Strategy It’s the midfield, stupid

[Thetrader15]

Part of it, is the selection committee. Why the hell are we continuing playing Sloane and Crouch when we need to blood players such as Schoenberg, Pedlar and Berry.

Secondly, the drafting is a joke. Hamish needs to go and get a breath of fresh air. To this day it baffles me that we got McAsey when we clearly needed midfielders.

Lastly, the production of ROB is a joke. He just doesn’t provide for us, most of the centre bounces gets walked out by the opposition

So who were you taking ahead of McAsey?

It's easy to take shots from the cheap seats, but who's the alternative, big bodied, elite mid on that draft? There isn't one!

 

[Thetrader15]

What’s this bloke up to? Or is that like, a stupid question?

View attachment 1396032

Being a shock jock saying things like Tariek Newchurch should have been taken in the first round of the draft!

 

[Thetrader15]

I agree, mostly.
Jones was tried quite a few times as a mid but failed miserably. He's still got good value off half back, so not a complete waste. Hopefully, in time we can try him again as a mid. McHenry and Sholl are too small to make it as mids. Sholl shouldn't even be on the park - too weedy for AFL. IMHO Hately doesn't have what it takes. Berry starting to come good, Schoey is a bit too inconsistent at the moment. Pedlar will take time as will Soligo. Even Murphy is not bad when he goes in for the odd CBA, but he's another midget.
All this is predicated on a ruckman who can hit to advantage. How is God's name can you win the hitouts 46 to 22, but have 74 to 49 I50's the other way. This is partially due to the inexperience we have but I fully expected the game to be close, just based on the fact their first choice ruck is out, and they're having to throw in SoS - and one could've reasonably expected a minimum of a break even in the midfield. Mind-boggling! The selectors have backed themselves into a corner by promoting ROB to the leadership group now - Strachan should replace him without question.

Why is Sholl to small to make it as mids? According to afl.com.au:

Lachie Sholl - 186cm, 82kg
Ed Langdon - 182cm, 77kg
Karl Amon - 181cm, 77kg
Zac Butters - 181cm, 78kg

 

[Crow_Magnon]

Why is Sholl to small to make it as mids? According to afl.com.au:

Lachie Sholl - 186cm, 82kg
Ed Langdon - 182cm, 77kg
Karl Amon - 181cm, 77kg
Zac Butters - 181cm, 78kg

I reckon there's something wrong with those figures...he looks like he's sub six foot and about 70 kgs to me - wat too easily brushed aside and no real desire to tackle / pressure from what I've seen.

 

[Brenton Davy]

So who were you taking ahead of McAsey?

It's easy to take shots from the cheap seats, but who's the alternative, big bodied, elite mid on that draft? There isn't one!
View attachment 1396147

Tom Green from GWS is on that list and is better than what we currently have in there…

 

[BRL121]

Tom Green from GWS is on that list and is better than what we currently have in there…

There was a small problem with that: he was unobtainable.

 

[DJ75]

There was a small problem with that: he was unobtainable.

We didn't even try. Could have bid on him. Might have been a bit high for GWS??

 

[hugecannon]

We didn't even try. Could have bid on him. Might have been a bit high for GWS??

I’m sure part of the pick swap we did was to agree not to bid on him

 

[pjcrows]

We haven't improved our midfield since Dangerfield left, either at the draft or trade table, bar bringing in Keays (you could argue he's the equivalent of Brad Crouch

5

Brad Crouch

Age

30

Ht

186cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

26.1

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

14.0

5star

M

2.7

3star

T

5.5

5star

CL

5.0

5star

D

20.3

5star

K

11.1

4star

HB

9.1

5star

M

1.5

2star

T

3.9

5star

CL

4.6

5star

D

21.6

5star

K

10.0

4star

HB

11.6

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

4.2

5star

CL

2.6

5star

, who left).

In the last six years we've drafted four players slated for midfield in the first round - Gallucci, Jones, McHenry and Pedlar. Four very small players, two of which will never be AFL mids and one who looks shaky so far, and one is delisted.

With our other firsts we've selected three talls (Thilthorpe, McAsey, Fogarty) and a small forward (granted, Rachele will be elite and likely play midfield, but isn't a pure big mid).

Hately isn't up to it and Dawson isn't a mid.

Our later picks in Berry and Schoenberg will play a lot of games for us but we haven't really improved the midfield from six years ago.

Negligence.

 

[maxlilly]

We haven't improved our midfield since Dangerfield left, either at the draft or trade table, bar bringing in Keays (you could argue he's the equivalent of Brad Crouch, who left).

In the last six years we've drafted four players slated for midfield in the first round - Gallucci, Jones, McHenry and Pedlar. Four very small players, two of which will never be AFL mids and one who looks shaky so far, and one is delisted.

With our other firsts we've selected three talls (Thilthorpe, McAsey, Fogarty) and a small forward (granted, Rachele will be elite and likely play midfield, but isn't a pure big mid).

Hately isn't up to it and Dawson isn't a mid.

Our later picks in Berry and Schoenberg will play a lot of games for us but we haven't really improved the midfield from six years ago.

Negligence.

It's a pretty depressing looking list of names there.
I wouldn't be surprised if it is Hamish's last year at the club.
It looks like we need to stay on the bottom for another 2-3 years too try and start picking some elite midfielders

 

[LeftyLuke]

Why is Sholl to small to make it as mids? According to afl.com.au:

Lachie Sholl - 186cm, 82kg
Ed Langdon - 182cm, 77kg
Karl Amon - 181cm, 77kg
Zac Butters - 181cm, 78kg

He's too frail and will be ragdolled. It has nothing to do with his height. He also doesn't have an explosive first 5 which the top mids generally have.

