Swans “miles ahead” of the competition in crucial stat thanks to underrated performer

Sydney is currently miles better than the rest of the AFL in the turnover game according to Champion Data.

It’s a crucial stat in stopping opposition teams from scoring while also helping teams launch scores themselves, with 17 of the last 18 premiers rating in the top three for that season in the turnover game.

So far in 2024, Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne says that the Swans are that far better than the rest of the competition in the crucial statistic and are beginning to rate amongst the best teams in that aspect across the last decade.

“We bang on about the turnover game and how important the turnover game is,” Hoyne said on SEN Sportsday.

“17 of the last 18 premiers have been top three in the turnover game.

“What they (Sydney) are doing at the moment is miles and miles ahead of anyone else in the competition.

“In fact, over the last 10 years, it's the fifth-best turnover game that we've seen at this point in time."

While much of their turnover game is thanks to star defender Nick Blakey’s work, Hoyne shone a light on Ollie Florent who is having a magnificent season as a half-back/wing.

Hoyne says that Florent is actually the Swan that’s having the most impact in the stat despite most of his intercepts coming at ground level.

“I just wanted to point out just an individual,” Hoyne said.

“A lot of credit goes to Nick Blakey and we're a huge fan of what he does, everyone loves him and it's just so exciting when he gets the ball in hand.

“But I think someone that's gone under the radar a little bit this year is Ollie Florent with what he's doing behind the footy.

“I don't think it's just ‘Lizard or bust’ in terms of what you have to look for in terms of this ball movement game.

“In terms of the impact that he (Florent) is having through his intercepts this year, he’s having more impact than any other Swans defender … that’s including Nick Blakey as well and he does it differently.

“The intercept mark is easy to identify. It's a stop play. It’s either a contested or uncontested intercept mark and it's easy to recognise … the hard ones to recognise are the intercepts that you win back in congestion at ground level.

“There's no better Sydney player at the moment in that aspect of the game than Ollie Florent.

“I just wanted to just point him out.”

The ladder-leading Swans next face the seventh-placed Blues at the SCG on Friday night and while Carlton might put some defensive work into Blakey, Hoyne doesn’t expect it to affect the Swans much as Florent has shown he can pick up any slack in 2024.

“It's a huge game Friday night,” Hoyne said.

“A lot of the attention will go to Nick Blakey. We saw him a couple of weeks ago have a really quiet one in a big game against GWS.

“But it didn't matter because this guy (Florent) is able to step up, he's able to have the impact, he’s a really nice ball user, he's a creative ball user as well.

“He's not as damaging with ball in hand as what Nick Blakey is, but he has a very similar impact and deserves to be recognised for the form that he's in at the moment.”

The 8-1 Swans currently lead the AFL in points for (913), while they’ve also allowed the least points against (601).