Port Midfield.......

[Bronx Bomber]

With the loss of Nick Stevens to Carlton over the summer and now with Josh Francou out for the season the port midfield is looking a little slim, I think Steven Salopek will cover one of them but he is only in his second year and to much can't be expected..........Will port's lack of midfield qulity have them falling down the ladder?

 

[PAfolwr]

Originally posted by AirportWest #17
With the loss of Nick Stevens to Carlton over the summer and now with Josh Francou out for the season the port midfield is looking a little slim, I think Steven Salopek will cover one of them but he is only in his second year and to much can't be expected..........Will port's lack of midfield qulity have them falling down the ladder?

No, but lack of an attacking ball magnet will make it very difficult.
In the second half last night our midfield was super sh*te.
Salopeck will be "another" Francou type, Cassisi another James type, but who will be another ball magnet Stevens type?

Kingsley kicked a 9 pointer and was busy, but he also did the usual tricks too many times. Almost time to go out and start buying some Silver bullets and wooden stakes.
Mahoney will make the most of his opportunity this year, but there is a question mark surrounding his class at this level. JFK is "little boy lost" at the moment and needs to be given a bit more time.
Burgoynes will be Burgoynes, but are not the answer to our midfield problems.

 

[Portia]

We probably won't finish top, but there are still plenty of other teams with more exploitable weaknesses than we have so we should still make the eight.

Weakening our attack against one of the most solid defences in the league in Geelong was never likely to be a smart move, particularly given our reduced midfield.

 

[mic59]

Even with our best on the field we have too many "safe" types, midfield players such as Schofield, James and Carr. All players who are skilful and adept but not the kind of players to regularly take a game by the scruff of the neck. We need players like Voss, Koutoufides, Buckley and Black. Stevens, for all we say about him was one of those types of players but his flair was too often stifled in Choco's game plan. I sometimes wonder what he may have done to some games if allowed to attack more directly. There are still players in Port who may become gamebreakers. Shaun and Peter Burgoyne, Kane Cornes, Steve Salopek all have the ability to go up a notch if allowed to attack down the middle more. And if Adam Kingsley spends most of the year in midfield and gets back to his 1999 form the losses of Francou and Stevens may not be so keenly felt.
But if the gameplan of the last 2 years is used we could otherwise make the finals or finish in a position similar to 2000.

 

[Cuneyt]

Steven Salopek

 

[ClintEastwood]

Originally posted by mic59
Shaun and Peter Burgoyne

I have just spat out my coke over that Sorry, but as someone rightly called them the other day "Football's laziest brothers".

 

[PAfolwr]

Of our "old" midfield players we have/had two that can/could turn a game, Schofield and Kingsley.
Stevens could not turn games.
Yes he was a 500+ possession player, but a lot of those were because we looked for him. That was the biggest problem with him in finals. Even though his skills may have disappeared, we would still give him the ball as often as possible. Double negative.

Of our "newer" players we will not know who can turn games until they get a chance to play in a role where they are allowed to do so, and that includes K. Cornes and Cassisi. Hopefully this year we will be forced to try out some of these players in such roles.

Whoops, forgot to mention Dewy in the first group.

 

[Sandola]

Originally posted by Pred
I have just spat out my coke over that Sorry, but as someone rightly called them the other day "Football's laziest brothers".

Take it easy on the Burgers. Anyone left languishing in a forward pocket is going to look lazy. As for Peter, 2003 third B&F, and top tackler for the team. Top tacklers are by definition not lazy, in my book.

Too lazy to get a decent haircut for the team photos, yes.

 

[portentous]

I prefer the terms "casual" or "enigmatic", but at times they do look "lazy". I think Senior Burger had an exceptional 2003. Hope he continues it this year. Junior Burger just needs some more consistency, but that's part of maturing.

 

[funkycol]

Stevens aint a match winner...how many games had he got 30+ touches and the still lose..he was justa finisher for everyone elses hard work.... salopek will be a star, but james is the big missing link at the moment...he is a big hard ball winner, and with him out, and josh down, thats the missing players!!...maybe ebert is a chance to fill those shoes????

 

[ClintEastwood]

Originally posted by Sandola
As for Peter, 2003 third B&F, and top tackler for the team.

Well that's a surprise. Are you sure about that? Maybe Peter is improving in the endeavour department. With his pace, he definitely should be up high amongst the top tacklers.

