Let's unpack it. 

Well all know it's been an issue all year, well everyone one except particular person on here who thinks it's a non issue.

Currently watching Freo completely smash us around the ground and open us up on the inside. It's like watching the WC game again.

We've literally had the same consistent midfield line up since 2021 and have had zero injection of talent rolling through there. We've lost James Jordon, James Harmes, Angus Brayshae and Luke Dunstan even as depth and have replaced them with no one except ANB and Pickett who have been rolling through there of recent and yet they're not even midfield first players. There is little to no depth in thr cupboard now.

It's bland, boring and there's been little innovation in there other then the same suspects such as Viney who's been poor this year and will be 31 next year, Oliver is certainly not himself but he's also a turnover merchant and Petracca who's probably been the only one who's had least been consistent this year.

The current set up certainly isn't premiership or even finals material the way it's going. Watching Freo spread with such speed on the outside by smashing us on the inside has been the story of our year.

This needs to be addressed big time over the off season.

Oliver playing like a regular C grade midfielder this year instead of the contested beast he once was has hurt us the most. Viney is 30 so only natural for him to be slowing down. Trac is playing too much of a hybrid role to impact in there. Kosi has been good. Definitely need more depth. I like Windsor but there’s no question the failed Harley Reid trade would have helped us immensely. 

The positioning of our midfielders is all wrong. So many times they go to the feet of Gawn and are then easily pushed under the ball so that when a tap goes only 1 metre or more from Gawn, their opponent is then free to run off them and with most of them being very slow, they cannot catch or even lay a hand on them. 
Don’t even get me started with the forward line…

Midfielder recruiting has been poor. We have picked up half forwards and small forwards and half backs and half backs and defenders and tall forward or part time ruck forwards. Trying to fix things in other areas   

Agree @dazzledavey36 👏👏👏

Why rotate players who ARE NOT natural mids? Kozzy. Riv. Sparrow. Better in other positions.  Sparrow was a half back as a junior who has been turned into a cog behind our 3 champs.  Offers little in pace or skill.  Heart yes.
 

Spargo. Laurie. Why extend them ? They are small part time forwards with little to offer versus other small  forwards
 

JV, Trac and Clarry now getting beaten by younger models.  Other young mids like Serong/Brayshaw/Young.  Why recruit Billings? Why recruit Hunter ? Downward spiral small weak players.  

JT must be given some direction.  We need 4x young mids in the national draft.  Seriously there’s quality youngsters.  Skill. Skill. Skill. Pace.  

It has been an issue for some time.

It is really coming home to roost now though.

12 months ago I said we were heading for a midfield cliff and got laughed at.

Now, James Jordon is no superstar, but he was at least a genuine developing midfielder. Im not suggesting he would have been a major difference for us but it's the mindset of our football brains trust that is the issue.

What in god's name was going through their mind in letting him go. Could they not see our ageing, one paced midfield needed all the help it could get going forward?

Pickett was severely under utilised in the guts last season to mix it up. Used only occasionally this year in light of Brayshaw.

Goodwin continually blind to the elephant in the room.

I am defintiely not out of sympathy with the call that the midfield is a huge area of concern especially with the talent we have and the output consistently being well below what you'd expect. being ranked 11th for clearances with a midfield containing Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Gawn and so on is really strange. 

in saying that i think our issues run quite deep, i find it baffling that since 2018 when we lose, the losses generally look very very similar but it's hard to identify any obvious shift in game style to correct this. 

I'll forever be grateful for Simon Goodwin in delivering us the first premiership in 57 years and we've had 3 consecutive top 4 finishes which obviously isn't horrible, but i do wonder how this list would perform under a different coach, for example if someone like Craig McRae had hold of this list would we be a better side?

We had midfield issues in 2021 too, but our top end guys were too good to reveal the extent of them

The 2024 version of our midfield is what we look like when Clarry isn't playing like the best player in the comp

Gawn: he’s getting old, he doesn’t jump in the middle and pushed around at boundary, he has to be given proper help. We knew this, so we got Grundy, then traded Grundy for no one.

Viney: playing injured? Looking slow. Struggling to adapt to the game plan of 

Oliver: he’s a mess, obviously not at peak fitness but just moving sloppy. Another who isn’t adapting to the game plan

Tracc; defensive spread has been awful 

Sparrow: just a role player. Role players struggle when teams struggle.

ANB: having a good go but lacks power to be a true mid

 

We have issues all over the ground.

Forward line is well known, midfield yes absolutely, along with an aging ruckman who has no connection to his midfield. Our backline now though is starting to seriously crack. 

Too many simply don’t gaf anymore. Our time being a competitor is well and truly done.

