Analysis Assessing the Midfield

WCE1698

Cancelled
Oct 22, 2014
1,142
1,381
AFL Club
West Coast
4 genuine A graders in Shuey, Yeo, Sheed, Gaff. Redden is pretty close to around that mark as well. I couldn't see Sheed developing into the star he is at the moment but he's blown me away with how good he's become racking up touches and kicking goals. Sometimes the group can get complacent, but overall one of the finest on ball brigades in the competition.
 

JohnW

Club Legend
Oct 6, 2005
1,622
1,662
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
It's so odd that we don't seem to be able to identify decent midfielders in the draft, lately we seem to have an aversion to drafting anyone that kind find the ball for themselves.
We lucked out with Yeo and then Redden kind of fell into our lap, but we also traded in Wellingham and then played him in the midfield twice. Unfortunately I don't think whoever we target next is going to go for a pick in the late teens. Seems like an inefficient way to build a list.

How do you put Yeo and Redden down to luck? You think both decided to move to WA (or back to WA in Yeo's case) with out some ground work by the club?
 
Jan 13, 2013
22,964
44,789
AFL Club
West Coast
How do you put Yeo and Redden down to luck? You think both decided to move to WA (or back to WA in Yeo's case) with out some ground work by the club?
Well we were lucky that Yeo turned out to be an elite midfielder because he was a hbf when we brought him over.
And we were lucky that Redden came here instead of wanting to go back home.
 

The Stid

Club Legend
Mar 16, 2011
2,395
6,701
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Boston Bruins
Wouldn’t mind seeing Petch attend some centre bounces with the 6-6-6 rule and Naitanui’s return. I know we’ve only seen him as a forward/ high half forward but if NN can tap it to space like he does with Shuey and did with Ah Chee on the weekend, Petch will be hard to stop running on to it.
 
Last edited:

DanWCE

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 2, 2015
19,578
41,737
AFL Club
West Coast
Wouldn’t mind seeing Petch attend some centre bounces with the 6-6-6 rule and Naitanui’s return. I know we’ve only seen him as a forward/ high half forward but if NN can tap it to space like he does with Shuey and did with Ah Chee on the weekend, Petch will be hard to stop running on to it.

Shuey is fast enough with a much better i50 kick. Petch into space is unstoppable but the polish on the kick definitely needs work.
 
Our midfield has come on far more than I thought possible over the last couple of years

But their still remains a little bit of "nicely nicely" about it.

It's not until Yeo gets in there (and typically NN) that the boys get their hands dirty.

Our midfield cohesion is the key to back2back.

The only other concern is there is no real pressure from below. Mallen is doing an ok job, as is Brander.

But there's no 18 year old shuey torching daniel kerr in a preseason game to get us all excited or give much needed depth.

I'd like to see Cripps and Rioli given more midfield time - particularly in a 4th quarter when a game is over.
 

JohnW

Club Legend
Oct 6, 2005
1,622
1,662
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Well we were lucky that Yeo turned out to be an elite midfielder because he was a hbf when we brought him over.
And we were lucky that Redden came here instead of wanting to go back home.

Both are lucky they came to a club that has a strong history of getting the best out of their players.
 
Jan 13, 2013
22,964
44,789
AFL Club
West Coast
Both are lucky they came to a club that has a strong history of getting the best out of their players.
Do you work for the club or something? I'm not knocking the successes but there has been just as many failures as successes over the years. Did we get the best out of Wellingham? Partington? Lamb?
 

The wily weagle

Premiership Player
Oct 16, 2014
3,288
7,541
AFL Club
West Coast
I still find our lack of midfield depth at WAFL level very concerning; our guys are hardly dominating at that level and aren't really banging down the door for selection.

We are spoiled for talls, crumbling forwards and even have some decent ruck stocks. Surely this year and next year's draft will have pure midfielders as our priority (and more importantly, developing these midfielders by playing them on the ball, and not trying to play them out of position on the half forward or half back flank)
 

avishka5

150 game legend.
10k Posts A Star Wars Fan Zombie Lover
Sep 1, 2014
23,356
28,062
Perth SOR
AFL Club
West Coast
Redden and Yeo were not that close at the Lions but i have always wondered what made him come over. He mentioned the other day it was a gamble as he was thinking of heading back to SA. Unless the club gets wind of these things?
He still had a year left to go on his contract when we came to him, money plus playing in a successful team (runner up at the time), would have been very attractive for him at the time. Also remember his saying that his football became stagnant at his last few seasons at the Lions and he needed a fresh start.

