Analysis Port's midfield 2019

Amarula

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After an impressive midfield debut against the Saints in China, is Dan Houston the answer to Port Adelaide’s kicking issues in the middle?
The Phantom, The Advertiser June 4, 2019 6:22pm

Port Adelaide’s first-choice midfield has no problem winning the ball, ranking first for contested possession and clearances in the competition, but it’s the ball-use away from the stoppage which has become an issue. Collectively, the Power’s midfield, including wingmen, have registered a kicking efficiency of 56.6 per cent this season — the second-lowest in the competition.Only Gold Coast midfielders have hit less targets by foot in 2019.

Enter Dan Houston.

The 22-year-old, who Champion Data rates as an elite general defender in the AFL, made his midfield debut against the Saints in China. And it was an impressive start. Houston attended the second-most centre bounces (22) for the Power — behind only Travis Boak — and recorded career highs in disposals (28), clearances (7) and loose-ball gets (7). But his 22 effective disposals — also a career high — and disposal efficiency of 78 per cent stood out the most. As did Houston’s clanger count, given the 186cm right-footer, who is rarely rushed, didn’t register one. The only other Power player to do the same was forward Kane Farrell but he only had seven touches.
.......
Prior to the midfield move, Houston - who was drafted by the Power in the 2015 rookie draft as a medium-sized forward - was in career-best form as a rebounding defender, averaging 22 disposals, five marks, five rebound 50s and 99 Champion Data ranking points per game in the past month.
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With the return of Ryan Burton and Riley Bonner across half-back, Houston’s midfield move might become more than a one-off, given his attributes address a key deficiency in that part of the ground for the Power.

PORT ADELAIDE’S MIDFIELD BY FOOT
Xavier Duursma (Wing)
69.2% - Above Average

Karl Amon (Wing)
68.7% - Above Average

Willem Drew (Mid)
63.9% - Above Average

Tom Rockliff (Mid)
55.3% - Below Average

Travis Boak (Mid)
54.4% - Below Average

Sam Powell-Pepper (Mid-Fwd)
50.4% - Below Average

Robbie Gray (Mid-Fwd)
49.3% - Below Average

Ollie Wines (Mid)
42.9% - Poor

*Ratings are based off players position
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/spor...e/news-story/24b889ce9cfa1603bdb43a5ce6135935
This article says it all. To get anywhere near top 4, this is what we need to fix.
 
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Rockliff is the one that is really expendable as I can't really see that he can play anywhere else but inside mid.
I'd say from that the elephant in the room is Wines. Should be in the SANFL until his disposal efficiency improves.
 
I'd say from that the elephant in the room is Wines. Should be in the SANFL until his disposal efficiency improves.

I wouldn't go that far, but in hindsight for the makeup of our side we probably traded the wrong Win.
 

jakey

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I'm not sure I have the mental wherewithal or intestinal fortitude to handle Wines, SPP, Boak and Rocky all in the same midfield at the same time again. There are things I love about each player, but * me it's like waterboarding watching them collectively go at it by foot.
 

Magus

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I wouldn't go that far, but in hindsight for the makeup of our side we probably traded the wrong Win.

Because Wingard has been a massive loss so far? Him and Wines have been as impressive as eachother this year.
 
That is a little harsh on Ollie. He has only played five games and had no preseason due to his shoulder.
He did more than half the preseason. he did his shoulder on Australia day.
 

Magus

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That is a little harsh on Ollie. He has only played five games and had no preseason due to his shoulder.

Both players have struggled with injuries and both have undelivered.
 

ozph1870

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This has been the problem for a long time, they talk about the 'connection' with the forwards. Connection happens when mids hit a forward target or at least put it to there advantage. The balance of our midfield is crucial moving forward as highlighted above we have a plethora inside mids with poor foot skills. The club made a ballsy list management decision last year and need to do so again. Rockliff is the one that is really expendable as I can't really see that he can play anywhere else but inside mid. I can't see it happening though when he's got 2 more years left on his contract after this year.
Hate to say it but Rockliff should only be depth. Slows us down, meaningless go nowhere possessions, oppo midfield have a field day running off him. Houston is 100x better in the midfield.
 

