The half forward role for developing midfielders

[Jarman3]

It's funny you mention that as I had also thought the same thing. From memory it used to be the case in the early days of the crows that midfielders would start their career mainly playing at halfback. Half forward is always mentioned as the hardest position to play yet that's where we put our new, young future midfielders? Does not make a lot of sense if you want to ease them into a successful AFL career.

Yeah, but it's hard to draw parallels between different eras.

I mean back then we only had guys like Ricciuto, McLeod, Edwards and Goodwin. That can hardly compare to the "stacked" midfield that Nicks is working with. The guys slotting in at HF are lucky they can get a spot at all.

 

[Syd Crow]

Yeah, but it's hard to draw parallels between different eras.

I mean back then we only had guys like Ricciuto, McLeod, Edwards and Goodwin. That can hardly compare to the "stacked" midfield that Nicks is working with. The guys slotting in at HF are lucky they can get a spot at all.

We know so much more of course these days.

 

[DJ75]

We protect the reputation of senior players before we consider the future.
It's why we do this and why we have sucked for 30 years.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Have we picked any though?
It’s probably not unreasonable to expect maybe one later pick to develop into an elite mid but we haven’t spent the capital on a top mid other than maybe Rachele who we don’t even play in the middle.
Do the problems start earlier than development?

To be even fairer, it's not like we've drafted All Australians anywhere else either.

Our All Australian selections since 2016 who we drafted, and their draft years:

Rory Sloane- 2008
Rory Laird- 2011 (rookie)
Matt Crouch - 2013
Taylor Walker - 2007.

That's it.

We haven't drafted an All Australian in the last 12 years. Even the Kangaroos have done better.

Of course if I'm discounting All Australians we didn't draft, then we did draft Danger, but that was like 18 years ago.

 

[mcleod at 50 lines it up]

Some of our early midfield picks
Pedlar, Jones, McHenry, Berry and Shoenberg
Some showed potential early on and then wither on the vine
Is it recruiting or development ?
Lets hope Draper lives up to the hype

Pushing it with Mchenry

 

[Milo Cyrus]

This has been our preferred method for introducing our young midfielders to AFL level.

Pedlar, Draper, Taylor, Rachele.

Is it the way to go?

Some teams run their young mids off half back as an introduction to AFL level instead.

They need to be able to play somewhere else - even Nick Daicos wasn't a full time centre square mid from Day 1 - but is the half forward flank the best introduction?

I feel like it's quite a difficult role. High percentage of possessions need to be contested, can be quite an opportunistic role rather than having attacks steered your way, need to have natural forward instincts in terms of reading the play, need to stay out of our other forward's space.

They need to learn how to play the half forward flank role, how to coordinate with the other forwards. Takes time. Becoming a midfielder is somewhere off in the distance.

I'm wondering if this particular role stalls their development as midfielders. It also means those still in the SANFL can't play midfield there because they will be playing half forward if they get picked at AFL level. Seems like we create an extra hoop for our young mids to jump through.

I've always thought half forward as the least accountable and most creative position on the ground. It's the building block that swings momentum, creates space, creates havoc and requires a deep understanding of dynamic play state.
It's why Dawson, Rankine, Rachele types should play the half forward roles. For mine Draper would be better utilized by being given a specific role following the oppositions small mids, with simple instructions to follow them around and then beat them to the ball and give it to a team mate on the fly. That team mate on the fly then has a full house to aim at.

 

[mcleod at 50 lines it up]

Goes back to the club mandate to not genuinely rebuild surely, literally no coach since shaw and blight have looked to develop, same thing happens with the tall forwards they get their sanfl stint rather than being used down back, and justin reid declared the rebuild over and nicks is coaching for his life so its not likely to change any time soon

 

[Cromulant]

I've always thought half forward as the least accountable and most creative position on the ground. It's the building block that swings momentum, creates space, creates havoc and requires a deep understanding of dynamic play state.
It's why Dawson, Rankine, Rachele types should play the half forward roles. For mine Draper would be better utilized by being given a specific role following the oppositions small mids, with simple instructions to follow them around and then beat them to the ball and give it to a team mate on the fly. That team mate on the fly then has a full house to aim at.

Dawson is a half back, not a forward

 

[MRB37]

Some of our early midfield picks
Pedlar, Jones, McHenry, Berry and Shoenberg
Some showed potential early on and then wither on the vine
Is it recruiting or development ?
Lets hope Draper lives up to the hype

I think we often struggle to give players "The leap". Berry, Pedlar, all spent time "learning/developing" in that half-forward role and we then go "Well, I guess they're half-forwards now, we don't have any midfield spots for them!"

Heck, even if you're just going by CBA numbers, a guy we recruited like James Peatling has struggled to be given consistent minutes there. He started off OK, then North, GC and Geelong he's back down to 24%. We have a clear preference for Crouch, Dawson and Soligo, then Rankine is next off the line and anything left over may go to Peatling.

The problem there is we could move Dawson to accommodate someone else, he could play wing/hb and still be elite there. We could keep Rankine up forward more and he'd be elite there, that would allow us to rotate more and develop quicker, but we flat out refuse to do it. About the only good thing we've done the last few years is move Laird out to put Soligo in.

