List Mgmt. Our Midfield

Jun 4, 2016
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rather have Dow myself...in ST

as for LT - too hard.
I think there’s been a bit of overhyping what dow accomplished in his first season, he was ok. Showed he has what it takes but it was not an amazing first year. Sps was quietly better all season.

I may be a tad biased here though. I do think Sps could be our most talented player and win a Brownlow before anyone else on the list.... if Crippa doesn’t win next season.
 

bmaurizio

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I reckon Kennedy will be in the middle as much as anyone. He's tough and helps Cripps a lot. Having the ability to rotate Cripps Kennedy Dow SPS Walsh Setterfield Curnow Fisher through the middle and not really lose much will be a major strength

I'm still very hopeful on Cunningham. Just needs a consistent run at it

Agree Kennedy and Murphy are important ingredients and expect contributions from Bugg and Newman too. Cripps will have more help than ever before allowing our young jets to developing nicely.
 

Blue Dimension

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Fisher will be very good and a big part of our future but Setterfield & Walsh are something very special. Dow as well. Not a criticism of Fisher at all but we are talking elite types

I’d argue Fisher has the potential to be elite. Extremely bullish on him and think he is still underestimated. Could be absolutely anything imo.
 

passmark

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At the beginning of 2019 they're all starting from square 1 afaic.

Most of the kids have shown something but given the severe nature of our list rebuild strategy, the clearly inadequate fitness regime standards as well as coaching staff that is not fully settled, it's unfair to say (even though I do it as well) that "player x will need to show something this year".

I'm just hoping, hoping, hoping......
 
Jun 4, 2016
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For their position surely you would need to add Caddy (46 goals with ) Shane Edwards AA
Nah, caddy and Edwards are very good players, they’re not elite. That’s being far too liberal with the term. Andy walker kicked 60 goals one season. Didn’t make him an elite player. Just a very good one (when his knees weren’t trying to ruin his career). Caddy is at his third club, he didn’t suddenly become elite. He’s been a good player and has entered an elite setup that uses his skill set well. Completely replaceable in your setup.

All Australian is a glorified popularity contest judged by fan boys, not proper analysts. Rance is a gun but he hasn’t deserved all AAs, neither has Selwood. More of a popularity contest now. It is by no means a good metric for judging I if a player is elite.

Mainstream media is doing their best to dilute the word too. Shut up Lingy.
 

Blue and Blue

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I think there’s been a bit of overhyping what dow accomplished in his first season, he was ok. Showed he has what it takes but it was not an amazing first year. Sps was quietly better all season.

I may be a tad biased here though. I do think Sps could be our most talented player and win a Brownlow before anyone else on the list.... if Crippa doesn’t win next season.
Nah...... Dow is class with guts and mongrel. As for a 1st season, playing most of it is quite the acheivement for any youngster regardless of list or injuries.
 
Aug 22, 2014
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Expect the word "potential" to come up in discussions a lot.

A lot depends on the year they have, but there is no chance in hell either player nets St Kilda two first round picks.

Gibbs got us two firsts but we had to give a bit back.
Treloar got two firsts with a bit going back.
Neale got two firsts with a bit going back.
Shiel got two firsts with a bit going back.
Lever got two firsts with a bit going back.

Gresham and Billings, and even Jack Martin, are nowhere near that level.

If they have a good 2019 season, a pick around 10 is probably on the money. If they struggle though, they're probably pushing back towards the second round.
 

Bee Vee

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Nah, caddy and Edwards are very good players, they’re not elite. That’s being far too liberal with the term. Andy walker kicked 60 goals one season. Didn’t make him an elite player. Just a very good one (when his knees weren’t trying to ruin his career). Caddy is at his third club, he didn’t suddenly become elite. He’s been a good player and has entered an elite setup that uses his skill set well. Completely replaceable in your setup.
.

I agree totally with this part of your post.
 
