Strategy Midfield Fix

[Pussinbootz]

It’s all very well saying we need to trade in best 22 midfielders but where are they? Who was available last year in trade week?
We are not Carlton or Essendon that can go out every single year and trade picks for quality players that originated from Melbourne like Shiel, Cerra, Caldwell, Saad, Devon Smith, Treloar, Brad Crouch, Prestia etc etc.
These types of players don’t want to come to Freo. That’s the cold hard truth.
The pool of quality players available to us is about 1/10th of the Melbourne clubs.
Hence the draft will always be where we get any high end talent more often than not.
That requires unrealistic levels of luck as we don’t get draft concessions like the suns or GWS.
So we need to be more creative with rookies, supplementary picks, mid season draft etc.
In terms of trading, when a high quality talent occasionally does become available to us, the eagles will usually be more attractive. Tim Kelly was a good example of this. (As it happens we were better off not getting him anyway in that big trade, if we wanted Kelly he should have been rookie listed in 2016 that was our one and only chance).
Angus Brayshaw is that one in ten year opportunity.

• a free agent so no draft picks needed.
• highly unusually, he was a freo supporter as a kid from Melbourne.
• he hates the eagles due to the Gaff incident so no competition from them like there normally would be
• he’s actually a very decent player

The last point is most important. Look at the players we have traded in from Melbourne over the years. Usually they are just outcasts. Conca - Richmond VFL team.
Aish - salary dump from the pies.
Acres - saints couldn’t wait to get rid of him.
Colyer - another salary dump from Essendon to make room for their latest shiny trade toy (Shiel I think it was)
Most years - this is the quality of midfielder available to the dockers in trade week.
What was the last genuine A grader that the dockers traded into the club from the eastern states? Probably Jeff Farmer. Maybe Brad hill. But there’s been heaps of underwhelming trades.
We need to be rolling the dice on rookie picks far more than we are. Stop putting fringe players that are out of contract on extensions for an extra year only to delist them anyway. People like Giro, Banfield, Crowden (if he doesn’t play much this year as seems likely), a few others. Looks like we could be paying Ethan Hughes for the next 3 year to play for Peel
Someone mentioned Barlow here as key to our success from 2011 to 15. He was taken as a rookie back in 2009 when we used to select 3 or 4 rookies every season.
Hard to get another Barlow type when we only take one rookie selection a season though.

I think we’re overplaying the likelihood that Angus would even come to Freo. There’s a massive difference between barracking for a club as a kid and uprooting your entire life and moving interstate. If it’s a money related decision, there’re likely other Vic clubs that could match what we would offer beyond that of the Dees anyway.

I’m pretty sure he’s also dating Danny Frawley’s daughter - there’s a less than 0% chance that she would want to move interstate and away from her family.

 

[blue shark]

It’s all very well saying we need to trade in best 22 midfielders but where are they? Who was available last year in trade week?
We are not Carlton or Essendon that can go out every single year and trade picks for quality players that originated from Melbourne like Shiel, Cerra, Caldwell, Saad, Devon Smith, Treloar, Brad Crouch, Prestia etc etc.
These types of players don’t want to come to Freo. That’s the cold hard truth.
The pool of quality players available to us is about 1/10th of the Melbourne clubs.
Hence the draft will always be where we get any high end talent more often than not.
That requires unrealistic levels of luck as we don’t get draft concessions like the suns or GWS.
So we need to be more creative with rookies, supplementary picks, mid season draft etc.
In terms of trading, when a high quality talent occasionally does become available to us, the eagles will usually be more attractive. Tim Kelly was a good example of this. (As it happens we were better off not getting him anyway in that big trade, if we wanted Kelly he should have been rookie listed in 2016 that was our one and only chance).
Angus Brayshaw is that one in ten year opportunity.

• a free agent so no draft picks needed.
• highly unusually, he was a freo supporter as a kid from Melbourne.
• he hates the eagles due to the Gaff incident so no competition from them like there normally would be
• he’s actually a very decent player

The last point is most important. Look at the players we have traded in from Melbourne over the years. Usually they are just outcasts. Conca - Richmond VFL team.
Aish - salary dump from the pies.
Acres - saints couldn’t wait to get rid of him.
Colyer - another salary dump from Essendon to make room for their latest shiny trade toy (Shiel I think it was)
Most years - this is the quality of midfielder available to the dockers in trade week.
What was the last genuine A grader that the dockers traded into the club from the eastern states? Probably Jeff Farmer. Maybe Brad hill. But there’s been heaps of underwhelming trades.
We need to be rolling the dice on rookie picks far more than we are. Stop putting fringe players that are out of contract on extensions for an extra year only to delist them anyway. People like Giro, Banfield, Crowden (if he doesn’t play much this year as seems likely), a few others. Looks like we could be paying Ethan Hughes for the next 3 year to play for Peel
Someone mentioned Barlow here as key to our success from 2011 to 15. He was taken as a rookie back in 2009 when we used to select 3 or 4 rookies every season.
Hard to get another Barlow type when we only take one rookie selection a season though.

I refuse to think we are that bad, until I’ve seen the kids totally out of their
depth.
All we can judge on this year are that our bottom 6 in the two games played are
not good enough, or the balance, positions are not right.
That’s also a coaching issue and nothing to do with the players.
Structurally we are poor, slow to react when it’s not on our terms.
The players at Peel are doing their job, it’s not their fault they don’t get
selected.
Freo talk about the future, exciting footy and then serve up spuds.
False advertising.

 

[Freomaniac]

There are ways to get around 6x6x6. Clark and Chapman can rotate time in the midfield and hbf perhaps the easiest example.

