Deep Midfield Issues

[manny100 1,480]

If we want a mid gun we either need a top 5 pick or lure one to the club via FA or trade.

[jumbo returns 6,737]

23 hours ago, JJJ said:

I think the 24 Doomsday clock has ticked past midnight… ie the current group is requiring reinforcements to bring us back to 11:55pm.

LDU from North and Lukosius from GC or players of that ilk could help drag us back into a position to compete for a Premiership in the next 18 months. That and a dose of (shudders) internal development and luck with injuries. Maybe jag a player in the draft too.

Of course that is easier said than done. We don’t seem to attract players like the above and JVR aside, I’ve not seen a lot from our recent draftees that points to brighter future. Even Bowza has stalled since a scintillating start. 

Couldn't catch a cold

[JJJ 1,191]

4 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

Couldn't catch a cold

Whilst I agree that his hands are poor, this is an argument that goes nowhere on DL. Believe me I’ve tried.

[kozzyisalegend 152]

5 minutes ago, manny100 said:

If we want a mid gun we either need a top 5 pick or lure one to the club via FA or trade.

Do we have a first rounder this year

[Swooper Northey 494]

On 02/06/2024 at 19:26, At the break of Gawn said:

Thinking about how frustrated Trac looked on the field, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a media story brewing about a disconnect between the players and the coaches (like the Yze criticism a couple of weeks back). Clubs aren’t immune to these stories so I hope it might bring about the change that’s needed.

Michael Warner will be salivating. 

[Swooper Northey 494]

On 02/06/2024 at 19:26, At the break of Gawn said:

Thinking about how frustrated Trac looked on the field, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a media story brewing about a disconnect between the players and the coaches (like the Yze criticism a couple of weeks back). Clubs aren’t immune to these stories so I hope it might bring about the change that’s needed.

Michael Warner will be salivating. 

[leave it to deever 17,506]

22 to 10 centre clearances in favor of Freo.

And the same ratio with other clearances.

And some posters think the midfield is fine.

[Guest]

Psychological issues at the core

We started with a positive vibe seeking redemption.

Something has happened in my view.  I have no information, just based on what I see.

[Fromgotowoewodin 1,606]

13 hours ago, Swooper Northey said:

Michael Warner will be salivating. 

Wouldn’t be surprised if he reheats the same Dees article he writes every month or so again this week

[spirit of norm smith 16,096]

❤️JT but … 

2014. Petracca. Brayshaw. 
2015 Oliver

2018 Sparrow 

Only one midfielder drafted since 2015 across national and rookie drafts.  You might include Woey jnr as a father son pick and then Windsor as an outside mid.  So perhaps 3. We have had 42 draft rookie and supplementary picks across those 8 years. 2016-2023. 

Edited June 4 by spirit of norm smith
G

[Pickettup 46]

We should target Bailey Smith

[Demonland 71,080]

From 28:17

[loges 6,767]

On 04/06/2024 at 10:25, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Wouldn’t be surprised if he reheats the same Dees article he writes every month or so again this week

Quoting his anonymous sources 

[roy11 3,819]

So we started the season with  Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney, Sparrow as our options.

Now a mixture of regression, retirements and injury we're faced with a little short term conundrum. 

If Trac is out for a little, what would you like to see the FD do? And what do you think they'll realistically do.

[leave it to deever 17,506]

I'm surprised we weren't beaten by more.

14 to 6 cc to the pies

 

Ok tracc was injured but the signs were already there.

Tracca has been his usual consistent self . Although one thing about his game that is interesting is that he he often starts slowly in terms of accumulating possessions. Often having many more disposals to his first half count in the second.

Jack Viney while being ok this year is definitely down on the scintillating form he had last year. In terms of disposals he is down an average of five per game this season. A significant drop of around twenty three percent.

Oliver too has been down on his usual percentage of possessions. But his efficiency seems to be way off. Yesterday whilst accumulating the ball quite often., there were too many moments that saw him bang the ball out of a contest. I think if he watched the replay he would notice he often had more time than he probably thought and used the ball better. 

