Realistically it's out of Carlton, Essendon and Brisbane, but the Saints could be a dark horse if they get a few injuries and revert to 2014 form. Not talking bottom 4 at all but I think Freo may slide next year.
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Yes I remember when Danger wasn't around in 2015, and your midfield played a key role in the mammoth score you kicked in the first half against us.
Duncan, Caddy, Blicavs.
No way.
Yes I remember when Danger wasn't around in 2015, and your midfield played a key role in the mammoth score you kicked in the first half against us.
Everyone rates midfields on two things: Contested Possessions and Clearances. In terms of differential, Essendon was bottom 4 in the former and bottom 5 in the latter. All this while having either a ruckman on one leg or having a bloke average 23 hitouts a game, which is a significant disadvantage, as well as your two best blocking mids in Hocking and Myers play 7 games between them (which was 6 games and about 3 minutes in reality). Add Leuenberger to the side and those two you should see a significant improvement, as seen by the numbers in 2014 when Essendon were top 6 in both categories.
Did Essendon's midfield lack depth this season? Yes, and that's why blokes like Kavanagh, O'Brien and Aylett were delisted and we went with a couple of younger players (like Parish and Francis) and Craig Bird instead. Another year in Z Merrett, Heppell not stranded by himself and forcing Howlett to become a depth mid will all help next year.
Our clearance game was the worst it's been since 2010, which means that our outside players had nowhere near the impact they could have done. Most people have Colyer, Fantasia, Laverde and Gleeson in Essendon's best 22, all of whom add pace to the middle group. Essendon's weakness came from lack of winning the pill, which having inside players like Hocking and Myers will definitely help with.It's simplistic to say everyone rates the midfield on two factors.
The best sides and midfields are those with the best combination of uncontested and contested possession as transition has become the number 1 facet of the game.
Hawthorn's midfield is so good because they have Issac Smith & Bradley Hill on the outside, the likes of Birchall also make them the best transition side in the competition.
Essendon's midfield is very one paced and lacks few players who break lines. Adding a plodder like Hocking does nothing to address that weakness.
Using clearances and contested ball as an indicator of a midfield is simplistic and incorrect.
Wouldn't be relying too heavily on luenberger. Great talent but he spends half of his time on the sidelines with injury.Everyone rates midfields on two things: Contested Possessions and Clearances. In terms of differential, Essendon was bottom 4 in the former and bottom 5 in the latter. All this while having either a ruckman on one leg or having a bloke average 23 hitouts a game, which is a significant disadvantage, as well as your two best blocking mids in Hocking and Myers play 7 games between them (which was 6 games and about 3 minutes in reality). Add Leuenberger to the side and those two you should see a significant improvement, as seen by the numbers in 2014 when Essendon were top 6 in both categories.
Did Essendon's midfield lack depth this season? Yes, and that's why blokes like Kavanagh, O'Brien and Aylett were delisted and we went with a couple of younger players (like Parish and Francis) and Craig Bird instead. Another year in Z Merrett, Heppell not stranded by himself and forcing Howlett to become a depth mid will all help next year.
I think our ruck strategy is to hope that he and Bellchambers aren't off the park at the same time...Wouldn't be relying too heavily on luenberger. Great talent but he spends half of his time on the sidelines with injury.
I think our ruck strategy is to hope that he and Bellchambers aren't off the park at the same time...
Statistically it's in our favour I think...Who will play more games out of those two and Rhys Stanley/Zac Smith?
Well, you've completely ballsed that up.Jones, Viney, Vince, Brayshaw, Tyson, Melksham, Watts, Trengove, Matt Jones and Newton.
Then kids like, Harmes, Petracca, Salem(Here cause more a HBF rate him though) and Oliver.
Watson, Heppell, Goddard, Zach Merrett, Myers, Stanton, Zaharakis, Hocking, Colyer, Howlett and Bird.
