Roast Our Clearance Work has been Really Poor in 1st 6 Rounds

[TradeDraft]

For a Team that Supposly has the Best Midfield ever Assembled we sure get Smashed in the Clearances.

We have a Dominant Ruckman but we are not taking Advantage of it much at all. We seem to get Clear Use of the Ball from these Ruck Contests.

Grundy himself has to get the ball by himself quite a Few Times.

We look better when De Goey is in there so we might need a Big Body Inside Mid to go in there like De Goey or Sier or Wills.

Frustrating but IF we can fix this we will win Majority of our Games.

At the Moment our Midfield looks to be Overrated

 

[nahnah]

especially given Grundy is dominating the taps, need to figure it out

 

[dmoore30]

Lost the clearance count 36 to 19 after H
QTR time, not one of our greatest midfield performances as a whole.

 

[TradeDraft]

especially given Grundy is dominating the taps, need to figure it out

Sure Do before it's too late

 

[dmoore30]

especially given Grundy is dominating the taps, need to figure it out

He has recorded the most hits to advantage in the first 5 rounds. He is doing his bit, now the mids need to do theres.

 

[TradeDraft]

He has recorded the most hits to advantage in the first 5 rounds. He is doing his bit, now the mids need to do theres.

100% Agree dmoore30

 

[swoop42]

All I know is that when you have the best ruck in the game feeding you and a 211cm giant giving him a chop out our midfield group has no place to hide this season.

Outside Treloar (and de Goey) our premium midfielders are a little one paced so winning clearances and the contested ball count needs to be their bread and butter week after week.

So far it's a work in progress.

 

[Collingwoodity]

I wanted to start a similar thread so good one Dave.

I really “hope” that Beams is still sick or injured because he really is not gelling atm. (Don’t hope but you know what I mean)

We got a goal from Greenwood’s tough clearance in the last. Whilst he may not be the answer, it really did show that we are not winning enough hard ball clearances.



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[Kappa]

Pendlebury Beams Treloar all dance around the outside of the pack while other midfielders go in and smash the footy at speed

 

[nahnah]

Pendlebury Beams Treloar all dance around the outside of the pack while other midfielders go in and smash the footy at speed

yep Beams really needs to lift his contested stuff, the other two i dont mind being a little more outside

 

[Visions]

I think people have been conned by the media into believing that our midfield is supposed to be elite. Adams is a bull but torches the ball, Treloar just torches the ball, Sidebottom skirts packs and has these dinky kicks that don't really hurt, our best midfielder for the last decade Pendles is unfortunately getting on in years, JDG is great but is only a part timer in the middle, and the 29yo man we inexplicably sold the farm for who is supposed to be at his peak in Beams has been bog average.

Think we should just get used to it, our midfield is serviceable but not great.

 

[Get Gaffed]

Hopefully this improves now that Adam's hand is closer to 100% as is something that was limiting him defensively.

 

[Moore of the Same]

Been wondering the same thing myself. I'm not sure if it's a lack of synergy or communication between Brodie and the mids, but we really aren't taking advantage of our best players most dominant attribute.

It also seems like opposition mids can burst out of the centre a lot cleaner than we can. Im not sure if it's because our mids are a little more pedestrian, or that we don't set up well defensively at stoppages, but it's something that needs a looking at.

 

[sirlothie]

I think we thought we were getting the Beams we sold and got back a different Beams... premiership player romance. He used to be a great extractor, hopefully he can find it again, we need it.

 

[lenny20]

Our best centre square players are De Goey, Sier, Adams and (weirdly) Greenwood, who just gets the job done no-nonsense style when thrown in there. All four are harder than cats heads, quick over five yards, and strong defensively. Treloar can work as a decent outside option if two of the above three are in there, too, with his pace - but he fumbles too much when asked to do the pure inside work.

The problem is we just don't get those boys in there enough, and we play the "big names" instead. I love Pendles, Sidey and Beams, but they do much better work in general play than in the centre bounces, where they're all exposed for pace.

It's a balance thing, and it's a structure thing. The coaches are aware of it, let's hope they can build greater connection between Grundy's tap dominance and the resultant clearance.

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

I think people have been conned by the media into believing that our midfield is supposed to be elite. Adams is a bull but torches the ball, Treloar just torches the ball, Sidebottom skirts packs and has these dinky kicks that don't really hurt, our best midfielder for the last decade Pendles is unfortunately getting on in years, JDG is great but is only a part timer in the middle, and the 29yo man we inexplicably sold the farm for who is supposed to be at his peak in Beams has been bog average.

Think we should just get used to it, our midfield is serviceable but not great.

That's a harsh assessment if ever I've seen one. Beams is the one that needs to lift. He can be a good clearance player, but at the moment there is very little desperation in him. I'll back him in to turn it around. Also Wells and Sier maybe able to help in this area later in the year, injuries permitting.

 

[Drought Break]

Agree on the midfield not putting in. Just wondering if we would have been better of keeping 4 first round draft picks instead of recruiting treloar and Beams? I think so

 

[DWil6]

Agree on the midfield not putting in. Just wondering if we would have been better of keeping 4 first round draft picks instead of recruiting treloar and Beams? I think so

Treloar has been a good addition, I think. He may have issues on occasion but so does Paeish, Shiel, Merrett, McKenna etc for the bombers.
Beams is definitely not getting the clearances he can, so hopefully it’s a relatively easy fix.
Is it the midfield coaching? The game plan at stoppages?
People who consider Grundy tradeable are very quiet at the moment. If we had English from the Bulldogs, for example, we wouldn’t have won a game!

