AFL Player # 3: Darcy Parish

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Unrestricted free agent 2028 or 2029
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 18, doug85

 

[FootyGuru]

Wow, people are really freaking out over one average game. There is a bit of a cycle here. Darcy has an average game and people come out and start bagging him and then he gets 30 for 5 or 6 weeks in a row and they disappear. It has been like this for a couple of years now.

We have bigger issues than Darcy Parish. On Saturday we got smashed in the midfield (by a bloody good midfield) and Caldwell, Setterfield and Hobbs in particular were also average. We also seem to have pinned our hopes on Tsatas who looks like he has similar flaws to Parish. Martin as well. Throw in the lack of talented big and small players up forward, our lack of consistent quality ruck men, the gaping holes in our defence and the main reason a why we lost are clearly highlighted.

Disagree on Caldwell who I thought was far and away our best midfielder.

I wanted parish to be moved due to what we would have got in return and the midfielders that we have coming through and that he is replaceable.

Parish is an elite cb player, I believe Shiel and stringer are too.
Parish is also elite at timing and reading the ball off a ruckman, when given the space to get momentum.
Parish is very good at giving off slick and accurate handballs, albeit before the tackler instead of bigger mids who can take the tackle nullifying that defender and freeing up a handball.

I have no doubt parish will get 30 touches next game, because the coaches put him in a position to do so. He plays solely midfield and calls his own name from the ruckman at nearly every stoppage. He will never be an elite kick, can barely kick it over 40 metres. Isn’t overly fast, athletic or strong and can’t overcome physical pressure or a tag. Although improved still a very bad tackler. Rarely stops the ball in a tackle. Unless he can learn to play as a forward too we will be stuck with a severely flawed midfield group, because coaches invest too much stock into a parish led midfield.

 

[ant555]

Parish and Merret are both ball hunting rovers so should never be in the in the same midfield. We need a ruckrover like Tsatas or Durham to take his place. Setterfield, Durham & Merret is a far better balanced midfield imo

Tsatas is pretty much a ball hunter who struggles with defense as well. Agree that Setterfield / Durham / one of Merrett and Parish who can swap in and out is better.

 

[katana]

On Saturday we got smashed in the midfield (by a bloody good midfield) and Caldwell, Setterfield and Hobbs in particular were also average.

none of those guys are 27 year olds with 6 year deals on good money. none of those guys get the pure on ball minutes that parish does. all of those guys are better defensively and physically than parish.

caldwell was also decent on friday.

 

[andleanback]

i don't think it works like that.

simple case of the emperor having no clothes imo.

Yes it does. If you bring in free agents you don’t get your own compo pick

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

I think he’s just a bit rusty from missing first couple of games. Same with Hobbs who missed more time

 

[Agronomus]

There wasn't anywhere to ship him.

That says it all.

Even Whatley was saying Parish had no appreciation of his limitations if he wanted a 6 year deal.

It was 5 but then all of the sudden it became 6. 6 for a guy whose footy style was last relevant in the 1980s.

And the early 90s

 

[yodellinhank]

As for other sides not wanting him. Their was interest just not at the price as they did not consider him to be the guy you pay $750k - $800k . IMO we payed overs but with the front loaded contract it is not a massive issue.

When the Tigers shopped Dusty around, and everyone else got cold feet about it, they lowballed him and he pulled his head in and became the best player in the comp on a great value contract.

We caved in to Darcy on a deal that was so embarrassing they had to lie about it. No wonder he is so full of himself.

How's Brad going with changing our culture?

 

[ant555]

When the Tigers shopped Dusty around, and everyone else got cold feet about it, they lowballed him and he pulled his head in and became the best player in the comp on a great value contract.

We caved in to Darcy on a deal that was so embarrassing they had to lie about it. No wonder he is so full of himself.

How's Brad going with changing our culture?

