The Suns midfield is pretty juicy.

I didnt know where else to put this, but boy i absolutely love this:

I think our midfield is going to surprise next year.

One metric to assess midfield 'strength' is inside 50s differential. To me, forget the names, the stronger midfields are the ones that drive the ball forward but also limit opposition entries either through winning stoppages or creating turnovers. Last year lions, gc, geelong bris were the top 4 and a lot of pundits would have them the best midfiellds (arguably not geelong). In 2021, it was doggies, melb, geel, bris.

Last year we were actually 7th on this metric, and our relative win loss was the result of being quite poor at either end of the ground. (We were simply not athletic enough for a faster ball movement game). With draftees Pickett and Taylor I think we are looking to address this.

Petracca is the big loss, but I still have hope his output can be replicated in part by Pickett, Rivers, Langford, Windsor playing more significant minutes thru the middle.

Edited December 12, 2025Dec 12 by Jjrogan

7 minutes ago, Jjrogan said:

I think our midfield is going to surprise next year.

One metric to assess midfield 'strength' is inside 50s differential. To me, forget the names, the stronger midfields are the ones that drive the ball forward but also limit opposition entries either through winning stoppages or creating turnovers. Last year lions, gc, geelong bris were the top 4 and a lot of pundits would have them the best midfiellds (arguably not geelong). In 2021, it was doggies, melb, geel, bris.

Last year we were actually 7th on this metric, and our relative win loss was the result of being quite poor at either end of the ground. (We were simply not athletic enough for a faster ball movement game). With draftees Pickett and Taylor I think we are looking to address this.

Petracca is the big loss, but I still have hope his output can be replicated in part by Pickett, Rivers, Langford, Windsor playing more significant minutes thru the middle.

I think the first half of next year the midfield may be a rough watch, as King TINKERS with this line ups and rotations

But I do genuinely believe a lot of the pieces are already there in Koz, Rivers, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor, Culley and hopefully Kolt

6 minutes ago, adonski said:

I think the first half of next year the midfield may be a rough watch, as King TINKERS with this line ups and rotations

But I do genuinely believe a lot of the pieces are already there in Koz, Rivers, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor, Culley and hopefully Kolt

Yup. Its actually a quickish dynamic midfield for the modern rules. Us and carlton led contested possesion differences last year. Did nothing. Syd and st kilda were top 4 for clearances. Did nothing. Yes, Lions way out in front on that one, but their midfield is quite a special case. More a family tree than anything else. Also we cant forget Max who is a huge part of creating turnovers and intercepts. I think he's got another 3 to 4 years in him easy if he wants it.

7 minutes ago, Jjrogan said:

Yup. Its actually a quickish dynamic midfield for the modern rules. Us and carlton led contested possesion differences last year. Did nothing. Syd and st kilda were top 4 for clearances. Did nothing. Yes, Lions way out in front on that one, but their midfield is quite a special case. More a family tree than anything else. Also we cant forget Max who is a huge part of creating turnovers and intercepts. I think he's got another 3 to 4 years in him easy if he wants it.

Family tree 😂

Very astute as usual

Edited December 12, 2025Dec 12 by adonski

2 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

I didnt know where else to put this, but boy i absolutely love this:

naicos is so good that he's almost underrated

The midfield needs a rebuild. Steele and Viney are just adequate stop gaps. Pickett is still a part timer and too small and light to be in the guts all game. The loss of Petracca and Oliver are no great loss given our weak midfield performances from the past two seasons. I can’t see it being any worse next season but I expect it could improve somewhat if King can instil some team ethos to how they play. We do need to find two new gun midfielders who are genuine ball winners. I don’t believe any of our current second string midfield rotators are likely to develop into the real deal.

14 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

naicos is so good that he's almost underrated

i disagree. He is above average for sure, elite in some cases, but wouldn't be talked about as much if he didn't play for Collingwood.

Lets see what happens when Pendles, SideBottom and DeGoey retire in the next year or two and he is surrounded by no names and is required to win his own ball.

5 minutes ago, GS_1905 said:

i disagree. He is above average for sure, elite in some cases, but wouldn't be talked about as much if he didn't play for Collingwood.

Lets see what happens when Pendles, SideBottom and DeGoey retire in the next year or two and he is surrounded by no names and is required to win his own ball.

he'll carry the midfield, much as he did this year, and arguably the last too

3 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

The Suns midfield is pretty juicy.

