Our Midfield options

[2 Dogs]

Just looking at our midfield rotations last night, and thinking about the new blood we are running through the centre bounce is practically zero.

If Junior pulls up lame this week, I'd like to see Grimes taken away from defence and given more of a run in the guts. We have plenty of options to play his role in defence (Cheney, Bartram, Bennell, Whelan) time to get some midfield experience into the next generation players. Seriously, the youngest guy we have in the middle is Jones (With the exception of Morton breifly making a cameo last week) time to shake it up.

Kids in other sides are being thrown to the wolves in the middle, why don't we do the same?

 

[master bate]

2 Dogs I believe the best exponent of this right now is WC. They have Masten, Ebert and S. Selwood regularly in the middle. Our picks in the same draft were Morton, Grimes and Maric and whilst they have shown equal or more than the WC guys they are not stock standard mids and are using their talents differently.

Grimes could be worth a go, but I'm reasonably happy with leaving him down back.

I'm also slightly concerned about the McLean, Moloney, Jones engine room being up to it. Davey needs to be strong enough in close to be a worthy inclusion in the centre bounces. Sylvia should also get a good go. After that we need to find one or two more to not just be outside specialists (Green, Bruce, Morton). Can we find one in Valenti, Dunn, Bell or Bartram who offer more than McLean, Moloney or Jones round the ground? I doubt it! Or should we expose the younger brigade of Grimes, Maric, Jetta, Petterd. The other option is waiting and hoping on Blease and whilst its not my favourite topic - going to the draft for a gun midfielder in Scully.

 

[Fairtex09]

2 Dogs I believe the best exponent of this right now is WC. They have Masten, Ebert and S. Selwood regularly in the middle. Our picks in the same draft were Morton, Grimes and Maric and whilst they have shown equal or more than the WC guys they are not stock standard mids and are using their talents differently.

Grimes could be worth a go, but I'm reasonably happy with leaving him down back.

I'm also slightly concerned about the McLean, Moloney, Jones engine room being up to it. Davey needs to be strong enough in close to be a worthy inclusion in the centre bounces. Sylvia should also get a good go. After that we need to find one or two more to not just be outside specialists (Green, Bruce, Morton). Can we find one in Valenti, Dunn, Bell or Bartram who offer more than McLean, Moloney or Jones round the ground? I doubt it! Or should we expose the younger brigade of Grimes, Maric, Jetta, Petterd. The other option is waiting and hoping on Blease and whilst its not my favourite topic - going to the draft for a gun midfielder in Scully.

If we did a draft Scully where would that leave the other players in the midfield someone from the centre would have to go or change roles wouldn't they?

 

[Colin Grigson]

If we did a draft Scully where would that leave the other players in the midfield someone from the centre would have to go or change roles wouldn't they?

What has become clear in recent times is that we desperately need at least 'one' inside player with clean skills, who has some pace, and who can make good decisions under pressure.

To me an engine room combination of McLean, Jones and Moloney is probably not going to work in the long run. I know they've all got the ability, and Moloney has been pretty good so far this season, but we desperately need a 'Scully-type' midfielder so we aren't constantly butchering the ball in the middle and turning the ball over before we can get an inside 50 entry.

Whether we get Scully or not, who knows? I've already pencilled us in to beat West Coast and Fremantle, which would make it 3 wins. And I think we're a realistic chance against Port Adelaide, Richmond and North...

So I mean, 5 or 6 wins is not out of the question which would mean Scully goes elsewhere.

We do need 'that' type of player though in order to compliment the gruntwork of Moloney, Jones & McLean, and the outside mids in Blease, Bennell, Morton, & Strauss that we've brought into the fold.

Our needs are:

1. inside mid. with pace, high quality skills by foot/hand, excellent decision making...

2. Athletic Big key forward who can take contested marks and kick bags of goals (and basically give us a focal point...)

3. A new ruckman


I know your gonna say Scully & Butcher fit the 1st two needs which are urgent. But the truth is, we have no idea what picks we'll have yet, and whether Butcher is worth a pick 2. That will become evident in due course...

 

[2 Dogs]

I'm just looking at our guys rotation at the moment. McLean, Moloney, Jones, Junior, Bruce, Davey. For mine we need to start slowly pushing our next midfield brigade in there, even if it is for a brief period every game. Morton has had a couple of opportunities, but for mine his body isn't up to it yet, and should stay as a floater for the time being.

What I've liked is the more time Col Sylvia has been given in the guts. There are Col haters here, and I'm not sggesting he will be our answer, but pinch hitting in the midfield while floating half forward and as a link player seems to be his best position.

I was looking this year for Bartram to get a bigger role, but now all I want is Grimes to be slowly pushed into the midfield. Hoefully Buckley can get fit and get a shot and providing some nice explosive speed that we need.

 

[melbournemartin]

My ideal centre 3 would only include 1, max 2 of McLean, Jones and Moloney. At the moment we seem to have all 3 most of the time. We need Buckley and Sylvia in there for some pace. Grimes should be playing there. Bring back in Cheney who has been a gun at VFL and done well at AFL too.