West Coast's plodder midfield - will it work?

[Bokonon_]

I think people get confused with straight line 100m dash type speed and speed off the mark with amazing lateral movement that throws off the opposition. That's what Mitchell has in spades. So he's actually quick, just not in the traditional sprinter way.

I think speed is complicated. It's what you said and it's also the ability to size up the situation and react quickly to sieze opportunities in disposal.
It's great to watch a WHE running hard down the wing and kicking a goal from the 50 but that's not the whole story.

 

[Scotland]

We're a decent team. Grand Finalists in 2015, finalists last year. A lot of people have us in their top 8 in the pre-season ladder predictors. We've got a potent forward line and a good defence, but the midfield has been our weakest area for a decade.

As we know Naitanui is probably out for the whole season so we have lost our competitive advantage in the ruck, and the ruck load will be shared by Lycett/Petrie/Vardy, none of whom are likely to threaten for AA ruck honours. We've added Mitchell so now have two Brownlow Medal winning mids in their 30s, both of whom would lose a foot race to the coach. 2018 is a different ball game as Naitanui will be back and perhaps Mitchell and/or Priddis will be gone.

Midfield rotation: Mitchell, Gaff, Sheed, Yeo, Masten, Redden, Priddis, Shuey, Duggan, Jetta, Hutchings.

Yeo (flaky, more of a flanker), Jetta (pace to burn but barely touched the ball in 2016) and Shuey are the only ones with any real pace. Even our more outside players like Masten and Gaff who get a ton of it aren't all that quick. Mitchell/Priddis/Sheed/Redden/Hutchings is a bit samey.

I'd expect us to line up with Wellingham, Schofield and Sheppard in defence, and Cripps and Hill forward. There's pace in those areas, and our tall forwards and defenders are fast for their size. Hurn is another one paced player but moves the ball quickly by foot.

Is this the sort of midfield group that's capable of matching it with the flag contenders? Is there enough pace and quality across the ground to make up for the one pace nature in the centre?

Lock in "(a) No", thanks Ed.

Yeo has elevated his game, but we move him around from midfield to HB to midfield like a dyke with many holes and one plug.

Jetta and Redden have improved on 2016, but not enough to make a difference. Priddis has fallen off a cliff, Masten has been dropped. Hutchings is carving out a niche as a tagger and has claimed a few scalps. That's a win/win as we have enough similar players in the mix and no one else was doing it.

Vardy has tried hard but regularly gets pantsed by the better ruckmen. Ditto Petrie who is backing him up. They give us a bit around the ground and suit our 'kick it long to a contest' game plan, but we get murdered at centre bounces.

Defensive pressure across the ground is non-existent. I'm sure David King has a stat for that. Opposition sides just have their half back line run off the square time and again and our 'web' just looks like a dozen blokes standing still. Mostly because it is.

 

[Scotland]

Dead cat bounce in Rd 23 and the EF, but it's still a consensus no. The SF to loss highlighted the gaping holes in our side that exist when we don't win the centre clearances. Which is most of the time.

Pleasingly, the coaching staff at least seem to realise that it didn't and doesn't work. With both our ruckmen out for a year the one year gamble on Mitchell as a player was fine, but in the context of his 16 seasons his 2017 performance will probably rank about 11 or 12. He was good, but not at his peak by any means. Props for playing 22 of 24 games at 35, though. He is remarkably durable.

Will be interesting to see what happens over the trade period and pre-season. Priddis and Mitchell are goneski, so two midfield spots are open. Masten played 3 games the second half of the year and is clearly on the outer. Will we develop an obsession with pace? An obsession with good ball users? I read (on here) that we are into Hartung. Cleaning vomit out of a keyboard is difficult.

 

[Kwality]

Hard to see Hartung being any more successful then Jetta or Redden.

 

[Righteo]

Leg speed is an overated commodity imo. Sure its handy to have and you don't want to be super slow all over the ground but a football can move about 10 times faster than the quickest player so personally id take slick skills over pace every time.

Skill > Pace

Don't need fast players to move the ball quickly

And chasing when they don't have the ball?

I know this looks like a pretty gratuitous if not self-fellating bump, but I was totally miffed at how virtually nobody else earlier in the thread even mentioned the other side of the equation when looking at pace. Yes, efficient ball movement via quick decision making and execution of skills is more important than simple raw pace - the problem is that you're not always going to have the ball...

like it or not but two-way runners with some toe are most definitely a requirement in modern footy, and it's something that's most evident when coming up against a supercharged midfield like GWS'. You just can't carry too many one-paced mids these days because eventually you're going to be burned the other way.

 

[HumanMeatball]

Hartung is a cat

 

[Scotland]

Self-fellating bumps are the best bumps.

 

[Marc_Remillard]

I know this looks like a pretty gratuitous if not self-fellating bump, but I was totally miffed at how virtually nobody else earlier in the thread even mentioned the other side of the equation when looking at pace. Yes, efficient ball movement via quick decision making and execution of skills is more important than simple raw pace - the problem is that you're not always going to have the ball...

like it or not but two-way runners with some toe are most definitely a requirement in modern footy, and it's something that's most evident when coming up against a supercharged midfield like GWS'. You just can't carry too many one-paced mids these days because eventually you're going to be burned the other way.

That's when the structure of the team is very important, also gut running is more valuable that top speed pace. It's all about getting numbers to the contest, the players who run and run and run are way more valuable than a top speed athlete who doesn't have the stamina.

 

[King Brown]

People forget how plodding Hawks were until they added Smith and Hill.

I remember Fremantle absolutely stomping them in a final because Stephen Hill and Morabito ran riot.

Pace isn't everything, but if you lack it you'll be blown away on the spread from midfield no matter how good your ball use is.