Bring on the changes.

Some of us have been banging on about this all year on this forum. It’s too hard to ignore now. I hope the midfield gets the blow torch from the media because they’ve been embarrassing.

Seeing Clayton five meters away from his opponent when they got an easy entry goal made me go wtf that's for sure

Gawn is a marvel but can’t do it all

Petracca can’t kick - either to goal or to a teammate 

Viney can’t move away from oppo

Clayton’s lack of preseason has destroyed his ability to power out of contests

Sparrow is a plodder

Playing ANB in midfield has robbed us of his key role as a forward pressure player: ditto Pickett, and neither reliably hit targets by foot

There are no other options

We've only drafted 1 genuine midfielder in Windsor for the past 4 or 5 years. Paying the price now.

"We've got 99 problems and midfield isn't one of them"

 

30 minutes ago, Sigil said:

Seeing Clayton five meters away from his opponent when they got an easy entry goal made me go wtf that's for sure

I guess the question is do we have any other options, from what I’ve seen there is no one putting any pressure on his position. Would you throw Salem or Rivers in there for the next 10 weeks and see how that goes? I think that would effectively be waving the white flag on this season but then again is limping into finals by doing nothing helpful either.

1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Sparrow was a half back as a junior who has been turned into a cog behind our 3 champs.  Offers little in pace or skill.  Heart yes.
 

Yep.

Clayton has fallen off a cliff, probably the terrible mismanagement of his pre-season has done this.

Trac has been given license to get more forward, less impact in the middle.

Viney in bad form, maybe slowing down.

Sparrow will never break out. 

ANB is ok depth but shouldn't be attending as many bounces as he is.

Kozzy is ok in limited spells, but like Trac he is a forward half impact player, playing him onball takes away from our scoring.

Salem, no idea why he has been deemed a midfielder after 8 years playing off half back, just another brain dead decision by the coaching staff.

Rivers, actually showed promise late last year, can't move him through there this year though for reasons unknown.

Brayshaw retiring really hurt us, club should've done a better job when it came to the decision to retire him. We needed to know before the trade/draft period, this has [censored] us well and truly.

7 minutes ago, Garbo said:

I guess the question is do we have any other options, from what I’ve seen there is no one putting any pressure on his position. Would you throw Salem or Rivers in there for the next 10 weeks and see how that goes? I think that would effectively be waving the white flag on this season but then again is limping into finals by doing nothing helpful either.

It was his positioning that I had issue with. It wasn't attacking to get the ball on the outside (as it went on the other side) he was just in no-mans land and I couldn't understand it.

Very bad list management. We got Grundy and give him away for a pie and coke. We already had a slow midfield before he arrived. It’s one paced, doesn’t spread, and doesn’t work defensively. In addition, there is no cohesive strategy. Before this year, we had a bloke running the midfield, who never had any experience coaching it, nor playing it. It’s like having a ruck as your forward coach, and also expecting it to function well. 

6 minutes ago, Sigil said:

It was his positioning that I had issue with. It wasn't attacking to get the ball on the outside (as it went on the other side) he was just in no-mans land and I couldn't understand it.

I don’t think it’s intentional, he’s just not fit enough atm to get in the right position for the zone 

But I thought Stafford was the problem and all we needed was a decent tall forward?

8 minutes ago, Garbo said:

I don’t think it’s intentional, he’s just not fit enough atm to get in the right position for the zone 

It was this one that I was thinking about, Freo pushing forward players around the ball and he just went so wide and couldn't get back to put any impact on at all. Not a fitness issue.*

 

*apologies for spud quality picture

Jordan left because opportunity was never going to be there. We had viney gus clarry and trac on long term deals. 
and it a hard to entice anyone to come and be a second stringer, so we are in the same boat. But the time is right to draft a few successors now. 
would like to see one of our trademark sell the future deals to trade into first rounders this year. 2 mids and yze’s boy and I’ll be happy on draft night. 
 

as for this year, anb and Kos need to be bursts at most as to not destroy their primary role. Happy to look at the back line options now. Howes back in and rotate rivers/salem/mcvee in for rotations and give more to whoever handles it best. 
 

clarry needs the bye, many probably do. Just cobble together whatever it needs to be to take down the few pies weapons still standing and have a real honest look after the break at what could get it done to win finals if anything. 
 

Drafting midfielders and speedy small forwards always makes the most sense. Less draft misses and less time to develop.

But our list management has been too quick to resign fringe players. Why was Laurie re-signed before round 1?

My kingdom for depth in the midfield.

That's pretty much it for me, there is no-one at Casey I'd feel confident throwing the keys to right now. Instead we've gone out and sought some break in case of emergency talls.