Originally posted by Macca19
Schofield was probably our most consistent midfielder this year and rarely played a bad game. He had by far his best year at the club and his best year in the AFL and people want him planted int he SANFL for the year?? I cant see how anyone can come to that conclusion.
I agree that when he played this year
(during the H&A season) we looked better because he was able to provide that run.
However IMO there are a couple arguments to say it is time he starts getting phased out.
1. Peter Burgoyne, Josh Carr, Stuart Cochrane, Kane Cornes, Adam Kingsley (sort of), Jarrad Schofield and Nick Stevens.
Out of those we have Carr Cochrane and Cornes as taggers, and Burgoyne Schofield and Stevens as our main attacking midfielders.
Not a balanced midfield. Run and tag, tag and run. Stop the run and there is no midfield. Once Eade worked us out in 01, we now get done over by the better teams in important games. Enter Malthouse.
2. This year we have Peter Burgoyne, Carr, Cochrane, Kane Cornes, Kingsley (most likely a bit more often than last year in midfield), and Schofield. James and Francou will return, plus another couple of "new oldies" that we recruited.
I cannot see any change from last year. Kane Cornes will be used in much the same way as last year and may even not play every game. Salopeck and Ebert will be fighting out the spoils with Salopeck having the upper hand in this duel. Cassisi will be pushing to get a game.
Come finals it will be much the same type of midfield as in the Collingwood game (see above).
Now the question, which one of our "regulars" do we start phasing out as lets face it we have a pretty crappy midfield come finals time.
Francou, Carr and James must stay. Hopefully Kane Cornes will stay. That leaves Burgoyne or Schofield.
Time for Schofield to get phased out.
We cannot have a changing of the guard and keep everyone.
Wrt to 2001 I haven't seen the finals games since then, but I cannot recall Schofield standing out.
If you say he stood out, then I will just take your word for it. As I have said I cannot recall offensive midfielders mentioned in the other post playing well in finals.