List Mgmt. Our Midfield

[Jabba73]

Let's just say we get one of Coniglio or Kelly this year.
Let's also assume that Stocker becomes the presence we saw him to be, next year.

We all want all of our players to flourish, but how do we spread around the midfield depth, without spreading ourselves thin through the TPP.
That's nothing we have to worry about today, but alike what came about for GWS, this may be something that fronts us in the not too distant future.

I can't see a fail in the group; Cripps, Setterfield, Walsh, Dow, Fisher and Petrevski-Seton.
Kennedy I'm 50/50 on and taking on the first proposed assumption, adding Stocker and Coniglio/Kelly, we could find ourselves with too many midfielders to go around, as could we possibly have 9 genuine mids trying to fit into a team of 22 and I'm not even including Cuningham, O'Brien and Williamson here?

Can it work when you take into account the whole mix of the team?

Trade one who is good enough to play except for the ones ahead of him, or good enough to play except for a flaw in their game, for another first round pick to get another good kid in to develop without the pressure of performing at the top level from day one.

Rinse and repeat like GWS do and you can stay near the top of the ladder without needing a full blown rebuild. This relies on the recruiting and development being a well oiled machine that keeps churning out talent.

 

[Bordertoon]

Just wanted to say “thanks” from a newbie for the considered posts in threads like this one - I think that I’m learning a lot, and they also help me to feel more optimistic about where our list is heading, even though I was quite optimistic to begin with.

Tbh the feeling I got as I worked through the picture and analysis from Erko Blue’s post above reminded me of a comment from Sherlock Holmes to Watson, when he says “you see but you do not observe”. No prizes for guessing that I cast myself in the role of Watson atm, but perhaps over time things will gradually change, and I’ll have a more in-depth immediate understanding of what’s right in front of me.

Upon reflection, however, I guess there’s no absolute need for me to become a Holmes - it’s fine to “let the cobblers do the cobbling”, after all

 

[HARKER]

Good problem to have Harks

It's not a great problem if the investment, by personnel and by TPP, is too heavily weighted in one area.

Sure, SOS has a handle on things and look forward to how things have been mapped out, but it just looks a little odd at first glance. We'll see.

 

[Arr0w]

Let's just say we get one of Coniglio or Kelly this year.
Let's also assume that Stocker becomes the presence we saw him to be, next year.

We all want all of our players to flourish, but how do we spread around the midfield depth, without spreading ourselves thin through the TPP.
That's nothing we have to worry about today, but alike what came about for GWS, this may be something that fronts us in the not too distant future.

I can't see a fail in the group; Cripps, Setterfield, Walsh, Dow, Fisher and Petrevski-Seton.
Kennedy I'm 50/50 on and taking on the first proposed assumption, adding Stocker and Coniglio/Kelly, we could find ourselves with too many midfielders to go around, as could we possibly have 9 genuine mids trying to fit into a team of 22 and I'm not even including Cuningham, O'Brien and Williamson here?

Can it work when you take into account the whole mix of the team?

I think if you mapped out a side of players 26 years and younger, you fit them all in comfortably

 

[HARKER]

I think if you mapped out a side of players 26 years and younger, you fit them all in comfortably

I can't. Try it out and see what comes about.
I mean, I can simply drop in all the names and then have four mids on the bench, but given what I feel our needs still seem to be, the whole just doesn't fit.

 

[Arr0w]

I can't. Try it out and see what comes about.
I mean, I can simply drop in all the names and then have four mids on the bench, but given what I feel our needs still seem to be, the whole just doesn't fit.

More than enough room for one of Cogs or Kelly

Plowman Wetering Marchbank
Doc Macreadie Newman
LOB Dow Williamson
McGovern C Curnow SPS
Fisher McKay Kennedy
TDK Cripps Cogs or Kelly

Stocker Cuningham Walsh Setterfield

Moving forward, we do need another ruck/forward, but if you reshuffle the magnets, Macreadie could be that 3rd options as a forward ruck simmilar to a Balta, Westhoff type

The Rest:

Schumacher Garlett Polson Pickett
Kerr Lebois Owies Lang
JSOS O'Dwyer Gibbons Goddard
Cottrell BSOS Fasolo

 

[Erko Blue]

Centre bounces and stoppages like the one the one I posted earlier are the time for balance.
A true rover and smart footballer will always have a place in these scenarios even if they aren't huge.
The idea of putting all the big guys on the ball in these situations doesn't make sense to me.
When the heavy congestion start, that is the time to bring in the bulls.

