Luke Tapscott - inside mid?

[Grimseyisgod 378]

dont move Tappy.

Could be a curse. When you have a good thing going for you, no need to change it

[dee-luded 2,959]

dont move Tappy.

Could be a curse. When you have a good thing going for you, no need to change it

R U Jaded's twin ?

super stitchen becomes you.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,239]

I suggested tappy as a midfielder some time ago. There are engine questions of course. However, apart from Nathan Jones ( A MFC hero if ever there was one) we lack credibility in the midfield. Rotate him in there just to run at the ball and shake things up.

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

We were a minus 2 differential in the clearances against Carlton (who are supposedly a gun midfield), how is that getting smashed?

Which part of it is improving slowly don't some posters get, and one other point Brian Royal actually stated on the chat last night "I would like one more quality midfielder", so even he agees with what some on here continually harp on about

You need much more than one game to be reading anything into a stat Satyr. Most data firms worth their salt wont carry out any comparative with under 5 games of data (at least). In addition the "Clearances" stat you refer to can be very misleading. A more telling stat for this type of indicator would be "Effective Clearances" if it were freely available

If you were thinking of using "Clearances" as a demonstration of where your team is at in the mid field then think again.

The Demons are ranked 17th after 6 rounds. Yet guess who sits below us in 18th spot! You'd never guess....the Mighty Cats!! Yep. They're worse than us in that particular stat. And the Pies.....16th and Carlton 10th. And i'm pretty sure most pundits would rank the Cats mid field alot higher than us at present.

A somewhat more telling stat in this area is (IMO) "Effective Disposals" which, as you would no doubt already know, is an indicator of how well you are using the ball when you do get it, ie., a reasonable indicator of ball usage & skills.

On that stat you have the following results after 6 rounds of data......

1. Essendon

2. Geelong

3. Hawthorn

4. Port

5. North

6. Collingwood

7. Sydney

8. Richmond

9. Carlton

10. Brisbane

11. St Kilda

12. Gold Coast

13. West Coast

14. Bulldogs

15. GWS

16. Adelaide

17. Freemantle

18. Melbourne

[old dee 23,788]

Rusty that says it all and confirms for me that we have a poor list.

i.e. most of our team do not have the required skill level necessary to be good AFL players

[Demon Dynasty 17,109]

Rusty that says it all and confirms for me that we have a poor list.

i.e. most of our team do not have the required skill level necessary to be good AFL players

That's a given i think OD. No arguments there.

As to whether it's the worst list going around i guess we'll find out by about round 12 or so but i'm hoping the injection (yeah i love that term atm lol) of Dawes and hopefully the return of Grimes and Clark at some point will bolster our overall stocks and quality across the ground and place us just ahead of the 2 start up clubs. Maybe even the Doggies!

We're living through the worst of the worst both off and on the field leadership wise that i can remember OD.

About the only exciting thing happening this year that i can grasp hold of would be the speckies and form of Howe (apart from last week), the continual dogged efforts of Jones, the development of Evans who's starting to show some indications that we might have finally found a decent outside mid, Terlich's early efforts and the good form (so far) of Garland. I like Tappy's heavy hitting too and hope he keeps it up lol.

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

Anyone who says this kid hasn't improved this year is kidding themselves:

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2013-05-10/luke-tapscott-highlights

[Redleg 40,905]

Interesting the way certain players are pigeon holed.

I always thought Stevie J was an opportunist goal sneak. He now plays in the middle and had 36 possies last night against the Dons. He is doing well as a mid.

Maybe Tappy or other players on our list could be given some time in the middle. It is the way to find out if they can play there.

[Nasher 33,615]

Interesting the way certain players are pigeon holed.

I always thought Stevie J was an opportunist goal sneak. He now plays in the middle and had 36 possies last night against the Dons. He is doing well as a mid.

Maybe Tappy or other players on our list could be given some time in the middle. It is the way to find out if they can play there.

Redleg, I'm not sure we need to give Tapscott time in the middle to know whether or not he's got the tank to do it, and I think it would be an emphatic "no". The centre square is one thing, but there's a need to make it from contest to contest all over the ground, and I don't think he's up to it. Can you imagine him contesting in the centre square, then a few minutes later contesting in the forward 50, then a few minutes later contesting in the back 50? Additionally, his biggest strength is using his wrecking ball body in high-speed contests; I don't think he'd have the same impact as an inside mid.

I think as his fitness improves there's merit in very short rotations through the middle, but I don't reckon Tapscott has a future as a midfielder. He's started to find his feet as a forward, so I'd stick with that.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

I don't think it's any secret that Tappy improved as soon as Mrs Robbie became his sponsor, he wouldn't dare not play well and let her down.

[Ron Burgundy 8,584]

Agreed. People who suggest he hasn't improved need to get off the magic mushys.

I thought that no one had improved under Neeld.

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

I thought that no one had improved under Neeld.

i never said that. I'm a Neeld believer.

[Ted Lasso 19,513]

Neelds program is getting alot our of some of these guys, others may have been abit lazy and that's probably why they are no longer with us,

Tapscott is hard and tough, and he has a red hot crack and for me that's all anyone could ask of a player in a struggling team

[Je Roos Salem 661]

Get him in to more contests where he can use his physicality. His biggest asset. At least he makes other players work hard for the ball.

[DemonDave 1,089]

He's averaging 11 1/2 posessions and 1 1/2 tackles a game this year, that may be an improvement on his sporadic appearances in the past couple of years (at least he has strung a

few together this year in a row), but they're hardly earth shattering, supercoach-trembling numbers. And thats our problem, too many of our players are averaging similar numbers

this year and we end up with 100 less posessions than teams most weeks.

The comparisons that were once made to Paul Chapman should probably now be moved to Campbell Brown. Big bodied who likes the tough stuff more than most, but largely an

ineffectual foil for the real forwards.

[bing181 9,219]

I don't think it's any secret that Tappy improved as soon as Mrs Robbie became his sponsor, he wouldn't dare not play well and let her down.

Any chance of her sponsoring a few other players as well?

[Dee Fan 3,247]

Any chance of her sponsoring a few other players as well?

I'll have a word with her but I think most are now taken.

Maybe she could look at Fitzy, I think he might be available and it would be good if a bit of the Mrs Robbie determination rubbed off on him.

[demonchris 162]

Not sure he has enough pace or agility. He's just starting to settle in at half forward and is playing some good footy so I don't think we should mess around with him again just yet.

Exactly my thinking.

[demonchris 162]

He's averaging 11 1/2 posessions and 1 1/2 tackles a game this year, that may be an improvement on his sporadic appearances in the past couple of years (at least he has strung a

few together this year in a row), but they're hardly earth shattering, supercoach-trembling numbers. And thats our problem, too many of our players are averaging similar numbers

this year and we end up with 100 less posessions than teams most weeks.

The comparisons that were once made to Paul Chapman should probably now be moved to Campbell Brown. Big bodied who likes the tough stuff more than most, but largely an

ineffectual foil for the real forwards.

Campbell Brown was an All Australian...