Autopsy The Midfield

[flamingEMBERS]

Apologies Flamers, thought 'WE' might've been a typo meaning 'WCE', which sounds a lot better in that sentence.
As I said, light-hearted.

as such i am sorry. This club has had me at ruins since 2007. Old heads running the club that need to GTFO. Your time is done. You ****ed up majorly and all they did was sack players and wash their hands. Unfortunately we kept the top shits in power as they'd likely be unemployed otherwise. FML.

I won't be cured until Nisbett is gone. A premiership will ease the pain but that egg must go.

 

[Dark Sharks]

Another midfield thread is just what we needed, can never have too many

 

[CM9000]

Another midfield thread is just what we needed, can never have too many

Mind linking me to the most recent one?

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Simple, drop Priddis and start to bring in the kids and play them in the middle. Its the only way we'll know if we have anything decent to work with for the furture coz we aint winning a flag with the same midfield we've been playing for the last 5+ years.

 

[avishka5]

Another midfield thread is just what we needed, can never have too many

Still not as repetitive as you misprouncing mastens name.

 

[Agent93]

* The production of Priddis has dropped off significantly, in all key statistics.

He's down 2 kicks and 3 clearances on 2015. Everything else is negligible, however given the way he plays you could argue that clearances is the only key statistic.

Honestly, with NicNat out I feel we're treading water this season to the point where it might be useful to tank to get a better first rounder. Or put another way, our best mid is Shuey, the club loves the way he plays, and we've just drafted another Shuey. So we're waiting for him to come along so we can have two Shueys instead of one.

 

[Feeling Groovy]

I'm not a fan of tanking and think we should always send a team out that can win and tries to win. That said, there is nothing wrong with looking to the future and playing more youth, with the inevitable result being we will likely lose more games. The whole world can see that our midfield is our problem and we can't keep playing the same one dimensional, small or slow players (all together) and expect to gain on our opposition who seem to be playing faster footy etc. Personally I would like to take the pain sooner, rather than later, of mixing the midfield up as I really don't see us as a threat this year the way things are and changes could actually be the spark needed this year anyway.

 

[eagles rule]

with Rawlings moving to list manager now I expect the drafting to be pretty good like last year ..

No complaints really with Venables ,RothAm ,Rioli..and the trading to get Vardy .Mitchell and Petrie shows he can get deals done ..

 

[kranky al]

with Rawlings moving to list manager now I expect the drafting to be pretty good like last year ..

No complaints really with Venables ,RothAm ,Rioli..and the trading to get Vardy .Mitchell and Petrie shows he can get deals done ..

Yeah its tough work getting players under fa


<sarcasm>

 

[avishka5]

Sheed to me looks like he is at a stage where he could consistently get 22-25 possessions a game when played on ball. Sure he doesn't have the best fitness and can go missing a bit but he can still contribute on the outside. Sheed is pure silk and his grunt work has improved vastly IMO and while we got dominated he had a team high 7 clearances while renowned clearance players like priddis and mitchell didnt hold up their bargain. Every game sheed isnt used as main on baller, the more he is being wasted.

 

[dajesmac]

It's a bit ridiculous that we opt for a slower, more inside midfield composition and yet are one of the worst sides in the league for clearances and contested possessions. I'm not sure how much of that is owed to lack of personnel or if it's a structures issue. Priddis, Sheed, Shuey and Redden are all reasonable clearance players in their own right (Redden moreso before joining WC) and yet we continually get smashed in these stats.

On the other hand, our outside mids have been struggling too. Gaff is a proven quality mid but for whatever reason has lacked his usual impact this season. Masten has stood up to some extent but remains inherently limited, Jetta has been poor despite one very good performance and Duggan really has struggled to have much of a positive net impact in any game he's played.

