Is Luke Shuey a sneaky?

Win - $41 (TAB) Place - $11 (TAB) West Coast most votes - $2.25 (TAB)

The West Coast midfielder continues to be one of the most underrated players in the game, hidden away on the other side of the country away from the Melbourne football media. But as West Coast make their charge to a top-two finish, Shuey continues to string consistent football together.

- Shuey is averaging a career high 27 possessions per game, and is top ten in the AFL for average clearances (6.6 per game), equal fifth for stoppage clearances and top 20 in tackles – all key metrics in the vote-polling formula.

- West Coast have gone 8-1 the last 9 weeks, with Shuey the key. During this period, he’s ranked 11th in disposals, 6th for clearances and 4th for tackles. We have him potentially polling in 7 of West Coast’s last 9 games.

- Shuey isn’t a prolific poller – but has never polled badly unders according to our predictions in previous years. In 2017 we precited Shuey to poll 9.04 votes – he had 10. In 2018, we predicted 8.18 and he had 6. If Shuey is within 2-3 votes either side of our prediction, he’s certainly in the mix with the top contenders for 2019.

- The AFL Coaches do see the game differently, but it’s a very good gauge especially when it comes to midfielders. Shuey is currently fifth in the voting – not far off Tim Kelly, Bontempelli and Lachie Neale.

- Taking nothing away from Elliot Yeo or Jack Redden, but they polled 15 and 10 votes respectively in 2018 – that won’t happen this year. Expect Gaff to continue to poll as per usual, and a spike in Dom Sheed, but expect Shuey to pick up a lot of those votes leftover by Yeo and Redden.

- Has he gone unnoticed in previous years? Potentially – but nothing a Norm Smith Medal can’t fix…