Will Setterfield has returned to the senior side in the wake of the sacking of Brad Scott, after spending most of this season at VFL level while younger models were blooded in the centre during a string of massive beltings. No one is under any apprehensions that Setterfield has another gear to find at this stage of his journeyman career: it's a matter of whether the team needs another mature body at the coalface to help ease a younger frame like Sullivan Robey into the slings and arrows of weekly contact. Caretaker coach Dean Solomon prefers Setterfield's grunt for now.
Will Setterfield has returned to the senior side in the wake of the sacking of Brad Scott, after spending most of this season at VFL level while younger models were blooded in the centre during a string of massive beltings. No one is under any apprehensions that Setterfield has another gear to find at this stage of his journeyman career: it's a matter of whether the team needs another mature body at the coalface to help ease a younger frame like Sullivan Robey into the slings and arrows of weekly contact. Caretaker coach Dean Solomon prefers Setterfield's grunt for now.
Will Setterfield is one of a large number of GWS Giants players to make the trip down the Hume Highway to find a new home at Princes Park. Some of them have been successes like Matthew Kennedy and Zac Williams... others not so much. Setterfield is the epitome of the fantasy jargon phrase of Just A Guy: 15 touches playing a wing role means you are of replacement value. It is no wonder that the Blues have been linked to Blake Acres, a wingman who has taken to the role much more vigorously to the extent of earning Brownlow votes.
Setterfield is deep cover
It took a while for Will Setterfield to work his way into form, waiting until round 12 to produce an eight-week average of 78, sandwiched in between slow starts and finishes to the season. Considering that his first two seasons at league level were ruined by injury, it was a solid return for the ex-Giant as he rotated through the midfield. Setterfield will participate in first full preseason unaffected by injury and is one of the Blues ready to take his game to the next level. Expect an increase in most major facets from this prototype midfielder. Nevertheless, lack of dual eligibility and a historical ceiling not that much higher than the midfielder baseline restricts his draft league position to late rounds.
Will Setterfield crossed from GWS to Carlton in the off season like so many orange-clad rejects before him, and looked in the first part of the year as though he would join the mounting scrapheap of offcuts whocouldn't even survive at a lesser club. A move forward in the second half of the season - partly in desperation, to try to combat the Blues' chronic lack of specialist small forwards - has been moderately successful. With Matthew Kennedy joining him in attack in a deeper role, Setterfield is finding a niche as a roaming half forward, with some success.
Leg theory for Setterfield
The production line of Giant also-rans getting a start at Carlton continues with Will Setterfield, of whom we haven't seen much at AFL level with only two games for GWS then an ACL rupture last April. In limited NEAFL appearances, he has shown the ability to pass the 30 disposal mark with ease. His body shape puts you in mind of some of the greats of the competition, all the way up to Nat Fyfe; his durability, not as much. Setterfield is an unknown quantity, which means in your league he might be left until late for a Blues homer coach to stash just in case he breaks out. A flashy JLT might lift his draft stocks, but the prudent play is to leave him to others unless he's still available in the very late rounds of a deep draft... in which case, why not take a plunge? Sometimes you just have to pick on hope.