That leaves us with Sparrow. He played a very good first quarter with amassing seven disposals . Alas he finished the game with fourteen.....his average. Firstly that kind of reflects that he never really smashes games and is really consistently good. Also an average of 14 disposals for a midfielder not just this season but for his career at his age is poor. It's not like he's often used in a tagging capacity.

So while our midfield in 21 with the three horsemen,Tracca, Oliver and Jack was the powerful bang bang bang with Sparrow added on was electrifying. Yesterday and not a few other games this year( not just because of Tracca injury) it couldn't power a small light bulb.

Credit to Tracca for his efforts but the other three are way off the pace.

I would like to see more younger players get some senior game time and not the usual suspects.

It's true or midfield stocks are not a deep vein of gold ( or our fwds for that matter).

I Wish we had fought harder for Jordan and while Harmes is aging he would at least be handy experience wise now that Tracca is injured.

Unless Tracca heals asap we are in deep Doo Doo.

Our fwd line is non existent and can't scrape ten goals together or kick straight for the third year in a row. Our mids have also been out of form and now the best of the bunch is injured.

I'm not sure where the club went wrong.vif it was complacent or over confident but somewhere and somehow we stopped recruiting and adding to our quality stable.

Even worse we lowered the bar and started recruiting rejected players from other clubs plus a strange collection of players that are on the books for a while now that don't ever play in the senior side.

I know that when your a top side that frustrated players who can't get a gig in the seniors go and look for greener pasture.

But in 21 from memory it seemed that there was a list of up to ten people who were competing for a seniors game and Casey was dominating.

Now we are using players week after week who haven't performed because we don't have those team anymore. Why are Schache, Bbb, Fullerton and McAdam on our books?

How did our depth disappear so fast from 21?  Then there are the players who should be at their prime or entering into it from the 21 list that have seriously gone backwards.

Last year I believe we should have won a flag. The fwd line injuries were incredibly cruel and constant but a few could have been predicted ( Bbb, Tmac).

Even this year we have played some great footy. 

I know I'm going off topic here but it's hard to know what's gone wrong.

Maybe there are some off field issues eating away at us.

I guess it happens. The lions last year's runner's up are struggling. It's just to see the wheels fall off so dramatically and so quickly makes it hard to pinpoint what exactly is the root cause.

 

[leave it to deever 17,506]

There were not a few times at the centre bounce yesterday where it seemed our lads were ball watching while Cwood moved it out of the middle in breakneck time. We appeared to be chained to the ground while it happened too.

I thought Max was great though. Without his ground efforts at some of the clearances the metris would have been so much worse.

He really is a champion of the game and it's sad to see other senior players not give the same level of commitment he does.

I hope he has another five years left in him but given the workload he already carries, I think it will be half that.

Also, Im pretty sure now that the big man will play in another grand final./I'm

Unlike us in 21 the pies just scraped through with a lot of luck and bluster( Maynard) and won a flag. 

We got smashed yesterday by a team that really isn't good and who had half a dozen of its good players out.

In half a year we have gone from a team that dominated the pies in that final to a team that was a rabble yesterday.

Despite Goody claims there were some improvements, there weren't.

Our tackling or lack of it was atrocious and our midfielders are just too slow and consistently turning the ball over or delivering the ball i50s in the worst ways possible.

Add in the least dynamic forward line and it's a snooze fest.

Credit to Jvr for his efforts and accuracy. But Friitas decided to rest for the first three quarters and Petty the last three. What sort of chance do we have when we had just as many scoring shots as the opposition but kick so many goals less.

And sadly this wonton goal kicking inaccuracy has been going on now for three years. Good grief.

We were not only lacking physicality yesterday but mental toughness as well. With a fwd line that struggles so much we make it even harder but not being psychologically strong enough to put the pill through the long sticks. 

I hope Tracca isn't out for to long because we are so poor that I think his absence will see losses to even teams like North.

