Rory Sloane still holds a narrow lead in the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year award following an even distribution of votes in Adelaide’s win over Collingwood.
Ten players received votes at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, with no one polling more than five.
Crows Brad Crouch and Tom Lynch (five votes each) shared best afield honours.
Crouch topped Adelaide’s possession count with 29 including an equal team-high 16 contested. Crouch laid more tackles (10) than any other player on the ground. He also generated five inside 50ms and won three clearances.
Lynch kicked two goals from his 21 possessions and also took four marks.
Sloane and defender Daniel Talia were each awarded four votes. Rory Sloane won a game-high eight clearances from his 27 possessions, which included 16 contested. He also applied eight tackles and assisted in two goals.
Sloane has now polled votes from the coaches in eight of his last nine games. He has collected 40 more votes than the next-best Crow Eddie Betts, who has a total of 40 for the season.
Talia, who was opposed predominantly to emerging Pies goalkicker Darcy Moore, effected a game-high 11 spoils and had 11 intercept possessions – second only to West Coast star Jeremy McGovern (13) for the round.
Another pair of Crows, Jarryd Lyons and Ricky Henderson, received their first votes of the season. Both players were given three by Don Pyke and Nathan Buckley.
Lyons kicked two goals from his 21 touches, involved in a total of 10 Adelaide scores. He gained the most metres (650) of any player on the ground, and applied an equal game-high 24 pressure acts.
Henderson gathered a season-high 27 possessions at 88.9 per cent efficiency. He also took six marks, rebounded the ball from defensive 50m four times and kicked a goal.
Four Magpies also featured in the voting on the weekend. The leading possession-getter on the ground, Adam Treloar, was awarded two votes as was Ben Sinclair, who won five clearances in his 23 touches. Midfield duo Taylor Adams and Brodie Grundy rounded out the voting with one apiece.
The top-seven players in the AFLCA award all received votes in Round 17.
Second-placed Patrick Dangerfield (79) scored a perfect 10 to claw back within one vote of Sloane (80). Richmond match winner Dustin Martin (74) also earned maximum votes to keep touch with Sloane and Dangerfield. Five votes was enough for Geelong captain Joel Selwood (69) to hang onto fourth spot overall.
Martin, Dangerfield and St Kilda ruckman Tom Hickey were the only players to receive 10 votes on the weekend.
Adelaide v Collingwood
5 – Brad Crouch (Adel)
5 – Tom Lynch (Adel)
4 – Rory Sloane (Adel)
4 – Daniel Talia (Adel)
3 – Ricky Henderson (Adel)
3 – Jarryd Lyons (Adel)
2 – Ben Sinclair (Coll)
2 – Adam Treloar (Coll)
1 – Taylor Adams (Coll)
1 – Brodie Grundy (Coll)
Round 17 Leaderboard
80 Rory Sloane (Adel)
79 Patrick Dangerfield (Geel)
74 Dustin Martin (Rich)
69 Joel Selwood (Geel)
66 Luke Shuey (WC)
63 Marcus Bontempelli (WB)
57 Luke Parker (Syd)
55 Dan Hannebery (Syd)
51 Todd Goldstein (NM)
51 Robbie Gray (PA)
51 Dylan Shiel (GWS)
51 Jack Steven (StK)
Crows Leaderboard
80 – Rory Sloane
40 – Eddie Betts
31 – Rory Laird
31 – Tom Lynch
22 – Josh Jenkins
21 – Taylor Walker
19 – Scott Thompson
17 – Matt Crouch
16 – Brodie Smith
16 – Daniel Talia
9 – Luke Brown
8 – Charlie Cameron
7 – Sam Jacobs
6 – Brad Crouch
3 – Rory Atkins
3 – Kyle Cheney
3 – Richard Douglas
3 – Ricky Henderson
3 – Jake Lever
3 – Jarryd Lyons
1 – Kyle Hartigan