One of those things that can come back to bite, but If I was to predict which of our mids will have the most influence going forward, (Cripps excluded) I'd have it something like this for now:

1. Dow..............His break-away speed will become a huge asset to us.
2. Walsh............Could have gone #1 easily enough.
3. Fisher............Rated him before we drafted him and rate him much higher now. Size not an issue.
4. Setterfield......Would likely have had him higher if not for injury. If he truly overcomes the early set-backs, he could be anything.
5. Kennedy........His grunt will be required and may get the jump ahead of others.
6. SPS...............Not that I don't rate him, but not sure he'll be required here as much as others.
7. Stocker..........Someone had to be placed last and with Kennedy ahead, he'll need to find other ways of being a starting 22.

Can't find a way of including Polson nor Lang here. Too many may be in front.
Won't include the guys that aren't likely to be regular starting mids but may spend more game-time on the flanks; Williamson, Cuningham, O'Brien.
 

TooBlue14

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One of those things that can come back to bite, but If I was to predict which of our mids will have the most influence going forward, (Cripps excluded) I'd have it something like this for now:

1. Dow..............His break-away speed will become a huge asset to us.
2. Walsh............Could have gone #1 easily enough.
3. Fisher............Rated him before we drafted him and rate him much higher now. Size not an issue.
4. Setterfield......Would likely have had him higher if not for injury. If he truly overcomes the early set-backs, he could be anything.
5. Kennedy........His grunt will be required and may get the jump ahead of others.
6. SPS...............Not that I don't rate him, but not sure he'll be required here as much as others.
7. Stocker..........Someone had to be placed last and with Kennedy ahead, he'll need to find other ways of being a starting 22.

Can't find a way of including Polson nor Lang here. Too many may be in front.
Won't include the guys that aren't likely to be regular starting mids but may spend more game-time on the flanks; Williamson, Cuningham, O'Brien.
Walsh DID go number 1.
 
Jun 4, 2016
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Dow was a first year player and in a poor side he did incredibly well. Some of the things he did were "special"
Yeah he did some special things, so did Sps. I think dow will be special, don’t get me wrong. I still think Sps is ahead of him though and that it is overhyping Dow to say he’s already ahead of SPS.

I think you’ve probably got a good idea of how they’ll come back this year. I’d be hoping Sps starts to kick on and that dow doesn’t suffer the second year blues.
 
Jan 27, 2008
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One of those things that can come back to bite, but If I was to predict which of our mids will have the most influence going forward, (Cripps excluded) I'd have it something like this for now:

1. Dow..............His break-away speed will become a huge asset to us.
2. Walsh............Could have gone #1 easily enough.
3. Fisher............Rated him before we drafted him and rate him much higher now. Size not an issue.
4. Setterfield......Would likely have had him higher if not for injury. If he truly overcomes the early set-backs, he could be anything.
5. Kennedy........His grunt will be required and may get the jump ahead of others.
6. SPS...............Not that I don't rate him, but not sure he'll be required here as much as others.
7. Stocker..........Someone had to be placed last and with Kennedy ahead, he'll need to find other ways of being a starting 22.

Can't find a way of including Polson nor Lang here. Too many may be in front.
Won't include the guys that aren't likely to be regular starting mids but may spend more game-time on the flanks; Williamson, Cuningham, O'Brien.

I was gonna post the exact same exercise yesterday with the exact same 7 mids plus O'Brien and rate them 1 to 8 on gut feel how they'll be over the next 8 years and then ask others their rankings.....but i couldn't make up my mind on my own bloody rankings first lol.

Good effort Harks.

My stab (which could vary by tomorrow and then vary back again by the next day i suppose):

1. Walsh - just a beast, and a leader.
2. Dow - Game breaker. Wait til his deference dissipates and he realises they can't match him.
3. SPS - Got the magic. Now got/getting the body. A credit to him what he's done with his life so far.
4. Kennedy - Got the least wow but will be a bedrock that his fellow mids can rely on.
5. Fisher - Zac Merritt. Will cut teams up with laser attacks on the ball and disposals. Also natural goalkicker.
6. O'Brien - An AFL pro.
7. Setterfield - looks to have awesome hands. Some of the wraps are intriguing. Let's see.
8. Stocker - prolly not fair to have him in this field as it's too early basically.
 

