Smith, by my reckoning, has six best on ground votes coming his way at the September 19 count — all in Bombers’ winning games.
At GV Creamery Oval on Saturday he set an unofficial league record when he pulled in 17 forward-50 marks and converted those into 16 scoring shots — finishing with 11.5.
In basketball terms, Smith has completed the triple-double for marking defenders on three occasions this season — 20-plus possessions and double figure tallies in marks and intercept marks.
He was one of three alternate avenues to goal, returning mid-field star Zach Keogh and teenage star Charlie Barnett kicking seven between them in the Bombers tally of 23.17 (155), to Benalla’s 8.6 (54).
Injuries and suspension to Tom Holman, Kyle Mueller and, most recently, Kayne Pettifer, forced Kyabram coach Paul Newman to move the league’s best intercept marking player into attack three weeks ago.
He kicked two goals in the round 14 loss to Seymour, then bagged five of Kyabram’s nine goals in the loss to top team Echuca and took his season’s tally to 20 with 11 on Saturday.
Smith has now taken the most marks in the GVL competition in 2022, ahead of Echuca forward Ruory Kirkby.
He also has the most intercept marks, by a big margin, and is second with contested marks.
On Saturday, against Benalla, he finished with 18 marks and 24 possessions.
He had unlikely goalkicking support from Keogh, returning after five weeks on the sidelines, and teenager Barnett.
Keogh kicked four majors from seven scoring shots (three behinds) and had 30 possessions, while Barnett kicked three goals and had 25 possessions, along with five tackles and a handful of inside-50s and score assists.
Prior to the weekend Keogh had kicked just one goal in 10 games and Barnett hadn’t played a game for the club due to Victorian Country NAB Under-18 championship, Bendigo Pioneers and school football duties.
Barnett will return to play with the Pioneers, on Sunday (August 21), in the final home- and-away game at the Queen Elizabeth Oval against the Murray Bushrangers.
The Pioneers will then be involved in the wildcard round on August 27 and 28.
Aiden Robinson was the other multiple goalkicker, bagging three majors to take his tally to 11 for the season.
Anthony DePasquale (25 goals), Tom Holman (27) and Cooper Vick (29), the team’s top three goalkickers, did not hit the scoreboard.
All contributed to the win, DePasquale had 28 possessions and six inside-50s, while Holman took seven marks (18 possessions) and Vick, also 18 disposals played his role further afield.
Kyabram’s season long average of 276 disposals and 72 marks was dwarfed by the GVL Data statistics from the weekend’s round 16 match.
The weekend’s game also returned the biggest differential between the Bombers contested and uncontested possessions. The 2022 average of 133 contested and 151 uncontested was turned on its ear when the Bombers had 261 (of a 371 total) uncontested possessions.
The Bombers had 371 disposals and took 137 marks, but one statistic that didn’t change was the free kick count.
Kaine Herbert, as has been the case for much of the home-and-away season, topped the disposal count with 38 possessions. He had a game high 13 inside-50s as the Bombers won that count 60-31.
Four Bombers, including Smith, took more than a dozen marks — mostly uncontested.
Jason Morgan pulled in 13 marks, DePasquale 16 and Keogh 15.
Kyabram lost the count by double,13-26, Keogh continuing his season long “love-hate’’ relationship with the umpires by giving away five free kicks and earning three in his favour.