Collingwood's midfield- the problem

[daics cousin]

With our best clearance player (Pendlebury) out of the midfield,for the rest of the finals series,are we in trouble?
The usual suspects davis,didak and obree lest us down aginst the saints.
I will excuse davis only because he was forced to play on the forward line
for most of the game malthouse again slow to react.
But didak,obree,and lockyer and johnstone had shockers.
If we don't regroup quickly we will go out in straight sets.
The rampaging crows are a very well balanced side,and they will be closer to full strength with bock ready to return.

We cannot handle the flood,or we don't know what to do.
When our players flooded the saints forward line how come reiwoldt still found space to mark the ball ? Simple we have no match up for him. i said that last week in a few threads and no one agreed.Except maybe Goldsac can run with him,but Reiwoldt is at his peak.
He was the difference.Their is one kid playing in our reserves who could possibly do the trick but he is still to inexperienced yet.The person i am talking about is Ben Reid.
So what 's the story with NATHAN BROWN ?.Is he really injured or are we keeping him under wraps.He didn't play reserves.

The crows will be difficult to beat .They have a very good spread of forward line players,and they have a good team balance.
Malthouse again went in with one ruck option....and Josh got smashed.He is also injured,now !
Malthouse doesn't learn,that's why we won't win the flag with him at the helm.

Don't know what else to say except there should be at least 5 changes this week,but if i know malthouse he will keep the usual suspects in the team like toovey and johnston,and that will be the end of our season
Once again........F........g Frustrating

Outs- Pendlebury,rocca,johnston, toovey,Fraser (inj)
Ins- Wood,Dawes,Goldsac,Clarke,wellingham or brad Dick.

 

[Trojan82]

Outs- Pendlebury,rocca,johnston, toovey,Fraser (inj)
Ins- Wood,Dawes,Goldsac,Clarke,wellingham or brad Dick.

LOL.

Pendlebury and Rocca out.

Wellingham and Wood in.

We are playing Adelaide this week. Not St. Kilda again.

 

[brockbruiser]

After witnessing all the stupid threads after a loss, i agree with this one in part. We were clearly beaten in the midfield yesterday, by a quality mature midfield.

 

[Damon_3388]

Outs- Pendlebury,rocca,johnston, toovey,Fraser (inj)
Ins- Wood,Dawes,Goldsac,Clarke,wellingham or brad Dick.

Yesterday was arguably Toovey;s best game for the club. Why would you drop him after that? I'd have O'Bree in the gun before Tooves or Johnson based on yesterday.

 

[daics cousin]

Yesterday was arguably Toovey;s best game for the club. Why would you drop him after that? I'd have O'Bree in the gun before Tooves or Johnson based on yesterday.

I believe that johnston is past it,with his areoplane kicks poor decision making, and Toovey outside his pace, he is useless turns over the ball too much,and he is stoppping someone like marty clarke's development,who is a much better well balanced player.who can play back and run through midfield and can kick goals.
Toovey is only in the team because Malthouse likes him.
If buckley was coaching he would be out on his ear.
We won't win flags with players like johnston and toovey in the side,at best they should only be kept for depth ,not in our best 22.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Big mistake to play out three youngest and most inexperienced midfielders (Sidebottom, Beams, McCarthy) against the hardened mids of StKilda. As soon as Pendlebury went down that was pretty much up as these guys were not capable of stepping up. Throw in the fact that O'Bree and Johnson are past it and Davis had a down day, and we looked very susceptable in the midfield on the day.

I know we dont have a lot of older boys in the 2's but Wellingham or Dick need to be considered next week, as well as, dare I say it, Ryan Cook or Danny Stanley who were outstanding in the VFL and a bit more readymade than Sidebottom and McCarthy.

Out Roccca Pendlebury Sidebottom Johnson
In Wood Dick Stanley or Cook (cant believe I'm saying this) Goldsack

Reid in for Fraser if he's unfiit.

 

[shawthing09]

I think your in many parts right. Missing Pendles was huge yesterday and will be throughout the finals. I struggle to see us doing major damage this year if he is out for the season.

I think Davis was excuseable yesterday, he wasn't terrible and spent a fair amount of time foward.

