Analysis The Midfield

[The Rusty Trombone]

We do miss the likes of Jackson and Tuck at the coalface, but way more than personnel issues, we still have one of the worst midfield systems in the league.

Maric is looking more and more like a liability as his workload of recent seasons continues to take its toll, but we don't tactically react to counter that probability. After today, I suspect he will have the worst hit-out to advantage ratio in the league by quite a long way (he was a long last after rd.1). We don't tag anyone, Hardwick's got way too many footy smarts for that. We seldom help our tagged mids out with anything resembling a chop-out. We rely on individual brilliance and raw ball-winning skill, there's very little tactical nouse going on and when the brilliance is blunted by hard tags and the fall of the ball isn't going our way in the centre, as we've seen, we can get wiped off the map by a lot of sides with a lot less talented players.

Arguably bigger than all that, the development issue.

As you'll note, quite a few of the players on your list sante, are relatively young and recently developed players - Smith, Hill, Shiels, Langford, Hannebery, Parker, Hartlett, Wines, Polec...I'm sure there'd be some debate over the definitions of that list and add or subtract here and there. Point is, we haven't developed our draftee mids in that age bracket as well as the better clubs.

Further than that, three years ago, I think you'd be hard pressed to find many on this board who would trade a single one of the mids on those top sides' lists (those who were even playing at that stage) for either of Martin or Cotchin. Or many in the AFL community who would for that matter. Hodge and/or Mitchell might have tempted a few, but with how many years they had left compared to our two 'future champions?'

So they haven't been developed into champion midfielders in line with anyone's expectations either.

Either everyone is consistently wrong about the potential of our midfielders (including each new batch of draftees since Cotchin), or there's a consistent pattern of insufficiently fulfilled development.

I started a thread last night about Maric looking sluggish the first two rounds , him not getting any younger and the fact we do not have a genuine ruck option behind him putting pressure on his spot and it was closed for trolling. If people instantly expect the players to have the exact season as last year week in week out then we are in trouble. We all know he works hard and has been nothing short of a champion but his last two weeks have been down but he'll go to training this week knowing he's playing next week as he should because Hampson and Vickery are not up to it by a long way.

It's not healthy and we sat on our hands last trade and draft period happy with our lot.

Next week Maric will be one out against Stephan Martin and Matt Learnburger which will be a very tough day at the office for a bloke that is out of form.

I've got an idea " let's bring Tyron or Hammer in to help him?" Wow

 

[The Rusty Trombone]

We have a very serious ruck problem don't we? May cost us finals.

Considering Maric missed half a year of footy last year we certainly have rose coloured glasses as to our back ups.

 

[tigerz18]

What we are missing is that really big bodied bruiser that the best teams have.
Hawthorn have Lewis, SHiels and Hodge
Sydney have Kennedy, Jack and Parker
Port have Wines
Geelong have Selwood
Freo have Mundy and Barlow
we have no-one. This is the 1 thing we are sorely missing since Tuck finished.
One or 2 more big bodied midfielders and that releases Cotch and Lids some more. All our other positions are pretty good at the moment, we are just losing it in the midfield

 

[The Rusty Trombone]

What we are missing is that really big bodied bruiser that the best teams have.
Hawthorn have Lewis, SHiels and Hodge
Sydney have Kennedy, Jack and Parker
Port have Wines
Geelong have Selwood
Freo have Mundy and Barlow
we have no-one. This is the 1 thing we are sorely missing since Tuck finished.
One or 2 more big bodied midfielders and that releases Cotch and Lids some more. All our other positions are pretty good at the moment, we are just losing it in the midfield

Time to promote Matt Thomas then. He's a really good trainer and gets everything out of himself on the training track .

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the quality of our midfielders . I do however have massive concerns about our midfield setups . Our first possession from a clearance is backwards or if Cotchin wins it sometimes sidewards after baulking a player . We rely so heavily on players from behind the contest to provide run and carry which often is lids or sheds .
Cotchin , Martin , Edwards and lids should never start on the attacking side of a clearance we need them starting on the defensive side and heading toward our goal when they receive it . Let the blokes who can't get through traffick like Miles , Grigg , Hunt and Vlaustin even, play the role of distributor . I also think there is a over emphasis of deepness of entires which tends to see the players not kick to that 55-45 out area .