 

[HARKER]

More than enough room for one of Cogs or Kelly

Plowman Wetering Marchbank
Doc Macreadie Newman
LOB Dow Williamson
McGovern C Curnow SPS
Fisher McKay Kennedy
TDK Cripps Cogs or Kelly

Stocker Cuningham Walsh Setterfield

Moving forward, we do need another ruck/forward, but if you reshuffle the magnets, Macreadie could be that 3rd options as a forward ruck simmilar to a Balta, Westhoff type

The Rest:

Schumacher Garlett Polson Pickett
Kerr Lebois Owies Lang
JSOS O'Dwyer Gibbons Goddard
Cottrell BSOS Fasolo

You're left with four mids on the bench and still no smaller crumbing goal-kickers, mid sized goal-kickers, or runners out of defence.
Take into account that at least Murphy will be there next year, Jones still as the fullback, Ed still in the picture and maybe even Thomas.....things are getting very, very squeezy with all the mids involved.

It may pan out that way, but the pieces just don't fit form me when taking into account what I still feel to be missing in an ideal scenario. Time...tell....

The reason I opened this thread up was for this alone.
These quality and high draft-picked mids will have to find other homes and that in itself can cause some problems, as for what was the case with GWS when the squeeze does come on and I feel it just may and then we have to sell some off and the question becomes - Who and why?

 

[therubbernub]

He’s that good and clean

thats the key IMO. Clean hands . Mids to be elite must have clean hands and be able to dish it off offensively. I was taken aback by how clean Mitch's hands were on the weekend when at ground level. in contrast Charlie looked like he had just been cleaning the dishes after a big pork roast

 

[skadoosh]

Centre bounces and stoppages like the one the one I posted earlier are the time for balance.
A true rover and smart footballer will always have a place in these scenarios even if they aren't huge.
The idea of putting all the big guys on the ball in these situations doesn't make sense to me.
When the heavy congestion start, that is the time to bring in the bulls.

I'd love to sit in with the club on strategy analysis/discussion, with frame by frame analysis and discussing micro-actions and their impact on each particular contest/situation.

 

[PumpyChowdown]

Y
These quality and high draft-picked mids will have to find other homes and that in itself can cause some problems, as for what was the case with GWS when the squeeze does come on and I feel it just may and then we have to sell some off and the question becomes - Who and why?

Great problem to have as we can always trade for high draft picks and continually "top up" with top end young talent. The problem lies in the fact that we may have to get used to losing quality players that we are fond of in their prime. Double-edged sword.

 

[gbatman]

Clearance and contested work I think so far is a big tick. There's a weakness that has become a strength perhaps. Outside game needs work. If we develop our handball and receival game we'll be more damaging. Felt our outside players either weren't there or too close which can be an issue with young developing midfields. You rewatch the Richmond game and the older guys like Murphy and Thomas positioned well outside and Setterfield did who has come from a strong club but as a whole we didn't do this to a high standard.

Just times where we should have been handballing out of a stoppage but threw it blindly on the boot. Or we had players get the ball but no one to handball to and getting caught and we didn't really release the ball to players under less pressure a lot to be damaging with our handball. This will come and this is where the coaches earn their dollars.

We get a strong outside game and a strong offensive handball game going and it's going to eliminate a lot of the bombing forward, we'll add another level to our midfield.

 

[HARKER]

Great problem to have as we can always trade for high draft picks and continually "top up" with top end young talent. The problem lies in the fact that we may have to get used to losing quality players that we are fond of in their prime. Double-edged sword.

You can always trade players out but does that really make for a good strategy?
It didn't for GWS when they had all the talent but not enough team cohesion.

Seems to me that we've done all we can to secure the talent we've adopted and now selling them off for more picks alone, may not make for a particularly great strategy.
Pretty clear that we want to keep what we have and just add the final touches now.

 

[Space Cadet]

You can always trade players out but does that really make for a good strategy?
It didn't for GWS when they had all the talent but not enough team cohesion.

Seems to me that we've done all we can to secure the talent we've adopted and now selling them off for more picks alone, may not make for a particularly great strategy.
Pretty clear that we want to keep what we have and just add the final touches now.