Also remember reading a post on the lions board saying that him and Leppitch didn't get a long. Leppitch wanted him playing predominantly as an inside player, instead of his natural inside/outside role.


Will be interesting how his footy goes if we land a Kelly/Coniglio. He'll probably be shunted back to an outside/HFF role.
 

Candiru

Premiership Player
Jan 27, 2018
3,373
4,602
AFL Club
West Coast
Sheed turns 25 next April. And he's our youngest midfielder looking at regular game time.

Are we going to get more from Ainsworth or Brayshaw? It's a worry. It's probably the biggest hole in our list and I'm not sure there's a quick fix.

It will be great to go and get Tim Kelly from Geelong, adding to the top tier, but it won't address the hole underneath.

We need to start fixing it, both through the draft and perhaps even by targeting young mids who've been at other clubs for 2 or 3 years. Rinse and repeat the Yeo trade.
 
Dec 18, 2005
16,254
7,908
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Dom Sheed's season is severely underrated. He's getting lost behind stars like Boots and Yeo, while Gaff's now reached that level where the east coast media rank him on possession. Gaffs first couple months was bog average. Lot better now but not as impact full as sheed.
First two weeks were bad, has been way better since then. No way were his first two months bad.

Sheed's peaking to the best of his abilities without a doubt but he has a lower ceiling than the others.
 

EagleEgo

Club Legend
Jun 3, 2008
2,242
1,664
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Do we have a list of the midfielders:
1. that are currently in another club and have the potential of coming home to WA?
2. over 21 and are playing in another leagues(eg. WAFL) but possess AFL standard?
 
Last edited:
Jun 30, 2009
30,328
41,692
Deroesfromgero
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
east perth
Dom Sheed's season is severely underrated. He's getting lost behind stars like Boots and Yeo, while Gaff's now reached that level where the east coast media rank him on possession. Gaffs first couple months was bog average. Lot better now but not as impact full as sheed.
Aaaand its gone.....

Wtf happened
 

ME ME ME

Senior List
Sep 23, 2015
183
179
AFL Club
West Coast
Matthew Allen should be given a run next year in the midfield.

Shuey is nearing 30 and Gaff is in his late 30s so now it is time to really start blooding some mids. midfield is still the teams glaring weakness and this has to be fixed
 

06Premiers

Premiership Player
Oct 11, 2006
3,452
6,764
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Arsenal, Lakers
Matthew Allen should be given a run next year in the midfield.

Shuey is nearing 30 and Gaff is in his late 30s so now it is time to really start blooding some mids. midfield is still the teams glaring weakness and this has to be fixed

747007
 

The Gov

McLovin' it
Jun 16, 2015
364
1,101
AFL Club
West Coast
Watching Richmond last night made a few of our deficiencies pretty clear, the main one being how many of their players are actually able to break tackles.

In this age of congestion being able to relieve the pressure by getting through a tackler (therefore taking an oppo player out of the equation) is massive. It's not just Dusty, they have 7-8 players who can genuinely do it with confidence.

We have maybe 3 - Shuey, Yeo and Rioli (who likely won't be around for a while). Darling tries but gets caught and players like Hurn/Gov/Redden can take a tackle and dispose of it well but don't often take one man on, absorb a second then release. We also have a lot of players with really clean hands/disposal like Gaff/Sheed/Jetta but when teams clamp down on us it's often just meaning teammates stay under that same pressure and our ball movement slows.

We have so many other weapons (contested marking, elite kicking, pacy small forwards) that other teams don't but I genuinely think this is the main thing stopping us from beating teams who get on top of our gameplan. Adding Kelly will be massive if we can, can query his disposal all you like but his ability to turn a contested situation into instant offence is massive.

When we're adding mids through the draft or trades 'can they break a tackle' should be our main criteria. Also why I really hope Venables gets himself right - for all his other issues I reckon he has this skill, could still be so vital to our team if he manages to get fit enough to play mid.
 
Back