Opinion Rank the AFL midfields

[scaryness]

I hate to bring player rankings into this but...

Danger 4th
Sloane 7th
Gray 36th
Beams 104th

I'm sorry but Danger could very well win a brownlow one day and end his career in the hall of fame.

Robbie Gray is a good player but that's it.

this is general consensus but you are entitled to your opinion. Even if it's wrong.

You're kidding yourself if you think Beams is the 104th best player in the AFL. This just shows how flawed the AFL "Official Rankings" are.

 

[Dredd]

You're kidding yourself if you think Beams is the 104th best player in the AFL. This just shows how faulty the AFL "Official Rankings" are.

indeed it is flawed but it does give an indication.

interested to know your thoughts on the Gray vs Danger Vs Beams conundrum

 

[scaryness]

If I was picking a team for the future I would rank them:
1. Beams
2. Danger
3. Gray

Danger would be first if he wasn't seemingly injuring himself every week.

On last years form I would rank them:
1. Gray
2. Beams
3. Danger.

It's hard to judge Gray because as you said he has only had one good season, but his career has been cut down by injury. We'll know next year if he was a one hit wonder or if his 2014 season is what we should come to expect from him.

 

[Wargreymon90]

Lol some under rating of ports midfield there. Comfortably better then Adelaide's.

 

[Dredd]

Lol some under rating of ports midfield there. Comfortably better then Adelaide's.

Your opinion. I honestly don't think so.

 

[Dredd]

You have to take into account ruckmen as well as they are apart of the midfield.

 

[Dredd]

read the first few pages, most people thought port was near bottom, and crows were top 3 funnily enough.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

read the first few pages, most people thought port was near bottom, and crows were top 3 funnily enough.

Your trolling now

that was 2 years ago

 

[Dredd]

Your trolling now

that was 2 years ago

Not trolling.

My point is that if a team is collectively playing well than the midfield gets waaaay overrated as a result.

No way were we the 3rd best midfield in 2012 and port aren't the 3rd best now.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Rockliff, Beams, Hanley, Redden, Rich, Zorko, Christensen, Mayes, Aish and Taylor.... Add in Martin/Leuenberger in the rucks and that's going to be one hell of a midfield.

Mayes plays back, Hanley plays back Zorko more a forward then a mid....

 

[Wargreymon90]

Not trolling.

My point is that if a team is collectively playing well than the midfield gets waaaay overrated as a result.

No way were we the 3rd best midfield in 2012 and port aren't the 3rd best now.

Considering we finished third this year (taking finals into account) and our main strength is our midfield, we aren't far off.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Mayes plays back, Hanley plays back Zorko more a forward then a mid....

Mayes is a forward getting experiecne down back, Hanley moved more into the middle this year, Zorko is more of a mid now with Taylor playing forward

 

[cotter101]

Mayes plays back, Hanley plays back Zorko more a forward then a mid....

Watch more of the Lions. Mayed played down back in a developmental year as we needed quality ball users.

Hanley's been a midfielder for the last two years.... Zorko pretty well made the shift to the midfield this year.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Watch more of the Lions. Mayed played down back in a developmental year as we needed quality ball users.

Hanley's been a midfielder for the last two years.... Zorko pretty well made the shift to the midfield this year.

Have watched a bit of the lions and Hanley is a sweeping half back flanker in my opinion and Mayes is no way a mid. Zorko as i mentioned spends majority as a high half forward.

 

[cotter101]

Have watched a bit of the lions and Hanley is a sweeping half back flanker in my opinion and Mayes is no way a mid. Zorko as i mentioned spends majority as a high half forward.

Hanley struggled with the tag earlier in the year but his second half of the year was pretty bloody good. Midfielder easily.. Averaged 30 disposals, 1.1 goal assists, 6 inside fifties, 4.5 clearances, 8 contested possesions and a bounce a game in the second half of the year

Mayes spent his first year as a midfielder and showed lots of class and composure. Certainly more talented than someone like Aish imo. He has more elite qualities.

