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Dees Plan to Turbocharge the Midfield

Demonland
Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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A full midfield ensemble is music to my ears. 

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    Didn't tell us a whole lot we didn't already know, however:

    One thing that did stand out form the article is the 'time on ground' average for both players.  I think Tomlinson is around 85% and Langdon at 86%.  They compared this number to Scully, one of the hardest running mids around according to Jay Clark, and his TOG is at 84%.

    The idea here is that it will give our in and under mids more time to rest during a game, whether that be up forward or a spell on the bench, and will keep us fresher for longer, giving us the ability to play better footy for sustained periods rather than just short bursts.

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    1 hour ago, Tough Kent said:

    Bloody pay walls.

    Check your PM’s. ??

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    Good article and love the optimism but now only actions will do, we have read enough 'pump up' articles over the years. Time for this club to win games consistently 

    Edited by Rednblueriseing

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    1 hour ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

    Hopefully we can have the luxury of resting Oliver forward for periods of a game.  He has the skills to be damaging in forward 50

     

    Agreed, and that would take him to the next level. A genuine star and Brownlow contender.

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    2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

    Didn't tell us a whole lot we didn't already know, however:

    One thing that did stand out form the article is the 'time on ground' average for both players.  I think Tomlinson is around 85% and Langdon at 86%.  They compared this number to Scully, one of the hardest running mids around according to Jay Clark, and his TOG is at 84%.

    The idea here is that it will give our in and under mids more time to rest during a game, whether that be up forward or a spell on the bench, and will keep us fresher for longer, giving us the ability to play better footy for sustained periods rather than just short bursts.

     Thanks for the summary.

    I can't see the article so not sure if I've read your post correctly:  Is there anytime frame over which the 3 players TOG % were calculated?

    Does Jay realise the difference between 86% and 84% is about 2 minutes a game ie 30 seconds a quarter!

    Also not sure why Jay thinks there is some correlation between % TOG and hard running.  Someone could spend 100% TOG and not move an inch.  Seems a fairly meaningless stat.

    iirc our mids were usually on field for about 80% of games, except Viney which is a little more than 3 quarters.  

    I think Tomlinson and Langdon will be big pluses for our midfield but they will replace players who also had high TOG like, Stretch, ANB, Hunt etc so not sure about the keep us fresher for longer part.  The only way to do that is to get fitter and work harder.. 

    Think Jay is drawing a long bow.

    Edited by Lucifer's Hero

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    17 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

    Also not sure why Jay thinks there is some correlation between % TOG and hard running.  Someone could spend 100% TOG and not move an inch.  Seems a fairly meaningless stat.

    I'm with you. Time on ground = hard running reeks of non sequitur. I'm tipping Jay had actually confused TOG with metres covered.

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    50 minutes ago, Tough Kent said:

    Thanks brother. I appreciate it.

    Can u pm me as well mate.

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    17 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

    I think Tomlinson and Langdon will be big pluses for our midfield but they will replace players who also had high TOG like, Stretch, ANB, Hunt etc so not sure about the keep us fresher for longer part. 

    It's not about replacing them...although it will be a by product.

    Over the last couple of seasons we have had to use the likes of Brayshaw, Tyson and Jones on the wings and Trac more forward than perhaps we would have liked.

    I know we've pretty much all had a shots at Goody for not giving Gus more time in the middle where he plays his best footy.

    Langdon and Tomlinson will allow us to run our best inside mids where they play their best footy.

    A core midfield of Oliver, Brayshaw, Trac and Viney rotating forward and off the bench is going to be a pretty decent engine room.

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    Our midfield (counting the players who at least spend a substantial amount of time there) seems to be structured in three layers as far as TOG goes.

    Viney and Brayshaw both played a slice less than others - at 73 and 78%.

    Oliver, Harmes and Jones all round to 83%

    I do find it interesting that Salem is at 85% (obviously with more time spent not chasing the ball around the park) but the big surprise I noticed during the year was that Petracca was out at 88%, less than 2% off being our player 'most on the ground'. As well as putting a question against people claiming he is un-fit (he is getting >15 minutes less rest than Viney, for example) it also gets me thinking about a rotation where we deliberately end up with a kind of double-midfield.

    There's no doubt that Petracca and Oliver can be effective for spells up forward, I'd speculate that Viney might spend valuable time there as well as a pressure-providing small forward. In the other direction, we were already trialling having Melksham spent more time on the ball. And I'll just be cheeky here and say whatever your opinion of Nibbler, we can all agree that is he similarly effective across the forward line on in midfield! :D

    It is just as easy to see Fritsch, Langdon and Tomlinson rotating wings and half-forward in whatever proportions get the best out of them and confuse our opponents most.

