Sixty marks in the past month of football has put the best aerialist in Goulburn Valley League well and truly back on the radar of opposition clubs.
After a slow start to 2023 reigning Kyabram best-and-fairest Lachie Smith is now well and truly making his mark on the competition.
Last year Smith took more intercept marks than any other player in the competition and was second overall (to Echuca’s premiership goal-kicker Ruory Kirkby) in contested and overall marking categories.
This year he has retained his crown as the top intercept marker (averaging 5.43 a game) in the competition and is top three for both his weekly contested (3.57) and overall marking (10.57) exploits.
After leaving the ground in the first quarter of the opening match against Rochester, where an eye injury impacted his early match tally of five marks, he was well down on his 2022 averages in the opening six rounds.
He took only four marks against Euroa in round six, not credited with a single intercept mark.
Ten intercept marks against Seymour the following week (among a season-high 19), another 11 against United (18 in total) and five against Shepparton Swans (14 marks overall) have clubs again kicking the ball in the opposite direction.
That trio of big marking performances helped Smith score highly according to GVL Data’s ranking points measurement, with totals of 150, 165 and 144, respectively.
Smith’s marking abilities are ranked as elite in the competition, while his average of 99.5 ranking points a game is classified as very good.
Smith also has 57 intercept possessions in 2023, the second most in the competition.