The loss of Neale and Cerra are always going to be significant, but the issue is also about the inability to find replacements either from trades or from the list from players such as Tucker, Blakeley and Valente. There is no contingency.

Again.... Had we nailed a couple of WA inside mids in 2015-17 drafts, that would of soften the blow losing cerra and Neale.

We eventually found a way to replace Sandilands in recruiting and slowly developing Sean Darcy.

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

To come back to Gav's original post here are some stats from the AFL App.

These are Centre Bounce Attendances and Centre Clearances combined for the 1st 2 rounds of 2022.

Guess what? Brodie is statistically our best Centre bounce player in 2022.

They back up Gav's point about we are getting enough depth through the centre.

This isn't a problem for the October Free Agency + Trade. It is a problem for today. The season is now and, statistically, this is a bottom 6 centre square profile.

NAME	Centre Bounce Attendance	Centre Bounce Clearance
Brayshaw	40	5
Meek	36	0
Serong	35	2
Brodie	29	7
Mundy	21	3
Switkowski	7	1
Lobb	6	0
Darcy	5	0
Tucker	5	0
O'Driscoll	3	0
Walters	1	0

*edited the markup to make the table actually work

 

[wayToGo_]

Looks like it is more than our midfield that needs fixing

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

I'm struggling reading this. It's a terrible thought, with a strong ring of truth to it.

I'm not pining for Lyon to come back and generally have come to terms with the change we had to have. But for a time he made us relevant. The only way for that to happen again is by winning.

But we also became monumentally irrelevant under Lyon.

 

[Dockers v Channel7West]

Luke Ryan in the middle

Tough, quick hands, good kick, good decision maker. 92 kg, 186cm

He is our best HBF rebounder but We have recruited enough talent to cover trying him.

But... His magnet has been super glued so it will never happen

 

[Heart Of Purple]

To come back to Gav's original post here are some stats from the AFL App.

These are Centre Bounce Attendances and Centre Clearances combined for the 1st 2 rounds of 2022.

Guess what? Brodie is statistically our best Centre bounce player in 2022.

They back up Gav's point about we are getting enough depth through the centre.

This isn't a problem for the October Free Agency + Trade. It is a problem for today. The season is now and, statistically, this is a bottom 6 centre square profile.

NAME	Centre Bounce Attendance	Centre Bounce Clearance
Brayshaw	40	5
Meek	36	0
Serong	35	2
Brodie	29	7
Mundy	21	3
Switkowski	7	1
Lobb	6	0
Darcy	5	0
Tucker	5	0
O'Driscoll	3	0
Walters	1	0

*edited the markup to make the table actually work

A better stat, albeit harder to source … would be Centre Clearance win % as a group.

Ie. of the 40 times Brayshaws been in the middle, how many centre clearances do Freo have.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Nodgey]

Agree. Flexibility is key. I remember Hawthorn at their peak had all sorts of players attend centre bounces. As well as the usual miss there was Breust, Cyril, Puopulo, Burgoyne.

I’d Ike us to change things up a bit. Try Hughes forward, Ryan mid, Logue up the ground, maybe Walters behind the ball given he’s now struggling in the front half. Little things that might create a mismatch and create just one goal. A lot of games are decided by less than 6 points…

 

[hoss]

Fyfe is wagu beef rump that has been beat with a mallet. A bit banged up, but still gonna be great eating.

Mundy is blue steak. Aged beef, seared on the outside, but juicy in the middle. A delicacy.

Walters is grain fed rib-eye covered in a burnt mushroom gravy. Yeah the sauce is a bit off, but there's still a great steak under there. All is not lost.

I see Walters more as ground beef. Either that or duck.

On Pixel 4a using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[muzzington]

More Switta.

 

[theGav56]

To come back to Gav's original post here are some stats from the AFL App.

These are Centre Bounce Attendances and Centre Clearances combined for the 1st 2 rounds of 2022.

Guess what? Brodie is statistically our best Centre bounce player in 2022.

They back up Gav's point about we are getting enough depth through the centre.

This isn't a problem for the October Free Agency + Trade. It is a problem for today. The season is now and, statistically, this is a bottom 6 centre square profile.

NAME	Centre Bounce Attendance	Centre Bounce Clearance
Brayshaw	40	5
Meek	36	0
Serong	35	2
Brodie	29	7
Mundy	21	3
Switkowski	7	1
Lobb	6	0
Darcy	5	0
Tucker	5	0
O'Driscoll	3	0
Walters	1	0

*edited the markup to make the table actually work

Appreciate you creating this table.

How exciting to see Erasmus yesterday and to know Johnson is also incoming.

 

[StingBitten]

Fyfe is wagu beef rump that has been beat with a mallet. A bit banged up, but still gonna be great eating.

Mundy is blue steak. Aged beef, seared on the outside, but juicy in the middle. A delicacy.

Walters is grain fed rib-eye covered in a burnt mushroom gravy. Yeah the sauce is a bit off, but there's still a great steak under there. All is not lost.

I changed my restaurant booking from Viet-Hoa to Fibber McGee's after reading this.

 

[StingBitten]

Quite simply I think at years end we cut out a little more deadwood (Blakely, Colyer, Tucker, Crowden) and trade in a couple of 23 year olds.

 

[rgauci]

Quite simply I think at years end we cut out a little more deadwood (Blakely, Colyer, Tucker, Crowden) and trade in a couple of 23 year olds.

I’m not sure I’d call Colyer or Tucker deadwood while they’ve been best 22. Crowden and Blakeley would be looking over the shoulder though.