 

[wegetpumped]

Can't really blame the mids when you have only one defender playing out of his skin and a crappy nonfunctional forward line. Rebound killed us. Did anyone see the goal we copped when vlastin didn't go hard at the footy and ellis was running away instead of shepherding?

 

[TigerTime88]

I dont think our midfield is too bad. We just need some of the younger players either playing or playing in their correct positions.

I actually think we are one player short from every line. Our backline is our strongest line. Include Astbury and Elton and remove Chaplin and Grimes making Rance 3rd man up. **** imagine Rance playing loose.

I would look at bringing in
Danger
Carlisle
Zack Smith

Or but it's a big risk but could pay off with dividends

Danger
Kruezer
Sheil/Hannebury -----------T.Mitchel

The problem is we need to have a big year to bring in these types. The most gettable of those is Tom Mitchell. Would love to go hard and get him.

Next year our midfield would look a bit better:

Cotchin, Deledio, Martin, Mitchell, Conca, Ellis, Ellis, Edwards, McIntosh, Miles

 

[The Rusty Trombone]

The problem is we need to have a big year to bring in these types. The most gettable of those is Tom Mitchell. Would love to go hard and get him.

Next year our midfield would look a bit better:

Cotchin, Deledio, Martin, Mitchell, Conca, Ellis, Ellis, Edwards, McIntosh, Miles

We tried 3 times to bring players to the club last year . Two have busted arse injuries in Trengrove and Winderlich and we dodged 2 bullets and the other decided Collingwood was a better option. Keep playing like we did yesterday and Hampson will be our last big trade ever.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

We tried 3 times to bring players to the club last year . Two have busted arse injuries in Trengrove and Winderlich and we dodged 2 bullets and the other decided Collingwood was a better option. Keep playing like we did yesterday and Hampson will be our last big trade ever.

Hampson is 201cms

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

We are missing Conca badly for some real grunt work.
I think quite urgently we need some bigger bodies protecting.
It was a good point earlier comparing Cotchin to Murphy.
These two blokes are getting bashed up because they are doing the donkey work.
If they played for a good team they'd be superstars for sure.
It's exactly why a bloke like Petterd and Thomas spent time in the middle last year.
I was pretty impressed by Martin yesterday actually as he played like a fair dinkum midfielder.
Obviously blokes like Ricky and Thomas let us down in other areas so until we get hold of or develop some brutes, Cotchin will get bashed,pressured,harassed and basically turned into a sideways kicking crab.
Conca will help immensely for starters.
I think Mark Murphy would be missing McLean and Robinson for certain.
Don't underestimate the absence of Daniel Jackson.
It's absolutely massive.

 

[docko911]

We rate our midfield like we still have Jackson and Tuck, we don't.

The really sad thing is Hardwick, and whoever our midfield coach is? Maybe one of those seagulls at the MCG, have not developed a single midfielder in 5+ years. Dusty is worse in the midfield than when he arrived, Cotch learnt from Cousins, Miles taught himself, Conca hasn't improved, Vlastuin hasn't improved, Grigg hasn't improved, Maybe Sheds but he is a part timer, Deledio barely plays midfield.

Why haven't we thrown cash at a gun. What about Voss who went to Port? He at least had a good midfield in Brisbane, You can't say Redden and Rockliff were guaranteed guns from where they came from. We should be cashed up as * go knock on Lennys door with 500k a year. The 5000 members we just lost yesterday would have paid for it.

Still think the club club is run by muppets. Money means s**t in sport, we should be spending every cent we have on infield success, the AFL will prop us up not that we'd need it if we won a flag!

 

[wegetpumped]

Still think the club club is run by muppets. Money means s**t in sport, we should be spending every cent we have on infield success, the AFL will prop us up not that we'd need it if we won a flag![/QUOTE]

Money do you forget we still have a war chest that means something?

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

Throw the sink at Mathew Knights to coach our midfield and * Lade and williams non chocco off .
We need to become more attacking from clearances and with Lade we have gone backwards , whilst I am not sure if Williams isn't trolling the club .

