Player Watch Sam Berry

[NSolis]

We need one more A or A+ grader, if Soligo doesn’t become that (I’m guessing Berry and Peatling won’t get to that level) we’ll need to move past one of those three guys

Who knows if that ends up being Draper, Curtin, Edwards, Bailey, Neale or someone else - but we need someone else at that level

Yeah. I think it is possible that there's a future midfield that is something like Draper/Rachele/Curtin/Berry (or Soligo) with Rankine and Dawson both pinch-hitting while playing a bunch of time in other roles. But so far most of that group is unproven in the midfield at AFL level.

 

[Mutineer]

Everyone needs a Tom Atkins in their side and Berry is ours. Tough as nails, tackles to hurt, has power, and burst and gives repeat efforts and in the case of the showdown, did it for 4 quarters with 705m gained. Offensive and defensive weapon, he is vital to our midfield. Starting to now show the ability he has always had, just needed a good run at it to own that role and he is owning it. I expect him to produce more games like that going forward as that is the potential that he was drafted on. I wish more of our mids and players in general played with such intent and grunt like that.

Hear hear.

 

[Gtowncrow]

He's definitely competing with Soligo and Peatling for less than 3 total spots at some stage. And Edwards, but he's further back I think.

The only way we are picking all 3 is if the total midfield time shared by Rankine, Rachele, Dawson and Curtin is around a third of the CBAs. You could maybe include Draper and Bailey in that group too if we are looking at next year. If we want those guys playing more midfield, at least one of Soligo/Berry/Peatling will be out of the side. I can see this happening if Curtin is fully fit and we want him to have some midfield time, plus Ah Chee comes back into the side which might free up Rankine and Rachele to both play midfield at the same time, which they haven't really done so far this year.

Before this year my view was that Soligo and Peatling were clearly #1 and #2 of that group, but it's less clear now with Berry's improvement.

I'm suggesting that Berry is competing as a midfield bull with strength and burst. Peatling and Soli are different types.

 

[cleanhands]

Everyone needs a Tom Atkins in their side and Berry is ours. Tough as nails, tackles to hurt, has power, and burst and gives repeat efforts and in the case of the showdown, did it for 4 quarters with 705m gained. Offensive and defensive weapon, he is vital to our midfield. Starting to now show the ability he has always had, just needed a good run at it to own that role and he is owning it. I expect him to produce more games like that going forward as that is the potential that he was drafted on. I wish more of our mids and players in general played with such intent and grunt like that.

Fair post…………. Not sure why we are picking the eyes out of Berry, if the showdown performance is what we see more consistent out of him in he future

 

[119others]

That's actually a great result for us

His 2027 contract is likely the level for a handy fringe level player who scrapes into the 23.

If he was negotiating now as our No 1 mid, coming off a Showdown Medal he'd be able to squeeze some dollars and years

Well done Reidy

without a full understanding of how the games trigger works from both parties perspective, wouldnt that likely give berry the right, but not the obligation, to remain with us in 2027? ie pies offer him 5 years @ 800k at the end of this year - why couldnt he accept that?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

without a full understanding of how the games trigger works from both parties perspective, wouldnt that likely give berry the right, but not the obligation, to remain with us in 2027? ie pies offer him 5 years @ 800k at the end of this year - why couldnt he accept that?

Yes, last year when it happened

Which is well before he broke out as a player and he would have bitten our hand off

So we've banked him in 2027 for unders

 

[daniel_4tw]

I dont understand some of the views on here.

We complain about our midfield but then want to trade our best young midfielder currently and for what...he will net us a mid range 1st rounder in the teens at absolute best...that equates to what? If you say well we can on trade that...for who and we have three years of picks we can sell if we desperately want to trade.

We need Berry, probably our most inform and consistent midfielder at the moment.

If we got Dyson Sharp then we maybe could have afforded to lose Berry. But as it stands, we have no other player on the list that can be the in and under, workhorse to get the ball.

Berry should be the one first to the bal then handing it out to the Rachele’s and Rankine’s of the world.

Peatling should be our designated tagger.

The same people saying to trade him were the same people hanging shit on Matt Crouch. But we saw how important he was when he came back in to the side, and I bet finals go differently if he had made it there.

