Re: North Melbourne vs Essendon Round 1 31/3/11
I don't think too many Essendon fans are going to be running scared of that list once you give us our four additional midfielders. A combination of Myers, Heppell, Jetta, Monfries and Colyer is more than capable of breaking even with what you've named.
Think of it as Myers v Cunnington (inside, clearance winner), Colyer v Atley (extreme speed and ****house kick), Monfries v Bastinac (hard running accumulator - to add to Stanton) and maybe look to Jetta to be our Harvey (obviously you win this but don't discount Leroy too much). If you understand the progression of the Essendon players I've named in the last 18 months you will know why I'm not afraid.
Harvey and Wells aside I think we almost have every other player covered (if Zaharakis has maintained a consistent level of improvement over the latest preseason you could consider him the equal of Wells). We are not seriously going to conceed that Howlett/Hocking does not represent better value than Anthony/Greenwood as midfield workhorses/run with types.
Due to a combination of physical immaturity, team balance and injury the development of our blue chip young midfield group hasn't been ideal. With further, hard preseasons into players like Jetta, Myers and Melksham we have serious quality to add into the midfield rotation (Heppell is likely to still play the bulk of his footy at half back this year). Monfries has shown that, if he can actually be freed to play as a midfielder (which he finally should be), he can be a prolific accumulator of the ball.
It just so happens that we have been unable to expose any of our high profile midfield draft picks to serious midfield time (which is something that Brad Scott has been generally able to do). Rightly or wrongly these are the players a team is judged on. How else could anyone seriously argue that Richmond has a decent team or that Carlton has a "great" list? This has been the main reason that the media has written us off. If you don't follow EFC closely you won't have a proper appreciation for what our young mids are capable of (I suppose this is true of every side but with the media refusing to acknowledge our players they basically get no exposure).
Being able to add Melksham, Myers, Zaharakis, Heppell and Jetta to to the solid foundation provided by Watson, Hocking, Stanton and Howlett is huge. Clearly we are Kavanagh, Colyer, Merrett and hopefully Caddy (to name a few) away from having the depth required to make the leap to to a top 4 midfield but we actually have a properly balanced midfield now (and unlike North we have still been good enough to actually make the finals).
I don't think too many Essendon fans are going to be running scared of that list once you give us our four additional midfielders. A combination of Myers, Heppell, Jetta, Monfries and Colyer is more than capable of breaking even with what you've named.
Think of it as Myers v Cunnington (inside, clearance winner), Colyer v Atley (extreme speed and ****house kick), Monfries v Bastinac (hard running accumulator - to add to Stanton) and maybe look to Jetta to be our Harvey (obviously you win this but don't discount Leroy too much). If you understand the progression of the Essendon players I've named in the last 18 months you will know why I'm not afraid.
Harvey and Wells aside I think we almost have every other player covered (if Zaharakis has maintained a consistent level of improvement over the latest preseason you could consider him the equal of Wells). We are not seriously going to conceed that Howlett/Hocking does not represent better value than Anthony/Greenwood as midfield workhorses/run with types.
Due to a combination of physical immaturity, team balance and injury the development of our blue chip young midfield group hasn't been ideal. With further, hard preseasons into players like Jetta, Myers and Melksham we have serious quality to add into the midfield rotation (Heppell is likely to still play the bulk of his footy at half back this year). Monfries has shown that, if he can actually be freed to play as a midfielder (which he finally should be), he can be a prolific accumulator of the ball.
It just so happens that we have been unable to expose any of our high profile midfield draft picks to serious midfield time (which is something that Brad Scott has been generally able to do). Rightly or wrongly these are the players a team is judged on. How else could anyone seriously argue that Richmond has a decent team or that Carlton has a "great" list? This has been the main reason that the media has written us off. If you don't follow EFC closely you won't have a proper appreciation for what our young mids are capable of (I suppose this is true of every side but with the media refusing to acknowledge our players they basically get no exposure).
Being able to add Melksham, Myers, Zaharakis, Heppell and Jetta to to the solid foundation provided by Watson, Hocking, Stanton and Howlett is huge. Clearly we are Kavanagh, Colyer, Merrett and hopefully Caddy (to name a few) away from having the depth required to make the leap to to a top 4 midfield but we actually have a properly balanced midfield now (and unlike North we have still been good enough to actually make the finals).
Good luck with that! (He actually averages 13 touches, a goal and an a couple of assists a game, BTW. I'd move on from his key backman stats to where he actually plays now.)
