Danielle Laidley: Andrew Brayshaw the ‘elite AFL punisher’ as hard work brings rewards for Fremantle

Fremantle drafted Andrew Brayshaw with pick two in the 2017 national draft. Brayshaw was an endurance king at that year’s draft combine. On game day as a junior, he never looked puffed and ran out games until the final minute. He works hard defensively and is able to transition to attack quickly. The big improvements in his game have been scoreboard impact through score involvements and penetrating the game with more productive inside-50s. This season and particularly in Friday night’s win over Adelaide where he won the inaugural Arthur Leggett Medal, he is proving he is an elite AFL punisher. In my opinion, he is the No.1 gut-running, two-way midfielder in the competition as we speak. But it has been an eight-year journey. In his heat map from Friday night’s win, the blue dots represent his possessions and the red marks where he did his most intense work. The yellow shows how long and hard he worked. He collected 48 per cent of his touches in the defensive half and 52 per cent forward of centre. His 37 touches at 70 per cent efficiency was the result. So how does he do it? He supports the defence so well. His five rebound-50s and eight intercept possessions were monumental. But then — as recruiters told us in his draft year — his improvement was in scoreboard impact. Brayshaw had eight inside-50s and nine score involvements. Add that to his contested work, where he had six clearances, 17 contested possessions and five tackles. It is nurture or nature? Perhaps being the youngest of four boys and having an inner dogged determination to get the best out of himself to shine in his own right. Three of the four brothers played AFL, with William being in the armed services. I imagine Angus (Melbourne premiership player), Hamish and Andrew bounced ideas off each other or bounced each other around the backyard many a time. It could even be his first two mentors at the Dockers, dual Brownlow medallists, Nat Fyfe and Lachie Neale. As a natural leader, his passion is for the team and to one day be an immortal at the club. It’s the sum of all those parts. Harley Reid is at the start of his journey. His strengths are his contest work, explosiveness, scoreboard impact, strength, versatility and X-factor. His improvements need to come in defensive running and endurance. The comparison at this point of his journey to Brayshaw’s is stark, but it shows where lots of hard work can get you. Brayshaw only averaged 16 touches, 1.5 clearances and 1.6 inside-50s in his first year. Reid averaged 18.5 touches, five clearances and three inside-50s. Yes, they are midfielders, but they are very different beasts Brayshaw has the endurance, but Reid has the beast mode in the early stages of their career. You can see the difference in Reid’s heat map from the weekend. His explosiveness and contest work revolves around the centre of the ground. He had seven clearances — three from centre bounce — three tackles, 14 contested possessions, five score involvements and two goals. He is a punisher, but it’s a work in progress. You can see the yellow quickly dissipates in the defensive half. Reid needs to stay connected to the play longer to support the defence. The yellow goes longer into the forward line as Reid spent time as a forward during the game. I can guarantee as the years progress in Reid’s journey, his heat maps will continue to grow in front of our eyes. This is why are game is so great, seeing young men and women push themselves to be the best they can be, through nature or nurture.