Our medium term midfield prospects remain bleak and IMO it needs a bit of a reboot. Going forward, Shuey, Gaff and Sheed are probably the only midfielders we can be relatively confident about. Other than that:

Elliot Yeo: Has definite midfield potential but at this rate it appears he will remain a rebounding defender rotating through the guts.
Jack Redden: Horrible footballer.
Liam Duggan: Was a promising junior but has serious question marks on his game - at best he currently projects to become a role-playing wingman/flanker.
Luke Partington: A high production mid who needs to round out his game better to make it at the next level. Could become a good player but lacks standout qualities and projects more as a role playing small mid rather than a genuine prime mover.
Daniel Venables: Has genuine star potential. A well rounded midfielder with a strong contested game - can take an overhead mark, kicks goals and also possesses speed and class. Very composed player and IMO is a safe bet to be a good AFL mid at the very least. He's yet to prove he can sustain the production to be a full time midfielder long term but he's had no real opportunity to develop/prove this.
Jackson Nelson: Has some midfield potential but seems likely to remain in his defensive role for the medium term.
Kurt Mutimer: Has developed into a genuine inside grunt. Plays to a reasonably high standard for EP particularly given he is a 19 year old mid. Seems to have poise and composure on the outside and has a penetrating and relatively accurate left boot. Performed relatively well in an unknown HFF flank role at AFL level and should be very happy with us own progress to date. Probably lacks composure on the inside and tends to be a bit of a 'hack it' mid but this will come with time. It's hard to assess his potential accurately but I am comfortable in suggesting he will be a solid AFL midfielder going forward.
Malcolm Karpany: Has the skillset but seems unlikely to ever have the production of an AFL mid. Hopefully he can carve out a career as a HFF with stints on the ball.
Tom Cole: A bit of an unknown quantity who hasn't really built on a promising first season. Plays as a defender for East Perth but could end up being developed as an outside midfielder. Has above average pace and skills. Will be interesting to follow his development.
Josh Rotham: An oversized back flanker who excellent skills by hand and foot and possesses genuine speed. Very light frame but if developed properly I think could become a very damaging wingman. One to watch for the future for sure.
Jordan Snadden: Haven't seen much of Snadden but it seems like he possesses some definite AFL qualities. Seems like a long shot to make it.

Overall, it appears questionable that we will be able to replace Priddis and Mitchell without experiencing a definite stutter. With a lack of quality mids requesting trades to Perth I think the midfield needs to remain a draft focus (along with a KPF). The league is littered with quality WA mids we could try and lure home in the future but they will cost a premium (Acres, SPP, J.Martin) and so in the mean time there needs to be a continued push to improve the talent coming in from below.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

He's down 2 kicks and 3 clearances on 2015. Everything else is negligible, however given the way he plays you could argue that clearances is the only key statistic.

Honestly, with NicNat out I feel we're treading water this season to the point where it might be useful to tank to get a better first rounder. Or put another way, our best mid is Shuey, the club loves the way he plays, and we've just drafted another Shuey. So we're waiting for him to come along so we can have two Shueys instead of one.

His lack of impact on the chase is apparent even more now. We need to be playing more players through the midfield and not just park a dude there for a game. We should do what North did with Swallow. Play him forward. If he can be a smart player with his body work, see the game against the dogs where he took the contested grab, I feel like his set shot has been reliable of his career, he could be damaging as a rotation. Obviously we'd lose pace up forward but thats fine if he's kicking goals. OTherwise goodbye sweet prince.

 

[Coasters7]

Although Priddis has lost it that's only half the problem. All our role players are lazy because of the status of our spine. Kennedy is our best player so the ballas attracted to him. Mitchell and Priddis are brownlow medalists, it's not a coincidence that we played better when Priddis was out. The only thing he can do is the inside things so the other mids sit out and wait for either him or Mitchell to go get it. Interested to see how smooth the inside 50s are without JK there. Our elite guys are almost too good making it obvious where the ball is going next

 

[langdon19]

Does anyone else get pissed watching Ebert, Selwood and Rosa run around?

 

[Gizza]

Does anyone else remember when shuey was s**t yet we kept playing him in the midfield despite being s**t and slowly he became good.