AwwThatsApples

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Wrong thread, but people are seriously being too harsh on Wines, including Wines himself. He's noticeably tried to overwork himself this year, which is why he tends to stumble around a lot, but I can tell he really cares about his performance, he was great against the Eagles, but he continued to overwork himself which got him injured. the best hope for Wines this year is for him to come back and find some consistency before the season's end.
 
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He did more than half the preseason. he did his shoulder on Australia day.

Ollie still missed two months of full training and did not have a competitive hit out until his first game against Brisbane. He also played with a broken bone in his foot for at least one match.

Both players have struggled with injuries and both have undelivered.

As Ollie suggests in the link below the damage could even have occurred as early as the Richmond game. He apparently had scans prior to the North Melbourne game but they were inconclusive. On that basis it is a bit harsh to be too critical. Ollie's biggest fault this year has not been in getting the ball, he has done that often enough, but in his use of the ball. Maybe his ankle injury explains that in part.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/spor...d/news-story/93e571f06e619fbb346437f0d5feba1a
 

Kingfish73

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Wrong thread, but people are seriously being too harsh on Wines, including Wines himself. He's noticeably tried to overwork himself this year, which is why he tends to stumble around a lot, but I can tell he really cares about his performance, he was great against the Eagles, but he continued to overwork himself which got him injured. the best hope for Wines this year is for him to come back and find some consistency before the season's end.
"Working hard" or trying is for junior and amateur football. Ollie is playing in an elite level of support where actions speak. His actions have not consistently being speaking. So criticism is justified. We know at his best, he is a very good footballer. But the reality is his first couple of seasons were his most consistent and damaging years. I hope he comes back strong. But he f##### up with the shoulder injury and I pretty much accept that his season is close to a write off and he needs to come back strong in 2020. In the mean time we need to try new structures in our midfield. Stop injecting so called "beasts", who are slow and turn the ball over. Get the right mix between inside v outside midfielders
 

AwwThatsApples

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I still like Wines, but to be honest, we don't really need him in a midfield already stocked with the likes of Boak, Rockliff, and SPP, who are all big bodied and competitive players, you can also add in Robbie when we need an outside midfielder.

We seem to already have things locked down at the moment, the only time he'd come in in my books would be in the event of SPP being out of form or injured.
 
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Wrong thread, but people are seriously being too harsh on Wines, including Wines himself. He's noticeably tried to overwork himself this year, which is why he tends to stumble around a lot, but I can tell he really cares about his performance, he was great against the Eagles, but he continued to overwork himself which got him injured. the best hope for Wines this year is for him to come back and find some consistency before the season's end.
I like Ollie but he needs to fix hiis disposal, it's not that good.
With Wines, Rocliff, Boak & SPP in the midfield, it's not going to work. Both SPP and Wines have average disposal, Rocky is clean but slow. Boak has been in great form this season, although he too can be a little suspect with disposal at times.
 

JUSTWORK

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With Hartlett coming back in soon creating does that mean he gets a go in the middle or Houston stays there ? Does Bonner go up to a wing after his performance against St Kilda ?

If this is the case which of our Mids don't get games ? If we are to go anywhere this year and do some damage come September we can't remain the 2nd worst kicking team in the Comp.
 

AwwThatsApples

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I like Ollie but he needs to fix hiis disposal, it's not that good.
With Wines, Rocliff, Boak & SPP in the midfield, it's not going to work. Both SPP and Wines have average disposal, Rocky is clean but slow. Boak has been in great form this season, although he too can be a little suspect with disposal at times.
Boak and Rockliff only play like s**t when the rest of the team does, but Boak is the more consistant of the two.
I doubt he'll get his hands on the brownlow, but it would be really nice to see
 

Hong-Kong Phooey

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Wines is a beast and will be immense, once all settles. He is a newly appointed captain at a young age and knows he ****ed up and did a stupid thing. He started this year way behind the 8 ball. I don't really expect him to excel this year. But next year he will be crazy good.

