Isn't it time to back our football department in the midfield?

[CBDees 3,162]

Each year we lament that we would have done better if only we had a better midfield [like the other 17 Clubs]. We look at them in envy and make suggestions who our football/recruiting department should pick-up or poach from the other Clubs during the trading period. Names like Sloane, Dangerfield, Stevens, Rich keep cropping up [as does the seemingly over-abundance at GWS and the Suns]. We envied Collingwood all those years with Beams, Swan, Shaw, Pendelbury etc.

Most Demonlanders cannot change their thinking about trade being the only option for us and it seems that a strong midfield is a mirage that that will never become a reality. I feel that, given our drafting of the last two seasons, we should dismiss this entrenched view and have faith in our new look coaching and development start and the nucleus that they have so skillfully assembled.

The relaity is, with the recruitment of Petracca, Brayshaw, Neale-Bullen, Salem, Viney, Toumpas, Kent and Tyson, we already have the potential to mould an elite midfield from within which will serve us well for the next decade. N. Jones, Cross, Vince, Newton, [a returning] Trengove, Mitchie, Riley and Bail are already there to lead by example and Stretch, JKH and Hunt also will make valuable contributions further down the track. M. Jones and Mckenzie are also there as back-up should we have a massive run of injuries or a specific [tagging?] need.

With Goodwin, Mathews and McCartney on board, a closer synergy with Casey and a healthy dose of self-belief, I believe that our midfield will be the one which is the yardstick for the AFL, rather than the reverse.

Edited November 30, 2014 by CBDees

[Bitter but optimistic 21,232]

Just not yet CB.

[Port Demons 124]

CB , couldn't agree more.

It gets a bit tired the same old drag that goes on in here (as much as I still return daily to read it).

Seems as if people here can't see how good the nucleus of our coaching department and draftees over the last two years have become.

Its a real shame.

Yet for the sake of comfort rather than acceptance, they return to the same lines of days past and keep putting everything down.

Successful clubs have good development structures.

Successful clubs don't throw their young recruits straight in so as to learn their craft before their shot at the big time.

We for so long haven't had that luxury.

Now we have worked towards building this at MFC........ FFS can people take some time and allow it to unfold and get excited please!

This will lead to sustained success.

[Ron Burgundy 8,584]

Much depends on how Petracca and Brayshaw will turn out, but it seems that this draft period has finally given us the depth of quality we need to build an elite midfield.

Prior to this we had too many VFL standard mids, and not enough elite, or potentially elite, AFL mids.

I think that has now been remedied.

[jabberwocky 2,301]

I think we need more experience in the midfield.

A midfield that inlcludes Roos, Goodwin and Mahoney sounds pretty good.

[Jarka 767]

I think that we now have the makings of a midfield capable of getting us into finals however we should always be looking at improving it either via trade, F/A or the draft.

[Goodvibes 3,596]

It seems like a great many of us were blue sky junkies for quite a few years there and the defection of Scully and the injury to Trengove and the disappointment surrounding Watts, Blease, Strauss, Tapscott and Cook meant that when we came down, we came down hard. We re-surfaced from rehab with a cynical new approach and a pragmatism that highlighted the need to be competitive with re-cycled players. Our premiership plans were shelved and our desire to simply survive kicked in. Now, there's a new sense of optimism in the air. I hope the new drugs are better than the old [censored].

[Webber 10,006]

Agree. Exciting midfield times ahead, emphasis on time, tick tick tick. Once again however we see the relegation of Matt Jones to the 'back-up' or unlikely to get a gig once the 'real' midfield kicks in. Like it or not, he's going to be hard to shift from our midfield, because, a little like Dan Cross, he's not that pretty, but plays his role and plays it well.

[rpfc 27,429]

It's going to take years for the last two drafts to reveal themselves, getting frustrated with an opinion of reality is pointless - how we perform next year will prove me, and others, wrong if we begin to be a median team in crucial midfield statistics that usually dictates who wins.

But I don't see it happening in 2015 (or even 2016); you can't expect a bunch of kids to take on the load of seasoned professionals.

Dom Tyson exploded for us last year, in his third year in the AFL...

[Slartibartfast 15,754]

Each year we lament that we would have done better if only we had a better midfield [like the other 17 Clubs]. We look at them we envy and make suggestions who our football/recruiting department should pick-up or poach from the other Clubs during the trading period. Names like Sloane, Dangerfield, Stevens, Rich keep cropping up [as does the seemingly over-abundance at GWS and the Suns]. We envied Collingwood all those years with Beams, Swan, Shaw, Pendelbury etc.

