Woosha

[Smeg Head]

Didn't we lose Kerr early that day too?

Went in unfit didn't he with a broken bone in his foot and a painkiller jab pre game?

 

[Broken_Chairs]

Have heard Kerr is being talked into retirement but he wants to hang around for the last year of his contract

i still think kerr has value, even injured/crippled his disposal and decision making is leagues ahead of our other midfielders.

though i'm wondering whether we want to move him on to free up some space in the salary cap - maybe making an offer to a big player?

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Adam Selwood? I think the MC finally have worked out your point as he hasn't played for a few weeks now. Hopefully beyond a farewell game we don't see him again.

Well they took their merry fvcken time

 

[the harry]

i still think kerr has value, even injured/crippled his disposal and decision making is leagues ahead of our other midfielders.

though i'm wondering whether we want to move him on to free up some space in the salary cap - maybe making an offer to a big player?

We'd have to pay him out and that would could in the cap (I'm pretty sure anyway). But more room on the list can't hurt. Kerr hasn't trained much over the last pre season or between games because of injury so leadership off field is moot really and it doesn't sound like his knee will let him play that much, so onfield performance is not going to be significant either. At least a 4th round pick has a chance of doing something.

 

[Broken_Chairs]

We'd have to pay him out and that would could in the cap (I'm pretty sure anyway).

ah! i just assumed paying him out wouldn't be included in the cap. bummer, that seems fairly harsh on clubs if correct.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Went in unfit didn't he with a broken bone in his foot and a painkiller jab pre game?

If you watch 05 again when he was on the ground we dominated. When he was off getting medical treatment for long periods of time Sydney got on top of us.

 

[Dark Sharks]

If you watch 05 again when he was on the ground we dominated. When he was off getting medical treatment for long periods of time Sydney got on top of us.

Exactly, he hurt his foot and got benched and then we basically lost the game.

 

[Chris_6678]

Kerr is not being made to retire he is being asked to end his year to get ready for next year but he wants to keep playing the year out and thinks he can still contribute.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

He's worth far more to us than anyone else.

Not as much as a decent midfield player would be.

 

[larrikin]

Not as much as a decent midfield player would be.

My point is, we wouldn't get a decent midfielder for him.

It's a moot point, he won't be traded, and we are getting a bit off topic here

 

[purplefrog]

For any of you that watched North's win tonight....

Care to reflect on exactly how much our midfield stinks? It clearly pinpoints that Priddis has no place in our team.

As an outsider looking in, I mentioned it on your board early in the year when you were touted as Premiership prospects.
You guys have a good backline, a couple of excellent tall forwards and a good strong club culture all the makings for a top 4 team. BUT your midfield would rank in the bottom 6.
Not sure what the quick fix is as it is not easy to simply import a full midfield from somewhere and to build one from drafting youngsters takes time.
Wellingham and Shuey are a good start Masten has improved and maybe another 3 or 4 big bodied quality mids would complete the package. Question is where do you find them?

 

[Avalor]

For any of you that watched North's win tonight....

Care to reflect on exactly how much our midfield stinks? It clearly pinpoints that Priddis has no place in our team.

It was a great game,and North have a good midfield ready to step up again in 2014.Really would have liked to have gotten Black. Harvey is still a dirty little prick though!

 

[the harry]

As an outsider looking in, I mentioned it on your board early in the year when you were touted as Premiership prospects.
You guys have a good backline, a couple of excellent tall forwards and a good strong club culture all the makings for a top 4 team. BUT your midfield would rank in the bottom 6.
Not sure what the quick fix is as it is not easy to simply import a full midfield from somewhere and to build one from drafting youngsters takes time.
Wellingham and Shuey are a good start Masten has improved and maybe another 3 or 4 big bodied quality mids would complete the package. Question is where do you find them?

The draft. Might seem like a smart arse answer, but I wouldn't think we'd trade too many in, as any that are better than average cost a fair bit. We are likely to have 2 top 25 picks, have our kpp pretty much covered (Brown is signed up), and this draft is said to be pretty strong on the midfield front. Obviously it's unlikely they'll come in first year and play every game, but if we could get a couple of decent prospects (we could dream of an Ollie Wines) we could ideally have them with Cripps, Newman (yeah it's a strech), Wellingham, Shuey, Masten, Gaff, Hutch, Scooter, and maybe Carter in the post Kerr/Priddis era.

It's not gold standard, but it has potential to be significantly better than we have been able to field this season.

 

[kane249]

It was a great game,and North have a good midfield ready to step up again in 2014.Really would have liked to have gotten Black. Harvey is still a dirty little prick though!

Sliding doors, but if we had drafted Black we might have passed on Darling the following year.

 

[purplefrog]

The draft. Might seem like a smart arse answer, but I wouldn't think we'd trade too many in, as any that are better than average cost a fair bit. We are likely to have 2 top 25 picks, have our kpp pretty much covered (Brown is signed up), and this draft is said to be pretty strong on the midfield front. Obviously it's unlikely they'll come in first year and play every game, but if we could get a couple of decent prospects (we could dream of an Ollie Wines) we could ideally have them with Cripps, Newman (yeah it's a strech), Wellingham, Shuey, Masten, Gaff, Hutch, Scooter, and maybe Carter in the post Kerr/Priddis era.

It's not gold standard, but it has potential to be significantly better than we have been able to field this season.