Wow did not know that you had to get everything 100% right to change culture

 

[DERO]

none of those guys are 27 year olds with 6 year deals on good money. none of those guys get the pure on ball minutes that parish does. all of those guys are better defensively and physically than parish.

caldwell was also decent on friday.

Agree that Caldwell was solid against Port and i'd also agree that Parish played one of the worst games that he has played for years.

 

[Zephyr Effekt]

He’s what he’s always been.

A ball hunter who disposes the ball the instant he senses pressure or when there is no space.

He excels at the centre bounce because it’s the most uncontested contested part of the game.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Tsatas is pretty much a ball hunter who struggles with defense as well. Agree that Setterfield / Durham / one of Merrett and Parish who can swap in and out is better.

You can definitely get away with the two ball hunters, I'd suggest Port had 3 the other night. They just have to be so damaging that the opposition can't run off them. We gotta upgrade.

 

[BrunoV]

You and I both know that that is not the truth.

I believe it. I may be wrong but I certainly don't know my view not to be the truth.

This is how I make my case.

I place no value in possession accumulation. That happens to wipe out about two thirds of what Parish does. This is all of the running around, loose ball gets on the wing and half back. This is all the result of team structure / sides choosing the players they let accumulate. It can't be done by players who defend, either because they do it instinctively or because they are asked to defend. It's playing a role and is of no more significance or value than any other role on the ground almost all of which offer the opportunity for only a fraction of the accumulation. Probelm is that it gets overrated because the champions are allowed to accumulate and we've never really readjusted how possession is viewed, certainly not since the 90s when I have clear memories of the game. If anything Supercoach has further distorted possession based analysis. Mids are not tagged or even run with and there is a lot more emphasis on retaining possession of the ball. So we're really dealing with possession inflation. Ball use is the key criteria for assessing the value of accumulated possession. Parish is a poor AFL kick, struggling to be average. No one is seriously going to argue that he is a better than average user of the ball, surely. That immediately calls into question the majority of his involvement.

While I accept that he is smart and very good at accumulating I dont accept the net value of his presence changes anything for Essendon. I've got some spreadsheets sitting around somewhere that demonstrate that the volume and differential of clearances, possessions, etc is not reduced by Parish's absence. I'll dig them out.

That leaves us with his work as an inside mid where, to start with the positives:

• he handles the ball extremely well;
• he has a very good read of the fall / movement of the ball in a stoppage.

Problem 1 basically neutralises his ball handling. He can't absorb physical pressure enough to use his handling to handball in a damaging way, best illustrated by Greg Williams and Lachie Neale (as players of similar stature).

That brings us back to ball use. When he is the one running ahead of the stoppage and hacking kicks forward we're not getting value for a clearance. Yes, Danger and Fyfe were/are guillty of dodgy kicks and so was Judd but they made clearances mortals can't through sheer power and speed and then carried the ball. They didn't need to run ahead of the stoppage to break away. The only other way a poor kick is effective inside is if he's doing a Jobe, wearing the pressure of 2 or 3 players to free a team mate in space, but Parish isn't doing that.

This stuff is barely in dispute. It's the emphasis on accumulation which is.

He has no defensive game, no physical presence and no running power.

The industry has a way of validating players whose quality cant really be separated from players who dont make it. But when you look through it all there are contradictions that never get a satisfactory explanation. I call it the Mark McGough rule. It's the way a player can go from ANZAC day medal on debut to scrap heap in the blink of any eye.

What happend when we gave converted half forward Nick O'Brien a gig inside for the second half of 2015? Multiple games over 30 possessions or more, an average of about 25 possessions, followed by immediate delisting.

Why does Jackson Hately get moved on from Adelaide? Because he is quantifiably worse than Matt Crouch? Did he ever get the opportunity to just hunt to pad his stats and have a career? Or was more being asked of him? We know clubs ask more of young players than they do of estblished senior players. We've been experiencing it for more than a decade and we've punished young players for the failings of their elders for just as long.

