the last few years have shown that premierships can be won in the midfield. sydney and west coast built their teams around this strategy. this preseason melbourne has focused on getting our midfielders leaner and faster...clearly a fast running game is our aim to win a premiership this season. but do we have the midfield to back up this strategy?

i think we can compete with every midfield except westcoast...yet last season our midfield was beaten many times (interestingly this may be as much due to our inability to shut down the opposition with appropriate matchups, as it is about not having our own game breakers). Would be interested to read what people saw as our best midfield and how they would go against the best of other teams...including showing some of the possible matchups head-to-head

best midfielders: (West Coast's best equivalent)

Moloney (Braun)

Mclean (Cousins)

Johnstone (Judd)

Mcdonald (Embley)

Bruce (Kerr)

Green (Fletcher)

Second Tier:

Sylvia (Stenglein)

Bartram (Waters)

Jones (R. Jones)

Bate (Selwood)

Godfrey (Rosa)

Players that can rotate through but are really flankers

Ward (Wirrpunda)

Brown (Armstrong)

Bell (Chick)

Pickett (B. Jones)

Chris Johnson (Nicoski)

Developing:

Pettard, neville,buckley

The West Coast midfield is obviously the one to beat if we are realistcally going to win a premiership over the next couple of years...its a daunting task, but do we have the personel to give it a shake? Honestly i think we are currently some way behind but optimistic that some of our boys can take that next step (jones, sylvia, bate).

awesome post demon within,

i completely agree, sydney and westcoast have proven that it is the midfield where premierships are won nowadays. Lets not turn this discussion into whether it really is the midfiedl that is most important to win a premiership (sydney and westcoast both had deficiencies outside this area and have proven that the engine room is bloody important)...but does our midfield stack up and hold its own!

When i first read your post...west coasts midfield is incredible...

i think our major deficiency is not in the classy game breaker- mclean, trav and bruce are matchwinners... but do we have

a) the defensive players to hold there own and contribute when playing on judd, kerr, cousins etc (this is where we rely on green, mcdonald, batram)

B) the physical bodies (this is where pickett, moloney and eventually jones and sylvia become crucial)

Some of my best match ups include:

West Coast: (West Coast wins)

Moloney vs. Braun

Mclean vs. Stenglein

Johnstone vs. Embley

Mcdonald vs. Kerr

Bruce vs. Judd

Green vs. Fletcher

Bartram vs. Cousins

Sydney: (Melbourne wins)

Moloney vs. Ablett

Mclean vs. Mathews

Johnstone vs. Kirk

Mcdonald vs. Goodes

Bruce vs. Crouch

Green vs. Buchanan

Bartram vs. Bolton

Freo: (Freo wins...just...and no, i havent forgotten about last years SF where they thrashed us)

Moloney vs. Schammer

Mclean vs. J. Carr

Johnstone vs. M. Carr

Mcdonald vs. Hasleby

Bruce vs. H. Black

Green vs. Headland

Bartram vs. Bell

Comapring our midfieldsto the Eagles is a good way to make us look bad

And comparing our midfield to Freo, just makes our loss to them in last year's semi final makes the loss even more bitter to take.

But I agree that our midfield is better than the swans

But we are going to have to beat the WCE midfield to win the flag at some stage

This sort of talk of who we need to beat in the Grand Final is absurd, especially since its still February. <_<

I realise we are all itching to get the season underway, but the journey begins on Sunday.

Melbourne has a history of unrealised potential and this comes through over confidence, complacency and generally taking the teams mind off the job at hand.

I think all the points are valid regarding the matchups etc, but please lets just get the season off to a flyer before we talk about finals and grand finals.

Cant wait for Sunday!! :D

Good post DW.

"This sort of talk of who we need to beat in the Grand Final is absurd"...

i think perhaps you missed the point of this thread...nobody is asuming that we will be making grandfinals, let alone finals at the moment, however, taking a look at the players we have to run through our midfield allows supporters to draw their own conclusions as to what 'realistic' expectations are...

i also realise that assessment of players on paper can be misleading...i mean, who would have thought that carltons team on paper last year would beat us twice...having said that, looking at the quality running through opposition engine rooms makes you realise that to win games this year, some of our boys will need to take that next step

i understand that we need to analyse if we have the cattle. It is obvious that a team such as North or Carlton should not realistically compare their midfields.

I just worry that lot of Melbourne people assume that seeing we won a final last year it is a natural progrssion that we will take the next step.

I still feel we are good enough to match up with everyside in the competition except for WC on an ordinary day. In order to take the next step and challenge the elite is bringing our best game 15-18 weeks a year. The consistency will be the key point in our improvement.

The talent is undeniable. Its the maturity from the second tier players that is a concern.

We never have to beat the West Coast midfield, we only have to break even

Why?

Our forward line is so much better than theirs that if our guys get equal supply as the Eagles forwards, we would kick 5-7 more goals

completely agree with both of you....consistency is definately what we will be after (less month lapses than over the past years)...if we were to break even with the WC midfield, i think neita, robbo, davey and co would get us home...

difficult to make any assessments on the basis of that NAB clash...hawks pretty much had their best midfield rotation, whereas we were missing our stars in trav, brock, davey etc. Would have thought that at full strength, we had them covered (Hodge was very impressive though and i highlighted our lack of quality shut down players for the oppositions best midfielder)...

I don't believe Sydney won their flag in the centre. They won their flag with their defence and strong committment to each other. I think the bond that team has had over the last two seasons is something every team, especially Melbourne, should follow. St. Kilda is a team that looked so good for so long but they never seemed to play for each other. They were merely playing to get a better score and not for each other.

My two cents anyway. I don't even think it's relevant to the topic, but anyway, continue lol