Our Midfield

[Football Tragic]

Both Caddy and Prestia are, on top of inside ball winners, running machines. This means tagging them is going to be very difficult and also means we will be able to run out games and have a midfield that is very difficult to shut down. They will all thrive from the presence of each other but I feel our new players will benefit the most with the attention firmly on Cotchin and Dusty.I expect big years from Prestia and Caddy as a result.

On your rucks, I would actually try Nankervis (sp?) as our second ruck/forward - Griff has more athleticism, leap and distance on his kicking but Nankervis has the fight, will smash the packs and be a physical force down the forward line and around the ground. Both will have their roles to play but they play the same role very differently.

 

[mopsy]

A lot of the reason we are circling the drain. Very ordinary when he's your 3rd or 4th midfielder.

And in all likelyhood he will again be our 3rd or 4th mid.
The love for just three new recruits and only one has done anything to warrant some sort of hype is ridiculous.
Hello we just lost Deledio i dont have a problem with that, but we have not bought in a player of the same sort of quality and we did forgo the opportunity to replace that quality with similar quality in the ND.

Prestia will help with inside problems but what the hell have Caddy and Nankervis done so far to warrant all the hype.
And before i go on i have to say what annoys me has nothing to do with the traded players themselves but the direction we took.People are truly kidding themselves if they think the list and all of its areas were not greatly lacking. Just because we have got Nankervis Caddy and Prestia it does not mean that somehow the list has magically been fixed, there are just as many holes with those three as there was before they came.

I find it laughable that we talk up a bloke like Josh Caddy. His 6 yrs in the AFL so far have been mostly ordinary, fmd if long term is not to be the over riding priority i would rather we had went and got Michael Barlow at least Barlow has a proven track record that borders on very good.And unlike Caddy i have never seen him fold under pressure.
When and only when Caddy actually makes the leap and becomes a very good player will i talk him up but at age 24 the clock is ticking this bloke has been just as underwhelming as Conca has been and like Conca sometimes shows enough to tease. In fact Conca and Caddy would be a good comparison but any way here is the key kpis for an inside mid between Caddy and Barlow.


Caddy inside mid part time fwd. 186cm/84kg age 24yrs 6 yrs in the AFL.
Disposals - 17.3 how freaken poor is this for a supposed ball winning inside player.
Tackles - 3.7 most outside mids are laying just as many tackles.
C/P's - 7.8 it is just an average stat blokes like Grigg are doing just as well
Clearances - 2.8
Goals - 0.8

Barlow Inside mid 189/91 age 28yrs.7 yrs in the AFL.
Disposals - 25.1
Tackles - 5.1
C/P's - 10.8
Clearances - 3.7
Goals - 0.6

Yet we talk up Caddy and a bloke like Barlow who has easily outperformed him will likely go on the scrap heap and not rate a mention.
Make no mistake so far over the whole journey Caddy has been average and he will want to improve significantly and consistently to warrant all this hype of him being able to lift us into finals.

 

[exceptional design]

I was sitting here today and reading about how good our inside game is going to be next year, but I already thought we get enough inside ball, but we just don't get it to the outside runners as we are too closely positioned and don't have enough out runners leaving their men. But I thought I would check anyway.

Over the last 4 years our teams stats have not changed a lot regarding - Contested possessions - Uncontested possessions - Disposal efficiency - Contested marks - Marks inside 50 - Clearances - Rebound 50.

What has improved - Contested marks.

What has gotten worse are - Bounces - Clearances - Goal Assists - Clangers - Inside 50 - 1%



You can see by our rankings that the overall competition is now more uncontested possessions, more bounces, more inside 50, more goal assists, less contested marks, less marks inside 50, slight increase in contested possessions, more clearances.

Sorry to all the contested possession people.

 

[THE_GUN]

This is way too funny

Caddy played in a top 4 team with Dangerfield and Selwood as well as 12 other top line mids and he spent alot of his 2017 foward

Barlow was dropped to wafl grade in a bottom 3 team and is slower that me and im 50 and 89kgs

Caddy is just coming into his prime and will be a very very good player, Not a dangerfiield.selwood.cripps etc but hey #24 he will be good

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

I'm not sold on a tackle oriented game...
Its a scrum fest/maul and a physical game of attrition...
Do that for Seasons plus Finals then good luck to lasting with uninjured players that are fresh for the granny...
I'm a more...move it fast with shepherds and blocks with some tackles..
Lyons and Roos while successful don't appeal to me...
I don't think the AFL like it either and wont favour that style of play...
It doesn't showcase the players footy skills...the high marks...
And it looks crap on tv...

