Mid field discussion.

[FreoFury]

Is it just me or do we seriously need to look at our mid field. Week after week we get beaten at the clearances. What did we come last year in takeaways ? Pretty sure it was 16th, if not it was damn close. For a mid field with so much talent how does this continue to happen ? Seems that our good players ie the ones that regularly get a bucket load of possessions, are all out of the same mould. We have Haze, Belly, Josh, Troy Cook who are all good solid in and under players but are all in fact relatively slow on the hoof. IMHO a midfield at this level can probably find a spot for one player of this kind (as long as he's worth it) but that must be off set by the rest of the mid field being nice and quick. I realize we have midfielders that are quick ie Dessie, Schammer, Peake, Walker etc but are the guys of sufficient ilk to do the job ? Do they get enough ball ?
Much as it pains me to say it I dont think our mid field has room for all 4 (Haze, Belly, Cookie, Josh) . Sadly these are the types of blokes I love to see playing for our club ie West Aussies from the Freo (read EF/SF) zones. Add Sandi into the equation and at times our mid field can look damn slow. Theses are all quality players I just think we have got the structure all wrong. Compare the quality/pace of our mid field to any other and you start to see what I mean, quality is all very well but it doesnt do you much good if it cant get its hands on the ball. We seriously need to look at aquiring some quality with pace for our mid field and I reckon we need to take a real focus on that with our recruiting in the next few years.
As for Sandi, well I still reckon he will get there. He’s never going to be Dean Cox gathering the possessions of a mid fielder but he should become the best damn tap ruckman in the comp. He is capable, he showed that in the pre-season particularly against Cox when we played the Eagles but he needs to add to his game. He needs to hold those marks in the forward 50 and get 14-16 possessions round the ground each week. He’s not mobile enough to go with all of the Ruckmen going around but maybe another player could sometimes do the run with role leaving Sandi to give the oppositions loose man in defence something to do other than annoy Pav.

What do the rest of you think ? Is our mid field fine and just needs some fine tuning, or does it need a rebuilt ?

 

[Plugga]

I wouldn't panic yet...I liked McManus in there last Sat night (I never thought I'd say this!), his centre work clearance work rate was superb.

Centre bounces I'd like to see, Sandi or JLo, with Hase, Crowley & McManus at the moment. Crowley purely for tagging, Hase & McManus for the hard stuff. Josh carr & Bell are the other options at centre bounces...I never want to again see Headland, Peake, Gilmore, Walker in the centre square again...wings I don't mind.

 

[Slacker]

What do the rest of you think ? Is our mid field fine and just needs some fine tuning, or does it need a rebuilt ?

I used to share your concern regarding shorter slower midfielders, but like Plugga I saw some other blokes such as Crowley, Medhurst (yes him) and Macca added another dimension to our centre against Carlton. All these guys have better pace and aren't afraid to put the body in.

I agree that Walker or Dessie aren't much chop in the middle. Peake should come good with time, but frankly his performance on the weekend illustrated that he is still fairly green and probably not suited to the centre.

 

[newlander77]

Rewatch the replay of Macca in the 3rd quarter and you tell me if you still think he was good on the weekend? Then tell me if you think he was the reason for the dockers slide in the 3rd. Then tell me if you still think he performed up to scratch. Should be dropped to the WAFL.

 

[Alfonz]

Macca is in the team because he is one of the few who give it their all. It shouldn't need to be that way.

Pace has long been identified as a problem, I don't see any short term remedies. Our so-called gun midfielders like Haze and Bell are not the quick guys, and the quick guys like Peake are not our best players. But all of it counts for nought if you move the ball the way we do. Quick, crisp ball movement will make you look quicker. Also, our midfield needs to develop a harder running attitude at all times, even when they don't have the ball.

 

[theorangeapple]

The truth of the matter is that your midfielders do not win enough hard ball in the contests. Pace or not.

Go and look at your stats for hardball gets last year. Compare your midfielders with others in the comp.

 

[Ted38]

The truth of the matter is that your midfielders do not win enough hard ball in the contests. Pace or not.

Go and look at your stats for hardball gets last year. Compare your midfielders with others in the comp.

Particularly those at West Coast.

 

[Ripper]

The truth of the matter is that your midfielders do not win enough hard ball in the contests. Pace or not.

Go and look at your stats for hardball gets last year. Compare your midfielders with others in the comp.

Go and have a look at the stats from this year. There is a marked improvement so far in contested possesions & clearances despite us not playing all that well so far.

Early days yet but the signs are encouraging.

 

[Dr Ralph Dagg]

Rewatch the replay of Macca in the 3rd quarter and you tell me if you still think he was good on the weekend? Then tell me if you think he was the reason for the dockers slide in the 3rd. Then tell me if you still think he performed up to scratch. Should be dropped to the WAFL.

You know I watched the whole 3rd quarter. And the 4th. I don't normally get irritated by comments but this one is just dead set wrong. Apparently, wombats have poor eyesight and you've proved it.

Macca was clearly in the top 3 throughout the game. He made one mistake in the third quarter missing that target with a backwards kick. This resulted in Carlton possession which we got back. Then JLo made a handballing error while under no pressure, Carlton got it back and scored. And Wee ********y Wilson atttributed it to a MacManus error.

 

[newlander77]

You know I watched the whole 3rd quarter. And the 4th. I don't normally get irritated by comments but this one is just dead set wrong. Apparently, wombats have poor eyesight and you've proved it.

Macca was clearly in the top 3 throughout the game. He made one mistake in the third quarter missing that target with a backwards kick. This resulted in Carlton possession which we got back. Then JLo made a handballing error while under no pressure, Carlton got it back and scored. And Wee ********y Wilson atttributed it to a MacManus error.

Dead set mate, we were sitting here watching it saying "what the hell is he doing?". He seemed in 2 minds, handballing backwards scared to go forwards. I usually respect your posts but on this one your sooooooo far off it's not funny. I'll assume it's the drunken long weekend has gotten to you early!

 

[Ripper]

Dead set mate, we were sitting here watching it saying "what the hell is he doing?". He seemed in 2 minds, handballing backwards scared to go forwards. I usually respect your posts but on this one your sooooooo far off it's not funny. I'll assume it's the drunken long weekend has gotten to you early!

I have watched the game twice now and Dr Ralph is right.

That is two weeks in a row that Justin has coughed up a goal though an errant handpass.

 

[dockers_bengals]

I dont understand how all of you can single one guy out when most of them made errors in the second half.

 

[newlander77]

I dont understand how all of you can single one guy out when most of them made errors in the second half.

I just wonder if the guys would give CC the same respect? Players made skill errors in the 2nd half and countless people called for his head. Why single out the hairy nosed wombat?