The fact that Collingwood and other clubs are asking questions should be evidence enough the kid has got it.

 

[Coopers]

Berry is playing well and has improved this year. But if you want to improve the midfield you have to be willing to change the players who are currently playing in there, or assume that there's further improvement on the way for the guys you've got. This week our midfield mix was Berry, Peatling, Soligo and Rankine, with Rachele as the 5th option. So if the midfield needs to improve, which of those players need to go - either out of the team or out of the midfield? It can't just be that the midfield sucks but all the players in it are good.

Saying that Berry is doing pretty well but we eventually need to move past him (or Soligo, or Peatling) makes more sense to me than just listing a whole bunch of players you'd like to see in the midfield without ever considering what your core group of 4-5 mids is going to be.

Well, we want AA level mids in the midfield.

If he plays like that every week, then he's a brownlow medallist. New Berry can go past old Berry if he can find that kind of form and replace himself in the starting mids.

If he goes back to a lower level (but still the much improved Berry of this year) then he has a place, you just want 2 AA level mids in there as well before we consider our midfield to be really quite good.

Where they are going to come from, who knows. Would be wonderful if a couple of Sog/Peatling/Rash/Rankine/Berry can be those guys, but otherwise we still need to go shopping.

 

[Brasher]

Don't demand Berry to be your prime mover in the midfield but be the foil to that guy and he is very valuable.

Ive got no evidence, but Berry strikes me as the sort of mid who needs max minutes in there to be effective...he's not a pinch hitter.

 

[Fud#3]

Berry is playing well and has improved this year. But if you want to improve the midfield you have to be willing to change the players who are currently playing in there, or assume that there's further improvement on the way for the guys you've got. This week our midfield mix was Berry, Peatling, Soligo and Rankine, with Rachele as the 5th option. So if the midfield needs to improve, which of those players need to go - either out of the team or out of the midfield? It can't just be that the midfield sucks but all the players in it are good.

Saying that Berry is doing pretty well but we eventually need to move past him (or Soligo, or Peatling) makes more sense to me than just listing a whole bunch of players you'd like to see in the midfield without ever considering what your core group of 4-5 mids is going to be.

You don't need to only have 4 mids.

Does Aktins still go in at Geelong
Nash at Hawthorn
Rowbottom at Sydney
Dunkley at Brisbane
Long at Collingwood
Drew / Wines at Port
Hopper at Richmond

Good teams need strong in and under players as a core part of their midfield structure.

 

[MarcusP2]

without a full understanding of how the games trigger works from both parties perspective, wouldnt that likely give berry the right, but not the obligation, to remain with us in 2027? ie pies offer him 5 years @ 800k at the end of this year - why couldnt he accept that?

In that scenario he would have to request a trade. With the trigger he's a contracted player.

 

[NSolis]

You don't need to only have 4 mids.

Does Aktins still go in at Geelong
Nash at Hawthorn
Rowbottom at Sydney
Dunkley at Brisbane
Long at Collingwood
Drew / Wines at Port
Hopper at Richmond

Good teams need strong in and under players as a core part of their midfield structure.

I'm not suggesting you can only have 4 mids or that there's not a role for Berry, but assuming we are talking about centre bounce attending mids, mostly you'll have a core rotation of around 4 who attend most centre bounces and maybe a couple of other players who go in sometimes. For us this week it was Berry, Peatling, Soligo and Rankine with some attendances for Rachele. For our opposition it was Butters, Drew, Wines and JHF. At Brisbane it was Neale, Dunkley, W. Ashcroft and McCluggage with pinch-hitting roles for Bailey and Rayner. And so on - some teams vary a bit more but generally almost all the CBAs go to 4-6 players with most of them going to 4.

So if we want to see Curtin or Dawson in the midfield as well for example that comes at the expense of someone, as well as the value they'd bring in other positions.

 

[Golumless]

Don't demand Berry to be your prime mover in the midfield but be the foil to that guy and he is very valuable.

Ive got no evidence, but Berry strikes me as the sort of mid who needs max minutes in there to be effective...he's not a pinch hitter.

I mean, the evidence is Berry rarely drops below 60% in our CBA's since he's been back in. We don't see him as someone who can rotate.