Analysis Adelaide MF, worst in the comp? Where do we rate after Rnd 1?

[Alwaysacrow]

Yes it's only round 1 but for those who visit the main board as much as I do you may have heard this statement many times in the off-season from opposition supporters. It was hard to argue with considering it's our greatest weakness and the Gibbs failure.
I wonder what they're thinking now. We smashed the "Premiership favourites" and our MF was electric.
I'm very enthused by this although I'll reserve my judgement until it's tested against Sydney, Bulldogs, Geelong and Collingwood.
Hopefully the majority can go through injury free for most of the year. If they can I think we're a huge chance this year if we do.
Too many injuries to our MF will be a problem with our lack of depth.
I've added a poll.

 

[Mattrox]

We are not the worst midfield in the comp. We are not the best. We don't have to be THE best midfield in the comp. We just have to give our forward line better than average service and have a good defensive system.


BTW I do not think the Gibbs thing was a failure. It was a debacle, no doubt. If we paid 2 1st rounders for him, it would have been a failure.

 

[Scorpus]

Probably too early to assess this. Need to wait for an away game against a strong midfield and good team to properly assess how our midfield performs in a high pressure situation.

I voted in the poll anyway. I think we have a 9-12 midfield.

 

[Iron]

As it stands we aren't in the top 8. But if things go well by the end of the season we could be there, and it might be enough with all other areas firing at the same time.

 

[VictorianCrow85]

It's easy for other teams and even 'experts' to judge us as a weak midfield but the reality for many of them is they honestly don't even know who half our young talent are and what their true upside/potential is. Only needed to listen to Leigh Mathews talking about Atkins on the weekend and how clueless he was about his skills despite the fact he played most matches last year. If they are clueless about guys who have played quite a lot then I doubt they have any idea of what is lurking in our depth or that some of our players had been on the urge of serious improvement, just needing more fitness and another preseason. I'm not for a minute saying we are top tier midfield but I don't believe it'll be as bad as many make out. I think Matt Crouch was superb with his grunt work on the weekend, his tackling was up another level too so he's going to be even better this year. Players like Atkins, Cameron, Milera, Hampton (if he can get a serious go) all add the thing we needed more than anything - pace! That balance alone improves us a lot.

I can't say exactly how good we are on that front yet, one match is far too small sample to determine but so far I liked the teams balance a lot. Looking forward to seeing how we stand up in the next few matches as that will be more telling.

 

[Alwaysacrow]

BTW I do not think the Gibbs thing was a failure. It was a debacle, no doubt. If we paid 2 1st rounders for him, it would have been a failure.

Ha ha....I was going to use the word debacle I just couldn't make up my mind.

 

[NikkiNoo]

It's easy for other teams and even 'experts' to judge us as a weak midfield but the reality for many of them is they honestly don't even know who half our young talent are and what their true upside/potential is. Only needed to listen to Leigh Mathews talking about Atkins on the weekend and how clueless he was about his skills despite the fact he played most matches last year. If they are clueless about guys who have played quite a lot then I doubt they have any idea of what is lurking in our depth or that some of our players had been on the urge of serious improvement, just needing more fitness and another preseason. I'm not for a minute saying we are top tier midfield but I don't believe it'll be as bad as many make out. I think Matt Crouch was superb with his grunt work on the weekend, his tackling was up another level too so he's going to be even better this year. Players like Atkins, Cameron, Milera, Hampton (if he can get a serious go) all add the thing we needed more than anything - pace! That balance alone improves us a lot.

I can't say exactly how good we are on that front yet, one match is far too small sample to determine but so far I liked the teams balance a lot. Looking forward to seeing how we stand up in the next few matches as that will be more telling.

Matthews also kept talking about how Atkins was a forward. Um, nope.

 

[baldandbroke]

Matthews also kept talking about how Atkins was a forward. Um, nope.

And that he didn't really know who he was - and was on the outside edges of the squad

 

[1970crow]

Most posters, ours included, fail to comprehend how damaging having a player who can't run but spends 80% TOG in the midfield.

 

[Carmo]

I've already said my piece on this several times over.

I can't believe people rate our midfield so poorly. Have they seen us last year? Did they think the last 3 games were the norm and the previous 18 or so the exception?

If you talk just the center bounce contesters as midfield then our midfield is only midrange say 6th to 8th. But if you count the flankers, wingers and efforts from part timers like Eddie and last season Cameron then I rate it a lot higher, 1st to 5th, counting all those others allow us to have Brodie Smith, Lairdy, Seed, Dougy, Atkins, Tom Lynch and even McGovern at times counted in the roster. While not many of our center bounce guys look like being AA in the future, the peripheral mids look like having heaps of candidates.

 

[Samcro24]

Early days, but this is not the Adelaide we know, since, well ever.

We've had such a one paced midfield for so long. And we've never really had a fast side. Yesterday was a joy to watch blokes like Charles, Milera, Ratkins running amok, breaking lines. It's about time- the club has talked about the need for run for years.