Zorko probably splits his midfield and forward time 50/50.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Hanley struggled with the tag earlier in the year but his second half of the year was pretty bloody good. Midfielder easily.. Averaged 30 disposals, 1.1 goal assists, 6 inside fifties, 4.5 clearances, 8 contested possesions and a bounce a game in the second half of the year

Mayes spent his first year as a midfielder and showed lots of class and composure. Certainly more talented than someone like Aish imo. He has more elite qualities.

Zorko probably splits his midfield and forward time 50/50.

Yeah the dogs have a few that should move into the middle more with an increase in tank Hunter and stringer, apparently Stringer is a beast clearance player but not up to it for a full game and they see him kicking a lot of goals next to Boyd and Crameri id say.

 

[cotter101]

Yeah the dogs have a few that should move into the middle more with an increase in tank Hunter and stringer, apparently Stringer is a beast clearance player but not up to it for a full game and they see him kicking a lot of goals next to Boyd and Crameri id say.

Stringer certainly very capable on the inside. Like him better as a forward personally. Him alongside Boyd and Crameri in another year or two is going to be very hard to stop. Can tear games apart.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Stringer certainly very capable on the inside. Like him better as a forward personally. Him alongside Boyd and Crameri in another year or two is going to be very hard to stop. Can tear games apart.

Yeah that's a tough one as far as the dogs are concerned, those three with Dahl and Hunter would be great and all are young but he kills it in clearances in training Does Stringer. Hows Rich progressing?

 

[cotter101]

Yeah that's a tough one as far as the dogs are concerned, those three with Dahl and Hunter would be great and all are young but he kills it in clearances in training Does Stringer. Hows Rich progressing?

Back up and running. Will likely rotate through HBF and Midfield to break tags. Hopefully becomes easier for him with Beams, Rockliff and Hanley there supporting him.

 

[SterlingArcher]

indeed it is flawed but it does give an indication.

interested to know your thoughts on the Gray vs Danger Vs Beams conundrum

The AFL player rankings give no more an indication than what my arseh*le does. Means shit all. Based on stats that aren't given any context really. Unless there's something I can't find, then things like 'tackles' are just raw numbers and not a ratio of tackles missed/tackles made or preventing a kick etc.

Biggest load of shit ever.

Have watched a bit of the lions and Hanley is a sweeping half back flanker in my opinion and Mayes is no way a mid. Zorko as i mentioned spends majority as a high half forward.

Your opinion is downright wrong. It's not subjective, Hanley is a midfielder.

Your opinion. I honestly don't think so.

Is this "don't think so" part of Ports midfield > Adelaides? If we considered Gray & Boak = Dangerfield and Sloane (probably a fair enough comparison), then you've got Ebert, Wines, Cornes, Hartlett v Smith, Thompson (past it), B.Crouch (barely out of diapers) as decent mids.

Jacobs isn't that far past Lobbe to make up for the deficiencies in the Crows midfield.

Updated the lists.

My ranks:
(1) Sydney:
Kennedy, Jack, McVeigh, Hannebery, Parker, McGlynn, Bird

(2) Fremantle:
Mundy, Barlow, Fyfe, Crowley, Hill, Pearce, Neale

(3) Port Adelaide:
Boak, Ebert, Wines, Gray, Hartlett, Cornes, Polec

(4) Gold Coast:
Ablett, O'Meara, Prestia, Swallow, Rischitelli, Martin, Bennell

(5) Collingwood:
Pendlebury, Beams, Sidebottom, Ball, Swan, Macaffer, Young

(6) Essendon:
Watson, Goddard, Stanton, Zaharakis, Heppell, Myers, Hocking

(7) Geelong:
Selwood, Johnson, Kelly, Bartel, Stokes, Duncan, Christensen

(8) Hawthorn:
Mitchell, Hodge, Burgoyne, Smith, Lewis, Sewell, Hill

(9) Adelaide:
Dangerfield, Thompson, Sloane, Crouch, van Berlo, Douglas, Wright

(10) North Melbourne:
Swallow, Wells, Dal Santo, Harvey, Ziebell, Bastinac, Cunnington