Nah fkuc it - forward flank them

Thats how other clubs create good mids innit

Since when was Shuey s**t? He didn't play much in his first season and came runner-up in the Rising Star in his second.

 

[new breed]

Our future midfielders are not too bad , they can get the ball okay but not always clean and sure with there clearances .

SPP tonight took a few clean clearances , we have some capable players coming through but need good skills .
Venables seems good in this area .

 

[Woobla Stainz]

Who are our Midfield and stoppage caoches? Cox and Hickmont? I think we need some new ones.

 

[squashface]

Does anyone else get pissed watching Ebert, Selwood and Rosa run around?

Ebert would have been nice to keep but Rosa is at the end of his career plus is riddled by injury and we all know how deplorable Scooter was towards the end of his West Coast life so he kind of had to leave tbh.

So no, happy for them.

 

[boondy]

With a loss to GWS on the back of Shuey's absence, I thought I'd start a thread to discuss our midfield and what we can do to change it.

I've come up with a few certainties:
* The production of Priddis has dropped off significantly, in all key statistics.
* We don't have a ruck.
* Sam Mitchell is pure silk and must to be kept in the side.
* All our fulltime, part time and potential midfielders are available:
- Luke Shuey
- Matt Priddis
- Sam Mitchell
- Dom Sheed
- Liam Duggan
- Elliot Yeo
- Jackson Nelson
- Luke Partington
- Daniel Venables
- Tom Cole
- Kurt Mutimer
- Andrew Gaff
- Chris Masten
- Jack Redden
- Mark Hutchings
- Sharrod Wellingham

Considering these things, what do we change? How do we fix the midfield?

I cant understand why our Captain doesnt show some balls and put his hand up to play in the midfield . Lead from the front . Its not like he is too small . Its not like he is too big .

 

[kranky al]

Ebert would have been nice to keep but Rosa is at the end of his career plus is riddled by injury and we all know how deplorable Scooter was towards the end of his West Coast life so he kind of had to leave tbh.

So no, happy for them.

Rosa was the one that hurt the most AND the least - 7 weeks on the sidelines - 4 weeks in to get form - 5 great games then pow injured and 7 weeks on the sidelines again.
Would have been an all time eagle if he could have stayed on the park.

never understand the ebert hate. Whenever hes brought up the same people who defend priddis to the ends of the earth slam him for s**t disposal???

Like wtf - what sort of parallel universe are we in here - do you have any idea of the cognitive dissonance you need to posess to slag his disposal whilst defending priddis'?

He has a few things he does a lot better than priddis - can overhead mark well, defensively solid - can chase, has some pace, can kick a ball 50m.

Has a few things he doesnt do as well - doesnt get as much of it.

Id suggest that if you overlook champion data stats and do a ball by ball analysis of his game he would have a superior de.


Scooter on the other hand was headed for the captaincy - but badly injured himself and never came back - people forget how good he was in his club champion year.

 

[kranky al]

Since when was Shuey s**t? He didn't play much in his first season and came runner-up in the Rising Star in his second.

Yeah you are quite correct - im conflating him with scooter.

 

[domo]

It's a bit ridiculous that we opt for a slower, more inside midfield composition and yet are one of the worst sides in the league for clearances and contested possessions. I'm not sure how much of that is owed to lack of personnel or if it's a structures issue. Priddis, Sheed, Shuey and Redden are all reasonable clearance players in their own right (Redden moreso before joining WC) and yet we continually get smashed in these stats.

On the other hand, our outside mids have been struggling too. Gaff is a proven quality mid but for whatever reason has lacked his usual impact this season. Masten has stood up to some extent but remains inherently limited, Jetta has been poor despite one very good performance and Duggan really has struggled to have much of a positive net impact in any game he's played.

