Midfield

[docko911]

It's not the players as much as it is the set-up. I watched Western Bulldogs create lanes that made us look like training cones and Port were able to get loose players left right and centre. A lot of the time it looks like our players are playing their own game and not one designed around a midfield plan. It may just be a matter of time before our midfield gels but we need to learn how to correctly block and move and DEFEND so that we get the easy centre breaks but prevent them at the same time.

A lot of the time it seems like our STRENGTH is our WEAKNESS.

Obviously improved ruck work would help but i do not think this is the only pressing issue.

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Lmao at all the responses. How dare you say bad things about our midfielders!
Your summary was absolutely spot on.Terrible defensively they are.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

What worries me the most is our midfield, it is week in week out getting absolutely smashed in the clearances and contested ball, how can something that was such a strength last year become a huge weakness in 1 year??

 

[Ralll]

too many players sitting 5m off the contest and not rushing the ball in numbers.
Its been happening all year

 

[folester41]

while i know martin, cotchin and conca will improve, our midfield is still a long way off it and we are going to need more quality midfielders if we are going to be a top 8 side.

 

[Tzatziki_Man]

We need people like Grigg too pull his finger out.

We need people like Cotch, Jackson, Martin and Deledio to play consistently.

We need Foley too stop handballing and short kicking.

We need Houli to continue playing well.

And we need another midfielder who can change the ****ing game, not just have the 'ability' too...

 

[Spagman]

Grigg is a passenger. Seems afraid of getting hurt, short kicks are terrible, poor decision making when he actually gets the uncontested ball.

Everyone's had a stab at Miller this weekend, but I fail to see how Grigg gets picked each week. After his handball effort last week and backing away from contests this week, I thought he'd be wearing the safety vest pretty quickly, but nope.

 

[Moreaux]

Grigg is a passenger. Seems afraid of getting hurt, short kicks are terrible, poor decision making when he actually gets the uncontested ball.

Everyone's had a stab at Miller this weekend, but I fail to see how Grigg gets picked each week. After his handball effort last week and backing away from contests this week, I thought he'd be wearing the safety vest pretty quickly, but nope.

I was at the game and saw Grigg not go on two separate occasions i was absolutely disgusted, soft as butter needs to stop worrying about getting hurt, needs to take a look at grimey and how he puts i.

 

[WATIGE]

What worries me the most is our midfield, it is week in week out getting absolutely smashed in the clearances and contested ball, how can something that was such a strength last year become a huge weakness in 1 year??

Campbell moving from midfield to opposition analysis?

Just putting it out there?!

 

[El Tigre]

As a bunch of individuals, our midfield is pretty good. As a group, they don't cut it (yet). I don't know whether its Dimmas plan, or its the players, that they stand off the opposition midfield too much. The closer they get, the more pressure they can exert if the opposition gets the ball. But the more they have to work as a team, if they get the ball, and need to get it into space.

 

[Rayzorwire]

We've been tactically poor in the middle most of the season (as some of us have been saying for weeks), but it's been masked by a combination of other factors in our wins.

Very basic failures - not being goal side of your direct opponent at defensive stoppages, not guarding the dangerous spaces at stoppages both centre square and around the ground, not moving to defensive positions when the ball is in a static ground contest and you yourself have become static, not creating offensive space work in while still keeping direct touch with your opponent, not covering the space at the ruckman's feet, not blocking for other ball winners, are all just happening far too often.

Part of our problem is also with our midfield depth. We went into the season hoping that we'd be rotating Morton, Connors and Grigg through the centre and none of the three have been there for us bar some cameo's from Grigg (mixed with some games where he offered so little defensive pressure it was embarrassing from a senior player). Edwards missed this week and his absence both on the weekend and last week was notable. When they're combined and Tuck is included, it represents a lot of midfield depth missing and that's how everyone beats sides like Port, Brisbane, GC etc. easily - they out-run them using far superior midfield depth.

Tuck has been handled very poorly, should have been an automatic selection for a full game in those conditions, should have been used earlier in the season to ensure our younger midfielders coped better with the long run to our first bye, should have been sent in to the opening bounce every game alongside Foley and Jackson to do what he does best while we stack Cotchin, Martin etc. across half-forward and back their ability to turn or outmark their opponent. Two or three of Foley, Jackson or Tuck should go to 80% of our stoppages, one of them to 100%, while we rotate our other good clearance players around them and always maintain a strong bodied defensive minded midfield core throughout the game.

Conca was as brave as can be on the weekend, he copped about half a dozen nasty wacks of one kind or another and still fought the game right out, he's an extremely impressive kid, but he should be spending a lot less time doing inside mid roles at this stage of his development. He's not even close on the defensive side of things for large portions of games and we're surely at least very close to asking too much of his body over the last month. The last two weeks he's been forced to come back on injured and go straight back to midfield roles he really shouldn't be having to do yet.

The coaching staff haven't handled many elements of our midfield well this year and it's shown in every game to one degree or another. Poor selection, poor tactical planning and execution, poor outcomes all round except on the score of Conca's development, but even then we have a glut of players who should be chosen for the roles he has well ahead of him.

