You don’t need to be a statistics boffin to know that recruit Will Brodie has been a critical cog in Fremantle’s 9-3 start to the 2022 season, but the numbers also clearly state how much of an impact the 23-year-old is having in the midfield.

In the core midfield stats, Brodie leads Freo for clearances (6.8 per game) and contested possessions (13.5) and trails only Andrew Brayshaw for disposals with 27.8 per game compared to Brayshaw’s 30.6.

In a league-wide sense, the low time on ground percentage played by Freo’s midfielders means they collectively take a hit statistically, with Fremantle opting to rotate their midfielders heavily through the interchange.

For example, Clayton Oliver (86.1%), Touk Miller (85.5%) and Lachie Neale (84.9%) all have significantly higher time on ground compared to all of Freo’s mids.

Despite having a 69.4 time on ground percentage, Brodie ranks fifth for total clearances and contested possessions in the AFL. Every other player in the top 10 has a TOG% of more than 80.

Brodie is said to be playing the ‘Nat Fyfe role’ in the captain’s absence, leading Fremantle in a number of other significant midfield statistics.

He stepped up with four Centre Bounce Clearances in the third term in Fremantle’s win against against Brisbane, which is the most by a Fremantle player in a quarter this season.

On Fox Footy, David King praised Brodie for the quality of the clearances.

“There are clearances and there are clearances. To break into space and get yourself free with a forward handball, you generally get something out of it, it’s not a surge dump kick forward that is inevitably a turnover that you have to defend,” King said.

“Brodie drives through traffic and all of a sudden you’re out. While he had 10 clearances, they’re not normally like that.”

The AFL’s 6-6-6 rule has heightened the importance of the Centre Bounce Clearance and this is where Brodie does his best work, clearly leading Freo in the stat.

He also ranks fourth in the AFL for first possessions, again an impressive feat considering his limited game time.

While Brodie has put up Fyfe-calibre numbers early this season, he and Fyfe have never played together. With Fyfe’s return via the WAFL at the weekend, their debut game together could be as early as this Saturday against Hawthorn.

Between 2019 and 2021 Fyfe has – like Brodie this year - led Fremantle for First Possessions and Centre Bounce Clearances, but prior to then, this was a stat that Neale led in 2016 and 2017.

In 2018, Neale and Fyfe averaged eight first possessions each while Fyfe had slightly more Centre Bounce Clearances.

The below table looks at the top two to three players in both stats at Fremantle since 2016.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s On the Couch on Monday evening, Fyfe said he was happy to have the likes of Brodie leading the way in the midfield, especially as he finds his feet in the coming months.

That means leaving Brodie to play the role that suits him best while Fyfe spends more time forward.

“With JL, we’ve looked at where the opportunities are to insert me back into the side and have a new value add,” Fyfe said on Fox Footy.

“There’s no point in me going back into the midfield and playing a role that Will Brodie, David Mundy, Caleb Serong or Andy Brayshaw have done so well for the whole season.

“Plus, I’ll be pretty rusty and need to take a number of weeks to find some form. That would indicate that there would be a fairly big forward component to where I play.

“What that looks like exactly, we’re only a week into winter, we’ve got a lot of heavy lifting to go into the back end of the year. My role will be flexible and adaptable as we go throughout the year.”

Fyfe praised Brodie for his breakout season after making the switch from Gold Coast to Fremantle.

“’Wiz’ has really reinvented himself here. He’s a contested beast, he just gets after the ball on the inside for us and does a lot of that grunt work,” Fyfe said.

“His connection now with Caleb, Andy and Dave, they seem to know where each other are, he’s not looking like slowing down at all and I think that we’ve really found a player who’s going to be a great system player for a number of years.”

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