Unfortunately, I don't think this is dependant on Naughts. There are too many variables in this outcome; the feed he gets from the centre square (laces-out or bombed in the forward 50), and the interaction between Naughts and the other forwards. Whilst the addition of Lobb to the forward line will benefit Naughton, he is still going to attract the best backman from every opposition club.

If Aaron can deal with the extra attention and get better feed from our mids ... then yes, he can.

[Bulldog Joe]

I am not particularly concerned with him winning the Coleman.

Give me a Flag.

Premierships are better than ANY INDIVIDUAL AWARD!!

[F'scary]

If he can improve his goal kicking accuracy to around 66%, I think he will get closer. In 2022, he 51 goals from 85 scoring shots, which is only 60%.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

Naughton would be better suited at CHF, IMO, where he isn’t so constrained in the goal front.
We now have other options closer to goal, with Lobb interchanging with English, Darcy and Marra plus Weightman.
Poor delivery into our forward line, continues to be a problem.
The loss of Dunkley, could be helped by moving Daniel into the midfield where his better disposal skills would create better opportunities for our attack.

[GVGjr]

He can win the Coleman but as F'scary said he would need to improve his set-shot percentages and I'm not sure we are bringing in a specialist to help him with that.
I think he would need to score at least 65 goals to have a chance so he would need a lot of things to go right for him.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

I think he COULD, but he probably won't and it has nothing to do with talent.

More than most other key forwards, he plays a bloody robust and taxing game. I don't think that can be changed; it's just who he is and why he's so great.

Some of his main competitors are better at finding easy ball/easy goals (Curnow, McKay, Hawkins, Cameron, Lynch). Sometimes it feels like Naughty does everything the hard way, and is more prone to getting banged up because of it, but it's also why I'd pick him over any other player. His appetite as a competitive beast borders on insanity.

Different players but I think of Naughty as our Riewoldt, rather than our Fraser Gehrig. If that makes ANY sense at all. Nick always seemed banged up and nothing seemed easy, but he gave everything and destroyed opponents in a different way.

[Jasper]

These little awards dont mean much but he can win it but probably wont. Remarkable player though and I havent seen marking like what he is capable of.

[bornadog]

These little awards dont mean much but he can win it but probably wont. Remarkable player though and I havent seen marking like what he is capable of.

Coleman is not a little award. If you win the Coleman it generally means your team is wining due to the amount of goals you have kicked.

[GVGjr]

Coleman is not a little award. If you win the Coleman it generally means your team is wining due to the amount of goals you have kicked.

I get that it generally does but Curnow and McKay have won it over the last two seasons. Carlton haven't made the 8 although they should have this year.

It's a nice to win award but a spread of goal kickers across 3 or more forwards is a better outcome for a team.

How do we squeeze an extra 5 to 10 goals out of Naughton is the challenge and that might need to happen from the midfield delivery.

[Sedat]

I think he COULD, but he probably won't and it has nothing to do with talent.

More than most other key forwards, he plays a bloody robust and taxing game. I don't think that can be changed; it's just who he is and why he's so great.

Some of his main competitors are better at finding easy ball/easy goals (Curnow, McKay, Hawkins, Cameron, Lynch). Sometimes it feels like Naughty does everything the hard way, and is more prone to getting banged up because of it, but it's also why I'd pick him over any other player. His appetite as a competitive beast borders on insanity.

Different players but I think of Naughty as our Riewoldt, rather than our Fraser Gehrig. If that makes ANY sense at all. Nick always seemed banged up and nothing seemed easy, but he gave everything and destroyed opponents in a different way.
I wish the comparison extended to free kicks. Riewoldt got a rails run his entire career and Naughts has to be borderline assaulted to get the attention of the umpires.

[Axe Man]

If he can improve his goal kicking accuracy to around 66%, I think he will get closer. In 2022, he 51 goals from 85 scoring shots, which is only 60%.

He kicked 51.34 from 97 shots at 52.6%. That is pretty much in line with most other leading key forwards in the league other than Tom Lynch:

Hawkins 67.43 125 53.6%
Cameron 65.37 117 55.6%
Curnow 64.42 117 54.7%
Lynch 63.27 99 63.6%
McKay 45.31 87 51.7%

So he could either improve his accuracy (probably unlikely) or take more shots like most of the others do to achieve a higher goal tally.

Note: finals games included in the above figures.

[Axe Man]

I think he COULD, but he probably won't and it has nothing to do with talent.

