Toast The young midfield brigade

[Kong]

Melksham, Heppell, Zaharakis, Howlett all stood up tonight against a much more mature midfield unit, and came out on top.

Melksham played his best game to date, and for most, would rival only Heppell and Howlett as best on ground.

Add Watson upon return, and Hocking who's just a reliable beast, and the future looks bright.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Funny, last week our midfield was a bunch of plodders and going nowhere kids who were too reliant on Jobe to even function.

It's going to be a joy to watch this young brigade grow up with each other. If at least two players in that group turn into stars (Heppell and Zaharakis look poised to do it, Melksham too) then we'll be in a great position.

Add them to Hocking, Jobe and Stanton and our midfield doesn't look too bad for the future. If we can secure one more promising kid in there via the draft or even land a young 'big fish', I've got no doubt one of our biggest weaknesses (currently) will turn into our biggest asset.

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

Were great tonight.

The test will be when Watson returns, and whether they'll leave it to him again or carry their load.

 

[ghostdog]

...enter JD.

 

[Synth]

t's going to be a joy to watch this young brigade grow up with each other.

This I think is the key.

As these boys play more and more games with each other, learn the nuances of each other, we could have a solid midfield.

 

[Duckworth]

This was the best game I've seen Prismal play for a while. I know he's not too popular around here, but looked ok tonight.

 

[ajam87]

Just an Awesome effort from the midfield!

Whoever was stating that Paddy is primarily a ruckman, is definately correct, how many hits to advantage did we see!

 

[Jesse Custer]

This was the best game I've seen Prismal play for a while. I know he's not too popular around here, but looked ok tonight.

Agree, like the others he has to keep it going now.

 

[BrunoV]

In some ways it has been a pretty pleasing three weeks. It has become clear, in Zaharakis, Melksham and Heppel, we have 3 future midfield guns with the pace, skill and ability to win their own ball required dominate games and reach A grade status.

Howlett was also excellent tonight and is certainly worth the midfield rotation.

 

[The Bomb]

In and Under mids
between Howlett and Hocking they had 52 poss, 21 contested, 22 tackles, 6 1%ers, 11 Clearances.
Hocking had 25 poss at 92% Efficiency
Howlett 70% eff

Geelongs in and Under Mids
between Chapman and Bartel they had 47 poss, 23 contested, 10 tackles, 2 1%ers, 9 Clearances.
Chap 64% eff / Bartel 63 % eff
Ling went at 38% eff

This is such a key for us going forward, Chapman had a fantastic game, Bartel was pretty good, But our no names broke even, if not slightly in front, Hocking and Howlett's Tackling around the contest caused little time for the 2 Geelong stars, which in turn resulted in low efficiency.



another Big Big positive going forward is Contested possessions, today without Watson and Lonergan we had Howlett 13, Stanton 13, Melksham 12, Heppell 10, Hocking 8 just from our midfielders, Best in a while.
Only Hocking and Howlett from our midfield tonight average over 10 contested poss, yet we had 4 different players chip in.

Melksham averages 1.7 Clearances a game, tonight got 8 , with the bigger frame Bomber Thompson wants our player to have, he could end up being pretty special.

 

[SirJimi05]

Good thread!

It's gonna be great watching these kids develop. Melksham was so good tonight.

Howlett is just an absolute goer. How good was that smother in the dying moments tonight? Inspirational.

Colyer added the spark we need on the outside.

Even Reimers did a few good things. He didn't get to much of it but you could see his workrate has improved. He just needs to keep playing that way.

So many positives.

 

[blitzer]

I see a real future for our young midfielders as a group. I think we actually have got the players on our list that will form the main part of our next serious challenge, its just a case of developing them further. Heppell, Zaharakis, Melksham, Howlett, Hocking, Watson will all be here for years yet and I'm thinking it will be a bright time. I must confess my personal favourite is Zaharakis, even though I don't think he will end up the best of the lot (reckon that will be Heppell), but I just love the passion and the energy he plays with.