Centre Square

[speedytiger]

Witts, Pendles, Adams, Greenwood. JT and Benken flying in flat out off the wings, Reid leads up the ground, Clokey gets a one on one and bang clunks it. Kicks it off the shin straight through the middle.

 

[Robroy22]

How much of a loss is Beams? Be honest.

He's as big a loss to us as GAJ was to the Cats in 2012. But it gives others opportunity and hopefully one of the young kids will step up and make it HIS spot.

 

[DrDavoren]

I'd be hoping for Greenwood, Pendles, Adams with Witts as starting option with Swan, Adams, Fasolo, Blair, De Goey, Thomas, Kennedy,Freeman, Grundy, White, Elliot, Dwyer, Karnesis rotating through there also.

We have a lot of versatile players and Hawthorn showed in the GF how important this has become.

 

[Knightmare]

Who will be our first choice for the centre square? Will it be a mix of youth and experience? Is it worth rotating Pendlebury and Swan out of there to the wing to give Thomas, Adams, Williams, Kennedy, Freeman and others a run in there? I'm assuming Greenwood will be a mainstay. So my choice would be

One of Witts/Grundy
One of Pendlebury/Swan
Greenwood
One of Adams/Thomas

I'd advocate Grundy, Pendlebury, Swan and Sidebottom if I had to pick a starting group.

But at the end of the day it comes down to the rotation with that the more important factor. Witts shares the ruck duties. Then I'd look to have a large midfield rotation and get everyone who can go through there, in there sharing the minutes - Greenwood/Kennedy/Adams/Freeman or whoever makes our best 22 next season. Spread the minutes as much as possible, work to make everyone in there as fresh and possible and go ice hockey style - while you're in there bring maximum energy and go for it and when one guy fatigues the next guy takes over. Even if it requires 15 guys to rotate through the midfield to allow that to work, with the lack of midfield star power we have now you need to do something like that to even be competitive through there with other midfields improving and going further past us through there.

 

[THATSGOLD]

He is a massive loss. Hopefully Greenwood and improvement from other mids such as Adams will help to cover him. If Swan gets back to being close to his best it will also help.

Does it have a flow on effect? It used to be Pendlebury or Beams cops the hard tag, you couldn't contain both, with Beams gone will Pendleburys job in 2015 become harder than usual?

 

[PieMan!]

Does it have a flow on effect? It used to be Pendlebury or Beams cops the hard tag, you couldn't contain both, with Beams gone will Pendleburys job in 2015 become harder than usual?

i can see Greenwood and Swan if he gets bck to his best get tagged as well

 

[mike123]

I can see Nathan Freeman starring in his first few games making the opposition coaches more wary of him...

 

[jmac70]

Does it have a flow on effect? It used to be Pendlebury or Beams cops the hard tag, you couldn't contain both, with Beams gone will Pendleburys job in 2015 become harder than usual?

Pendlebury hap been getting the hard tag for a while. Don't expect it will slow him down. The man is a gun.

 

[Laurie Holden]

How much of a loss is Beams? Be honest.

Massive loss, but TBH having brown and

Does it have a flow on effect? It used to be Pendlebury or Beams cops the hard tag, you couldn't contain both, with Beams gone will Pendleburys job in 2015 become harder than usual?

Pendlebury was the one tagged if op teams did. Beams rarely did. His man was told to push hard forward knowing that Beams wouldn't follow him.

 

[Laurie Holden]

Massive loss, but TBH having brown and



Pendlebury was the one tagged if op teams did. Beams rarely did. His man was told to push hard forward knowing that Beams wouldn't follow him.

Whooooops..... Had another one in there. Was going to say having Brown and Reid back fit will have a bigger impact than losing Beams.

 

[THATSGOLD]

Massive loss, but TBH having brown and



Pendlebury was the one tagged if op teams did. Beams rarely did. His man was told to push hard forward knowing that Beams wouldn't follow him.

