Have we addressed our needs this offseason?

[rustyg70]

Yes and no.
No factoring in Witts and any of our draft picks:
Wellingham is better than Young.
Dawes (on last years form and being a second ruck/forward) shouldnt be better than Lynch.
Tarrant?????? Yes I know about Keefe.
Russell???? Still unsure. Yes he HAS played well in the past,but.......

 

[Hardas]

Well, if you believe Caroline Wilson [a long shot, I know] our players have addressed all their needs themselves!

 

[wednesdaywarrior]

I am not sure where all this "need for an inside mid" is coming from. I don't think we need an inside mid as much as we need a defensive mid, or atleast a defensive minded mid. Ball can be that player, but I agree with others that it would be great to develop a run with player who can shut down on an opposition player when they start to fire up. Beams and Pendlebury are good inside ball winners, Swan can be too. Luke Ball is a good inside ball winner as well. Winning the contested ball count wasn't a problem for us last year, our problem was that too many of our midfielders were unaccountable (SWAN) and didn't want to work hard in both directions. They also paid very little attention to their opponent. We also overused handball through the midfield, and lacked line breakers to feed the ball off to.
I don't think Goldsack is a forward, even now. I would prefer him in the backline and to have a guy like MaCaffer in the forward half. My idea would be to change Maxwell into a run with player in the midfield and then the side would look like this:

Toovey, Brown, O'Brien
Shaw, Reid, Goldsack
Beams, Pendles, Sidebottom
Swan, Cloke, Thomas
MaCaffer, Lynch, Krakouer
Jolly, Ball, Maxwell

Blair, Fasolo, Young sub: Didak

Johnson, Russell, Clarke, Seedsman, Kennedy, Williams, Elliot, Keefe, Paine and Sinclair provide pretty reasonable back ups. Also Hudson would be a great back up for Jolly too.

Of course I don't think the team will stay like the above one for the year, and there is an excellent chance that the best 22 will change numerous times with form and injuries, but at least looking at that group of players that are out of the best 22, it is exactly what we want, pressure on players to perform, to chase and tackle and do the defensive things that you need to do. Last year we never had that pressure due to injuries. I think our off season has been fantastic (though I don't like the way Dawes left), and I really think that we are the team to beat in 2013.

Lastly, if guys are thinking of a big bodied player who could be used on the inside, then I think MaCaffer could have the ability to play that role too, assuming his tank was where it needed to be. Caf has great hands and is an excellent tackler in close.

The issue for me is not how much contested ball or possession our guys get. This is clearly not a problem. It's our lack of pressure on their oppositite numbers when 'they' get first possession. From memory in the second Hawthorn game we had as much or more contested and more overall possession from our midfield ... and lost by ten goals. You correctly point out the lack of accountability in some Collingwood mids. I would say we need to either develop more accountability across the board OR develop a specialist tagger (Wellingham was prob the best option) OR fins someone who can play a more defensive midfield role. I liked Lonergan because he was reputed as a strong tackler and someone who distributed well by hand. I think your suggestion of Caff is a good one, not one I'd have thought of.