The stats

AFL games: 18

Disposals per game: 16.7

Marks: 4

Kicks: 8.4

Tackles: 5.3

Total goals: 5

Review

There were many players at Hawthorn in 2017 who discovered a new role for themselves as the season went on, and Daniel Howe was one of them.

Having missed out on senior footy in the first month of the year, the 21-year old played his first game of the year in the win over West Coast in Round 5.

Howe then played the following eight games in the lead up to the mid-season bye, positioned predominantly on the half-back flank.

Yet after the bye, the Yarrawonga product was tasked with a new responsibility of tagging the opposition’s best midfielder.

This started with Adelaide’s Rory Sloane in Round 14, who Howe kept to a minimal impact.

In the following weeks, Howe would find himself on other superstars of the game including Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury and Giant Dylan Shiel.

The 191cm midfielder will have benefited greatly from keeping a close eye on some of the competition’s best this season, with those experiences set to hold him in good stead for the future.

A word from: Brett Ratten

“Daniel was a player that wasn’t playing much senior footy in the first half of the year.

“But he then got a role on Adelaide’s Rory Sloane in a run-with role, where he really applied himself (in Round 14). His application to the task was great and he denied Sloane the ball, which he got a lot of confidence from.

“He then started to play on the best midfielders each week, some of them he won and some of them he didn’t. But he got some really good experience from that.

“His ability to compete in tight and be courageous is great. He is one of those players that always gives his all and we can’t question his desire or competitiveness. He is always throwing his body around with not much regard for it. He is a very tough nut.”

Read: Ryan Burton's season in review