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

horses for coarses .
Caddy is the ideal type for RFC ATM and will prove more valuable than Prestia. I just hope Townsend has a massive pre season and is able to also gain a spot. Contested ball winners who also tackle are a key component to modern day football and RFC have lacked em. If caddy and Townsend were able to win enoigh in tight and tackle and it would allow players like cotchin , Martin edwards , ellis x2 , menadue , rioli to play more outside. When that happens RFC will challenge .
big no to barlow he is old school .

 

[THE THIN MAN]

Townsend will spend the season in the VFL.

Has the turning circle and speed of the RMS Queen Elizabeth

 

[jreesosb]

Good point. I see Nank as a Maric2. But that midfield is really interesting on page, it looks like a chefs ingredients as in it could be a lovely dish or thrown in the bin.

I'm hoping for a subtle build up and good yet not OTT start and build into the season.

That's exactly how I see Nankervis as well. And Maric was FANTASTIC when we first got him

 

[docko911]

Yes he will. Like he has been for the last 5 seasons, he will be the first one tagged.

So Prestia or Martin for the Brownlow, maybe even Caddy.

I'm assuming we are going to give Caddy a more prominent role is our midfield so he might take the pressure off Cotch if he starts playing really well. The other thing is Cotch is pretty good up forward so we can just sit him there when being tagged to expose the deficiencies of the tagger and just use Martin, Prestia and Caddy in the midfield, hard to tag these blokes.

 

[Lsta062]

Ahhh nice to find a thread with some optimism. I was writing down all our players last night and seperating mids, fwd etc, we do have some nice depth there. Not even including utility players that can rotate through there. No more lock ins, whoever is playing the best is in, more competition will be better for our culture, especially the young ones like you said.​

Yep, none of this favouritism thing from the coaches. Someone is performing bad, they get dropped. We have more than enough depth on paper in areas like the midfield, defence (not including talls) and attack (not including talls) for players to get dropped if they are not performing.

If a tall in the forward line or defence is not performing, go for a shorter forward line/defence by dropping them and signal to the midfielders to work extra harder to reduce defensive 50 entries and/or increase forward 50 entries to make up for the height deficiency.

This is the kind of proactiveness that I want to see from the coaching panel next year.

 

[Metapod]

This is way too funny

Caddy played in a top 4 team with Dangerfield and Selwood as well as 12 other top line mids and he spent alot of his 2017 foward

Barlow was dropped to wafl grade in a bottom 3 team and is slower that me and im 50 and 89kgs

Caddy is just coming into his prime and will be a very very good player, Not a dangerfiield.selwood.cripps etc but hey #24 he will be good

This. You'd think these posters pulling out stats don't even watch the games! Caddy will be a very good player if we leave him in his natural position (C). On Barlow, I think he had a very good second half when he started playing a tagging role. Don't think I'd want him at tiges as we have good young depth now, but hope he gets picked up

 

[TigerTank]

I'm curious about people's thoughts on this.
Prestia or Caddy? Who has been the better footballer to date?
Who will be the better player for us?

 

[TheAnt]

I'm curious about people's thoughts on this.
Prestia or Caddy? Who has been the better footballer to date?
Who will be the better player for us?

Prestia by far. He is an A-grader injury free.

 

[Sir_Loin]

Grigg was top 5 in our b&f..

Get a grip.

It's amazing the shit he cops on this board. He is not and out and out gun but he is a very consistent performer

 

[Sir_Loin]

I'm curious about people's thoughts on this.
Prestia or Caddy? Who has been the better footballer to date?
Who will be the better player for us?

I think they're different types of midfielders. Caddy is that bull we desperately need and I think Prestia has more outside class from what I've seen.