Most Demonlanders cannot change their thinking about trade being the only option for us and it seems that a strong midfield is a mirage that that will never become a reality. I feel that, given our drafting of the last two seasons, we should dismiss this entrenshed view and have faith in our new loo coaching and development start and the nucleus that they have so skillfully assembled.

The relaity is, with the recruitment of Petracca, Brayshaw, Neale-Bullen, Salem, Viney, Toumpas, Kent and Tyson, we already have the potential to mould an elite midfield from within which will serve us well for the next decade. N. Jones, Cross, Vince, Newton, [a returning] Trengove, Mitchie, Riley and Bail are already there to lead by example and Stretch, JKH and Hunt also will make valuable contributions further down the track. M. Jones and Mckenzie are also there as back-up should we have a massive run of injuries or a specific [tagging?] need.

With Goodwin, Mathews and McCartney on board, a closer synergy with Casey and a healthy dose of self-belief, I believe that our midfield will be the one which is the yardstick for the AFL, rather than the reverse.

It's not just trading and it's not just drafting.

Hale, Gunston, McEvoy, Gibson, Burgoyne, Lake and Spanger - all traded in. All in the Premiership team. Ceglar and Simpkin made significant contributions. 9 players in Hawks best 25? And they've just got Frawley and O'Rourke.

Do both, make good decisions, get value for money. Don't ignore one for the other.

I think we've done that in the last few years.

[Goodvibes 3,596]

It's going to take years for the last two drafts to reveal themselves, getting frustrated with an opinion of reality is pointless - how we perform next year will prove me, and others, wrong if we begin to be a median team in crucial midfield statistics that usually dictates who wins.

But I don't see it happening in 2015 (or even 2016); you can't expect a bunch of kids to take on the load of seasoned professionals.

Dom Tyson exploded for us last year, in his third year in the AFL...

You're right and that's why if Kent, Viney and Toumpas can take significant strides next year we'll be looking good. If one of Brayshaw/Petracca could do a Joel Selwood next year then we might be able to fast track things a little. Let's hope we don't have to wait as long with our next generation as we did with Dunn!

[CBDees 3,162]

It's not just trading and it's not just drafting.

Hale, Gunston, McEvoy, Gibson, Burgoyne, Lake and Spanger - all traded in. All in the Premiership team. Ceglar and Simpkin made significant contributions. 9 players in Hawks best 25? And they've just got Frawley and O'Rourke.

Do both, make good decisions, get value for money. Don't ignore one for the other.

I think we've done that in the last few years.

You will get no argument from me on the balance of trade and drafting as all teams need both [even Hawthorn]. The upside is that we did exceptionally well in both of these in the last month and we will see improvements in all areas of the ground.

[jnrmac 18,943]

We have all been here before. We have been kicked in the guts too many times.

Supporters are sick of 'this time its different' and want to see real evidence on the field before getting too excited.

As for building a midfield, many on here have been banging on about our midfield of the past 7 yrs. It has been the worst in the league and we failed to recruit mids when given the opportunity despite it being our most glaring weakness. And when we did recruit mids we consistently recruited 'athletes' not pure ball winning footballers - nearly all of those have failed to give us a competitive midfield/team.

SO yeah its looking promising but I'm not investing too much emotion until they turn it around where it counts.

[What 18,810]

We had 5 AFL standard midfielders last season which is just mind bogglingly bad. (Although better than the season before).

Viney, Cross, Jones, Vince, Tyson ... our 6th best midfielder was Rohan Bail.

Thats the main reason we were still ordinary. Its not that we lacked stars, its that we only had half a midfield.

Our midfield depth was absolutely non existent - thankfully that now looks to have been improved a fair bit, which alone has to be worth an extra 3-4 wins,

[McQueen 17,862]

I think we need more experience in the midfield.

A midfield that inlcludes Roos, Goodwin and Mahoney sounds pretty good.

Lol.

That's how I interpreted the title.

Pity George Stone has retired. So many games experience there...

[P-man 13,168]

Most Demonlanders cannot change their thinking about trade being the only option for us and it seems that a strong midfield is a mirage that that will never become a reality. I feel that, given our drafting of the last two seasons, we should dismiss this entrenshed view and have faith in our new loo coaching and development start and the nucleus that they have so skillfully assembled.

I don't count myself as one of those.

I understand the sense of urgency that this attitude stems from, but I'm willing to remain patient for what I think is a greater chance of the ultimate prize. It will always be a slim chance given the current gap between the haves and have nots, but if you examine what is arguably the best model of recent times in Geelong, the team was built around a core group of players who came through at the same time. I believe that a similar approach remains our best chance, which we have now established.

