“It’s the midfield, stupid.”
Robbieando, 2019*
Never was a truer word spoken.
Thought I’d start a midfield thread, as this doesn’t really go in the Longmire thread.
I’d like to discuss midfield structures and strategies.
Our defence has been magnificent. The inside 50 count is so lopsided the defence has been remarkable the keep opposition scores so low.
We have good forwards but our delivery has been woeful: again the mids.
And anyone who says “chaosball” is really saying “hack it into the forward 50, somewhere, anywhere and hope for the best”.
So what are the problems with the mids?
1. We don’t have a ruckman. Sinkers is wholehearted, 100% for effort, but he is just not good enough;
2. Coaching. I’m NOT referring to Horse here, although the buck stops with him. Our mids have deteriorated since 2017, when we had Josh Francou as midfield coach. We now have Kirk and Cox as midfield coaches.
We tend to say on this board that we need another inside beast etc., but IMO we need to use what we have better.
The glaring problem is that we don’t have the inside/outside balance right. A good midfielder knows when to go in and when to stay out. We get sucked into the contest too easily, getting caught in a no man’s land, neither in nor out. We’ve done this a lot in the last two years. A good example is the first quarter against Brisbane. We were all in, so that our handballs were about 0.5 to 1m in length. That means that the pressuring player can easily switch to the handball receiver, so that the result is that one opposition player is pressuring two of ours. If you are going to do a 1m handball you MUST put a shepherd on, but we don’t do that. (BTW the best shepherder we have is K. Jack, which is saying something). That’s why Brisbane creamed us on the outside in the first quarter.
With 1m handballs there is no time and space to deliver the ball with composure and precision into the forward line.
In the second quarter we pushed it forward and we had players running wider.
So when Jones had his break out games earlier this year he was running wide. Against Brisbane on Saturday he ran closer in.
Second, we seem to do the same things. Hewitt tags, Kennedy is inside etc.
Let’s mix it up.
The best way to teach someone how to play mids is to put them in a tagging role on the opposition’s best mid. That way the opposition drags him to the ball, and he sees first hand how to play mids from one of the best.
So I propose putting Mills into the tagging role, Hewitt into the inside, and Kennedy (as suggested by RUNVS) to the backline.
This leads me to leadership. I admire Josh Kennedy greatly, but he seems to me from very far away to be a “follow me” type leader, rather than someone who will strategize and organize on the run – compare Luke Hodge. Further, he is putting his head over the pill, so he can’t see everything. Someone on field needs to direct the junior mids (eg Florent), where to go. Who that is I don’t know. Who has the best footy brain amongst the regular mids?
Modern midfield strategies are far more sophisticated so I’m displaying my lack of knowledge. Surely Cox and Kirk know this but I’d appreciate it if those with greater knowledge could chip in.
*(I can’t find the post, but I think it was robbieando. Apologies if not)
Robbieando, 2019*
Never was a truer word spoken.
Thought I’d start a midfield thread, as this doesn’t really go in the Longmire thread.
I’d like to discuss midfield structures and strategies.
Our defence has been magnificent. The inside 50 count is so lopsided the defence has been remarkable the keep opposition scores so low.
We have good forwards but our delivery has been woeful: again the mids.
And anyone who says “chaosball” is really saying “hack it into the forward 50, somewhere, anywhere and hope for the best”.
So what are the problems with the mids?
1. We don’t have a ruckman. Sinkers is wholehearted, 100% for effort, but he is just not good enough;
2. Coaching. I’m NOT referring to Horse here, although the buck stops with him. Our mids have deteriorated since 2017, when we had Josh Francou as midfield coach. We now have Kirk and Cox as midfield coaches.
We tend to say on this board that we need another inside beast etc., but IMO we need to use what we have better.
The glaring problem is that we don’t have the inside/outside balance right. A good midfielder knows when to go in and when to stay out. We get sucked into the contest too easily, getting caught in a no man’s land, neither in nor out. We’ve done this a lot in the last two years. A good example is the first quarter against Brisbane. We were all in, so that our handballs were about 0.5 to 1m in length. That means that the pressuring player can easily switch to the handball receiver, so that the result is that one opposition player is pressuring two of ours. If you are going to do a 1m handball you MUST put a shepherd on, but we don’t do that. (BTW the best shepherder we have is K. Jack, which is saying something). That’s why Brisbane creamed us on the outside in the first quarter.
With 1m handballs there is no time and space to deliver the ball with composure and precision into the forward line.
In the second quarter we pushed it forward and we had players running wider.
So when Jones had his break out games earlier this year he was running wide. Against Brisbane on Saturday he ran closer in.
Second, we seem to do the same things. Hewitt tags, Kennedy is inside etc.
Let’s mix it up.
The best way to teach someone how to play mids is to put them in a tagging role on the opposition’s best mid. That way the opposition drags him to the ball, and he sees first hand how to play mids from one of the best.
So I propose putting Mills into the tagging role, Hewitt into the inside, and Kennedy (as suggested by RUNVS) to the backline.
This leads me to leadership. I admire Josh Kennedy greatly, but he seems to me from very far away to be a “follow me” type leader, rather than someone who will strategize and organize on the run – compare Luke Hodge. Further, he is putting his head over the pill, so he can’t see everything. Someone on field needs to direct the junior mids (eg Florent), where to go. Who that is I don’t know. Who has the best footy brain amongst the regular mids?
Modern midfield strategies are far more sophisticated so I’m displaying my lack of knowledge. Surely Cox and Kirk know this but I’d appreciate it if those with greater knowledge could chip in.
*(I can’t find the post, but I think it was robbieando. Apologies if not)