What about the loss of McCaffer. Kept Cothin nearly statless to almost swing the game our way. Can we contain Cothin this time without Caff?

 

[THATSGOLD]

Pendlebury hap been getting the hard tag for a while. Don't expect it will slow him down. The man is a gun.

Not slowed down but contained. Even Ablett got contained by Caff. Pendlebury imo is going to find it harder without Beams and will be targeted more than ever.

 

[mike123]

Our midfield will win more clearances without him

 

[Boris the Contradiction]

I'd be hoping for Greenwood, Pendles, Adams with Witts as starting option with Swan, Adams, Fasolo, Blair, De Goey, Thomas, Kennedy,Freeman, Grundy, White, Elliot, Dwyer, Karnesis rotating through there also.

We have a lot of versatile players and Hawthorn showed in the GF how important this has become.

You're telling me. Some can even play two different positions at the same time!

 

[Boris the Contradiction]

Our midfield will win more clearances without him

Why do you think that? (I'm genuinely curious, or are you being sarcastic?)

He had the highest average clearances per game of all our players last year for all players who played 5 games or more, and the year before, third the year before that.

 

[THATSGOLD]

Our midfield will win more clearances without him

So McCaffer holds Ablett who wins the most clearances, how does that work?

 

[Kappa]

Our midfield will be bottom 8 unless Swan can return to his best and Adams/Kennedy/Freeman can step up.

Pendlebury and Greenwood should consistently produce but any good midfield needs lots of good depth

 

[mike123]

Why do you think that? (I'm genuinely curious, or are you being sarcastic?)

He had the highest average clearances per game of all our players last year for all players who played 5 games or more, and the year before, third the year before that.

Where did you get that stat from?

He averaged 1.6 this year. Beams averaged the most with 6.1.

 

[mike123]

So McCaffer holds Ablett who wins the most clearances, how does that work?

For starter, Ablett got 19 possessions up to the middle of the third quarter.

Secondly, the people he tags still help the other midfielder around them win clearances whilst Maccaffer doesn't our on ballers win the clearance.

 

[THATSGOLD]

For starter, Ablett got 19 possessions up to the middle of the third quarter.

Secondly, the people he tags still help the other midfielder around them win clearances whilst Maccaffer doesn't our on ballers win the clearance.

So McCaffer was doing a good job on the Ablett? He was killing him! )And then did kill him.) but seriously he was destroying Gazza. Just admit that.

 

[mike123]

So McCaffer was doing a good job on the Ablett? He was killing him! )And then did kill him.) but seriously he was destroying Gazza. Just admit that.

If Ablett played the whole game he'd would have got around 30 possesisons

 

[Boris the Contradiction]

Where did you get that stat from?

He averaged 1.6 this year. Beams averaged the most with 6.1.

I thought you were talking about Beams. Re-reading the post directly above yours I don't know how I came to that conclusion. My bad.

I agree by the way, but so would the other team so it's a tough one to judge.

 

[Buckley is my hero]

We need to have an injury free Swan back in the centre square in 2015 to have any hope of getting back into the eight. Greenwood and Adams are obvious inclusions into the square to replace Ball and Beams. Kennedy would be better suited to play in the centre rather than forward of centre. We also need bigger bodied mids working in the centre to help Pendles shake his tags. As for Caff, it would be a miracle if we saw him at all in the first half of the season.

 

[Finnishpie]

Pendlebury hap been getting the hard tag for a while. Don't expect it will slow him down. The man is a gun.

I think we need to protect him though. So much of that gun 2010 midfield is gone now: Daisy, Beams were both elite. Swan is on the decline. I'd like to see Pendlebury on the outside a lot more .

 

[jmac70]

I think we need to protect him though. So much of that gun 2010 midfield is gone now: Daisy, Beams were both elite. Swan is on the decline. I'd like to see Pendlebury on the outside a lot more .

True. Our 2015 midfield has promise but is a long way off the 2010 version. A lot will be asked of Greenwood and Adams but I fear we will struggle.