I'm far from convinced we have the right people in place to get our midfield functioning as it should with the players we have available - it's either that or the players are deliberately disobedient, right up to senior players who are suddenly making plenty of 'tactical errors' which they've mysteriously never made before.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

Our reliance on Cotchin to win clearances is staggering , a number of players are now reactive at clearances rather than proactive and just attacking the footy , the changing of positioning at clearances of some indicates to me it is most likely a direction from the MC ?
I'd suggest very very few have increased their clearance percentages ?
Time for players like Lids , Newman and Grigg to be used more at clearances I think ?

 

[Roachy8]

Swans are very very good inside... SCG is short, less room for carry forward (though being wide, when teams spread they find themselves heading for the boundary lines).

Swans game will be a huge challenge for our players and coaches to get the matchups through the middle working right.

 

[Rustof]

Was Cousins more important to our midfield than we thought?

 

[Madtiger2006]

Grigg is a passenger. Seems afraid of getting hurt, short kicks are terrible, poor decision making when he actually gets the uncontested ball.

Everyone's had a stab at Miller this weekend, but I fail to see how Grigg gets picked each week. After his handball effort last week and backing away from contests this week, I thought he'd be wearing the safety vest pretty quickly, but nope.

Yeah would rather play Jacko and Tuck and have Grigg as depth at Coburg for now

 

[eays]

our midfield (just our midfield that is!) reminds me a lot of collingwood's midfield in 2009. A lot of polish and game breakers, but in need of (1) a big dominant ruckman, and (2) a grunt midfielder to just keep winning the inside ball all day.

They went and got Jolly and Ball to address these issues and now have the best midfield in the game. Helps that Daisy has stepped up as well, but on the natural improvement aspect, i am sure we have that covered with the current group.

I reckon we definately still need a big dominant ruckman and one more inside mid, who will just go all day. I really dont see the big ruckman on our list. Graham plays too scared and whilst i love Browne's endeavour, i aint sold. Might need to go buy ourselves a big ruckman in the off season.

As for inside mids, these are easier to come by. Shane Tuck isnt the long term solution, but could fill the void this year. Tom Hislop still has the potential IMO, although he is at last chance saloon this season. I'd been looking at a VFL or similar state league stand out to fill this void, surely there will be one. Maybe a Travis Tuck or someone similar.

Give us a big ruckman, an inside ball winner and another year of natural development and IMO our midfield would match any in the competition.

 

[Bazzar]

What worries me the most is our midfield, it is week in week out getting absolutely smashed in the clearances and contested ball, how can something that was such a strength last year become a huge weakness in 1 year??

Midfield coaches-

2010 - Cambo
2011 - Lade

Maybe this can shed some light on how we have gone backwards, not to mention some puzzling ruck tactics.

 

[Rayzorwire]

Midfield coaches-

2010 - Cambo
2011 - Lade

Maybe this can shed some light on how we have gone backwards, not to mention some puzzling ruck tactics.

Apparently Lade and Nick Stevens are midfield coaches this year Baz, and at a guess Campbell would have at least schooled the other two in what we'd done last year and where we were aiming, with perhaps an ongoing further involvement this year to some extent.

Fair to say that if they have actually learned anything over the off-season from our better and worse performances last year, collectively they haven't been able to get their message across to the players well enough, because we've fallen away significantly even from last year - if you took Foley and Tuck out right now we would be right back to looking our worst from last year again more than once before the season's out you'd suspect.

 

[Bazzar]

I see where you are coming from Rayz, but how full time is Stevens? Lade is Stoppage coach so the buck stops there.

Our midfield is now playing like Stevens, soft and unacountable. I know people have issues with Cambo and his playing style, but as a coach our mids were fantastic.

 

[Rayzorwire]

I see where you are coming from Rayz, but how full time is Stevens? Lade is Stoppage coach so the buck stops there.

Not sure how full-time Stevens is Baz, and agree on your last point, though it does have to be looked at as a coaching staff team thing as well I think, in the end the buck stops with the senior coach, and I'm sure if they felt things weren't working they'd all be discussing the problems together and looking for solutions. At the same time, I'm sure latitude is given for someone to put their stamp on a role.

Our midfield is now playing like Stevens, soft and unacountable.

True, it's got a bit scary really mate. I'm sure many thought I was exaggerating or had lost it when I said exactly that last week, but the signs were there and were fully exposed last weekend.

I know people have issues with Cambo and his playing style, but as a coach our mids were fantastic.

We were better with less to work with last year, we really should be 7-3 going into the bye with a terrific shot at finals, it was a very achievable goal based on how well we did improve on some things which let us down last year and how weakened we met a couple of good opponents.

Sadly, we've gone backwards in key areas I thought we were long past worrying about.

 

[Rustof]

It seems after a centre bounce all our mids go on the defending side of the circle allowing the opp team to scoop it out back and run off from there.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Lids got killed by Pearce, or at least beaten, i don't know where we put him TBH

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Agree with the sentiments above.Should the question be asked also are the players running their own race.Highly unlikely but in fairness to Lade it needs to be asked.

Personally I think the focus on attack as opposed to last year has been to our detriment.
Tuck seems to be a victim of this seasons focus.

One thing for sure is that the unbelievable game from Rance and to some extent Mcguane and Grimes v Essendon saved the backsides of the midfield for a week.
Extraordinary that people are calling for their heads as being a defender in Our side would be the toughest gig in town.