I still worry about the individual brilliance of the hardened elite mids in the comp hurting us when it matters.

For now though, I like what I see.

 

[LoBu]

Good to see the next wave standing up as most keen fans knew they could, let's hope they keep this momentum through the year and into finals, about another 25 games.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[Damp Squarie]

I still think Sauce is a weak link in our midfield because he barely (if at all) gets off of the ground. I'm not talking about other ruck contests-just in the middle.
A leaper like Ryder will eat him if he doesn't do something different.

 

[Golumless]

2nd worst now.

 

[Sanders]

Stopped reading at: it's only round 1 but...

No buts it's only round 1

 

[beartoo]

I still think Sauce is a weak link in our midfield because he barely (if at all) gets off of the ground. I'm not talking about other ruck contests-just in the middle.
A leaper like Ryder will eat him if he doesn't do something different.

We will differ on this point, Avatarp (love that name). Sauce put in an excellent game as far as I could tell at the ground. He was beaten numerically in the taps, but his competitiveness was so fierce that few of Mumford's taps were to advantage. I don't buy this perception that Sauce can't jump. He can. He does.
Our mids are underrated by a lot of people at present, including quite a few on here. If what we saw yesterday continues, then we will indeed be in for a great season. It wasn't about individual brilliance, it was about teamwork and sticking to our structures. Our clearances from the centre were cleaner than GWS simply because of the pressure our mids were able to apply. Part of that certainly comes down to the fact that we have more speed in there than at any time in recent memory.
Our mids are talented, but better than that, they are proud and they are determined. They will lower the colours of a lot of opposition midfields in 2017. Bookmark it!

 

[Damp Squarie]

So what your saying Allen is our mids made Sauce look good??

 

[Stiffy_18]

Early days, but this is not the Adelaide we know, since, well ever.

We've had such a one paced midfield for so long. And we've never really had a fast side. Yesterday was a joy to watch blokes like Charles, Milera, Ratkins running amok, breaking lines. It's about time- the club has talked about the need for run for years.

I still worry about the individual brilliance of the hardened elite mids in the comp hurting us when it matters.

For now though, I like what I see.

The mix is very important. That is why I was against re-signing Thompson and I was for trading Lyons.

As I kept saying last year, for majority of the season last year we had Thomspon, Lyons and Matt Crouch in our midfield at the same time. That is one paced, similar sized, no two way running and no spread. Three similar types in the midfield was killing us.

This year the mix is very different. Matt Crouch is the only true inside midfielder followed by a few that can play inside and out. We added more pace, more versatility, different types of players which makes it a bit more interesting and more difficult to counter.

We also worked on the contested ball over the season which means that our truly outside players have gotten better at playing more inside. They are still a work in progress but I think the signs are there.

Atkins and Smith are just a couple who have improved significantly in this area.

 

[Brenton Davy]

Organic growth is organic.

We are not a top 8 midfield - yet -but it won't take too long before we are

 

[adelaidecrows]

Early days to really judge but we do have the potential to become one of the best. We all doubted the 'growth from within' the club went for after the Gibbs trade failure, however from early observations, our lack of big names in the midfield has played into our hands as we have been badly underestimated. Atkins, Menzel, Hampton, Cameron, Sloan, Douglas, M Crouch, B Crouch, Milera all of a sudden don't seem to be bad reading. Thommo wont be a bad cameo if injury occurs either.

 

[Vhaluus]

We didnt win the weekend on our midfield we won on our defense and attack same as last year.

 

[beartoo]

So what your saying Allen is our mids made Sauce look good??

That may be partly true, but the way Sauce competed in the centre square stopped Mumford giving his mids an armchair ride. Sauce doesn't get enough kudos on here for the work he does and how he goes about things.
Well, that's my less than educated opinion anyway.

 

[Coopers]

Dunno, we might be worst just based on pure player power.

But we set up bloody brilliantly. Lots of cases where there were several GWS players right in tight and our guys ringing the outside, not committing too many players to the ball. It meant they got tackled when they had it. We had runners ready.

But then again that's a skill isn't it?

 

[Coopers]

Also: Our midfield is BLOODY fast now and we actually do rotate different blokes through there, rather than just saying we might think about that.

Thommo and Lyons out of the team, now Hampton, Milera, Charlie, Rat, Mackay all going through there - bloody quick team now.

 

[davos44]

I think GWS just had a shocker and they are our bunnies now, we own their headspace. They turned to custard about halfway through the second quarter and made us look like millionaires.

Think about it this way; can we trust the following players to get the job done, week in week out against quality teams this year? Im just going off midfield work and this is based on knowing what you are going to get. This isn't about belting the bottom 6, this is about putting Geelong, Sydney, Bulldogs, West Coast and the other teams around us to the sword.

Yes:
Sloane
Thompson
MCrouch
Douglas


Maybe:
Atkins
Mackay
Cameron
BCrouch- Fully fit he is a yes.

No:
Hampton
Knight
Milera

Round 1 vs GWS is very different to Round 11 vs Geelong on a cold June night in that awful, awful stadium.