There were a number of problems with the midfield yesterday. For 1 we only have a small number of midfielders who are able to prolifically win their own contested ball Pendles Swan and O'Bree being the main 3. The others are either like Didak, Davis, Thomas who are more likely to be on the end of a good tap and break through or gamble on reading the tap right and hit the ball running. When you lose one of those guys and the other is getting a hard tag it makes it hard. O'Bree had a fair bit of responsibility yesterday and didn't step up to the plate.

2ndly there was a lot of inexperince in the midfield group yesterday with J-Mac, Sidebottom and Beams. Beams fought hard and was servicable too good. Sidebottom was good when he had the ball and read the play well but was not able to really get involved often enough to have an impact and similarly J-Mac did some nice things and fought hard without having a real impact.

Johnson was hopeless and continually ran into open space with no respect shown by St Kilda and was used and turned it over. If he is not applying a majorly tight hard tag (and I don't think his been used in this role often at all and he had 0 tackles on the weekend) he has no use.

I don't think we have a quick fix for missing Pendles over this finals campaign but next year Sidebottom, Beams and J-Mac should be part of the core midfield group at the expense of O'Bree, Johnson and using Didak and Davis more across the half foward line.

 

[istillbelieve]

Can we elevate Blair this week from rookie list, he is better than any other VFL midfield options by a long way.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Can we elevate Blair this week from rookie list, he is better than any other VFL midfield options by a long way.

Yes we can and that is a radical suggestion. It just might work.

 

[wixism]

Forward is the main problem, What was the idea of having our forwards up on the wing.
And having no one to kick it to ?

 

[PieGirl05]

I believe that johnston is past it,with his areoplane kicks poor decision making, and Toovey outside his pace, he is useless turns over the ball too much,and he is stoppping someone like marty clarke's development,who is a much better well balanced player.who can play back and run through midfield and can kick goals.
Toovey is only in the team because Malthouse likes him.
If buckley was coaching he would be out on his ear.
We won't win flags with players like johnston and toovey in the side,at best they should only be kept for depth ,not in our best 22.

---------------------------------------------------
Pretty sure you didn't watch the game yesterday.
I am so sick of people constantly picking on the same players.
What about Medhurst & Anthon? If you think they're better than Tooves and Johnson at the moment you have rocks in your head! If it wasn't for the back line the last two games we would be getting absolutely thrashed.

 

[jazzy]

i agree the midfield needs to be addressed. why does jack anthony get no criticism? he has been very ordinary imo in the second half. dick will def come back in after kicking 5 goals in the 2's. why do we keep dropping the young guys, they are not the problem it's the senior guys who are killing us by not performing. think sidebottom was one of the few players who held their own. 2 weeks in a row our midfield has been smashed. guys like obree/lockyer/johnson/didak/davis need to have the acid put on them this week, their efforts last game was just not good enough.

 

[jazzy]

---------------------------------------------------
Pretty sure you didn't watch the game yesterday.
I am so sick of people constantly picking on the same players.
What about Medhurst & Anthon? If you think they're better than Tooves and Johnson at the moment you have rocks in your head! If it wasn't for the back line the last two games we would be getting absolutely thrashed.

i agree totally

 

[Snag Breac]

Can we elevate Blair this week from rookie list, he is better than any other VFL midfield options by a long way.

It may be worth a shot. He seemed to be able to conjure goals out of nothing on Saturday.

No doubt the midfield malaise struck against St Kilda, with players perhaps thrown by the early loss of Pendles. We really should be beyond that by now.

But up until the Bulldogs game, our midfield was being celebrated on this board for weeks on end. Two losses in a row has resulted in the usual over-reaction, negativity and loss of confidence.

I don't know why so many gifted players failed to rally yesterday - they probably don't know themselves - but the game wasn't representative of their abilities. They can do better, so there is hope. Our best players need to lift. If they aren't able to do that, then we aren't ready to take a flag.

 

[Rick Langdon]

We need to make some changes to change the mindset of the players for next year. Like we did last year with Shaw & Didak with the drinking incident, we also need to set new standards when it comes to a players effort and form. It is no good having a gun reserves side putting pressure on the AFL side when all we do is continue to drop the same players that really aren't playing to bad. I hate knocking players but we are in September.

Paul Medhurst has to go next week. How many weeks can you give a guy an opportunity, before you realise he is out of sorts? Brad Dick in for him, Dick kicked 5.3 in practically 3 quarters and will have some confidence back.

I know Obree is on one leg and tries hard but for him to have 12 touches and 8 of thouse touches clangers is deplorable.