    It would be a great overall position to be able to quickly and seamlessly switch players between forward and midfield/wing at any time during a game.

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    Posting complete articles can get the site owners in deep doo-doo.... Probably best to delete before they find it guys.

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    Re the 2020 midfield rotations does anybody have any insight into Dunkley, can he morph into something like his ball magnet brother at the Dogs after a full preseason? We played him as  yet another smaller forward option in the second half and he did OK as a part time newby. Is he a potential midfield asset? 

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    "Time on ground" might not equal "hard running" but for midfielders who run around with the ball as the key part of their game, it's fair to say it equals high endurance and on field recovery ability, vs being a "burst" player. 

    Addong two elite endurance runners to the mix definitely frees up our other mid to rest up occasionally. 

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    2 hours ago, rjay said:

    It's not about replacing them...although it will be a by product.

    Over the last couple of seasons we have had to use the likes of Brayshaw, Tyson and Jones on the wings and Trac more forward than perhaps we would have liked.

    I know we've pretty much all had a shots at Goody for not giving Gus more time in the middle where he plays his best footy.

    Langdon and Tomlinson will allow us to run our best inside mids where they play their best footy.

    A core midfield of Oliver, Brayshaw, Trac and Viney rotating forward and off the bench is going to be a pretty decent engine room.

    Personally I think recruiting inside mids constantly to the point where we have no run - and then recruiting a few runners and declaring them the saviors, is a bit like walking away from your Kurd mates in Syria to let Turkey run through them, only to then turn around and negotiate a pretend cease fire, and claim at as a win.

    But I think both are super recruits and exactly what we need. Of course.

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    22 minutes ago, FireInTheBelly said:

    Personally I think recruiting inside mids constantly to the point where we have no run - and then recruiting a few runners and declaring them the saviors

    MFCSS talking here but i just had a vision of our two saviors running directly into the centre for our first bounce and knocking each other out and injuring themselves for the season.

    Edited by John Demonic

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    • Haha 2
    5 hours ago, FireInTheBelly said:

    Personally I think recruiting inside mids constantly to the point where we have no run - and then recruiting a few runners and declaring them the saviors, is a bit like walking away from your Kurd mates in Syria to let Turkey run through them, only to then turn around and negotiate a pretend cease fire, and claim at as a win.

    But I think both are super recruits and exactly what we need. Of course.

    Dude. 

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    •  
    10 hours ago, rjay said:

    It's not about replacing them...although it will be a by product.

    Over the last couple of seasons we have had to use the likes of Brayshaw, Tyson and Jones on the wings and Trac more forward than perhaps we would have liked.

    I know we've pretty much all had a shots at Goody for not giving Gus more time in the middle where he plays his best footy.

    Langdon and Tomlinson will allow us to run our best inside mids where they play their best footy.

    A core midfield of Oliver, Brayshaw, Trac and Viney rotating forward and off the bench is going to be a pretty decent engine room.

    I fully understand why we recruited Langdon and Tomlinson and the benefit to the midfield.

    The context of the post, you omitted important parts of, challenged the concept that TOG = hard running.  Jay gave no evidence to support that premise. 

    And, I suspect a fair part of Tomlinson's TOG was not in the midfield, eg defence where 88%-95% of TOG is common.

    To me it was a flaky article.

    As I said in my earlier post, endurance and hard running will come from fitness and attitude.  Sure Tomlinson and Langdon may give other mids a minute or two more 'resting' time per game but if their fitness and attitude doesn't improve it won't help us one iota in two-way running and running out quarters/games. 

    Edited by Lucifer's Hero

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    • Like 1
    7 hours ago, FireInTheBelly said:

    Personally I think recruiting inside mids constantly to the point where we have no run - and then recruiting a few runners and declaring them the saviors, is a bit like walking away from your Kurd mates in Syria to let Turkey run through them, only to then turn around and negotiate a pretend cease fire, and claim at as a win.

    But I think both are super recruits and exactly what we need. Of course.

     

    7 hours ago, John Demonic said:

    MFCSS talking here but i just had a vision of our two saviors running directly into the centre for our first bounce and knocking each other out and injuring themselves for the season.

    Thanks you two.  Now i'm really confused.  MFCSS extremism or 'Fake News' !!??  Which one is it?

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