 

[rammbo]

We so miss tucky. IMO we need Thomas in there yeah lol all ya like but we miss that big bodied get the ball at any cost inside mid .i like miles but too small for this role .id. hav a serious look at getting rance in the middle too we so need to change what were doing as we r going nowhere with this current set up

 

[AJ Green]

If we get a clearance, it's always a hack helicopter kick. Never get clean and dangerous centre clearances.

 

[sante]

Can't really blame the mids when you have only one defender playing out of his skin and a crappy nonfunctional forward line. Rebound killed us. Did anyone see the goal we copped when vlastin didn't go hard at the footy and ellis was running away instead of shepherding?

It's the other way round mate. Defenders will always struggle if the midfield don't apply enough pressure down the ground. The doggies waltzed the ball down the field all day with no pressure, we are lucky we have Rance who probably prevented half a dozen goals.


Pretty good discussion so far though.

It's an interesting topic and I think Shiel and Mitchell would be great gets for a our midfield next season. Both good in and under and can both kick.

Conca is the one we need to step up in the short term. Hopefully he's back this week and plays midfield.

 

[SplintWhisky]

We have no player with the crash and bash mentality. We need an inside mid who will put their body on the line each week and win the hard ball. To be honest Miles is the only one who seem willing to take a hit but we need a bigger body in there with little regard to personal safety

 

[Tiger7374]

I dont think our midfield is too bad. We just need some of the younger players either playing or playing in their correct positions.

I actually think we are one player short from every line. Our backline is our strongest line. Include Astbury and Elton and remove Chaplin and Grimes making Rance 3rd man up. **** imagine Rance playing loose.

I would look at bringing in
Danger
Carlisle
Zack Smith

Or but it's a big risk but could pay off with dividends

Danger
Kruezer
Sheil/Hannebury -----------T.Mitchel

I can't like enough the thought of Rance being our loose man if Astbury and Elton can deal with the big boys....because Rance is so much more than either Grimes or Chaplain. Hell he is better than them combined, meaning Elton is a freebie...lets find out please

 

[Cevap_Roll]

I can't like enough the thought of Rance being our loose man if Astbury and Elton can deal with the big boys....because Rance is so much more than either Grimes or Chaplain. Hell he is better than them combined, meaning Elton is a freebie...lets find out please

I think every Richmond supporter wants to see if it will work. I dont understand why Dimma cant see the same. To make things worse Chaplin is in the leadership group which means he wont get dropped.

Elton may not make it but at least give him a chance. If it works we will have a fantastic backline for many years.

 

[docko911]

Still think the club club is run by muppets. Money means s**t in sport, we should be spending every cent we have on infield success, the AFL will prop us up not that we'd need it if we won a flag!

Money do you forget we still have a war chest that means something?[/QUOTE]

Yeah we have money but we still have s**t coaches and support staff. We should be spending the money not hoarding it so the board and staff can get unfounded pay rises. Improving our players and winning games is the most important thing for any club so spend the ******* money.

 

[kozi]

Our midfield doesn't work hard enough and lacks class

Pretty much sums it up. Class takes time.. but working hard is a mindset. A mindset we don't have.

 

[Deanos]

I dont think our midfield is too bad. We just need some of the younger players either playing or playing in their correct positions.

I actually think we are one player short from every line. Our backline is our strongest line. Include Astbury and Elton and remove Chaplin and Grimes making Rance 3rd man up. **** imagine Rance playing loose.

I would look at bringing in
Danger
Carlisle
Zack Smith

Or but it's a big risk but could pay off with dividends

Danger
Kruezer
Sheil/Hannebury -----------T.Mitchel

I'd like to see us go after Daniel Gorringe, if we were going to get a ruckman in. Has some serious talent and could be Maric's replacement, when he retires.

 

[kempinsky]

something from left field. what do people think of throwing morris into the midfield? certainly add a bit of toughness. would give his all. not sure the forward experiment worked that well last week.

 

[DrMike]

Some people have short memories

 

[wegetpumped]

Can't see the blame on our mids. Look at the stats against dogs. How many more times they got it in our 50 to there's so on . Even though Maric was well beaten . Stats by our forward's say it all. We also blame defender's what can they do when those said forward's don't tackle,even attempt to chase? Wasn't Morris put forward to apply pressure why wasn't he doing it on doggies captain?