Kennedy'll take some too. It's a midfielders medal unless your forward's kicking a bag.
Opinion Could MDB become our Priddis?
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Some of the commentary on this thread is unbelievable, have you even seen em both play without blinkers on?
Priddis is a genius apart from the obvious kicking. MDB doesnt have 1/10th the skillset that Priddis has at the coalface. If we are tapping to him 20% of the time we are in barney rubble...
Priddis is a genius apart from the obvious kicking. MDB doesnt have 1/10th the skillset that Priddis has at the coalface. If we are tapping to him 20% of the time we are in barney rubble...
smokingjacket
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Agreed, although our midfield appears much more effective with him in there.
Possibly something to do with freeing players like Mundy and Hill to purer receiving roles?
Our opposition seem to think we have a weakness in ground ball gets. The weather certainly hasn't helped but that might be what MDB is being swung through for.
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Really? They'd think wrong. Freo's midfield overwhelmingly wins the clearances.
Banker
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Masten is an athlete, and a very good one since he was teen.
The problem is that he still doesn't realise that you need to work on your footy skills and can't just rely on your run. The pick 3 will potentially ruin him, as he bought into the crap he is a star since 1st year.
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Agree. Although that's a brave opinion to voice around here at the moment. Brace for impact...
Steer clear of the preview/selection threads with that one, you'll never make it out of there alive!
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Agree. Although that's a brave opinion to voice around here at the moment. Brace for impact...
Steer clear of the preview/selection threads with that one, you'll never make it out of there alive!
Ha ha. Bit like that. People seem to forget the step from WAFL to AFL is massive, and exponentially more for players that might apply their trade in the midfield. The pace of the game in all aspects and the physicality, let alone the mental toughness required, massive jump.
Having said that, with a full pre-season, depending on circumstances. I wouldn't write either off having a game or two in 2016. I would hope we'd get a sneak peak at them at some point. But as regulars, not likely.
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Agreed. I'm all for re-assessing bringing them in come 2016 with another pre-season under their belt, but as you've said and I've argued til my fingers are sore, they are not ready yet and a full on flag tilt isn't the time to blood youth for the sake of it.
Thought MDB was solid on the weekend. Will have trouble keeping his spot next year I'd say, same with Subes.
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Our game is built on inside grunt and physicality. When we get lured into an outside game (Richmond) we aren't quite as good. Our outside midfielders get shown up. We added Sheridan to the mix to try and right that weakness, I think he's played 2 good games for the year. Last week and round 1. Hopefully he continues to grow.
Our advantage lies in our size around the ball, DeBoer has attributes consistent with our known advantage. He's big, tough and lays a world of pain against the opposition. He lacks finesse and gives away the odd free kick.
The benefit of having him in the team is he continues to press our advantage when our stars are resting (Fyfe, Mundy, Barlow). Opposition midfielders don't get respite from a tough inside game when The big 3 are elsewhere. Given footy is a weight of numbers game, what he brings to the table is worth having. His centre clearance work in the last quarter against Brisbane was enough to convince me.
Our advantage lies in our size around the ball, DeBoer has attributes consistent with our known advantage. He's big, tough and lays a world of pain against the opposition. He lacks finesse and gives away the odd free kick.
The benefit of having him in the team is he continues to press our advantage when our stars are resting (Fyfe, Mundy, Barlow). Opposition midfielders don't get respite from a tough inside game when The big 3 are elsewhere. Given footy is a weight of numbers game, what he brings to the table is worth having. His centre clearance work in the last quarter against Brisbane was enough to convince me.
smokingjacket
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We win the clearances when we win the taps. Lost the clearances on the weekend. We tend to be good in structured situations where we have the Sandilands advantage but around the ground we still struggle to win our own ball back sometimes. Not all the time mind you just sometimes.
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Sort of contradicts your initial point. The weekend was De Boer's first full game in the middle.
ydraw
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De Boer was the sub.
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Taberner went off fairly early and other times De Boer has been subbed on he hasn't gone into the middle. Three clearances is the most De Boer has won for the year.
Freo not only wins the clearances overwhelmingly but has the best clearance midfielder in the game. People saying the midfield needs a Priddis type of player are forgetting it has the best clearance winner in the league. Why would you take Fyfe out of there and replace him with a less effective player?
Freo not only wins the clearances overwhelmingly but has the best clearance midfielder in the game. People saying the midfield needs a Priddis type of player are forgetting it has the best clearance winner in the league. Why would you take Fyfe out of there and replace him with a less effective player?
de Boer had about half a game actually and still managed to snare 11 possessions. He's way underrated IMO and the pity is he has such limited opportunity with being sub most weeks.
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And off my vague memory only went into the middle (centre bounces in particular) in the last quarter. He was integral, though not exclusively so of course, to us dominating those early stages of the last 1/4 I thought.
Nah, I reckon Hannebery will be runner up. Priddisy probably top five .
Agree. Although that's a brave opinion to voice around here at the moment. Brace for impact...
Steer clear of the preview/selection threads with that one, you'll never make it out of there alive!
Blakely is going to be the answer for that extractor position. Right now MdB is doing it when he comes on but IMO MickyB is being wasted, not playing it.
Mick immediately getting clearances when in the centre bounce in the last qtr against Brisbane.
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Yeah I agree. Although not this year. Still too many handballs to kicks, means he is winning it but not getting enough separation once he has it. This will come with another pre-season and with a year in the system under his belt, he should be able to make the step up to senior level.
Don't understand why Barlow is being played as a high half forward at the expense of MDB in there, needs to be switched back IMO. Belongs at the clearances, hence his lowered output over the season. At his best in and under in the middle, extracting and handing off to Fyfe, Mundy, Hill et al.
He just needs to learn the art of quick handballing, one thing i can say is he will put his body on the line for sure and can be great defensive work against opposition attacking midfielders but if his role is to get the ball he needs quick handballs which he is not yet 100% mastered.
The problem is the ball goes forward and nobody other than Walters can kick a goal at the moment, so it rebounds and goes back the other way. If another mid, who may not be as effective as Fyfe but who can still extract the ball enough to get it forward as much or more than the opposition, to Fyfe who can pluck balls out of the sky and isn't too bad in front of the sticks, then in terms of team balance, the latter is a better option than the former.
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He also had 5 clangers in his 11 possessions and a disposal efficiency of 45.5%. This continues to be a massive knock on MDB. I thought he panic hack kicked a few times when he was in space after a handball receive. Certainly can't question his effort but................ it seems to me that we know what we're going to get. Suban has moved ahead of him because of his kicking. His inside game and ability to get to the contest has certainly improved this year. I hope Sutcliffe comes back in or we give Tendai another crack.
smokingjacket
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Fyfe had DE of 33% on the weekend. Ball was also greasy, assume the boys were under wet weather football directions to get the ball moving forward.
smokingjacket
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I don't think so. The OP was about how De Boer looks best in the centre and it was my view that we played our best football against Brisbane when De Boer was in there.
I'm just thinking what it was about throwing a limited but solid extractor in to the middle that freed up our ball movement and clearance work in the last. Was it just Brisbane fatigue or did our mids not play particularly well to that point? Fyfe can't take it on the move every bounce, so we need other options. Maybe there is something that De Boer does well that frees up some of our other players etc.
Just checked stats and I was wrong - 41% time on ground. Also 6 tackles. So reasonable to assume his stats would've at least doubled if full game. Freo kicked seven goals in final quarter due in no small part IMHO to de Boer's clearance work in middle.
And infinitely better looking than Pridder too!
