Delisted #46: Mitchell Hibberd - Not offered a contract for 2021

Sep 29, 2016
9,668
16,213
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Bayern Munich
Dodo living in the past its all about recruiting big body mids first aka fyfe, danger, Cripps, selwood, ablett etc the last 15 years but someone forgot to tell dodo lol
Rubbish. Midfielders are important but you need a strong spine to win

You go through the premier of the last 15 years. Apart from the bulldogs as an anomaly, all of them had strong spine and players in key position.
Richmond: Riewoldt, Grimes, Lynch and Rance
WCE: Kennedy, Darling, McGovern
Hawthorn: Lake, Roughead, Frawley (big $$$ FA) and Buddy when he was there
Sydney: Rampe, Richard, Goodes
Geelong: Scarlett Harley/Taylor, Hawkins Mooney etc
Collingwood: Reid (prime) Brown, Cloke

How many premiership have Fyfe and Danger won anyway?
Btw, Selwood is 182cm and 80kg. That is basically Shiel and Parish size. Not what id call a big bodied mid.
 
Last edited:

darrenbewick#8

Team Captain
Jul 31, 2013
338
122
on top
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona
Rubbish. Midfielders are important but you need a strong spine to win

You go through the premier of the last 15 years. Apart from the bulldogs as an anomaly, all of them had strong spine and players in key position.
Richmond: Riewoldt, Grimes, Lynch and Rance
WCE: Kennedy, Darling, McGovern
Hawthorn: Lake, Roughest, Frawley (big $$$ FA) and Buddy when he was there
Sydney: Rampe, Richard, Goodes
Geelong: Scarlett Harley/Taylor, Hawkins Mooney etc
Collingwood: Reid (prime) Brown, Cloke

How many premiership have Fyfe and Danger won anyway?
Btw, Selwood is 182cm and 80kg. That is basically Shiel and Parish size. Not what id call a big bodied mid.
Agree to disagree
 

darrenbewick#8

Team Captain
Jul 31, 2013
338
122
on top
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona
Rubbish. Midfielders are important but you need a strong spine to win

You go through the premier of the last 15 years. Apart from the bulldogs as an anomaly, all of them had strong spine and players in key position.
Richmond: Riewoldt, Grimes, Lynch and Rance
WCE: Kennedy, Darling, McGovern
Hawthorn: Lake, Roughest, Frawley (big $$$ FA) and Buddy when he was there
Sydney: Rampe, Richard, Goodes
Geelong: Scarlett Harley/Taylor, Hawkins Mooney etc
Collingwood: Reid (prime) Brown, Cloke

How many premiership have Fyfe and Danger won anyway?
Btw, Selwood is 182cm and 80kg. That is basically Shiel and Parish size. Not what id call a big bodied mid.
Dustin martin, the Bont, Mitchell, Burgoyne, shuey, kennedy, yeo instead
 
Dustin martin, the Bont, Mitchell, Burgoyne, shuey, kennedy, yeo instead
Mitchell is 182 cm, Shuey 183, Burgoyne 186 (not small but not tall either), Martin 187. Keep digging.
 

darrenbewick#8

Team Captain
Jul 31, 2013
338
122
on top
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona
Mitchell is 182 cm, Shuey 183, Burgoyne 186 (not small but not tall either), Martin 187. Keep digging.
They are big bodied if you can open your eyes ETH, its not just about height, also you left out Kennedy, yeo and the Bont conveniently, keep scratching doggy
 

Haychh

Premiership Player
Jun 26, 2017
4,557
6,076
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Green Bay Packers
The ironic thing is Gary Ablett started his career as a small forward, where he stayed for years before moving into the midfield. Literally the same type of player that everyone hates Dodoro drafting.

Another thing that occurs to me is that out of your list - Fyfe, Danger and Cripps haven't won any flags. Selwood won his whilst he was a youngster that was a good player but wasn't really a key leader of the team (well maybe 2011). Cripps is supposedly the best thing since sliced bread even though I don't think his team has ever won 10 games in a season since he's been a regular.
Ablett is the definition of the exception and not the rule. He was blessed with freakish talent and was too good not to be played in the midfield.
 