 

[Sandola]

Originally posted by Pred
Well that's a surprise. Are you sure about that? Maybe Peter is improving in the endeavour department. With his pace, he definitely should be up high amongst the top tacklers.

Actually, I'm not sure about it, because I got the info from the AFL/PAFC website!!!


(nah, I'm sure about the B&F, and he's had excellent tackling stats recently, so it's probably all true. He's good, and he's going for it.)

 

[PAfolwr]

Big Burger was very consistent last year. Over 20 possies per game, heaps of tackles, and 20 odd goals. Considering he also spent time in the forward line, that is very good.

 

[Macca19]

I thought Peter was excellent last season. I actually thought he got rid of most of his laziness. He easily had his best year, but yet again had a poor finals series.

S Burgoyne is lazy because he is allowed to be. Forward pocket by defintion is a lazy position. There arent many consistent small forwards out there. Once put on a HBF or Wing full time i reckon his laziness will decease.

 

[dreamkillers]

Originally posted by Macca19
I thought Peter was excellent last season. I actually thought he got rid of most of his laziness. He easily had his best year, but yet again had a poor finals series.

S Burgoyne is lazy because he is allowed to be. Forward pocket by defintion is a lazy position. There arent many consistent small forwards out there. Once put on a HBF or Wing full time i reckon his laziness will decease.

That basically somes them up last year and even though Peter had a good year he still has plenty of improvement. I hope we see Shaun get a HBF, Wing or midfield role as he could be anything.......given the chance.

If they get more time closer to the action and James comes good by mid season things shouldn't be looking too bad at all.

I think James, Salopek, Thurstans and White will be the key to how far we go this year.

Others will get their chances as well and hopefully they will take up the challenge and make it hard to replace them.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Originally posted by Macca19
I thought Peter was excellent last season. I actually thought he got rid of most of his laziness. He easily had his best year, but yet again had a poor finals series.

S Burgoyne is lazy because he is allowed to be. Forward pocket by defintion is a lazy position. There arent many consistent small forwards out there. Once put on a HBF or Wing full time i reckon his laziness will decease.

As a P Burgoyne critic, I was very impressed by his 2003 as his workrate was much better. Disagree on Jnr Burger as I thought he chose to be lazy. Should have been dropped IMO to give him a kick up the arse to lift his output.

Back to the topic, it is certainly an interesting poser. Personally I would play Wilson in the guts as he is hard at it & should be up to it now he has had a year back from injury. Would probably start him in the centre square with Carr & P Burgoyne (until James returns). K Cornes should be given more of an attacking role off a wing, with probably Cassisi off the other. Salopek should definitely be blooded as part of the midfield rotation too.

 

[Sandola]

I woke up this morning thinking "we don't have a midfield". We don't. We have hopes, plans, options, possibilities, but we don't have a midfield. Very slow start to the year again, probably worse than last year. But I've got no douibt we'll have a killer midfield by midseason and give the business end of the year a real go.

 

[Portia]

Its a shame that the draw conspires to end our season with one of the most heinous runs of travel available.

 

[PJ Power]

Originally posted by Macca19
I thought Peter was excellent last season. I actually thought he got rid of most of his laziness. He easily had his best year, but yet again had a poor finals series.

S Burgoyne is lazy because he is allowed to be. Forward pocket by defintion is a lazy position. There arent many consistent small forwards out there. Once put on a HBF or Wing full time i reckon his laziness will decease.

Spot on. As much as I admire Johncock for the Crows and rue the fact that we took A. Murray some twenty odd picks before he was taken, I still believe that Shaun could be a far better player long-term. However, on consistency of performance Graham definitely gets the nod at present. Why? Almost certainly because he is not suffocated match after match in a forward pocket.

Since Choco took over, he has been determined to stuff the team full of opportunist forwards (Cocky, Burgers x2, Byron, Wangas in 2001, Dewy). Perhaps this is because we haven't had a really big goal-kicking year (>70 goals) from a key forward since 1997.
Nevertheless, as productive as small forwards have been for us, we still haven't won the ultimate prize. Brisbane as an example, use Mcrae and then have other goal-kicking midfielders who they rest up forward. This is much more conventional and traditional, and gives a side more viable and flexible options. In contrast, we have boxed Dewy and Shaun into FP roles and not let them develop into better ball-getters and -carriers. We saw the light by necessity with Peter last year. Let's hope we use Shaun, Dewy and Byron more liberally this year.