Then kids like, Laverde, Langford, Parish and Fantasia.
To say our midfield is up there with the worst is fine but... People in glass houses.
Leuenberger tapping to Watson, Heppell, Merrett and co? Yeah, I agreeWell, you've completely ballsed that up.
You've left out four of our best young talents in vandenBerg (already a BOG to his name in his first season of AFL), Stretch, Neal-Bullen and Kent.
Melksham will play off halfback and will have pressure to keep his spot.
Matt Jones will be lucky to play one game.
Watts isn't a midfielder.
Bugg and possibly Kennedy will be ahead of Newton.
So in summary: Gawn tapping to Vince, Jones, Tyson, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Trengove, vandenBerg, Salem, Stretch, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Kent, Bugg, Harmes, Kennedy and Newton.
I know which one I'm choosing.
ROFL.If we're talking Dark Horse, as the OP suggests, than Collingwood, Treloar and Aish certainly will hope. But the club has a number of other glaring deficiencies that they didn't address in the draft.
Otherwise its out of Brisbane, Carlton and Gold Coast for the spoon.
Great post. I just wrote a more in depth assessment of something similar. It seems a lot of people outside of Collingwood don't rate Collingwood. No surprise there though.If we're talking Dark Horse, as the OP suggests, than Collingwood, Treloar and Aish certainly will hope. But the club has a number of other glaring deficiencies that they didn't address in the draft.
Well, you've completely ballsed that up.
You've left out four of our best young talents in vandenBerg (already a BOG to his name in his first season of AFL), Stretch, Neal-Bullen and Kent.
Melksham will play off halfback and will have pressure to keep his spot.
Matt Jones will be lucky to play one game.
Watts isn't a midfielder.
Bugg and possibly Kennedy will be ahead of Newton.
So in summary: Gawn tapping to Vince, Jones, Tyson, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Trengove, vandenBerg, Salem, Stretch, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Kent, Bugg, Harmes, Kennedy and Newton.
I know which one I'm choosing.
Collingwood. Their list has been so over-hyped by their supporters (one in particular who does phantom drafts) and according to their fans every single one of their younger players is guaranteed to be a superstar, or apparently already is. The reality is that they're unproven, have only showed glimpses of potential and are still a long way off becoming half what their deluded supporters expect them to be.
They're the self-proclaimed trade week champions, but while they spent the whole trade period luring AT's girlfriend to Channel Nine studios, they forgot to address their glaring forward deficiencies. If they think adding Jeremy "Highlight Reel" Howe is going to solve their problems up front then they're in for a rude surprise come 2016.
Additionally, their coach has proven to be incompetent and tactically inept. He is steering them towards the bottom of the ladder at an alarming rate and their fans are happy to dismiss this descending as a 'rebuild', whereas most neutral supporters are aware of the bleeding obvious - Bucks is not a coach's a-hole.
The AFL abandoning the sub rule will also force their younger kids to run out games and they'll be exposed regularly by the big boys with massive endurance and they will have a lot of poor second halves, especially in the latter stages of the season. As they stumbled (or tanked as their supporters claim) towards the tail end of last season, we saw the real Collingwood.
To summarise the Pies in 2016:
- A young side with four promising kids (De Goey, Treloar, Adams, Grundy)
- One elite player (the lowest in the competition) in Scott Pendlebury
- A horrible forward line with a past it Travis Cloke and Dane Swan, as well as a young and unproven Darcy Moore
- A defence that will look serviceable at times, but will cop some large goal onslaughts throughout the season (similar to the Richmond game)
- Some disgruntled under-performing players (Sidebottom, Cloke and Reid) that want out due to the club overpaying unproven kids and poor list management
- Standard C-grade players that may emerge to become B-graders (Aish, Crisp, Langdon, Maynard)
- And the duds: Howe, Brown, Fasolo, Toovey, Broomhead, etc.
Prediction: 14th to 18th