Roast How diabolical is our midfield?

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Imo Soligo needs to be a full time mid. His inside/outside game is second to none in our team. He has so much composure and his disposals are effective and creative. Has a bit of Lachie Neale about him but we need him to be getting CBAs

Berry potentially makes way this week, Sog the likely beneficiary of those minutes.
 

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100% has to happen. Need Soligo around the contest. We’ve got wingers we can try, Nank for starters
Yeah, agree it's time for Soligo to spend significant minutes as an inside midfielder.
 
How are we still talking about this after all this time and all the same issues.
I just listened to Chad Cornes on AFL and as much as it hurts me deep inside to agree with him, his thoughts on Berry, Crouch, Laird, and even Soligo ring true. All very similar mids who can win the ball but none are elite kickers. Add Sloane to that too. Dawson is our best kick and he had a shocker himself on Friday night. If we can’t get elite kicking mids, we at least have to have a forward game plan that doesn’t rely on pinpoint kicking.
 
I just listened to Chad Cornes on AFL and as much as it hurts me deep inside to agree with him, his thoughts on Berry, Crouch, Laird, and even Soligo ring true. All very similar mids who can win the ball but none are elite kickers. Add Sloane to that too. Dawson is our best kick and he had a shocker himself on Friday night. If we can’t get elite kicking mids, we at least have to have a forward game plan that doesn’t rely on pinpoint kicking.
I'd agree with this accept to say that Soligo has elite footy smarts and should be the one to emerge or this group as full time mid

Our midfield is far from finished in its development.
 
I'd agree with this accept to say that Soligo has elite footy smarts and should be the one to emerge or this group as full time mid

Our midfield is far from finished in its development.

Unfortunately 3 of the main 4 are locked in for at least 2 years. There's not a lot of room for development in the short term. Plus VB and Nicks believe those 3 are the foundation of a contending midfield. Reality is tha only Dawson warrants a spot.
 
How many actual full time mids in the AFL are elite kicks?

Not a whole lot would be my thinking.
I think he was more making the point we tend to get that same type of mid, which was actually quite telling. Our mids aren’t bad, but they are very similar in the way they go about it.
 
Remember in 2020 when we blamed COVID because no one knew what the game plan was here we are now and the players still don't look like they know what the game plan is

Apparently they just can't execute it.

Not sure why they are surprised when they don't have players that can execute under pressure.

Football is not a perfect game, yet it feels our game plan needs everything to go our way for it to be effective.

We lack good 1 on 1 players, especially in the midfield. Essentially a bunch of 1 dimensional role players cobbled together.
 
Remember in 2020 when we blamed COVID because no one knew what the game plan was here we are now and the players still don't look like they know what the game plan is
Well, 2020 was Nicks first year in charge after a massive list turnover during the pandemic so I'm not sure what you were expecting. The game plan was seen in the last few years and is what we saw most of 2023 but somehow they decided to change it in the few few games.
 

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How many actual full time mids in the AFL are elite kicks?

Not a whole lot would be my thinking.
Bontempelli
Pendlebury
Daicos
Dusty (when he was full time)
Petracca
Dawson
Butters
Rozee
J Kelly

Off the top of my head for inside midfielders.

... but yeah, most inside midfielders tend to have lower disposal efficiency.
 
What roles should our starting midfield mix actually be playing?

In my view, we need one proper ball winner (two has consistently failed us against good teams), and Crouch is currently the best at that. But he only ever plays 65-70% TOG, so we'd need a pinch hitter to take that role when he's not on the ground. In theory I'd go with Pedlar here, but if we try Laird as a primary back pocket, he could do it instead.

We need one player for delivering the ball forward after we've won the clearance (when we do) - that would probably be Dawson, but Soligo can take that role at times. I'm not opposed to rotating between them (and having the other one on the wing).

What role should the third player actually be though? Do we resort to a defensive minded player or a hard tagger? We have Fremantle next week, and Serong has had 81 disposals (36 contested) and 17 score involvements in two weeks, so we need someone checking him. But who takes that role? The first that comes to mind is Keays - he's played midfield before and played as a tagger as well, so it's not implausible.
 
So do we have any confidence any of our potential mids will make it?
Going to be difficult if they don't get significant actual time in the midfield.

Who is doing our Carr role in the coaches box whilst the senior coach hangs around the bench?

We need someone who has a feel for the game in the coaches box to make moves quickly as needed. I feel like the lights were out in the coaches box...
 
Going to be difficult if they don't get significant actual time in the midfield.

Who is doing our Carr role in the coaches box whilst the senior coach hangs around the bench?

We need someone who has a feel for the game in the coaches box to make moves quickly as needed. I feel like the lights were out in the coaches box...
CBAs from afl
Berry - 7
Soligo - 5
Rankine - 2
Rachele - 1

Crouch - 23
Laird - 21
Dawson - 24

Another great development time for our young mids
 
CBAs from afl
Berry - 7
Soligo - 5
Rankine - 2
Rachele - 1

Crouch - 23
Laird - 21
Dawson - 24

Another great development time for our young mids
The irony is not only are we slowing the development of our younger players, it's going to hinder our performance.
 
A number of plans BS plan A didn’t work Play B for Stewart just let him play loose
Personally I would have used Hinge, but if they didn't want to move him from defence, Burgess was the obvious choice... but our coaches were clueless after ruining Pedlar's mindset to just let Stewart run loose.

What a great result of coaching nouse after getting a 2 year extension.

Seriously we have dumb *s in the coaching box.
 

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