What about Will Brodie? The one time he played consistently inside he dominated. How does he compare to Jarrod Lyons, Brad Crouch, Heppell, Jack Steele, Jobe, JPK, Priddis and Ziebell? Just to pluck more names including All Australians, club captains and a Brownlow Medallist.

Was Michael Barlow still a ball magnet when he was moved out of Freo to GC where he could hardly get a game?

Shane Tuck combined 25 hard ball gets with 10 tackles a week and got frozen out.

Kyle Martin was getting 45 touches a week and kicking 3 to 5 goals in the VFL. Never got a look.
 
We're seeing it now with Tom Mitchell. In the space of 20 months 2 clubs have treated him like waking up next to an undesirable hookup the morning after.

Essendon specialises in treating these players as stars. It's why I'm so conscious of it.

 

[DERO]

I believe it. I may be wrong but I certainly don't know my view not to be the truth.

You claimed that you did not come in here to comment when Parish was playing well was about relevance. This is untrue because you only pop up when Parish has a poor game or seemingly to pot Parish when you think he has played a bad game. I suspect we would have a similar view of his game against Port.

This is how I make my case.

I place no value in possession accumulation. That happens to wipe out about two thirds of what Parish does. This is all of the running around, loose ball gets on the wing and half back. This is all the result of team structure / sides choosing the players they let accumulate. It can't be done by players who defend, either because they do it instinctively or because they are asked to defend. It's playing a role and is of no more significance or value than any other role on the ground almost all of which offer the opportunity for only a fraction of the accumulation. Probelm is that it gets overrated because the champions are allowed to accumulate and we've never really readjusted how possession is viewed, certainly not since the 90s when I have clear memories of the game. If anything Supercoach has further distorted possession based analysis. Mids are not tagged or even run with and there is a lot more emphasis on retaining possession of the ball. So we're really dealing with possession inflation. Ball use is the key criteria for assessing the value of accumulated possession. Parish is a poor AFL kick, struggling to be average. No one is seriously going to argue that he is a better than average user of the ball, surely. That immediately calls into question the majority of his involvement.

Statistically Parish compares with other AFL mids. His kicking at times can be poor. I have posted comparisons in here previously. I don't care what you say regarding possessions, anyone that can get the football 40 times a game can play. The fact that many of these possessions are won at the coal face seems to be lost on you and you have instead diminished his by putting 2/3 down to accumulation.

While I accept that he is smart and very good at accumulating I dont accept the net value of his presence changes anything for Essendon. I've got some spreadsheets sitting around somewhere that demonstrate that the volume and differential of clearances, possessions, etc is not reduced by Parish's absence. I'll dig them out.

Please dig these out.

That leaves us with his work as an inside mid where, to start with the positives:

• he handles the ball extremely well;
• he has a very good read of the fall / movement of the ball in a stoppage.

Agreed

Problem 1 basically neutralises his ball handling. He can't absorb physical pressure enough to use his handling to handball in a damaging way, best illustrated by Greg Williams and Lachie Neale (as players of similar stature).

Greg Williams should have won three brownlow medals and Lachie Neil has two making them arguably two of the best mids to ever play. Most other midfileders will not measure up against these two as the are two exceptional players.

That brings us back to ball use. When he is the one running ahead of the stoppage and hacking kicks forward we're not getting value for a clearance. Yes, Danger and Fyfe were/are guillty of dodgy kicks and so was Judd but they made clearances mortals can't through sheer power and speed and then carried the ball. They didn't need to run ahead of the stoppage to break away. The only other way a poor kick is effective inside is if he's doing a Jobe, wearing the pressure of 2 or 3 players to free a team mate in space, but Parish isn't doing that.

Danger,Judd and Fyfe are brownlow medalists and are extremely gifted athletes. Again, there aren't many of these and the comparison is a bit unfair. I also laugh when Parish gets compared with Dusty Martin who has three Norm Smith medals and a brownlow. We are measuring up against some of the best players of the last few decades. Of course they are better players than Parish.