Soapy V

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I’ll rank mine 1-8

1. SPS Walsh Dow Setterfield Kennedy Fisher Stocker O’Brien

2. Cuningham Polson

3. Lang

I see people are starting to see what a midfield we have

We haven’t even included Cripps (handy) Curnow (decent runner) Murphy (some skills) Charlie (has some talent) Gibbons (okay at VFL level)
 
I was gonna post the exact same exercise yesterday with the exact same 7 mids plus O'Brien and rate them 1 to 8 on gut feel how they'll be over the next 8 years and then ask others their rankings.....but i couldn't make up my mind on my own bloody rankings first lol.

Good effort Harks.

My stab (which could vary by tomorrow and then vary back again by the next day i suppose):

1. Walsh - just a beast, and a leader.
2. Dow - Game breaker. Wait til his deference dissipates and he realises they can't match him.
3. SPS - Got the magic. Now got/getting the body. A credit to him what he's done with his life so far.
4. Kennedy - Got the least wow but will be a bedrock that his fellow mids can rely on.
5. Fisher - Zac Merritt. Will cut teams up with laser attacks on the ball and disposals. Also natural goalkicker.
6. O'Brien - An AFL pro.
7. Setterfield - looks to have awesome hands. Some of the wraps are intriguing. Let's see.
8. Stocker - prolly not fair to have him in this field as it's too early basically.


SPS should become a wonderful player, but I can see his midfield duties being usurped by Walsh.
I then feel that Kennedy and Stocker may be ultimately vying for the same position.
Because of height alone, one may say that Setterfield and Cripps can't be in the centre at the same time, but I don't see this necessarily being the case and see them being able to coexist in the same starting midfield.
Dow to me, sticks out as the one being; We have no one else like him and which is one reason I see him given more opportunity than others.

Centre square clearances have always been important, but it's conceivable and maybe even likely, that they'll be more important than ever now, given the new 6.6.6 starting positions.
My interest here is not as much as who will ultimately become the best players, but who will be charged with the duties of getting the ball moving out of the centre, the most.
Clearly Cripps will be involved in the centre more often than anyone else, but who will be the four to five who will be mostly be used to get things going our way. We can keep applying name after name here, but we'll ultimately find that only several players will get the most of the bites here.

I see the main trio in time, being Cripps, Dow and Walsh as the balance here is quite pretty for what each can do, but who knows for sure?
Once we start applying percentages to the names, the picture does start to open up. Generally we see this after the fact, but we can at least guess.

If for instance Cripps is still occupying 80% of centre ball ups with Dow & Walsh at lets even say 50%, you can already see how the squeeze comes upon the other mids we have. (I am excluding ECurnow and Murphy her for the sake of the argument, even though they'll both likely take up plenty of midfield minutes themselves in '19 & even possibly '20)

Could become a case of being capable in other facets of the game or just missing out and someone will have to miss out.
 

BRADLESTICKS

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May 12, 2015
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One of those things that can come back to bite, but If I was to predict which of our mids will have the most influence going forward, (Cripps excluded) I'd have it something like this for now:

1. Dow..............His break-away speed will become a huge asset to us.
2. Walsh............Could have gone #1 easily enough.
3. Fisher............Rated him before we drafted him and rate him much higher now. Size not an issue.
4. Setterfield......Would likely have had him higher if not for injury. If he truly overcomes the early set-backs, he could be anything.
5. Kennedy........His grunt will be required and may get the jump ahead of others.
6. SPS...............Not that I don't rate him, but not sure he'll be required here as much as others.
7. Stocker..........Someone had to be placed last and with Kennedy ahead, he'll need to find other ways of being a starting 22.

Can't find a way of including Polson nor Lang here. Too many may be in front.
Won't include the guys that aren't likely to be regular starting mids but may spend more game-time on the flanks; Williamson, Cuningham, O'Brien.

Agree with Dow at 1 his impact per possession will set him apart, he and Walsh will form a perfect combination in the future Dow as a bull with his burst of speed and Walsh the competitive animal who runs opponents of their feet, both competitive beasts.
 
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