CBAs – Centre Bounce Attendances – is a statistic that measures the number of times a player is present at a centre bounce at the beginning of a quarter or following a goal. A player that has a high attendance rate at CBAs is around the footy more and (in some cases) in a more fantasy-friendly midfield role.
Analyse the CBAs from the football weekend in our user-friendly tables in our premium resources section – featuring advanced analytical tools to better measure the most significant changes, seasonally and week-to-week.
Below, see who some of the winners and losers were from a CBA perspective over the weekend.
Willem Drew
There was a significant uptick in Willem Drew’s CBA numbers compared to last week.
He went to 81% of the centre bounces on Saturday night against Richmond after not attending a single centre bounce last week against Collingwood. As a result, he scored 101 AFL Fantasy points.
However, I’m not getting too excited about this. Connor Rozee got injured halfway through this game which led to a bump for Drew. I also think having Drew back in the midfield against Richmond was a strategic play as his contested brand of footy matched up well against the Tigers.
Whilst his score looked good this week, there’s competition for contested midfielder roles at Port Adelaide. If you want my advice, wait until Travis Boak retires before buying shares in Willem Drew.
Max Holmes
With a raft of Geelong midfielders out this week, Max Holmes saw a boost to his CBA numbers.
After only averaging an attendance rate of 9% since returning from injury in round 15 (and having zero CBAs last week) he went to 10 centre bounces in Geelong’s win over St Kilda.
He also scored 98 AFL Fantasy points in a good win against a team desperate for a win to make the finals.
We have talked at length on the podcast about Holmes losing forward status next year and what that means for fantasy coaches. Given he has shown he can play both inside and outside midfield roles at Geelong and put up some handy fantasy scores along the way, he’s a good stash option for coaches who aren’t competing in the next year or two.
Marcus Windhager
Over the past few weeks, Marcus Windhager has done some tagging jobs on experienced midfielders, and this week was no different.
On Saturday night, Windhager went to Cam Guthrie and followed him around for the night. As a result, he went to 69% of the centre bounces for St Kilda and scored a reasonable 78 AFL Fantasy points whilst keeping Guthrie to a respectable score of 89.
Over the past 3 matches, Windhager has had the biggest uptick in centre bounce attendances of any player in the AFL, going at +47.5% above his season average of 19.8%.
Whilst tagging roles aren’t the best for fantasy scoring, I believe they can be a valuable learning tool for younger players. They get the chance to follow experienced midfielders around and learn from the best so they can apply similar skills to their own game in the future.
As a result, I think Windhager is a good player to stash away for the future.
Jack Macrae
Despite still scoring 101 AFL Fantasy points on the weekend, there are some concerns for Macrae.
Jack Macrae has a centre bounce attendance rate of 64% in 2022 and an AFL Fantasy average of 104. This doesn’t look too bad on paper, but it’s his worst AFL Fantasy average since 2017.
We’ve seen his CBA numbers fluctuate quite rapidly in 2022 and this has impacted his scoring. On Saturday we saw his lowest attendance rate of the season, only going to 36% of the centre bounces.
I know he scored well on the weekend, but he has struggled in the past when he doesn’t get time on the inside and is forced out to a wing.
In my opinion, the Dogs need to trade out one or two of their midfielders to fix up other areas on their team. Dunkley is already rumoured to be moving on, so hopefully, they can restore the full midfield time for Jack Macrae next season.
Preview of Advanced CBA Stats:
| Player | Club | Pos | LG% | LG%vsPG% | Avg% | L3Avg% | LG%vsAvg% | L3G%vsAvg% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Steele | SK | C | 86 | -7 | 89.7 | 88 | -3.7 | -1.7 |
| Reilly O'Brien | AD | R | 84 | -4 | 89 | 86 | -5 | -3 |
| Rowan Marshall | SK | R | 76 | -20 | 87.7 | 87 | -11.7 | -0.7 |
| Lloyd Meek | HW | R | 90 | 11 | 86.2 | 87 | 3.8 | 0.8 |
| Tom Green | GWS | C | 80 | -5 | 86.2 | 85 | -6.2 | -1.2 |
| Max Gawn | ME | R | 92 | 6 | 86 | 88 | 6 | 2 |
| Luke Davies-Uniacke | NM | C | 80 | -5 | 85.5 | 84 | -5.5 | -1.5 |
| Jarrod Witts | GC | R | 93 | 11 | 84.6 | 87 | 8.4 | 2.4 |
| Ned Reeves | HW | R | 82 | -5 | 84.5 | 79 | -2.5 | -5.5 |
| Toby Nankervis | RI | R | 83 | -7 | 83.8 | 84 | -0.8 | 0.2 |
View more CBA Analysis numbers here.
Key:
LG% – Percentage of CBAs last game
LG%vsPG% – Percentage of CBAs last game versus percentage of CBAs previous game
Avg% – Average of CBA percentage in games played
L3Avg% – Average of CBA percentage over the past three games
LG%vsAvg% – Last game CBA percentage vs average CBA percentage
L3G%vsAvg% – Last three games CBA percentage vs average CBA percentage
