Rory Laird made his name as a half back flank before his move to central midfield, and he returned to defence last week as Matthew Nicks keeps searching for the best mix to kickstart the Crows' season. With young upstarts Jake Soligo and Izak Rankine already installed at the coalface and others putting their hand up, it is the right time for the old stager Laird to join the likes of Steele Sidebottom, Mitch Duncan and Dayne Zorko in seeing out his remaining career starting behind the ball. His previous experience should see him dominate as he can rack up touches with positioning.
Rory Laird made his name as a half back flank before his move to central midfield, and he returned to defence last week as Matthew Nicks keeps searching for the best mix to kickstart the Crows' season. With young upstarts Jake Soligo and Izak Rankine already installed at the coalface and others putting their hand up, it is the right time for the old stager Laird to join the likes of Steele Sidebottom, Mitch Duncan and Dayne Zorko in seeing out his remaining career starting behind the ball. His previous experience should see him dominate as he can rack up touches with positioning.
Rory Laird has given a lot of pleasure to a lot of fantasy owners over the years, especially since his move from half back to permanent midfield. He is a proven accumulator with superior positioning, making up for a lack of top-line pace with one of the league's best midfield brains. Adelaide's engine room has been in transition this season with Jake Soligo arriving, putting the roles of established stars like Laird into new perspective. At the moment his production still gives him fantasy relevance, but one move by the coach might kill that off.
Rory Laird is a natural accumulator, having moved from his mop up role starting at half back into a midfield role where he similarly hoovers up the dirty footies behind the packs. His combination of defensive skills and leather sniffing is extremely lucrative for fantasy usage and he has carried on his form in 2022... and yet his fantasy ownership is rather low. Perhaps it's because he is not as sexy an asset as a Touk Miller or Jack Steele, but he has a very high scoring floor and that's the number one determinant for fantasy value in the opinion of some.
Rory Laird spent some of last season in a midfield role as the Crows tried some new things on the back end of a lost campaign. This year he looks to be reverting to a half back role, where he made his name as a quality launcher from defensive 50 to forward of centre. He might be a sneaky play in that role, especially in exotic scoring options as his metres gained stat could start approaching Jadyen Short levels once more. There will certainly be plenty of supply from opposition midfields at Adelaide again this year.
Rory Laird is normally known as a defender who sits a kick behind a stoppage and mops up with monotonous regularity, well established as a premium fantasy back. Lately, however, he has been playing central midfield, which may not be the best fit for his talents but is more of a desperation play by a coach running out of options to arrest a calamitous slide to deal last. His fantasy scores have been terrible this year compared to what you would have paid to get him, so maybe this is the fillip for his personal scoring. His owners will hope that's the case.
Deskman's superpowers fade
Coming off back-to-back All-Australian seasons, Rory Laird didn't make the 40-man squad in 2019 as he was overtaken by rivals from finals-bound teams. He lost four disposals, six points in contested rate and 65 metres gained per game, which can not be blamed on the return from LTI of Brodie Smith as Laird was at the previous level in 2017 when Smith played. His only tag came in round 17 where he got 30 possessions in a romp over the Suns, but he he did ten fantasy points better in Crow wins. Combing through the numbers doesn't uncover any blinding insight. Perhaps Adelaide's deliberately treacle-paced game plan hurt Laird a bit, as he was not the only distribution option on slow plays where those with ball in hand could look further downfield. Despite the drop he was still ranked second in total points and third in averages among backs for the year, justifying the premium draft assets you would have had to use to get him. Pick him early again gladly, as he's still a solid conveyance.
Rory Laird is coming off the back of All-Australian form as he took on the mantle of the primary rebounder for the Crows in the wake of Brodie Smith's absence last season. The story of those two was that Laird was about quantity whereas Smith was more about quality, as Smith's rebound possessions more often led to scores up the other end. That pattern has reestablished itself in 2019 which means Laird is still a fantasy favourite.
Laird owns huge tracts of land
If you were looking for Rory Laird on a footy field last year, he was just as likely as not to have zoned up from his usual half back position to sit a handball's length behind a stoppage playing garbologist. Despite him racking up touches in this highly lucrative and unaccountable role he was tagged only once, by Darcy Byrne-Jones in the second Showdown for his worst score of the year. He added two disposals and a mark to an already elite stat line to earn his second All Australian gig. Adelaide finished 12th on the ladder and also 12th in points against after top four ranks the previous year, so maybe they will change things up again this season. Bryce Gibbs is probably just as suited to that role sitting behind the packs, so Laird could well drop back to a flat fantasy ton in average. Which is still pretty good, of course! We're splitting hairs here; he's a highly valuable commodity and will be drafted in the first round in your league.
Laird is monarch of the glen
After three years of elite HBF play Rory Laird finally made All-Australian last year, averaging a fantasy ton from the full 22 games. He added three touches per game for a rate of 30, but perhaps more importantly added 60 to his metres gained stat, putting his 80%+ disposal efficiency to better use and bringing it more in line with that of the highly damaging Brodie Smith. He failed to hit 20 disposals only once, in the final against GWS when Matthew de Boer restricted him to 15. Smith's ACL rupture means the Crows will be relying even more on Laird on the rebound in 2018, and it also means he will be more susceptible to copping a forward tag. Up to now, opposition analysts have keyed more on the Crows' taller plus-one than Laird who tends to start on a man then run off him. The departure of Jake Lever may mean focus is put on the best rebounder in the team. With all that said, he's young and fit and should go in your draft's first round.
