- Jun 11, 2013
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Take the Richmond game for example. We only managed 14 shots on goal for the entire match. Mitchell had the footy 37 times and gained less than 200m with his disposal, around the same as O'Brien that day. Nothing he did caused any headaches to the opposition. He was calling for the ball when not in the correct position to receive it, then being forced into short kicks or backwards handballs putting more pressure on his side and not moving us forward.
Interestingly, Cam Guthrie against us last Monday had 43 disposals for the same metres gained as Titch the week before. If Dangerfield plays and has 43 touches we lose by about 4 or 5 goals minimum. You know he would be trying to advance the ball at every opportunity giving his forwards more chances.
Titch is a great midfielder in a sense that he guaranteed to find a heap of the ball every week. Does that strike fear into the opposition though? I'd argue no. Is it entirely his fault? Also no. If we had a Merrett or a Kelly for Titch to feed the ball out to then we could overlook the low metres gained a little more. Unfortunately O'Meara is usually inside fighting for contested footy alongside Titch as opposed to being the release option.
It's still my wish that Wingard becomes the Yang to Mitchells Ying as the seasons progresses. That will instantly make Mitchells game more effective.
Yeah he's not the most damaging mid but that isn't his role. He provides a link up play and a pressure relief very often all over the ground due to his extremely high work rate. He sets up his teammates to succeed and bails them out if they're on the verge of failure.
People talk about 'non-effective' 37 disposals but unless they're all turnovers the very fact someone can be involved in the play that much and provide a team with opportunities to create something means they don't really belong in the same sentence together.
I can't speak to the putting teammates under pressure thing due to calling for it in bad positions as I don't remember seeing any of it but was at the game so harder to tell
Titchells strength is just different to the typical midfielder so people tend to just look at meters gained or goal assists or I50s, when he's more of a Dane Swan, death by a thousand cuts type player, overwhelming the opposition with the weight of numbers and keeping chains moving. Preventing turnovers and goals etc.
Like yeah, he could get the ball 37 times every game, bomb it long every game and win the meters gained stat every year without compromising his DE% because CD counts kicks to contests as effective. There's a lot of flaws with all these stats especially when measuring a unique mid like Titch
So yeah. He wasn't fantastic vs Richmond, but people seem to think he's not good. Which is bullshit. He's extremely good.