Paddy Dow | 2021 Season Review

Written by Ari Stamatakos

SEASON SYNOPSIS

After only playing three games in season 2020, this was a do or die season for Paddy Dow. Either he played consistent first-team football, or he was out the door. And after he kicked a goal and had 18 touches against the Tigers in round 1, things were looking up. However, after a pretty underwhelming rest of the month, he was dropped until round 7 where he was subbed out of the game and didn’t return until round 12. This was where things started to go on the mend. 

He played good - to very good - football for the remainder of the season until the last 3 games where he tailed off a little bit. Despite this, he evolved as a player and became immensely more damaging coming out of stoppages. His explosiveness finally amounted to some good work and his kicking improved 10-fold.  

BEST PERFORMANCE

A theme could be building in these player reviews. The Round 20 match against the Saints brought out the best in many players and it is not different for Paddy Dow. He was one of the very few who played well the week prior, and he backed up that performance with an even better one. 

His 22 disposals weren’t a surprise, but his 15 uncontested possession and 5 marks showed a side of Dow which we haven't seen. He was able to spread the player very well and use his explosiveness to get into space and deliver brilliantly inside 50 countless times. 4 inside 50’s and 71% of his 22 touches coming in the attacking half of the ground, allowed Dow to be that damaging player we all knew he could be. 

This was the culmination of a really good period of form for Dow and surely has earned him a contract for next year. While his final few games of the year weren’t as good, if he can provide this performance on a relatively consistent basis next year, then we finally might get the player we all knew he could be. 

OFF-SEASON & 2021 OUTLOOK

With the speculation of Adam Cerra coming to the Blues. This could mean one of two things for Dow. He either goes to Fremantle in a pick&player swap, or he gets heavily-reduced midfield minutes in season 2022. While he is a different player to Cerra, you can’t fit everyone into the one midfield, especially if we are going to continue with the Zac Williams experiment over the pre-season. 

He needed to show signs of improvement or else he was out the door, and he definitely did that. This was his best season to date and despite the likes of Cerra - picked 2 picks after Dow - having a considerably better AFL career so far, we cannot deny the ability that he possesses and the game-changing talent that he can bring to the table. The contract still hasn’t been signed (at the time of writing), you would suspect it is only a matter of time until it is considering how many good signs he showed. 

2021 REPORT CARD RATING

B

STATUS HEADING INTO 2022

Fringe starting 22.