More than most other key forwards, he plays a bloody robust and taxing game. I don't think that can be changed; it's just who he is and why he's so great.

Some of his main competitors are better at finding easy ball/easy goals (Curnow, McKay, Hawkins, Cameron, Lynch). Sometimes it feels like Naughty does everything the hard way, and is more prone to getting banged up because of it, but it's also why I'd pick him over any other player. His appetite as a competitive beast borders on insanity.

Different players but I think of Naughty as our Riewoldt, rather than our Fraser Gehrig. If that makes ANY sense at all. Nick always seemed banged up and nothing seemed easy, but he gave everything and destroyed opponents in a different way.

Completely agree. When he's seemingly forced to take a pack mark 3 deep to get a goal I am often left lamenting why he can't just get the odd simple lead out, chest mark, kick a goal Jason Dunstall style.

[GVGjr]

Completely agree. When he's seemingly forced to take a pack mark 3 deep to get a goal I am often left lamenting why he can't just get the odd simple lead out, chest mark, kick a goal Jason Dunstall style.

A few more lead out and chest marks would lift his performance.

[Happy Days]

Of course he can win the Coleman he’s the best key forward in the AFL. And are we really still concerned about his set shots? They improved out of sight between 21 and 22.

I’d argue that between no Bruce, Jamarra still largely developing and Cody dropping off due to playing through an elbow in need of reconstruction like an absolute psycho that Naughts had to play as the whole forward line for stretches last year. If we can become less predictable then he can clear 65 goals no problems.

[bornadog]

A few more lead out and chest marks would lift his performance.

To do that we need to move the ball quicker into the forward line before it is congested.

Often we keep the ball in our forward 50 for long periods, but due to the volume of players in the forward line, it becomes hard to lead anywhere, let alone have a shot.

[F'scary]

He kicked 51.34 from 97 shots at 52.6%. That is pretty much in line with most other leading key forwards in the league other than Tom Lynch:

Hawkins 67.43 125 53.6%
Cameron 65.37 117 55.6%
Curnow 64.42 117 54.7%
Lynch 63.27 99 63.6%
McKay 45.31 87 51.7%

So he could either improve his accuracy (probably unlikely) or take more shots like most of the others do to achieve a higher goal tally.

Note: finals games included in the above figures.

ok, so Naughton should focus on increasing his number of shots on goal but I think he should also try and improve his accuracy.

[F'scary]

A few more lead out and chest marks would lift his performance.

Weightman would still find a way to fly against him.

[Bulldog4life]

He can win the Coleman but as F'scary said he would need to improve his set-shot percentages and I'm not sure we are bringing in a specialist to help him with that.
I think he would need to score at least 65 goals to have a chance so he would need a lot of things to go right for him.

Not a huge jump only 14 extra goals from this year. Yes he can win the Coleman. His goal kicking has improved from what it was too.

[GVGjr]

Not a huge jump only 14 extra goals from this year. Yes he can win the Coleman. His goal kicking has improved from what it was too.
He is averaging close to 50 goals per season so it's a significant jump to get to 65. Midfielders with kicking skills will help if he can get on a few good leads.

[Dry Rot]

Leading Goalkickers: Every Aaron Naughton goal in 2022

https://www.afl.com.au/video/870660/leading-goalkickers-every-aaron-naughton-goal-in-2022?videoId=870660&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1671998400001

[Testekill]

A big improver would be Naughton getting more low passes where he can just lead and mark.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

He'll be playing CHF so no.
Could win a brownlow a la Templeton.

[jeemak]

Would a better question be:

IF Aaron Naughton won the Coleman, would that be enough for 'everyone' to stop saying he needs to go back to defence?

Nothing he might do in the future could ever amount to that. You're dreaming.

[jeemak]

Hopefully a return to form from Keath and some additional areal support from Jones will help us clear the ball out of our back half more quickly and give all of our forwards cleaner football closer to goal. We tend to do it the hard way out of defence and get bogged down between the arcs sometimes, allowing teams to set up against us.

With Naughton specifically, he actually needs to get better at presenting to the ball carrier to simplify how we transition the footy and also for him get his hands on the footy more often. It's a mental/ intent thing with tall forwards, they often find themselves running away from the carrier which leads to some of the abovementioned issues in having to work stupid hard to get a touch or score after taking a mark from three deep. Having heard he's playing further up the ground in training/ sim I'm looking forward to seeing whether he can get better at this.