The reality is we are undertaking a third rebuild, however much Roos wants to avoid that term. Like most supporters, I'll truly believe this time is different when I see it on the field and on the scoreboard. But it does feel different when you look at the TYPES of players we are drafting, and I'm going to back in the coaching staff to extract the best out of them. Given we don't have the wealth of senior players that other clubs do, the role of the coaches is absolutely vital. Fortunately, we have some of the best in the league.

2015 will be another bumpy road, but it will also throw up a few pleasant surprises and glimpses of what I'm starting to think is a very promising future.

Edited November 30, 2014 by P-man

[Barney Rubble 1,576]

The thing that has killed us for years, has been the lack of confidence.

Have we rid ourselves of the c grade players that caused the problem.

I believe we have purged enough of the dead wood.

These good young kids only know one thing. Winning is all that matters.

We may need 1 experienced mid fielder when Crossy Calls it quits.

[old dee 22,843]

We have all been here before. We have been kicked in the guts too many times.

Supporters are sick of 'this time its different' and want to see real evidence on the field before getting too excited.

As for building a midfield, many on here have been banging on about our midfield of the past 7 yrs. It has been the worst in the league and we failed to recruit mids when given the opportunity despite it being our most glaring weakness. And when we did recruit mids we consistently recruited 'athletes' not pure ball winning footballers - nearly all of those have failed to give us a competitive midfield/team.

SO yeah its looking promising but I'm not investing too much emotion until they turn it around where it counts.

Amen Jnr.

[obbafan 128]

It seems like a great many of us were blue sky junkies for quite a few years there and the defection of Scully and the injury to Trengove and the disappointment surrounding Watts, Blease, Strauss, Tapscott and Cook meant that when we came down, we came down hard. We re-surfaced from rehab with a cynical new approach and a pragmatism that highlighted the need to be competitive with re-cycled players. Our premiership plans were shelved and our desire to simply survive kicked in. Now, there's a new sense of optimism in the air. I hope the new drugs are better than the old [censored].

A bit like that shot full of holes crash and burn logo thing at the start of MFC site clips.

[dee-luded 2,958]

CB , couldn't agree more.

It gets a bit tired the same old drag that goes on in here (as much as I still return daily to read it).

Seems as if people here can't see how good the nucleus of our coaching department and draftees over the last two years have become.

Its a real shame.

Yet for the sake of comfort rather than acceptance, they return to the same lines of days past and keep putting everything down.

Successful clubs have good development structures.

Successful clubs don't throw their young recruits straight in so as to learn their craft before their shot at the big time.

We for so long haven't had that luxury.

Now we have worked towards building this at MFC........ FFS can people take some time and allow it to unfold and get excited please!

This will lead to sustained success.

It seems like a great many of us were blue sky junkies for quite a few years there and the defection of Scully and the injury to Trengove and the disappointment surrounding Watts, Blease, Strauss, Tapscott and Cook meant that when we came down, we came down hard. We re-surfaced from rehab with a cynical new approach and a pragmatism that highlighted the need to be competitive with re-cycled players. Our premiership plans were shelved and our desire to simply survive kicked in. Now, there's a new sense of optimism in the air. I hope the new drugs are better than the old [censored].

spot-on goodvibes, cynical is just it atmo... puddings not magic, but the tasting will be the proof of getting better.

[DeeSpencer 23,103]

Agree. Exciting midfield times ahead, emphasis on time, tick tick tick. Once again however we see the relegation of Matt Jones to the 'back-up' or unlikely to get a gig once the 'real' midfield kicks in. Like it or not, he's going to be hard to shift from our midfield, because, a little like Dan Cross, he's not that pretty, but plays his role and plays it well.

Disagree, because he butchers the ball. The better your team is the easier it is to be an outside midfielders and therefore unless he starts using the ball better he'll be shifted.

He's a very hard and smart runner. A natural at getting out in to space and on to the end of a chain of handballs or as an option for a kick. So that's made him useful. If we start consistently winning the ball through our inside players more then we can have Watts, Toumpas and Salem sitting on the outside. Matt Jones is a war time wingman. He'll run and gather the ball and make the team look somewhat more competent when they struggle. But in a good side that's already competing in other areas you'll bring out some more skill even if they aren't getting involved as much.

Even with outstanding development it will take a while for Petracca, Brayshaw and Neal-Bullen to make midfield impact. So I think whilst we stay light on for the contested ball winners Matt Jones will still hold his spot. But if Petracca or Brayshaw combined with Newton, Riley or Michie can start winning it and using it pretty well then I think we will see Matt Jones out of the side.

I'm also not convinced Matt Jones is above average defensively, not that we have any outside mids on our list who are excellent two way types right now.