Its always about the midfield

[wehavethepassion]

we need to find ther best midfield coach that money can buy.

also the top teams ie Colonwood, Geelong, hawks & carlton have not only 3-4 guns in the midfield they have many more to run thru there when their first choice is having a breather.

eg. Colonwood first choice: Pendleberry, swan, ball, thomas
Second choice: wellingham, didak, krakauer,sidebottom

Dockers: first(and only choice): barlow, mundy, fyfe, Hill/mora??

Who else can be fast tracked? Pitt(needs meat on bones and it takes time),mellington(likewise), michie(?), crichton(disposal issues), walters(inury prone), crowley(finished?), mcphee(too slow)

The talk that 2012 is our window is pure fancy. looking at the midfields running around in the finals just shows how far we are off the mark. Developing a midfield takes time and development.

 

[Freo Shark]

we need to find ther best midfield coach that money can buy.

also the top teams ie Colonwood, Geelong, hawks & carlton have not only 3-4 guns in the midfield they have many more to run thru there when their first choice is having a breather.

eg. Colonwood first choice: Pendleberry, swan, ball, thomas
Second choice: wellingham, didak, krakauer,sidebottom

Dockers: first(and only choice): barlow, mundy, fyfe, Hill/mora??

Who else can be fast tracked? Pitt(needs meat on bones and it takes time),mellington(likewise), michie(?), crichton(disposal issues), walters(inury prone), crowley(finished?), mcphee(too slow)

The talk that 2012 is our window is pure fancy. looking at the midfields running around in the finals just shows how far we are off the mark. Developing a midfield takes time and development.

Agree WHTP, we are not near our window opening. We should be targeting JOM and playing hardball with Brissie and save our picks for the draft. That includes not overpaying Mitch.

 

[WAnchor]

I don't honestly think we'll be hugely off the pace. The Collingwood 'second choice players' you mention will rotate from other positions.

Players that we'll rotate through the mid at times next year:
Pav - although looking more unlikely, thankfully
Broughton
Ballantyne
de Boer
Ibbotson
Suban
Lower
Mzungu

I would agree that Collingwood's unit looks stronger, but once we have (hopefully) a better run with injuries, our 'first choice' unit will have a chance to gel and we will then be able to rely on our 'second choice' to be impact players in the mid.

 

[longsuffreosupp]

Hard running, big bodied, line breaking, goal kicking midfielders. Not much to ask for..

 

[tacopavlich]

and west coast? there midfield group isn't overly impressive either. and carlton are far off the pace compared to the top 4. good at smashing weak teams and that's about it. the new bulldogs of the comp.

 

[Chops_a_must]

Ballantyne is finished as a midfielder due to his injuries. Fantasy to believe he can be a relied fixture in there as he works himself into the ground.

 

[malpaso]

To me the big difference is that other teams are 'strong' and 'hard running' for 4 quarters.

We have the personnel, they just are not hard and strong enough yet.

 

[Kickett Punches Read]

Ballantyne is finished as a midfielder due to his injuries. Fantasy to believe he can be a relied fixture in there as he works himself into the ground.

agree with this, although ballas running along the win is a sight to behold, i think for his own fitness he needs to stay inside the forward fifty. he is also more dangerous there

 

[sumavich]

and west coast? there midfield group isn't overly impressive either. and carlton are far off the pace compared to the top 4. good at smashing weak teams and that's about it. the new bulldogs of the comp.

They've got Natawhoey ?
I was sceptical about him early, but if he stays injury free he's going to be the clearance king of the comp.

 

[BeinPurplenGreen]

we need to find ther best midfield coach that money can buy.

also the top teams ie Colonwood, Geelong, hawks & carlton have not only 3-4 guns in the midfield they have many more to run thru there when their first choice is having a breather.

eg. Colonwood first choice: Pendleberry, swan, ball, thomas
Second choice: wellingham, didak, krakauer,sidebottom

Dockers: first(and only choice): barlow, mundy, fyfe, Hill/mora??

Who else can be fast tracked? Pitt(needs meat on bones and it takes time),mellington(likewise), michie(?), crichton(disposal issues), walters(inury prone), crowley(finished?), mcphee(too slow)

The talk that 2012 is our window is pure fancy. looking at the midfields running around in the finals just shows how far we are off the mark. Developing a midfield takes time and development.

Why do we need to look for heaps of "newbies" to "fast track"??

We will have:

Barlow
Mundy
Mora
Fyfe
DeBoer (tagger)
Lower
Sandi (*amongst the highest "midfielders" in the AFL in the last 3-4 years in terms of clearances and possessions to effect*)

Plus we can rotate

Ballas (chops you are wrong - he can still do bursts, or he shouldn't be playing at all)
Hill
Broughts
Suban
(hopefully rarely) Pav

through the guts AND

we can add in the new players that have started to play more of a midfield role in

Pitt,
Mzungu,
Zac (yes I know unorthodox and I don't like it as a pure full time midfield role, but he can and should play in there in bursts against some teams).

That's at least 15 decent midfield options, and that's without counting McPhee, Mello, Ibbo, Crichton or Michie.

Time for us to finally focus on squeezing the blood from the stones we have, instead of always mortaging everything on some magic just over the horizon solution, or trading all our cows for five magic beans...

IMHO, really no need to pin all our hopes on some new magic young mid to solver all our problems, more a case of getting all or most of the above fit, firin and healthy, plus playing them in their most effective positions

 

[Nickos66]

Hard running, big bodied, line breaking, goal kicking midfielders. Not much to ask for..

I think there's one of those from WA going in the 17y/o minidraft?

 

[micfreo]

Why do we need to look for heaps of "newbies" to "fast track"??

We will have:

Barlow
Mundy
Mora
Fyfe
DeBoer (tagger)
Lower
Sandi (*amongst the highest "midfielders" in the AFL in the last 3-4 years in terms of clearances and possessions to effect*)

Plus we can rotate

Ballas (chops you are wrong - he can still do bursts, or he shouldn't be playing at all)
Hill
Broughts
Suban
(hopefully rarely) Pav

through the guts AND

we can add in the new players that have started to play more of a midfield role in

Pitt,
Mzungu,
Zac (yes I know unorthodox and I don't like it as a pure full time midfield role, but he can and should play in there in bursts against some teams).

That's at least 15 decent midfield options, and that's without counting McPhee, Mello, Ibbo, Crichton or Michie.

Time for us to finally focus on squeezing the blood from the stones we have, instead of always mortaging everything on some magic just over the horizon solution, or trading all our cows for five magic beans...

IMHO, really no need to pin all our hopes on some new magic young mid to solver all our problems, more a case of getting all or most of the above fit, firin and healthy, plus playing them in their most effective positions

Exactly this^^.

but also believe broughts and Ibbo are going to further develop into quality mids