solidgoldhell
Debutant
- Mar 31, 2014
- 94
- 344
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
I think you are overstating how much midfield time there is to share around.
We average 6 players attending center bounces a game, 1 of which is the ruckman.
2 of those 5 midfielders generally only attend 1 or 2 center bounces a quarter.
Most sides will run 3 consistent center square mids, with 2 that help out.
I agree you need to bat deep with 5 or 6 guys, but a few of those need to be able to play on the wing or rotate forward.
Sheezel can obviously do that.
LDU and Wardlaw aren't going anywhere.
So that basically leaves 2 positions.
If you play a tagger, it's 1.
Powell is going to be competing with Simpkin, McKercher, maybe a FOS/Smillie, maybe Duursma, as well as Phillips for 1 or 2 spots.
There isn't room for all of them. We are probably 2 pure center square midfielders heavy if Simpkin returns to that role. I'm not counting McKercher or Duursma, as they are largely irrelevant at the moment and secondly far more versatile than the other 3 longterm.
The problem currently is that LDU and Wardlaw are better than Powell, Phillips and Simpkin. Much better. The last 3 have very little flexibility other than in the middle.
Powell and Simpkin have both failed at half forward if we are to be honest.
This would be even worse if Thomas didn't blow his career up.
I'm going to hate to be that guy in a few years, but something is going to have to give in the next 18 months.
The midfield group is unbalanced, to the point we are going to have to go to the draft again for a running/versatile midfielder (when we really shouldn't have to) because we don't have enough of them and we have too many pure clearance midfielders.
I just hope the club aren't stupid about it and erode a chance to fix this issue by letting players rot in the VFL that have trade value.
If you offered me a swap right now for draft capital that secured Kako, or Faull, or Travaglia for Tom I would do it. It's no slight on Tom, who could still end up a North champion, it's just he's simply got more value than Phillips and Simpkin, there's Adelaide as a legitimate option needing mids and it's a chance to adjust the balance of the midfield group whilst filling another list need.
Nothing personal against him or even a inference regarding his future career prospects.
The same applies with Phillips or even Simpkin if it came to it and an offer was there.
I just can't see 2 of them, let alone 3 of them in the North side in 3 years time unless something odd occurs like losses of LDU, Wardlaw, Sheezel, McKercher etc.
The club is so much closer to absolutely nailing a list that is going to roar up the ladder than some realise. The emergence of Xerri and Comben in absolutely critical roles has really changed our outlook.
The hardest thing is generally the top end talent, we have it spades. We just need to redeploy some of that capital we have spent elsewhere to fill in some gaps whilst that capital has value imo.
Could not agree more with this. It’s no coincidence that Powell’s steep drop off in form has coincided with Phillip’s inclusion in the side. The two of them simply don’t work well in the side together, one will always be given the chance to prosper as the other flounders out of position. I’m pretty sure the coach has stated as much when asked why we weren’t playing Phillips in the past.
Powell is a clearance mid and he really isn’t versatile to play anywhere else, I think he’s proven that over the last few weeks. It’s a shame as I do rate him in the centre, but he’s still well down the pecking order with this uber-talented crop we have coming through.
The bloke has currency now, we should really be taking a hard look at it for both his and our sake.