This stuff is barely in dispute. It's the emphasis on accumulation which is.

He has no defensive game, no physical presence and no running power.

He is improving his defensive game runs ok but is not big enough to be a crash and bash midfielder. He is never going to have a physical game and was never going to have one because of his size.

The industry has a way of validating players whose quality cant really be separated from players who dont make it. But when you look through it all there are contradictions that never get a satisfactory explanation. I call it the Mark McGough rule. It's the way a player can go from ANZAC day medal on debut to scrap heap in the blink of any eye.

Possum eyes McGough played a handful good games and never had any real consistency. He averaqed 14 touches over 40 games. Again this is another poor comparison. I watched Kyle Reimers kick 8 goals one day. Just saying.

What happend when we gave converted half forward Nick O'Brien a gig inside for the second half of 2015? Multiple games over 30 possessions or more, an average of about 25 possessions, followed by immediate delisting.

Nick O'Brien makes Darcy Parish look like Usain Bolt. He was way too slow and never averaged 25 touches. You might want to have a look at that.

Why does Jackson Hately get moved on from Adelaide? Because he is quantifiably worse than Matt Crouch? Did he ever get the opportunity to just hunt to pad his stats and have a career? Or was more being asked of him? We know clubs ask more of young players than they do of estblished senior players. We've been experiencing it for more than a decade and we've punished young players for the failings of their elders for just as long.

I don't even know who Jackson Hately is but looked him up. He played 28 games and averaged 18 touches as a mid.
Matt Crouch has played every game this year for Adelaide and picked up coaches vote in at least one game this year so he must be doing something right. I'm not as familiar wth where he is at but I know he has had OP issues.

What about Will Brodie? The one time he played consistently inside he dominated. How does he compare to Jarrod Lyons, Brad Crouch, Heppell, Jack Steele, Jobe, JPK, Priddis and Ziebell? Just to pluck more names including All Australians, club captains and a Brownlow Medallist.

Will Brodie had a really good year the year befpre last and has struggled to find the footy ever since.

Was Michael Barlow still a ball magnet when he was moved out of Freo to GC where he could hardly get a game?

Michael Barlow was a bloodyy good player but he was 28 or 29 and busted up when he was moved on wasn't he? Kind of like Jason Johnson was at 29.

Shane Tuck combined 25 hard ball gets with 10 tackles a week and got frozen out.

Shane Tuck average 17 touches and 2 tackles in his last year of football

Kyle Martin was getting 45 touches a week and kicking 3 to 5 goals in the VFL. Never got a look.

i don't even know who Kyle Martin is.

 
We're seeing it now with Tom Mitchell. In the space of 20 months 2 clubs have treated him like waking up next to an undesirable hookup the morning after.

Tom Mitchell has a brownlow and about 130 votes. He had a pretty solid year last year at Collingwood and has missed a bit this year due to injury - actually a bit like Parish TBH. That said, he getting on a bit (31 next month) so you'd expect him to decline a bit. Parish is in his prime.

Essendon specialises in treating these players as stars. It's why I'm so conscious of it.

So who else do we specialise in treating like a star? Also, how do we treat these players like stars?

In my opinion you mark Parish too harshly . He is not elite but he is a very good player who had a pretty shit game against Port. He'll bounce back.

 

[Howard Moon]

You claimed that you did not come in here to comment when Parish was playing well was about relevance. This is untrue because you only pop up when Parish has a poor game or seemingly to pot Parish when you think he has played a bad game. I suspect we would have a similar view of his game against Port.

Statistically Parish compares with other AFL mids. His kicking at times can be poor. I have posted comparisons in here previously. I don't care what you say regarding possessions, anyone that can get the football 40 times a game can play. The fact that many of these possessions are won at the coal face seems to be lost on you and you have instead diminished his by putting 2/3 down to accumulation.