If we can knock the Gold Coast out of Prestia I'm expecting big things

Caddy needs to play in the guts more. Be that inside mid that gives Cotch a chop out so he can get more of his possessions in the forward half of the ground and be be more damaging. If he can do that and free Cotch, dusty and Prestia to hurt the oppo more his value to the side will be huge

Hopefully Blake is the midfield coach and I reckon they'll both improve

 

[Helen Wheels]

I'm not sold on a tackle oriented game...
Its a scrum fest/maul and a physical game of attrition...
Do that for Seasons plus Finals then good luck to lasting with uninjured players that are fresh for the granny...
I'm a more...move it fast with shepherds and blocks with some tackles..
Lyons and Roos while successful don't appeal to me...
I don't think the AFL like it either and wont favour that style of play...
It doesn't showcase the players footy skills...the high marks...
And it looks crap on tv...

IMO it's all part of the juggling act for the coaching staff to try to keep a fit and healthy team on the field for a season.
That game style you quote reminds me of classic Richmond.
The problem arises: If we go in hard we might get injured. If we don't, we get no respect.

 

[baphomet]

It's amazing the shit he cops on this board. He is not and out and out gun but he is a very consistent performer

Consistantly poor.

 

[turtle27]

Consistantly poor.

No idea

 

[baphomet]

No idea

Grigg is soft, slow, not skilful (kicks hang in the air for a lifetime, misses many keys goals running in under no pressure) a master of kicking backwards, sideways a momentum killer extraordinaire.

Old, he has almost no positive qualities. His 40 possession game was one of the bigger jokes in recent history. Since his buddy Troy Chaplin has given it away grigg can now take his rightful place as lord of the list blockers.

Shit footballer. A large reason why Richmond is terrible.

Finished high on the voting in a poor team where dumb people are givin out votes? Hardly surprising is it. More reason one cannot give any credit to best and fairest counts. Who would grigg displace from footscray? Gws? Swans? He'd struggle to make the reserves of a good team.

I would much rather a Townsend (not soft), Morris (ditto), lambert (better at football) or any of the kids with some upside, than yet another year of grigg the talentless spud. What's amazing is people watch him every week (like Hampson) and judge grigg as anything other than woeful

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

Grigg is soft, slow, not skilful (kicks hang in the air for a lifetime, misses many keys goals running in under no pressure) a master of kicking backwards, sideways a momentum killer extraordinaire.

Old, he has almost no positive qualities. His 40 possession game was one of the bigger jokes in recent history. Since his buddy Troy Chaplin has given it away grigg can now take his rightful place as lord of the list blockers.

Shit footballer. A large reason why Richmond is terrible.

Finished high on the voting in a poor team where dumb people are givin out votes? Hardly surprising is it. More reason one cannot give any credit to best and fairest counts. Who would grigg displace from footscray? Gws? Swans? He'd struggle to make the reserves of a good team.

I would much rather a Townsend (not soft), Morris (ditto), lambert (better at football) or any of the kids with some upside, than yet another year of grigg the talentless spud. What's amazing is people watch him every week (like Hampson) and judge grigg as anything other than woeful

spot on , lacks defensive skills , competiveness and is the worst offender of wide and slow ball movement.

 

[Sir_Loin]

Consistantly poor.

You must not watch many games

 

[tigertigertiger]

Grigg is soft, slow, not skilful (kicks hang in the air for a lifetime, misses many keys goals running in under no pressure) a master of kicking backwards, sideways a momentum killer extraordinaire.

Old, he has almost no positive qualities. His 40 possession game was one of the bigger jokes in recent history. Since his buddy Troy Chaplin has given it away grigg can now take his rightful place as lord of the list blockers.

Shit footballer. A large reason why Richmond is terrible.

Finished high on the voting in a poor team where dumb people are givin out votes? Hardly surprising is it. More reason one cannot give any credit to best and fairest counts. Who would grigg displace from footscray? Gws? Swans? He'd struggle to make the reserves of a good team.

I would much rather a Townsend (not soft), Morris (ditto), lambert (better at football) or any of the kids with some upside, than yet another year of grigg the talentless spud. What's amazing is people watch him every week (like Hampson) and judge grigg as anything other than woeful

Why so angry ?

 

[turtle27]

Grigg is soft, slow, not skilful (kicks hang in the air for a lifetime, misses many keys goals running in under no pressure) a master of kicking backwards, sideways a momentum killer extraordinaire.