 

[Frothiewalker]

Why is Sholl to small to make it as mids? According to afl.com.au:

Lachie Sholl - 186cm, 82kg
Ed Langdon - 182cm, 77kg
Karl Amon - 181cm, 77kg
Zac Butters - 181cm, 78kg

Sholl is slow and soft as butter.

 

[LeftyLuke]

We haven't improved our midfield since Dangerfield left, either at the draft or trade table, bar bringing in Keays (you could argue he's the equivalent of Brad Crouch, who left).

In the last six years we've drafted four players slated for midfield in the first round - Gallucci, Jones, McHenry and Pedlar. Four very small players, two of which will never be AFL mids and one who looks shaky so far, and one is delisted.

With our other firsts we've selected three talls (Thilthorpe, McAsey, Fogarty) and a small forward (granted, Rachele will be elite and likely play midfield, but isn't a pure big mid).

Hately isn't up to it and Dawson isn't a mid.

Our later picks in Berry and Schoenberg will play a lot of games for us but we haven't really improved the midfield from six years ago.

Negligence.

It's also negligence to not correctly plan for life after Talia and to a lesser degree Hartigan. We are massively paying for the McAsey failure. We were also negligent in properly planning for life after sauce. ROB is no replacemement. We have been negligent at all parts of the ground. At least if we had nailed one component such as midfield it wouldn't be so bad.

 

[LeftyLuke]

He had 30 of them yesterday. Luckily, we were playing against traffic cones.

Coaches seemed to have changed their tune on crouch. Prematch he was pretty much certain to return and then post match the stand-in changed his wording. Sounds like Nick's watched closely and wasn't overly impressed or they know we need to move on from him.

 

[Slippery Pete]

We haven't improved our midfield since Dangerfield left, either at the draft or trade table, bar bringing in Keays (you could argue he's the equivalent of Brad Crouch, who left).

In the last six years we've drafted four players slated for midfield in the first round - Gallucci, Jones, McHenry and Pedlar. Four very small players, two of which will never be AFL mids and one who looks shaky so far, and one is delisted.

With our other firsts we've selected three talls (Thilthorpe, McAsey, Fogarty) and a small forward (granted, Rachele will be elite and likely play midfield, but isn't a pure big mid).

Hately isn't up to it and Dawson isn't a mid.

Our later picks in Berry and Schoenberg will play a lot of games for us but we haven't really improved the midfield from six years ago.

Negligence.

Midfield was dogshit even in 2017. I said that a few times back then and nearly got ****ing lynched.

Btw, is dogshit one word or two?

I like it as one, personally.

 

[skam85]

Eh, Hately was tagging Cripps for the entire game and performed fine, Hopefully was a good learning experience for him playing on a player of Cripps' caliber

Cripps got 35 touches and 2 goals, I would hate to see what Hately performing poorly was

 

[LeftyLuke]

Midfield was dogshit even in 2017. I said that a few times back then and nearly got ******* lynched.

Btw, is dogshit one word or two?

I like it as one, personally.

One I believe.

 

[LeftyLuke]

Cripps got 35 touches and 2 goals, I would hate to see what Hately performing poorly was

3 votes

 

[skam85]

3 votes

Either him or Charlie Curnow you'd think. The commonality being their potato opponents for the afternoon

 

[Jcpdragonx]

Top 10 picks are for A+ grade midfield and KPF talent. Melbourne using their top picks on Oliver/Petracca won them a flag. Freo are surging with Brayshaw/Serong. Sydney have Mills, Brisbane McLuggage. We keep using second rounders/late teens picks on midfielders over and over again. Now we have 10 midfielders with a ceiling of B+, aside from Keays.

Failing drafting strategy + failing talent identifiers + failing list management + failing to play youth in position over washed players = bottom of the ladder for 5 years and more pain to come.

 

[morris086]

So who were you taking ahead of McAsey?

It's easy to take shots from the cheap seats, but who's the alternative, big bodied, elite mid on that draft? There isn't one!
View attachment 1396147

A few options:

• Keep 4 and take Ash
• Trade for 6 and take Serong/Young/Flanders, Kemp was a fave on here
• Trade for Geelongs two later picks (17 and 19) and take Stephens and De Koning like they did, big bodied mid and a kpd

Varying levels of realistic options there.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

So who were you taking ahead of McAsey?

It's easy to take shots from the cheap seats, but who's the alternative, big bodied, elite mid on that draft? There isn't one!
View attachment 1396147

Lachie Ash instead of Fish and Pedlar?

 

[FR0GGY]

Lachie Ash instead of Fish and Pedlar?

You’d take a pile of ash instead atm.

 

[pjcrows]

It's also negligence to not correctly plan for life after Talia and to a lesser degree Hartigan. We are massively paying for the McAsey failure. We were also negligent in properly planning for life after sauce. ROB is no replacemement. We have been negligent at all parts of the ground. At least if we had nailed one component such as midfield it wouldn't be so bad.

Butts is fine.

You don't use Pick 6 on a defender unless you already have a midfield.

 

[1970crow]

seriously guys, wake me up when we get some genuine a grade midfielders. Not some other club cast offs who try hard and run a bit. Not some third rounders that we reckon were under valued and probably second rounders, so that’s a win, right?

Genuine a grade, all Australian, Brownlow contending midfielders. We’ve been to the bottom since 2017 and 5 years later have zero midfield prospects.

Zero

What a waste. Rub it out and start again. And start with the midfield.

The one high end mid picked recently can’t get even a few minutes in there at AFL level, apparently due to fitness. So we take him as non-playing emergency on the weekend.

As much as we may stuff up at talent ID, when you see development efforts like that, it’s hard to be certain where the issue is. Chayce looked the goods in year 1 as well. Then Godden went about improving him.