Stats are only part of the picture.
I get accused (unfairly) of being rabidly anti-Judd on this site, when in reality, I am rabidly against the unfair advantage he gets over other players due to his heightened media profile. That's not his fault, of course, but there's no doubting he gets more softly marked than other players, predominantly because the media has taken a huge shine to his running, line-breaking playing style (as they did with Tim Watson in the eighties).
Judd is also helped at this point by playing in a far better side with far greater support, but he is also allowed to play a game style in which his high points are more readily accentuated. West Coast, with its well documented forward woes, instruct their midfielders to run the ball more and like to get Judd with the ball inside 50 shooting at goal, because midfield goals compensate for their lack of forward firepower. As Judd doesn't have an accurate long disposal, running with the ball tends to suit him better as well.
Hawthorn also has forward deficiencies, but prefer to have their midfielders kicking predominantly to forwards, as they are trying to nurture and develop a capable forward structure that will be a genuine premiership force at some point in the future. Most of Hodge's goals tend to be long running goals from about 60m, and while I'd like to see him have his head to kick more of these, I can understand the bigger picture. That said, at this point our forwards are generally not at a sufficient developmental point to fully exploit a lot of Hodge's delivery. As the Hawthorn forward structure improves, I'd expect Hodge's stock to go up further.
Its true that Judd gleans more contested possession out of the centre than Hodge does. This reality, however, is also obscured somewhat by the different capabilities of each player and the different needs of each team.
At West Coast, Judd is preferred for getting midfield contested possession as his pace and power proves invaluable for breaking the lines and if he can't break the line, he can get a handball away to the more skilled ball users like Kerr & Cousins.
At Hawthorn, Mitchell is the preferred first-up centre player, as he knows how to get the pill, but his disposal skills are not the best on offer. Its better then, to have Hodge just off the play and uncluttered, so that Mitchell can get the ball to him and he can then use his creative kicking to effect.
That said, when Mitchell went down last year, and Hodge was called upon to do more grunt work in the centre, his contested possession rate rose markedly.
Ironically, it is a player like Judd with his pace and line-breaking that would most improve our midfield at this point. That said, I'm more than happy to supplement our midfield with skilled & pacy young outside types, as I maintain that there is no way that Judd would be able to service a quality forward structure in the same way that a player like Hodge could.
