There’s a mistake made in AFL circles as pertains to the role of the rebounding half-back.
We base it too much on stats.
How so?
I’m glad I asked. I recently had someone point out to me a reason that Jack Sinclair was having such a ripping season for the Saints. I listened, as I am polite like that, but upon assessing the argument, I quickly came to the conclusion that the reasoning was flawed.
The person’s argument centred around the fact that Sinclair was averaging close to 30 touches per game in the role. Pretty impressive, right?
Yeah… not really.
You see, Jack Sinclair, as good a player as he is, gets some of the cheapest of kicks in the competition. He is not the only one, but he makes a habit of taking the kick ins, and stepping over the line to play on at a rate of 96%.
That’s right, he has taken 69 kick outs for the 2026 season, and has played on in 66 instances.
Cheap kicks – I find it hard to rate big numbers like 29.54 disposals per game, when over five per game are coming as a result of just walking back to the goal square after a behind, and walking back over the line to play on from full back.
Hell, against an inaccurate team, I could average 15 touches per game.
So, it got me to thinking – which players are picking up the most of these cheap kicks, and how does it impact their standing when we deduct these cheapies from their overall totals?
Who are the cheap kick kings of the AFL in 2026?
1 – Bailey Dale
He has taken 111 kick ins this season, and played on 102 times. He is easily the best proponent at milking this ludicrous stat-padding rule, and is likely the darling of supercoach nerds as a result.
In a nutshell, he picks up 7.84 disposals per week for these kick ins. Take that away from his overall stats of 26.62 disposals per game, and suddenly, Bailey clocks in at a pretty ordinary 18.78 disposals per game.
He is the best/worst of the bunch, but it is worth looking at the rest, just so you get an idea of who is taking the piss with their disposal numbers.
2 – Nick Blakey
67 kick in/play ons
5.15 cheap kicks per game
3 – Jack Sinclair
66 kick in/play ons
5.07 cheap kicks per game
4 – Lachie Whitfield
64 kick in/play ons
5.81 cheap kicks per game
5 – Bodhi Uwland
61 kick in/play ons
5.08 cheap kicks per game
6 – Tom McCarthy
54 kick in/play ons
4.15 cheap kicks per game
7 – Wayne Milera
52 kick in/ play ons
4.33 cheap kicks per game
8 – Luke Ryan
49 kicks
4.09 cheap kicks per game
9 – Josh Lindsay
48 kick in/play ons
4.36 cheap kicks per game
10 – Josh Worrell
48 kick in/play ons
4.00 cheap kicks per game
Any of them surprise you?
For me, it is more the blokes who don’t make the list.
Jarman Impey is currently averaging 23.8 touches per game and averages just 1.0 kick in/play ons per game.
Connor Idun is at 20.7 touches, and averages just 0.75 kick in/play ons per game.
And Sam Flanders was managing 23.2 touches with just 0.83 kick in/play ons per outing.
So, there we go, on the podium are Nick Blakey and Jack Sinclair – both racking up massive numbers, but Bailey Dale is our cheap kick king in 2026 thus far, with a mammoth 29.45% of his overall disposals coming because he plays on from kick ins.
All hail the Cheap Kick King. Long may he reign.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