Oliver should not really be playing but Sparrow isn't any different. I hope Kynan Brown gets a look in and when Tracca comes back than Sparrow goes to Casey. 14 disposals a game from Sparrow year in and out is not up to scratch. I seriously wonder if his fitness is an issue. How does a player like him yesterday explain getting eight of his total fourteen disposals in the first quarter and then totally fade away.

When Oliver wasn't playing last year JV really stepped up and went to another level. Sadly that has stopped but hopefully Traccas absence  is a chance for Sparrow to step up.

If he fails in this time then, I hope he gets dropped once Tracc is back. And perhaps the club should reassess his tenure at the end of the year .

[KingDingAling 3,752]

I think it might be time to put Rivers in the midfield, and have Howes take his role off half back. 
 

Run Kozi through the midfield and have Sestan fill Kozis role up forward.

Oliver, Viney and Sparrow being the other mids. They need to work out who is extracting and who isn’t, as currently we have too many contesting the one football.

[mauriesy 7,212]

4 hours ago, roy11 said:

So we started the season with  Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney, Sparrow as our options.

Now a mixture of regression, retirements and injury we're faced with a little short term conundrum. 

If Trac is out for a little, what would you like to see the FD do? And what do you think they'll realistically do.

Sack the coach, sack the board, trade half the players, sack the fitness expert, sack the boot studder.
That's right isn't it?

[DeeZee 7,361]

 Think it’s more pace we need.

A first year player in Windsor has shown everybody up with his pace so much it really stands out how much we lack.

One paced players like Sparrow are not the answer , we need to go after the Bobby Hill types and get some outside speed to be able to compete with the best.

[whatwhat say what 22,530]

in three seasons the core of success has gone from 'contest and defence' to 'speed and skill'

we've tried to adjust our style from our intrinsic style and been found wanting - we possess neither attribute to execute the gameplan that they are trying to execute

i think we are so poorly skilled and other than Windsor, McVee, and Pickett there is also no one with line breaking pace in our side with the ability to hit a target not turn it over 

unfortunately you can’t teach speed and skill

sparrow is bog ordinary, oliver can't power away from the contest, viney looks like he's moving in molasses, and trac is injured

we play anb and pickett in the midfield and it means we have no one capable of applying defensive pressure in f50

[demon3165 2,658]

1 hour ago, KingDingAling said:

I think it might be time to put Rivers in the midfield, and have Howes take his role off half back. 
 

Run Kozi through the midfield and have Sestan fill Kozis role up forward.

Oliver, Viney and Sparrow being the other mids. They need to work out who is extracting and who isn’t, as currently we have too many contesting the one football.

Rivers doesn't have the composure or football nouse for a midfielder another one that just throws it on the boot when pressured, yes he has got pace but a lot of work has to go into him for that position.

Good point, in 21 Oliver was playing more outside than in but his disposal is woeful he either kicks it without looking or it goes higher than length, Sparrow unfortunately is another one who tries to take everyone one on or rushes when pressured.

Goodwin either has to stick with the same plan and players or completely change parts of the midfield and try something out of the box, that might mean taking Oliver out of the midfield and move to the half forward line, a bit like De Goey does and go into the midfield in short bursts.

But I think Goodwin will stick to what he has been doing and hope we win enough games to make the eight.

 

Edited June 11 by demon3165

[dice 689]

Unfortunately our midfield consists of guys that just can't kick and hit targets. Yesterday, our core midfielders had a combined total of 13 effective kicks (Oliver 4, Viney 4, Windsor 3, Langdon 2).

Compare that to the Swans (against arguably better opposition on Sunday) whose core midfielders had a combined total of 47 effective kicks (Heeney 8, Warner 13, Gulden 18, McInerney 8).

But the Swans are on another level this year (in particular, fitness) thanks to a $40m handout in government funding that helped pay for an altitude training room with 45 watt bikes not to mention having exclusive access to the finest talent in their area via their academy (e.g. Heeney from Maitland, Gulden from Maroubra, Mills from Mosman, etc.). And yet we are still looking for a home training base since 1965 ☹️

Edited June 11 by dice