You’re absolutely deluded if you don’t think Naicos is one of the best midfielders in the comp

On the topic of our midfield - I think we’ve most of the pieces for long term success sans an explosive mid fwd type (Bailey Humphrey, anyone?)

Bring in Humphrey or another highly rated mid with our first round pick next year, and we’re off

1 hour ago, GS_1905 said:

i disagree. He is above average for sure, elite in some cases, but wouldn't be talked about as much if he didn't play for Collingwood.

Lets see what happens when Pendles, SideBottom and DeGoey retire in the next year or two and he is surrounded by no names and is required to win his own ball.

Hes elite. He’s the same draft as JVR and has over 100 Brownlow votes (highest votes per game in history). There’s no need to pretend he’s not one of the best in the game right now.

But he’s a Collingwood player, so he’s hated filth.

7 hours ago, Redleg said:

On paper we are a fair way off

We are a fair way off.

in my mind we're a bit like the milwaukee bucks, who also won their drought-breaking championship in 2021, who were there or thereabouts for the next couple of seasons before injury, poor recruitment, and a general inability to adapt to a changing style of basketball that rendered their approach second rate

giannis is now agitating to leave that ailing franchise, just as trac did for us, and it seems a matter of time until he forces a trade away from them, just as trac did for us

3 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

i disagree. He is above average for sure, elite in some cases, but wouldn't be talked about as much if he didn't play for Collingwood.

Lets see what happens when Pendles, SideBottom and DeGoey retire in the next year or two and he is surrounded by no names and is required to win his own ball.

Haha laughable.

Even with those guys playing Daicos still gets the number 1 tag and performs at an incredibly high level. What difference does it makes if they retire.

Hate Collingwood all we want, but the guy is a dead set star and its scary what hes achieved so far at his age.

It'll be interesting to see what low expectations allow us to deliver on output next year.

Most will have us in the bottom 6 and most wouldn't have a clue (myself included) who will actually play midfield and whether they can step up now minus Trac/Clarry.

We might just find that Rivers, Lindsay, Langford, Windsor, Kozzy, Steele and Viney is an incredible mix, better suited to the modern game.

Edited December 12, 2025Dec 12 by Adam The God

Our had midfield barely changed for 5 years or so. We were getting extremely predictable.

On paper, yeah it doesn't look as good without Trac and Oliver, but I can be pretty confident we will get more effort, more x-factor and an unfamiliarity for the opposition to work us out.

41 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

We might just find that Rivers, Lindsay, Langford, Windsor, Kozzy, Steele and Viney is an incredible mix, better suited to the modern game.

The first 5 you listed there have pretty much never played consistent time as mids, or any substantial time as mids. Filling Trac and Oliver's boots is a huge (huge!) step up, and most other clubs are miles and years ahead of us "in that space".

Hopefully we'll get there over time, 2 or 3 seasons at least, but in the shorter term we are going to get absolutely hammered.

What a load of old cods wallop.

Judge it at end of season ....

All these preseason things are pure 🐂💩

8 hours ago, bing181 said:

The first 5 you listed there have pretty much never played consistent time as mids, or any substantial time as mids. Filling Trac and Oliver's boots is a huge (huge!) step up, and most other clubs are miles and years ahead of us "in that space".

Hopefully we'll get there over time, 2 or 3 seasons at least, but in the shorter term we are going to get absolutely hammered.

Pickett attended 70% of centre bounces in season 2025

22 hours ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Whilst I am happy with the decision to move on Trac and Oliver, stings having them in other teams top three.

Onwards and upwards hopefully.

Massive mistake letting Oliver go and will bite us on the Aaaarrze

6 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Massive mistake letting Oliver go and will bite us on the Aaaarrze

It’s been biting us on the Aaaarrze for 2.5 years PF and from memory you were strongly advocating “burning” the place down at the end of ‘24 when all the [censored] was flying around about CO and poor club culture.

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Massive mistake letting Oliver go and will bite us on the Aaaarrze

I think he will do great, same with Trac.

However I think it was a great move sending them packing.

Less distractions the better.

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Massive mistake letting Oliver go and will bite us on the Aaaarrze

One thing I have enjoyed is more positive media and not the relentless “bagging” we endured over the preseasons..mainly referencing Oliver. As a supporter you were generally disillusioned by the time the season started…it was relentless. It was time for him & Melb to part ways (which incidentally he has stated in today’s newspaper article). I hope he turns his life around and wish him well ..Trac on the other hand …..