 

[Scorpus]

To be even fairer, it's not like we've drafted All Australians anywhere else either.

Our All Australian selections since 2016 who we drafted, and their draft years:

Rory Sloane- 2008
Rory Laird- 2011 (rookie)
Matt Crouch - 2013
Taylor Walker - 2007.

That's it.

We haven't drafted an All Australian in the last 12 years. Even the Kangaroos have done better.

Of course if I'm discounting All Australians we didn't draft, then we did draft Danger, but that was like 18 years ago.

The last All Australian player we drafted was Jake Lever more than a decade ago

 

[hugecannon]

I think we often struggle to give players "The leap". Berry, Pedlar, all spent time "learning/developing" in that half-forward role and we then go "Well, I guess they're half-forwards now, we don't have any midfield spots for them!"

Heck, even if you're just going by CBA numbers, a guy we recruited like James Peatling has struggled to be given consistent minutes there. He started off OK, then North, GC and Geelong he's back down to 24%. We have a clear preference for Crouch, Dawson and Soligo, then Rankine is next off the line and anything left over may go to Peatling.

The problem there is we could move Dawson to accommodate someone else, he could play wing/hb and still be elite there. We could keep Rankine up forward more and he'd be elite there, that would allow us to rotate more and develop quicker, but we flat out refuse to do it. About the only good thing we've done the last few years is move Laird out to put Soligo in.

Yeah the players who have a genuine ability to play another role at a potential high level don’t get rotated regularly, whereas the players who don’t get largely pigeonholed.

Dawson - only midfield/forward now should be more wing/HB
Rankine - rarely seems to play forward ATM should be 50/50
Crouch - cant play outside the middle
Peatling - mostly HF pushing up to the midfield

The list goes on and on

 

[IntheSticks]

Some of our early midfield picks
Pedlar, Jones, McHenry, Berry and Shoenberg
Some showed potential early on and then wither on the vine
Is it recruiting or development ?
Lets hope Draper lives up to the hype

Adelaide football club has a lot to answer for, these young players have been in and out of the Sanfl and not developed properly since they were drafted. We continue to reward the same players we've been trying to phase out, hence a rebuild. Instead of sticking with the young talent we have we just chuck them back in the Sanfl when they have an average game or two.
The club will find itself in strife when a heap of the younger players leave the club and all that's left is the older players coming to the end of their careers.
Our midfield was exposed by Freo, a young fast outfit that made us look like b graders.
Unfortunately Dawson is slowing down , disposals have been average but where his demotion to Sanfl ( couldn't possibly do that) , ben keays looks like he's in panic mode whenever he's near the ball, Rory laird has been great but it's time to pass the torch , let the young talent come in and get games in. Matt crouch isn't up with it anymore , he's too slow. This could be Tex's last year so that's another we need to think about replacing full time.
Brodie Smith is at the end of his career , Riley obrien has been up and down , Matthew Nicks isn't consistent and makes some really questionable choices for selection and strategies on game day.

 

[maxlilly]

Adelaide football club has a lot to answer for, these young players have been in and out of the Sanfl and not developed properly since they were drafted. We continue to reward the same players we've been trying to phase out, hence a rebuild. Instead of sticking with the young talent we have we just chuck them back in the Sanfl when they have an average game or two.
The club will find itself in strife when a heap of the younger players leave the club and all that's left is the older players coming to the end of their careers.
Our midfield was exposed by Freo, a young fast outfit that made us look like b graders.
Unfortunately Dawson is slowing down , disposals have been average but where his demotion to Sanfl ( couldn't possibly do that) , ben keays looks like he's in panic mode whenever he's near the ball, Rory laird has been great but it's time to pass the torch , let the young talent come in and get games in. Matt crouch isn't up with it anymore , he's too slow. This could be Tex's last year so that's another we need to think about replacing full time.
Brodie Smith is at the end of his career , Riley obrien has been up and down , Matthew Nicks isn't consistent and makes some really questionable choices for selection and strategies on game day.

Nicks has really struggled to develop players and especially the midfield.
And as you point out, plenty of old guys that are close to the finish that Nicks is trying to get every last drop out of.
We are never going to be contenders with hardly any elite midfielders

 

[dogs105]

Sack Nicks

 

[IntheSticks]

Nicks has really struggled to develop players and especially the midfield.
And as you point out, plenty of old guys that are close to the finish that Nicks is trying to get every last drop out of.
We are never going to be contenders with hardly any elite midfielders

There's a number of guys that have lost confidence in themselves, the younger players have shown some elite skill and determination but have had the confidence knocked right out of them. In what other club would you have matt crouch in over Sam berry, Luke pedlar or Harry Schoenberg ? Do we not remember how we went through a supposed rebuild and decided to rotate the young draftees in , phase the older players out and focus on development and not worry about win/ loss stat's?

Now the club has gone back to its old ways and leaving the future talent waste away in the sanfl . A lot of these guys have played a number of Afl games and were considered Afl standard, so being thrown back in the 2s is more of a punishment than anything else. I feel for these guys, some of them must well and truly be over it.