I also know it musn't be easy for Josh Fraser in the ruck, but he must lift. Results of his aside his efforts were not up to scratch.

Out: Obree (omitted), Rocca (injured), Pendlebury (injured), Medhurst (omitted)
Ins: S.Wellingham, M.Clarke, C.Wood, B.Dick

 

[Snag Breac]

Paul Medhurst has to go next week. How many weeks can you give a guy an opportunity, before you realise he is out of sorts? Brad Dick in for him, Dick kicked 5.3 in practically 3 quarters and will have some confidence back.


Out: Obree (omitted), Rocca (injured), Pendlebury (injured), Medhurst (omitted)
Ins: S.Wellingham, M.Clarke, C.Wood, B.Dick

We can't afford to drop Medhurst. He has too much game-breaking potential. Admittedly, at the moment,
The boy does nothing,
but if a man can play, he gets a second chance.....

 

[Rick Langdon]

I agree, we all deserve a second chance but i reckon he had his second chance many weeks ago.

 

[PieGirl05]

We can't afford to drop Medhurst. He has too much game-breaking potential. Admittedly, at the moment,
The boy does nothing,
but if a man can play, he gets a second chance.....

Game breaking potential? When is the last time he has performed half decent? We can't keep players in the team that play 4 bad games then one good one. Collingwood has too many players like this... and why? Because they get away with it!! They need to be dropped as a wake up call. Bit late to do it now in the finals though!

 

[absy]

Game breaking potential? When is the last time he has performed half decent? We can't keep players in the team that play 4 bad games then one good one. Collingwood has too many players like this... and why? Because they get away with it!! They need to be dropped as a wake up call. Bit late to do it now in the finals though!

So I'm guessing you signed up after we lost to the bulldogs?

 

[Old Spice]

Look at Ross Lyon and the process type approach to footy. You play a role, you tick off KPI's...or you're out - big name or no big name.

Admitedly it probably is too late for all that now, but we need that type of approach next year. Perhaps slightly tapered KPI's / expectations for younger players who we hope to develop.

Dal Santo got the can for a while at St Kilda for lack of defensive pressure and that message undoubtedly got thru his bonce, not to mention the rest of the players.

Kicking efficiency, tackling pressure, goal assists, goals etc - all need to go under the spotlight.

 

[shawthing09]

Look at Ross Lyon and the process type approach to footy. You play a role, you tick off KPI's...or you're out - big name or no big name.

Admitedly it probably is too late for all that now, but we need that type of approach next year. Perhaps slightly tapered KPI's / expectations for younger players who we hope to develop.

Dal Santo got the can for a while at St Kilda for lack of defensive pressure and that message undoubtedly got thru his bonce, not to mention the rest of the players.

Kicking efficiency, tackling pressure, goal assists, goals etc - all need to go under the spotlight.

Deffinately agree with this. As I think you mentioned we have a situation where we have a number of young players who are pushing hard for selection but unable to push into the side on the other hand we have a number of senior players who when asked too could not get the job done.

Obviously finals is not the time to be introducing this kind of system but I think this years finals and the good lead up and slight excitment (being flag favourites etc) should be used as a further reason to up the bar. In terms of we are aiming for the flag. This is what we feel is needed from each player to get that, if your not able to deliver your out and someone else gets a shot until we are able to find a balance of guys who are going to get the job done week in week out.

 

[Primetime Pricey]

Sounds like Geoff Walsh is saying Ryan Cook might be coming in.

 

[danielnajdek]

Can we elevate Blair this week from rookie list, he is better than any other VFL midfield options by a long way.

I don't mind this idea. Adelaide wouldn't have a clue who he is so they might let him go and he could be damaging

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

I cannot believe some of the ill-informed nonsense written in this thread. Sidebottom, with 13 possessions can hardly be said to have 'held his own'. Johnson was far from our worst midfielder. Toovey was our highest possession winner at half time and one of our 5 best players. Blair will not be elevated from the Rookie list to play in this weeks final. And Davis looked totally inadequate in everything he did from where I was sitting on the wing. Wellingham and Dick were both dropped because they had little physical presence and few disposals in their last couple of games.

 

[Optimax]

Sounds like Geoff Walsh is saying Ryan Cook might be coming in.

too walsh's credit he lets notbing out on selection every week

For a month straight medhurst was a dead cert never happened, and he talks up cook and stanners every chance he gets.

The firey old bastard knows what and when to say it