So who is our second most important player

[Pies2016]

Just to clarify, I’m not talking about our second best player, I’m referring to the second most important ( structurally )
After Grundy, its the player whose unavailability diminishes our chances of winning against good opposition more than any other player.

I’m going with Moore. For mine, his current form is simply irreplaceable.

Feel free to cut loose

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

I thought "Darcy" even before I saw that it was your pick too

He was have been the 50/50 gamble that would have netted us another GF had be played and NOT broken down. I still don't blame them for not selecting him

[What'sinaname]

1. Roughead - without him, we are a mess down back and way too small

2. Darcy - an amazing 8 games thus far and he's killing it as a roving defender. If Roughy goes down and he has tom lay the role as the key defender, he'll be far less effective

3. Cox - we need a genuine second ruck to support Grundy

[AN_Inkling]

I disagree that it's a key back. We didn't have one for important periods of last season and still made the GF.

I agree Grundy is our most important. Lose Grundy and we have a serious issue as we don't have a quality first ruck to replace him, let alone one who's close to as good as he is. Cox is the replacement (could be a quality ruck if played there enough), but then we don't have Cox forward and have to rely on Reid (if fit), so we end up weakening two positions.

In my view we don't have a second most important player worth mentioning for structure, and that's a good thing. Lose one tall defender and we still have another with a number of mediums who can play tall or Goldsack and Mihocek as options. Structurally speaking there isn't an issue. Forward is more bare and relies on the fragile Reid if Cox went down. Losing Mihocek who plays more like a medium wouldn't be an issue in terms of structure, we'd get one of our many medium forwards to play the role.

If I were to name one player as our second most important, structurally, based on the above it would be Cox. We had some struggles when he missed last season and we didn't have Reid to call on. Have fared better this year with Reid as backup, but it's risky to rely on his continued availability. Our next best option is probably to go small and I don't see a huge problem with that but it's a decent sized change.

[RudeBoy]

Brodie Grundy

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

^If you think Grundy is our second-most important, who do you think is the first?

[bally12]

Grundy and JDG are on a par as our most important. Coincidentally, they are the 2 opposition clubs would pay over $1mill/year to poach from us.

When our midfield is down, we throw Jordy into the middle. He takes 2 or 3 players to bring him down in the tackle, creating openings elsewhere. The kid is a star, could be anything if he wants to.
Both his goals he made out of nothing. There was that pass on his left out of the centre clearance that hit the leading forward perfectly (forgot which forward...might have been Billy). We don't win without him against the Blues..simple as that.

[E]

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

Grundy then Moore, after that I believe its debatable - you could say DeGoey but I don't think this is specifically structural.

The 1st two are no brainers, in that order.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

[mattdally]

Steele Sidebottom

[Pies2016]

[Boogie Knights]

Jarryd Blair.

Without him this season, (some) Nicksters appear lost as to who the resident whipping boy is, unfairly spouting their criticism to whomever (according to recency bias) has in their views under-performed and/or contributed to the opposition being closer than the expected 10 goal margin at games end.

[leonmagic]

Not sure if he’s our second most valuable as such, but it’s always very noticeable when Adams is out.

Could argue any of Brodie, Adams, JDG, Moore, Howe or Crisp have aspects that are hard to replace.

[Skids]