Please dig these out.

Agreed

Greg Williams should have won three brownlow medals and Lachie Neil has two making them arguably two of the best mids to ever play. Most other midfileders will not measure up against these two as the are two exceptional players.

Danger,Judd and Fyfe are brownlow medalists and are extremely gifted athletes. Again, there aren't many of these and the comparison is a bit unfair. I also laugh when Parish gets compared with Dusty Martin who has three Norm Smith medals and a brownlow. We are measuring up against some of the best players of the last few decades. Of course they are better players than Parish.

He is improving his defensive game runs ok but is not big enough to be a crash and bash midfielder. He is never going to have a physical game and was never going to have one because of his size.

Possum eyes McGough played a handful good games and never had any real consistency. He averaqed 14 touches over 40 games. Again this is another poor comparison. I watched Kyle Reimers kick 8 goals one day. Just saying.

Nick O'Brien makes Darcy Parish look like Usain Bolt. He was way too slow and never averaged 25 touches. You might want to have a look at that.

I don't even know who Jackson Hately is but looked him up. He played 28 games and averaged 18 touches as a mid.
Matt Crouch has played every game this year for Adelaide and picked up coaches vote in at least one game this year so he must be doing something right. I'm not as familiar wth where he is at but I know he has had OP issues.

Will Brodie had a really good year the year befpre last and has struggled to find the footy ever since.

Michael Barlow was a bloodyy good player but he was 28 or 29 and busted up when he was moved on wasn't he? Kind of like Jason Johnson was at 29.

Shane Tuck average 17 touches and 2 tackles in his last year of football


i don't even know who Kyle Martin is.


Tom Mitchell has a brownlow and about 130 votes. He had a pretty solid year last year at Collingwood and has missed a bit this year due to injury - actually a bit like Parish TBH. That said, he getting on a bit (31 next month) so you'd expect him to decline a bit. Parish is in his prime.

So who else do we specialise in treating like a star? Also, how do we treat these players like stars?

In my opinion you mark Parish too harshly . He is not elite but he is a very good player who had a pretty s**t game against Port. He'll bounce back.

Think you missed alot of the point- clubs and coaches orchestrate who their accumulator is via the structures and ground set ups they make. They are the king makers, it's why a player like Brodie can go from 30+ possessions to none in the blink of an eye, he didn't lose football ability, he lost his role. The accumulator is someone who doseht have it on their job description to be defensive as other pickup that slack.

So we've chosen our accumulator as someone who has little hurt factor? Although it seems we are grooming Martin as the next accumulator who actually has foot skills and an eye for a pass so we might be learning.

 

[DERO]

Think you missed alot of the point- clubs and coaches orchestrate who their accumulator is via the structures and ground set ups they make. They are the king makers, it's why a player like Brodie can go from 30+ possessions to none in the blink of an eye, he didn't lose football ability, he lost his role. The accumulator is someone who doseht have it on their job description to be defensive as other pickup that slack.

So we've chosen our accumulator as someone who has little hurt factor? Although it seems we are grooming Martin as the next accumulator who actually has foot skills and an eye for a pass so we might be learning.

i'm not sure i missed the point at all- i just don't agree with the point that Bruno was attempting to make with his word salad.

 

[faible]

Think you missed alot of the point- clubs and coaches orchestrate who their accumulator is via the structures and ground set ups they make. They are the king makers, it's why a player like Brodie can go from 30+ possessions to none in the blink of an eye, he didn't lose football ability, he lost his role. The accumulator is someone who doseht have it on their job description to be defensive as other pickup that slack.

So we've chosen our accumulator as someone who has little hurt factor? Although it seems we are grooming Martin as the next accumulator who actually has foot skills and an eye for a pass so we might be learning.

The contention that high disposal number is only due to role is a silly one.