(11) Brisbane:
Rockliff, Redden, Rich, Zorko, Mayes, Aish, Taylor

(12) GWS:
Ward, Treloar, Whitfield, Scully, Coniglio, Shiel, Smith

(13) Carlton:
Murphy, Gibbs, Judd, Curnow, McLean, Carrazzo, Robinson

(14) Richmond:
Cotchin, Martin, Deledio, Ellis, Miles, Foley, Conca

(15) Western Bulldogs:
Griffen, Boyd, Liberatore, Macrae, Bontempelli, Cooney, Dahlhaus

(16) Melbourne:
N. Jones, Tyson, Trengove, Vince, Cross, Viney, M. Jones

(17) West Coast:
Priddis, Shuey, Selwood, Masten, Gaff, Rosa, Wellingham

(18) St Kilda:
Hayes, Montagna, Steven, Jones, Armitage, Dunstan, Ray

Few months on from time of post...

Blues too high, we fall right off after Murphy, Gibbs and Judd, and Judd is in the category of a solid mid now. I think the Tigers have 5 decent mids, and Cotchin is at least the equal of Gibbs/Murphy. Tiges above Blues. Think with no Trengove meaning Cross and M.Jones are playing more of a role really puts the Dees mids down. Lumumba won't help.

As for the top end, Hawks need to shoot up - 4 classy inside mids (Hodge, Mitchell, Burgoyne, Lewis) or at least in Burgoynes case they can play midfield when needed - add a couple of young replacements in Shiels and Langford, and some outside mids in Hill and Smith and they are an easy top 3 midfield.

Geelong (fall of Kelly, Bartel less midfield, loss of Christensen, rise of Guthrie) probably fall down slightly. Brisbane and North probably have top 8 midfields imo - North an unknown quantity as it's hard to predict whether their midfield did well in 2014 because of the attributes offered by Greenwood or whether Greenwood can ably be replaced by others.

 

[Flags_In_The_Bag]

Back up and running. Will likely rotate through HBF and Midfield to break tags. Hopefully becomes easier for him with Beams, Rockliff and Hanley there supporting him.

Think they should keep Hanley through half back, kind of like a Lindsay Gilbee role, Lions have enough clearance mids to cover him not being used in the middle.

 

[cotter101]

Think they should keep Hanley through half back, kind of like a Lindsay Gilbee role, Lions have enough clearance mids to cover him not being used in the middle.

It's his line breaking ability through the middle that is something we'd lack in there if he was down back. He'll rotate there at times, but it's not where he is best suited imo. We've got Cutler and Bewick who have the skills to play that HBF role. I'd say they are better than Hanley 1v1 too.

 

[Dredd]

The AFL player rankings give no more an indication than what my arseh*le does. Means shit all. Based on stats that aren't given any context really. Unless there's something I can't find, then things like 'tackles' are just raw numbers and not a ratio of tackles missed/tackles made or preventing a kick etc.

Biggest load of shit ever.



Your opinion is downright wrong. It's not subjective, Hanley is a midfielder.



Is this "don't think so" part of Ports midfield > Adelaides? If we considered Gray & Boak = Dangerfield and Sloane (probably a fair enough comparison), then you've got Ebert, Wines, Cornes, Hartlett v Smith, Thompson (past it), B.Crouch (barely out of diapers) as decent mids.

Jacobs isn't that far past Lobbe to make up for the deficiencies in the Crows midfield.


Few months on from time of post...

Blues too high, we fall right off after Murphy, Gibbs and Judd, and Judd is in the category of a solid mid now. I think the Tigers have 5 decent mids, and Cotchin is at least the equal of Gibbs/Murphy. Tiges above Blues. Think with no Trengove meaning Cross and M.Jones are playing more of a role really puts the Dees mids down. Lumumba won't help.

As for the top end, Hawks need to shoot up - 4 classy inside mids (Hodge, Mitchell, Burgoyne, Lewis) or at least in Burgoynes case they can play midfield when needed - add a couple of young replacements in Shiels and Langford, and some outside mids in Hill and Smith and they are an easy top 3 midfield.

Geelong (fall of Kelly, Bartel less midfield, loss of Christensen, rise of Guthrie) probably fall down slightly. Brisbane and North probably have top 8 midfields imo - North an unknown quantity as it's hard to predict whether their midfield did well in 2014 because of the attributes offered by Greenwood or whether Greenwood can ably be replaced by others.

