What a midfield we are going to have.

[raikkonen64]

The young fab for (Sylvia, Mclean, Beamer and Jones)
chuck in trapper, bruce and green. Its looking pretty good.

I think we should chuck Jones straight into the deep end, he has the body already for footy.

[The Shev]

Like Sylvia and Moloney, he has the body to step right in to AFL football in his first season. I am sure that Daniher will gradually introduce him to the senior level, like he has done recently with Brock and Col, and even Scott Thompson a couple of years ago. He will probably give Jones some time in the Wizard Cup and then play him occasionally during the year. But there is no immediate rush to play him every week.

Cameron has done a wonderful job recently with our young midfielders. Now we have the basis to build a strong midfield on for the next 10 years. All we will need is a couple of young 'outside' players to complement the likes of Moloney, McLean, Sylvia and Jones and our midfield will be complete.

[Bartram_Class]

We cant chuck him in their too quickly, would be much better to ease him in as Daniher did with Sylvia especially.

[dazzledavey36]

We cant chuck him in their too quickly, would be much better to ease him in as Daniher did with Sylvia especially.

reminds me a bit of sam mitchell he ability to win the clearance is tremendous!!

im drooling right now on our midfield with jones there now

[The Shev]

Jones seems like a true clearance player - the exact type we need given Thompson left us. With his ability to win the ball out of the middle, the direct crash 'n bash style of Moloney, the accountability and clean disposal of McLean and the explosiveness of Sylvia, these four could really be exciting to watch in the future!

[Deestroy]

If they all develop as planned then yes, it will be a very strong group.

Could still use another inside midfielder (Beamer is not one) to complete the group.

We also need a quality (Kirk quality not Godfrey quality) tagger as most of the players mentioned are fairly unaccountable.

Perhaps Bell can become a tough tagger in the midfield long term.

[davey_magik]

If they all develop as planned then yes, it will be a very strong group.

Could still use another inside midfielder (Beamer is not one) to complete the group.

We also need a quality (Kirk quality not Godfrey quality) tagger as most of the players mentioned are fairly unaccountable.

Perhaps Bell can become a tough tagger in the midfield long term.

I was thinking that as well. He is quick, very strong one-on-one and next year I think Daniher should start giving him some run-with roles (Like Roos did with Luke Ablett this year).
I'm not too worried about inside with Mclean and Jones looking the main two and Sylvia probably a bit of both. You are right on Beamer, he is simply a very tough wingman. He will get the hard ball and I like him starting in the centre square but he isn't an inside player.

[Supermercado]

Great. Top midfield and rubbish backline. Can't wait to win everything out of the centre and get nothing up front when Neitz retires as well..

[AllStar7]

Great. Top midfield and rubbish backline. Can't wait to win everything out of the centre and get nothing up front when Neitz retires as well..


Our backline is not rubbish, it's just unsettled.
With the emergance of Carroll and Ferguson this year, we have most FF's covered. We lack class, but hopefully Rivers continues to step-up. I also have faith that Warnock will come good.

As for our forward line, there is a reason why we recruited Dunn and Newton, plus there is Nick Smith (if he can stop getting injured).

Good, tough, accountable midfields win premierships. Kicking a winning score, or defending a score is not going to be such an issue if our midfield can win contested possession.

[melbournemartin]

i do agree that an accurate description of Beamer is a tough winger but you do sometimes find him at the bottom of packs and hopefully he can develope that.

now with jones, mclean and sylvia shovelling the ball out to bruce, yze, tj, moloney and green, we should be able to compete with the top midfields (saints hawks eagles lions swans) they may not be as good but they can be competitive.

also dont forget McDonald, he still has value until our young guns fully mature.

i cant wait until first kick off in the pre season cup :D:D:D

[davey_magik]

i do agree that an accurate description of Beamer is a tough winger but you do sometimes find him at the bottom of packs and hopefully he can develope that.

now with jones, mclean and sylvia shovelling the ball out to bruce, yze, tj, moloney and green, we should be able to compete with the top midfields (saints hawks eagles lions swans) they may not be as good but they can be competitive.

also dont forget McDonald, he still has value until our young guns fully mature.

i cant wait until first kick off in the pre season cup :D:D

Throw in an AA ruckman who is in the top 3 in the AFL and it looks pretty damn good. Looking at that it has good depth and 06-08 is probably our window of opportunity.
Jeez I know it can be easy to overrate a side in the pre-season but that midfield certainly looks pretty damn good :p .
BTW who are we playing in the first round of the NAB Cup?

[HighRoller]

I just hope Jones impresses in the NAB cup that way he might get a gig early on in the year. Maybe Jones can come in for someone like McDonald who should really now at this stage be a depth/bench player. Our backline has its weaknesses but it does have some good players. Rivers will only improve and Carroll looked fantastic towards the end there. Whelan was being hailed AA back pocket at one point in the year and we know how hard he goes so really slot Yze back there as well and we should be fine.