Our medium term midfield prospects remain bleak and IMO it needs a bit of a reboot. Going forward, Shuey, Gaff and Sheed are probably the only midfielders we can be relatively confident about. Other than that:

Elliot Yeo: Has definite midfield potential but at this rate it appears he will remain a rebounding defender rotating through the guts.
Jack Redden: Horrible footballer.
Liam Duggan: Was a promising junior but has serious question marks on his game - at best he currently projects to become a role-playing wingman/flanker.
Luke Partington: A high production mid who needs to round out his game better to make it at the next level. Could become a good player but lacks standout qualities and projects more as a role playing small mid rather than a genuine prime mover.
Daniel Venables: Has genuine star potential. A well rounded midfielder with a strong contested game - can take an overhead mark, kicks goals and also possesses speed and class. Very composed player and IMO is a safe bet to be a good AFL mid at the very least. He's yet to prove he can sustain the production to be a full time midfielder long term but he's had no real opportunity to develop/prove this.
Jackson Nelson: Has some midfield potential but seems likely to remain in his defensive role for the medium term.
Kurt Mutimer: Has developed into a genuine inside grunt. Plays to a reasonably high standard for EP particularly given he is a 19 year old mid. Seems to have poise and composure on the outside and has a penetrating and relatively accurate left boot. Performed relatively well in an unknown HFF flank role at AFL level and should be very happy with us own progress to date. Probably lacks composure on the inside and tends to be a bit of a 'hack it' mid but this will come with time. It's hard to assess his potential accurately but I am comfortable in suggesting he will be a solid AFL midfielder going forward.
Malcolm Karpany: Has the skillset but seems unlikely to ever have the production of an AFL mid. Hopefully he can carve out a career as a HFF with stints on the ball.
Tom Cole: A bit of an unknown quantity who hasn't really built on a promising first season. Plays as a defender for East Perth but could end up being developed as an outside midfielder. Has above average pace and skills. Will be interesting to follow his development.
Josh Rotham: An oversized back flanker who excellent skills by hand and foot and possesses genuine speed. Very light frame but if developed properly I think could become a very damaging wingman. One to watch for the future for sure.
Jordan Snadden: Haven't seen much of Snadden but it seems like he possesses some definite AFL qualities. Seems like a long shot to make it.

Overall, it appears questionable that we will be able to replace Priddis and Mitchell without experiencing a definite stutter. With a lack of quality mids requesting trades to Perth I think the midfield needs to remain a draft focus (along with a KPF). The league is littered with quality WA mids we could try and lure home in the future but they will cost a premium (Acres, SPP, J.Martin) and so in the mean time there needs to be a continued push to improve the talent coming in from below.

so we're not stuttering now?? or have been for the last 5 years!? you list many players there along with attributes sorely missing from the players we never drop ie. PRIDDIS and Gaff.. and we KNOW they can't do these things and never will. Yet you wonder about the unknown playing young players? Like it's too risky?

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

You may have forgotten the GF in 15. Reality hit home big time. Masten was subbed off under the merit rule. Gaff worked but was plundered because of his slow running. Priddis and Shuey worked hard inside but there was no outside.

In summary - Small, Slow not Strong or highly Skilful.

Everything fell to sh*t in the GF because the Hawks came into the match with a plan on how to beat us and Simpson didn't know how to react.

Only point I'm making is that we have enough quality through the midfield that we shouldn't be getting blown out of the water. But we continually are. Getting better quality players in there will only patch up our poor midfield structures (and even then, easier said than done. We've failed on that front in both the draft and trade table in recent years).

 

[kaiserchief13]

Simple, drop Priddis and start to bring in the kids and play them in the middle. Its the only way we'll know if we have anything decent to work with for the furture coz we aint winning a flag with the same midfield we've been playing for the last 5+ years.

It's a shame because defense and forward line are both top 3 in the league, but midfield is most likely last

 

[domo]

It's a shame because defense and forward line are both top 3 in the league, but midfield is most likely last

YEP!!! this is what is killing me slowly... watching Nic Nat go down and now JK go down now.. Will they both even come back the same?