B. Crouch is barely out of his diapers? Wines is the same age. People seem to forget that B. Crouch broke his leg, had virtually no pre-season and returned in the second half of the year. Crouch was touted as being the better player during their draft (only 2 years ago) and also had a better first year than Wines, coming runner up in the rising star award. Before you declare Wines the messiah I ask you give Crouch an extended run to prove himself.

Thompson is past it? Cornes is the same age and only plays run-with roles these days. Thompson is still 2x the player Cornes ever was.

Port have had an injury list with no one on it and a very good coach to bring out the best of the team, Adelaide not so much. In 2012 we had basically the same midfield (probably worse) and people were touting it a top 3 midfield after our stellar season. Not saying that I agree with that ranking but all im saying is that team success is altering their perceived individual talents.

Also, you seem to completely ignore our other midfielders, Douglas, Mackay, VB, Grigg, Lyons etc. Although, not all of them set the world on fire they are all solid citizens. Finally, Boak and Gray aren't as good as Sloane and Dangerfield. Sloane and Danger are 2-3 years younger and are already better, saying otherwise is laughable.

Take your black and teal coloured glasses off, its making me puke.

 

[HowYouDoin]

port/brisbane comparison would be a lot closer

Gray>D.Beams
Boak=Rockliff
Wines<Hanley
Hartlett=Rich
Cornes=Redden
Ebert=Christensen
Polec<Zorko

Like hell gray is better than beams or dangerfield.

 

[SterlingArcher]

B. Crouch is barely out of his diapers? Wines is the same age. People seem to forget that B. Crouch broke his leg, had virtually no pre-season and returned in the second half of the year. Crouch was touted as being the better player during their draft (only 2 years ago) and also had a better first year than Wines, coming runner up in the rising star award. Before you declare Wines the messiah I ask you give Crouch an extended run to prove himself.

Thompson is past it? Cornes is the same age and only plays run-with roles these days. Thompson is still 2x the player Cornes ever was.

Port have had an injury list with no one on it and a very good coach to bring out the best of the team, Adelaide not so much. In 2012 we had basically the same midfield (probably worse) and people were touting it a top 3 midfield after our stellar season. Not saying that I agree with that ranking but all im saying is that team success is altering their perceived individual talents.

Also, you seem to completely ignore our other midfielders, Douglas, Mackay, VB, Grigg, Lyons etc. Although, not all of them set the world on fire they are all solid citizens. Finally, Boak and Gray aren't as good as Sloane and Dangerfield. Sloane and Danger are 2-3 years younger and are already better, saying otherwise is laughable.

Take your black and teal coloured glasses off, its making me puke.

Lol.

Wines has had two full seasons and played finals - Crouch as you said has had injuries. He is a lot more inexperienced?

Thompson is a main player in your midfield. Cornes is a mere tagger. Thompson can bring it once a month or so but some games he looks 40+.

Douglas-solid
Mackay-mediocre
VB-mediocre, comparable to Cornes
Grigg-has he played a dozen games? Best known for being the sub in the showdown (which the Crows still lost) but playing well when he got his chance
Lyons-toddler

'Solid citizens' don't match up to Ebert or Hartlett, who can actually turn a match. I'll grant you Douglas.

2014 AFLCA ? Sloane is a very good player but it goes Dangerfield > Boak > Gray > Sloane for mine. Boak and Gray kicked 61 goals from 49 games in 2014, Sloane/Danger 30 from 44. Double the goals from 5 more games...
Boak 26.8 disposals average in 2014, Gray 24.9, Dangerfield 24.9, Sloane 23.7

AFLCA - Gray 1st
AFLPA - Gray 9th, Dangerfield 10th
Brownlow - Boak & Dangerfield =4th, Gray & Thompson =13th, Sloane =28th
Respective B&F's - Gray 1st Boak 2nd, Sloane 2nd, Dangerfield 3rd

Not saying that these stats are final or whatever, but the comparison between Dangerfield/Sloane and Boak/Gray is definitely not

saying otherwise is laughable.

. Now THAT is wearing your Crow-coloured glasses, **** me. Pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that it's awfully close between the two sets of two.

Port > Adelaide as a midfield unit too saying otherwise doesn't make me puke because I don't get that upset about the opinions of idiots i.e. you