AFL Dream Team 2010 From Left Field - Matthew Wright

Matthew (Matt) Wright is midfielder drafted from North Adelaide to the Crows. He should be listed as a dual position mid/fwd, though he is solely a midfielder. He is on Adelaide's rookie list, but this should not prove a barrier to selection, with both Otten and Martin likely to miss most of the year on the long term injury list, opening up places for rookie listed players. Wright is mature aged at 21 and a proven ballwinner at SANFL level. Chris Schmidt (2 games for Brisbane) is the obvious first choice from the rookie list, but has had an interrupted pre-season and is unlikely to play in the NAB so Wrighty should be the first cab off the ranks.

Wright was 3rd in the NAFC best and fairest last year, represented SA in the state competition and won North's best young player award. He unfortunately did his PCL late in the season for North, but this shouldn't have affected his preseason too much. He has a history of getting injured at the wrong time, most famously getting his skull cracked in by some party gatecrashers when he was first in line to be drafted a couple of years ago. Nothing special DTwise in there, so why would you pick him?

Last year in the SANFL, he averaged 93 DT points (96 if you ignore his 38 when he was playing injured in Rd 21). He is an inside midfielder who clocks up almost 3 tackles per game, has a positive k:h ratio (around 1.3) and gets near 2 frees for per game because he gets his head over the ball. He averaged 23 touches per game in the next best comp to the AFL last year and added a half dozen marks, despite his small stature. He only scored less than 70 twice in 17 games with 8 scores 100+. Matt also averaged .7 goals per game and will probably spend more time forward at AFL level.

Wrighty should be able to step in straight away and average 70-75. The only problem for Matt is that he needs to break into a Crows side that is historically reluctant to play youth. Take a punt if he gets gametime in the NAB or is named later in the year and you will have a unique pick that could make the difference.