Old, he has almost no positive qualities. His 40 possession game was one of the bigger jokes in recent history. Since his buddy Troy Chaplin has given it away grigg can now take his rightful place as lord of the list blockers.

Shit footballer. A large reason why Richmond is terrible.

Finished high on the voting in a poor team where dumb people are givin out votes? Hardly surprising is it. More reason one cannot give any credit to best and fairest counts. Who would grigg displace from footscray? Gws? Swans? He'd struggle to make the reserves of a good team.

I would much rather a Townsend (not soft), Morris (ditto), lambert (better at football) or any of the kids with some upside, than yet another year of grigg the talentless spud. What's amazing is people watch him every week (like Hampson) and judge grigg as anything other than woeful

Reported

 

[Football Tragic]

And in all likelyhood he will again be our 3rd or 4th mid.
The love for just three new recruits and only one has done anything to warrant some sort of hype is ridiculous.
Hello we just lost Deledio i dont have a problem with that, but we have not bought in a player of the same sort of quality and we did forgo the opportunity to replace that quality with similar quality in the ND.

Prestia will help with inside problems but what the hell have Caddy and Nankervis done so far to warrant all the hype.
And before i go on i have to say what annoys me has nothing to do with the traded players themselves but the direction we took.People are truly kidding themselves if they think the list and all of its areas were not greatly lacking. Just because we have got Nankervis Caddy and Prestia it does not mean that somehow the list has magically been fixed, there are just as many holes with those three as there was before they came.

I find it laughable that we talk up a bloke like Josh Caddy. His 6 yrs in the AFL so far have been mostly ordinary, fmd if long term is not to be the over riding priority i would rather we had went and got Michael Barlow at least Barlow has a proven track record that borders on very good.And unlike Caddy i have never seen him fold under pressure.
When and only when Caddy actually makes the leap and becomes a very good player will i talk him up but at age 24 the clock is ticking this bloke has been just as underwhelming as Conca has been and like Conca sometimes shows enough to tease. In fact Conca and Caddy would be a good comparison but any way here is the key kpis for an inside mid between Caddy and Barlow.


Caddy inside mid part time fwd. 186cm/84kg age 24yrs 6 yrs in the AFL.
Disposals - 17.3 how freaken poor is this for a supposed ball winning inside player.
Tackles - 3.7 most outside mids are laying just as many tackles.
C/P's - 7.8 it is just an average stat blokes like Grigg are doing just as well
Clearances - 2.8
Goals - 0.8

Barlow Inside mid 189/91 age 28yrs.7 yrs in the AFL.
Disposals - 25.1
Tackles - 5.1
C/P's - 10.8
Clearances - 3.7
Goals - 0.6

Yet we talk up Caddy and a bloke like Barlow who has easily outperformed him will likely go on the scrap heap and not rate a mention.
Make no mistake so far over the whole journey Caddy has been average and he will want to improve significantly and consistently to warrant all this hype of him being able to lift us into finals.

The reason Caddy hasn't the numbers of a player such as Barlow is that he spent the year as a forward. It is also why he wanted to come to Richmond. Dangerfield plays the same role as Caddy so as soon as he arrived he was moved straight into the forwardline. All the best midfielders in the competition are big bodied, tall brutes such as Dangerfield, Fyfe, Cripps, Kennedy etc and Caddy fits this profile perfectly. He will complement Cotchin, Prestia, Martin, Miles and Edwards (amazingly good clearance average - go to man for the club believe or not) in winning the contested ball to get it out to outside runners. The best part about the addition of both Caddy and Prestia is their running capabilities. They will be both inside and outside runners.

The other reason we are getting excited about these players is the knock on effect to the rest of the side. It means more depth and quality across the ground. Dusty can play forward more and make our offense more difficult to predict and match up on. Caddy can too to allow Dusty into the midfield. We become more flexible to cope with opposition tactics.

All in all it is the effect these two will have on the overall team not just what they offer individually.

 

[Nursie]

Mids have been improved by this year's trades.
I'm over reading that our problems in the middle were due to a lack of size. Bullshit! The Dogs did OK with predominantly small mids.