Be patient peeps he's in a transitional year from boy to man.
 

robbo1981

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With Hartlett coming back in soon creating does that mean he gets a go in the middle or Houston stays there ? Does Bonner go up to a wing after his performance against St Kilda ?

If this is the case which of our Mids don't get games ? If we are to go anywhere this year and do some damage come September we can't remain the 2nd worst kicking team in the Comp.
Good problem to have.
 

AwwThatsApples

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With Hartlett coming back in soon creating does that mean he gets a go in the middle or Houston stays there ? Does Bonner go up to a wing after his performance against St Kilda ?

If this is the case which of our Mids don't get games ? If we are to go anywhere this year and do some damage come September we can't remain the 2nd worst kicking team in the Comp.
If we're to finally start getting some experience into our defence then we almost NEED Hamish in the back, it might even be more beneficial for his recovery.

I almost think we might need to drop SPP. A tough call, but to fit Boak, Rocky, Wines, Robbie and Houston all in somewhere someone has to take the punch.
Not to mention SPP's disposal isn't great, and neither is Wines, but he's still the superior of the two
 

Amarula

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I thought Trav took a lot more care with his ball use against Saints, and was much more effective and damaging as a result.
It can be done.

Our fundamental problem is that all our best mids have poor ball use (they are also relatively slow, but that can be mitigated by better ball movement). This is also why we get shedloads of poor-quality f50 entries - another of our fundamental problems. Part of the reason that we have so many "bomb-it-to-the-hot-spot" f50 entries is that our best mids can't do it any other way (though Trav showed on Sunday that it's not beyond him).

If two or even three of these mids can get their disposal stats up to (or, preferably, better than) the AFL average, that will help more than anything else to start to beat the better sides and to move up the ladder.
 

El_Scorcho

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I don't see how adding Wines makes us too 'inside'.

In our most breathtakingly dominant midfield performance of the past few seasons against West Coast, we played all of Wines, Rockliff, Boak, SPP, Gray, Gray and Drew.

Managed +17 clearances and +33 inside 50s.

Wines creates space for his teammates. All of Rockliff, Boak, SPP and both Grays can play a bit on the outside, Boak especially, and Wines at full flight will be a huge part of getting them to the outside.
 

Kiss from a Rozee

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Getting Dan Houston into the middle will help this a hell of a lot. Also having Amon on the wing and Bonner pushing up from half back.

Wines and SPP’s lack of composure is criminal at times, but our forward line needs to adjust as well. At a centre bounces they have no excuse, for example.

Wines’ impact is just so hard to judge honestly, he gets a lot of the ball and creates so much space at stoppages but his turnovers are an absolute killer for us. The game against Collingwood it was just comical how often we’d win the hard ball at stoppages only for a second later for them to inexplicably have 4 players waltzing away with it uncontested.

If it were playstation I would have traded Wines before Wingard, particularly given we have Atley, Drew and hell even Trengove waiting to come in. I’m really hoping Ollie proves me wrong on that one. His game against West Coast was outstanding but that’s really been his only highlight in a very poor season to date.

Hopefully he has a massive back half of the season and shoves it up the haters.
 
I don't see how adding Wines makes us too 'inside'.

In our most breathtakingly dominant midfield performance of the past few seasons against West Coast, we played all of Wines, Rockliff, Boak, SPP, Gray, Gray and Drew.

Managed +17 clearances and +33 inside 50s.

Wines creates space for his teammates. All of Rockliff, Boak, SPP and both Grays can play a bit on the outside, Boak especially, and Wines at full flight will be a huge part of getting them to the outside.

It rained non stop that night!

Everyone fit and firing, I'm not convinced about SPP's place in our best 22.
 

AwwThatsApples

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Come the end of the day Wines and SPP are almost the same players. They have big capable bodies and noticeably put in a lot of effort, but their disposal is inefficient. However you'd almost always have to pick Wines over SPP, not just because he's the captain but also because his best form can define games.
 
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