They are big bodied if you can open your eyes ETH, its not just about height, also you left out Kennedy, yeo and the Bont conveniently, keep scratching doggy
Well 3 out of 7 really prove your point. Well done
 
Apr 30, 2006
13,464
8,694
melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Every time you see a highlights reel you think... boy this kid can play. 99% of the time it doesn't work out that way.

Unfortunately for Mitch his highlights reel is completely the opposite. Maybe it'll work out differently?
 
Apr 23, 2016
30,510
42,674
AFL Club
Essendon
They are big bodied if you can open your eyes ETH, its not just about height, also you left out Kennedy, yeo and the Bont conveniently, keep scratching doggy

Correct, it’s not just about height.

Langford and Heppell are both tall.

The difference between them and Selwood or Mitchell is that the latter two are aggressive inside players even though they’re smaller.
 

Fin ice Smuggler

Cancelled
Nov 13, 2010
3,565
1,479
AFL Club
Essendon
For all this talk of how big is an inside mid, perhaps it should be stated the inside mid should be replaced with clearance king?

Ideally we get a bigger dynamic inside midfielder, Hibberd fills a role for us at the moment.

Exactly All hibberd has to do is help get the ball out to Shiel, Merrett and co and not be a liability on defence. Keep it simple and we should see some big improvements from our midfield.
 

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,989
AFL Club
Essendon
Can someone tell me why now and not 6 months ago?

If we thought he was good enough why not grab earlier and get look at AFL level.

Seems a weird strategy but I'm happy to be corrected.


I do wonder whether pandering to the egos of the B graders we pretend are A graders traps us. Becomes this self-fulfilling thing because we're a big club that likes to talk ourselves up.

Senior players at clubs rule the roost and they rarely change.
 

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,989
AFL Club
Essendon
Every time you see a highlights reel you think... boy this kid can play. 99% of the time it doesn't work out that way.

Unfortunately for Mitch his highlights reel is completely the opposite. Maybe it'll work out differently?


The one thing I'd say in response to this is that he'll be the sort of player who is a s**t load more effective at the higher level at least on the ball (i.e. in possession) where we need him to distribute from the inside to the likes of Merrett and Shiel. I have some reservations about him off the ball (but it's more of a hunch than anything I can say I've seen).

I would prefer him in this distributing role to every other player on the list. That's equal parts a compliment and recognition of how bad our options are.

His strengths don't come without their problems and I reckon that he'll really only be able to play as a top 4 or 5 mid. Given his speed it's likely we'll only see him, at least initially, if Heppell isn't playing.

While I think he should play a lot of football I would not be surprise if he got 30 every week in the VFL and was then de-listed without ever being given a shot. It's a reality that not everyone gets the chance his form/ability warrants.
 
Last edited:
Feb 25, 2013
37
14
Geelong
AFL Club
Essendon
I actually thought that was a good trade. Grabbed 63, a future Third and a future Fourth. We don’t have a future second or third but we grabbed Geelongs, and got a future Fourth of West Coast too. Considering we have a few NGA’s rated top 50 we will need the points.
Who do we have coming through? They any good? Do you have any links? Cheers
 
Feb 25, 2013
37
14
Geelong
AFL Club
Essendon
I was pretty crook last night but I'm okay now. We've filled our needs, even if they weren't prioritised the way I'd hoped. And yes, I also still hope we're looking at other list managers.

It's interesting that you would go back to our drafting 20 years ago though. Dodoro learned about list building from Sheedy, and is documented as saying Sheeds taught him to build the spine first and then build around that. Our first two picks last night, according to the 20 years ago strategy, were talls. Go figure.
Didn't he just get promoted in the last 24 months? Looks like we're stuck with him for awhile 😕
 
Back