 

[Saintly Viewed]

Not sure we’ve clicked, but overall it’s been ok.

Rucks get the ball to hand then the mids must seal the deal.

Not always as simple as it looks.

That said the discussion here is more about how our mids and how good they are or are not.

But what do we really mean by best mid group?

Ideally all the rotations through, all of them just dominate.
But ofcourse its never really going to happen so sweetly.

So to me having the best mid group actually means we have incredible depth.
So if say Treloar and Beams aren’t firing or held by their opponents then Pendlebury and Adams pop up and cause havoc. They are curtailed then we throw Sidebottom and the wonderful De Goey there.

That’s the point, with other teams you stop their top couple mids, we are on top; they stop a couple of our mids we have the next cabs through, then we send in uber, then some others.
Wells, Sier to come in too at some stage you’d think.
Wonderful depth.
Hard to stop ALL of them. That’s the key point.

That’s our advantage our depth.

Better players, more of them, better chance of getting on top.

 

[sideswipe]

Reckon this thread is a little OTT. Here are some stats that might paint an alternate view.
Beams has a career avg of 4.56 clearances per game. This year, he is 21 from 5 games which comes in at, you guessed it, 4.2. That is less than 2 clearances over 5 games behind his career average. Hardly a reason to panic. And at a guess, he may have been at less stoppages per game this season?
Our relative centre clearances to around the ground clearances have been superior this year, ie. relative to the opposition, we have been better at the former rather than the latter. This may go against the "we need mid-field bulls" theory?
Winning hitouts is one thing, hitouts to advantage then onto a clearance are far below that as a percentage. This is perversely the case with a truly dominant ruckman as the opposition midfielders expect their man not to win the tap.
We are currently 4-2 with a % of 122 after having gone up against 3 very good clearance sides, Geelong, WC and Richmond - and Essendon who now look the goods in that department. Things are going ok.
And TD, sorry, but calling for Wills as a solution is fanciful. His key stat is 6 career games, turning 26 in May.
As for our midfield being the best ever, I think it was Matthew Lloyd who came up with that one? My stat on him is that he may be thicker than two fat Tasmanians.

 

[kallangur pie]

If Sier were fit and firing that would solve 80% of our problems immediately as we saw last year he was our best clearance player by a mile and he had no problems bursting out of packs.The only time we have a player doing that this year would be when De Goey goes in there with his extra size,Treloar has been okay but Sidebotham and Beams both need to lift they are senior players and more is needed from both too much is expected of Pendles and it is having it,s toll on him,how he played in the final qtr was how he has played his whole career but he cannot do it week in week out like he use to. Brown has been okay but he too small and like most young players is unreliable atm as is Daicos.

The way it looks atm we have overpaid for Beams and upset the applecart with Sier by bringing Beams back and all this talk of Wells is just that because he is 35 and Sidebotham,s form has deserted him now Beams is back.I would never drop Pendlebury but unless Beams and Sidebotham start putting their hands up they are on thin ice for me. We look so pedrestrian at times and unless we find our mojo on a consistent basis it will not happen this season,we have until rd 14 or 15 to get right and then I want the team settled on.

 

[Kreme Pie]

Our midfield players are all averaging good disposals, and good game ratings, but these numbers seem to suggest they get a lot of touches around the ground, or in the back half.
No doubt Beams needs to lift, however he needs time to adjust his game to fit into our structures.
A player that would help with clearance work is Sier. Hopefully he can force his way back in, as he might go elsewhere if starved of opportunity.

 

[sideswipe]

If Sier were fit and firing that would solve 80% of our problems immediately as we saw last year he was our best clearance player by a mile and he had no problems bursting out of packs.The only time we have a player doing that this year would be when De Goey goes in there with his extra size,Treloar has been okay but Sidebotham and Beams both need to lift they are senior players and more is needed from both too much is expected of Pendles and it is having it,s toll on him,how he played in the final qtr was how he has played his whole career but he cannot do it week in week out like he use to. Brown has been okay but he too small and like most young players is unreliable atm as is Daicos.

The way it looks atm we have overpaid for Beams and upset the applecart with Sier by bringing Beams back and all this talk of Wells is just that because he is 35 and Sidebotham,s form has deserted him now Beams is back.I would never drop Pendlebury but unless Beams and Sidebotham start putting their hands up they are on thin ice for me. We look so pedrestrian at times and unless we find our mojo on a consistent basis it will not happen this season,we have until rd 14 or 15 to get right and then I want the team settled on.

in 2018, average clearances per game:
Treloar 4.9
Pendles 5.2
Sier 3.9
That may well have been because Sier was playing less game time, but he certainly wasn't our best clearance player by a mile.

This year Sier has been injured - unrelated to the recruitment of Beams, who is still getting plenty of it so far. Talk of either Beams or Sidebottom as being on "thin ice" seems harsh? Steele seems to be playing a different role - and is still racking up the stats, if slightly less than last year.

 

[Chief Ten Beers]

Didn't the Hawks used to get smashed in the clearences when they won three in a row?

 

[Jelly Bean]

Didn't the Hawks used to get smashed in the clearences when they won three in a row?

We don't have Buddy, Roughead, Gunston, or their tall defenders.