Success sometimes can be achieved by converting what you already have.
Can Hurn or Lecras be converted to midfielders?
I could be wrong but I think Ablett when he first started was a forward pocket/ half forward before going into the midfield and Mundy was a half back with no one ever predicting him as a mid fielder.

 

[the harry]

Success sometimes can be achieved by converting what you already have.
Can Hurn or Lecras be converted to midfielders?
I could be wrong but I think Ablett when he first started was a forward pocket/ half forward before going into the midfield and Mundy was a half back with no one ever predicting him as a mid fielder.

Nah, Hurn lacks agility and the tank to spend too much time there, could (and has a couple of times this season) pinch hit at the bounce, whereas Lecca is a defensive liability and not as clean by hand as we would really like.

Sheppard is the one who would be really handy if it all clicked, good skills and pace, just needs his body to get right, both in terms of injuries and strength.

 

[HungLong]

putting him in the midfield will give a lot of second thoughts to annoying people like Crowley;the smaller blokes will walk taller;he can kick long and accurately either at goal or to a leading forward;remember Byron Kickett??The big plus is that he is not trying to pinpoint somebody while under pressure in the backline.This bloke is a very smart footballer.Given the freedom to run amok in the midfield he could be a revelation;I distinctly remember him banging through a 60m goal whilst having a run in the middle last year.The big BIG plus is we dont have to sit through those death or glory; damn you Waters moments.Hes no left field pick.

I couldn't care less if waters never played for us again.
He is a liability with the ball. Watch the 2011 prelim v geelong again for proof.
Their game plan centred around giving beau the ball
Beau is NOT a smart footballer.

But yeah, getting off topic here. Beau in the midfield....just no. Darling on the other hand...

 

[Chris_6678]

Hurn is elite in his position in the backline and we really miss him and was good to see before his injury he was at center bounces to break a tag. If we try get his tank up he will end up slimming down and he no doubt will lose his best weapon.

 

[Broken_Chairs]

As an outsider looking in, I mentioned it on your board early in the year when you were touted as Premiership prospects.
You guys have a good backline, a couple of excellent tall forwards and a good strong club culture all the makings for a top 4 team. BUT your midfield would rank in the bottom 6.
Not sure what the quick fix is as it is not easy to simply import a full midfield from somewhere and to build one from drafting youngsters takes time.
Wellingham and Shuey are a good start Masten has improved and maybe another 3 or 4 big bodied quality mids would complete the package. Question is where do you find them?

yeah your not wrong, have had concerns over our midfield for some time now. i mean who the hell has two all australian ruckmen, dominate hitouts... but gets screwed in clearances?

though i think the base is OK. shuey, masten, wellingham, selwood and gaff are all very good, and i think can form the core of a top tier midfield. i think as little as one A-grade midfielder may be all we need, or at least 2-3 more very good ones. specifically we need big bodied players because we're far too small.

we need less soft, flashy outside mids and a couple more tough enforcers - which is why i think the team looks a lot better when mcginnity is around and selwood is playing a tagging role.

but most importantly we need to be more creative with our midfield set-ups. our gameplan and play-style reeks of stagnation and we're way too slow in making any meaningful changes.

 

[Broken_Chairs]

Success sometimes can be achieved by converting what you already have.
Can Hurn or Lecras be converted to midfielders?
I could be wrong but I think Ablett when he first started was a forward pocket/ half forward before going into the midfield and Mundy was a half back with no one ever predicting him as a mid fielder.

yeah we've tried lecras through the midfield, hasn't really worked out for us though which is a bummer.

Sheppard is the one who would be really handy if it all clicked, good skills and pace, just needs his body to get right, both in terms of injuries and strength.

don't know how i feel about shep, he just seems too small and soft. maybe if we can bulk him up and get some consistent games into him he'll come good, but thus far i haven't really been impressed by him at all and am pretty annoyed we blew a no.7 draft pick on him.

 

[Jackfrost]

Heard he enjoys the nectar of dead teammate's nectar…

 

[Eastern Rangers]

I couldn't care less if waters never played for us again.
He is a liability with the ball. Watch the 2011 prelim v geelong again for proof.
Their game plan centred around giving beau the ball
Beau is NOT a smart footballer.

But yeah, getting off topic here. Beau in the midfield....just no. Darling on the other hand...

I love you. I made a few enemies on this forum for calling that out on the day.

Beau was a hero for all his uncontested defensive marks, but he was rubbish with ball in hand.

 

[Definitely Maybe]

I love you. I made a few enemies on this forum for calling that out on the day.

Beau was a hero for all his uncontested defensive marks, but he was rubbish with ball in hand.

Agreed. The frustrating part this year to watching Waters was it was bad skills Beau after being pretty good by foot in 2012. Like most players, Beau seems to need a really solid pre season. That way he can play consistently and his skills improve as a result.

 

[WCEbrody]

He didn't exactly have players working into space to receive the ball in that prelim final, there was basically no run after half time..which isn't surprising given the game we played the week before.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Agreed. The frustrating part this year to watching Waters was it was bad skills Beau after being pretty good by foot in 2012. Like most players, Beau seems to need a really solid pre season. That way he can play consistently and his skills improve as a result.

The biggest difference between 2011 and 2012 was his depth and penetration. Which could be down to fitness and conditioning.