I agree.
Our priorities should be recruiting the players that Polson and Garlett are trying to become. Should also be much more achievable than recruiting a Kelly or Coniglio.

(Unless both those guys take massive strides this year, which I hope they do.)

 

[Juddernaut08]

More than enough room for one of Cogs or Kelly

Plowman Wetering Marchbank
Doc Macreadie Newman
LOB Dow Williamson
McGovern C Curnow SPS
Fisher McKay Kennedy
TDK Cripps Cogs or Kelly

Stocker Cuningham Walsh Setterfield

Moving forward, we do need another ruck/forward, but if you reshuffle the magnets, Macreadie could be that 3rd options as a forward ruck simmilar to a Balta, Westhoff type

The Rest:

Schumacher Garlett Polson Pickett
Kerr Lebois Owies Lang
JSOS O'Dwyer Gibbons Goddard
Cottrell BSOS Fasolo

Very imbalanced.

 

[Sluggers Blues]

The big question to me is are the players u are going to get on the big money any better than the ones already on the list..We go out and get a Kelly or Coniglio and we will be having to shed players in a couple of years to manage the tpp.Are they better than a Walsh or Dow or even a Stocker?The o ly players I could see at this stage we should be after is a Green or Degeoy type and a Jetta from the Demons. We desperately need a goal kicking small forward and a small lock down defender. The rest I believe we have covered. I would hate to see us loosing a Dow or Walsh because of salary cap pressure. Look what gws and Sydney have had to shed. I also believe u start to sell of players u start to sell your sole.

 

[Davey33]

You're left with four mids on the bench and still no smaller crumbing goal-kickers, mid sized goal-kickers, or runners out of defence.
Take into account that at least Murphy will be there next year, Jones still as the fullback, Ed still in the picture and maybe even Thomas.....things are getting very, very squeezy with all the mids involved.

It may pan out that way, but the pieces just don't fit form me when taking into account what I still feel to be missing in an ideal scenario. Time...tell....

The reason I opened this thread up was for this alone.
These quality and high draft-picked mids will have to find other homes and that in itself can cause some problems, as for what was the case with GWS when the squeeze does come on and I feel it just may and then we have to sell some off and the question becomes - Who and why?

do you know what we've really lacked in recent years? small lock-down defenders that can match opposition SMALL forwards. Been killed by opposition small forwards- time and time again.

 

[HARKER]

do you know what we've really lacked in recent years? small lock-down defenders that can match opposition SMALL forwards. Been killed by opposition small forwards- time and time again.

No. I've loved watching Plowman chasing <180cm nippy forwards, around.

Byrne may have become that player though, but thats not to be. Plan B needs to be executed,

 

[mochacinolatte]

I would throw a lot of coin at Stephen Coniglio. Goal kicking midfielder, yes please. Half of our midfield is from W.A anyways.

 

[Faz 2000]

The raw materials of an excellent midfield are there. Would definitely be fast-tracked with a ready-to-go star like Coniglio.

I am not sold on our small/mid forwards or defenders, though. Needs some of LOB, Williamson, Cuningham, etc to really lock down those spots and make them their own.

The best sides have "midfielders" who can rotate through other positions and be effective.

 

[Arr0w]

Very imbalanced.

In what way

 

[My Hat]

Agree there's a fair chance that list balance etc will see us trade out one or two of our young mids at some point. A few months ago I thought Cuningham would be the first to go, but now I don't know.

That said, 'best 22' is a somewhat theoretical exercise as there's usually a few injuries at any given time. It's been so long since we had any depth that it feels kind of wrong to have a good player who doesn't automatically fit into the side. Might be something we'll have to get used to.

 

[Juddernaut08]

In what way

team full of tall defenders and pure mids.

 

[Arr0w]

team full of tall defenders and pure mids.

Tall defenders you say, have a think of who won the last 2 flags and their tall defenders

We bemoan not having mids last year, now all of a sudden we have q plethora?

Think about what and who it releases

 

[Juddernaut08]

Tall defenders you say, have a think of who won the last 2 flags and their tall defenders

We bemoan not having mids last year, now all of a sudden we have q plethora?

Think about what and who it releases

Think about what it is missing? Who is your shutdown small defender?

Who is your crumbing goalkicker?

Last year one of the key reasons we lost so much was going too top heavy in the backline.