You need a certain level of read of the game, sufficient endurance to get to where the ball is going to be, the right running patterns to get ahead of the play to be where the ball is going to be instead of where it is in the moment, and to maintain that role you need a certain level of actual football skill to collect and dispose of it.

Parish didn't lose his read of the game or running ability against Port (despite people overexaggerating his tank is OK by AFL midfield standard) but he wasn't handling the ball cleanly which is traditionally his POD as a midfielder.

We don't have the right midfield mix, somewhere like Melbourne with a couple of big units in Petracca and Oliver in there would see Parish look pretty damn good IMO. Parish's best isn't as damaging as Merrett, but it's not accurate to say he has 'little' hurt factor either.

In 2021 which IMO is the best season Parish has had from an offensive point of view:

#4 in the league for i50s (excluding Gresham who only played 3 games) ahead of Merrett, Dangerfield, Dusty and behind only Petracca, Bontempelli and Zorko.
#19 in the league for Goal Assists; ahead of Greene, Selwood, Boak, Merrett, Heeney, Tim Kelly, Petracca & Oliver.
#3 in the league for Clearances (yes, I know Hardball gets are a thing and I agree that's his weakness) behind only Liberatore and Cunnington.
#5 for Score Involvements behind Petracca, Greene, Taylor Walker & Zorko. Ahead of guys like Bontempelli, Oliver, Merrett.
#19 for Metres Gained, most of the guys ahead of him being half-backs and outside midifelders, ahead of Josh Kelly, Merrett, Dangerfield, Oliver.

IMO he needs to commit to the same thing Merrett has; be the best defensive midfielder in the league. Set up defensive side of the stoppage, position yourself to block off or corral the opposition, the offensive side of his game will come anyway.

 

[Vander18]

We don't have the right midfield mix, somewhere like Melbourne with a couple of big units in Petracca and Oliver in there would see Parish look pretty damn good IMO.

Serious question….what would Parish’s role be if he was playing midfield with Petracca and Oliver?

 

[faible]

Serious question….what would Parish’s role be if he was playing midfield with Petracca and Oliver?

Run and carry from stoppages, he's exceptional at reading ruck taps and pretty good at moving the ball forward, and is generally also exceptionally clean by hand (Port match was an anomaly).

He's a guy to have as your 2nd or 3rd best midfielder, especially where there's one or two big units in there.

Problem is we've got Parish as our 2nd best behind Merrett who's also a smaller player. Setterfield is a bigger body but isn't dynamic enough to warrant opposition attention, and the Durham / Perkins / Hobbs / Tsatas crew are still finding their way in the middle.

If they move Merrett out to a flank (IMO it's probably going to release him to be more damaging) and can get a mix of stronger bodies with a bit of power at stoppages e.g. what Tsatas should become or just generally a solid aggressive body e.g. Durham or Hobbs, then Parish fits alongside that cohort.

Perkins is a bit of a wildcard, if he can be a goalkicking midfielder that's hard to tackle then that's potentially some of the star factor we've been desperate for.

 

[Vander18]

Run and carry from stoppages, he's exceptional at reading ruck taps and pretty good at moving the ball forward, and is generally also exceptionally clean by hand (Port match was an anomaly).

He's a guy to have as your 2nd or 3rd best midfielder, especially where there's one or two big units in there.

Problem is we've got Parish as our 2nd best behind Merrett who's also a smaller player. Setterfield is a bigger body but isn't dynamic enough to warrant opposition attention, and the Durham / Perkins / Hobbs / Tsatas crew are still finding their way in the middle.

If they move Merrett out to a flank (IMO it's probably going to release him to be more damaging) and can get a mix of stronger bodies with a bit of power at stoppages e.g. what Tsatas should become or just generally a solid aggressive body e.g. Durham or Hobbs, then Parish fits alongside that cohort.

Perkins is a bit of a wildcard, if he can be a goalkicking midfielder that's hard to tackle then that's potentially some of the star factor we've been desperate for.

Fair enough. It’s all in the eye of the beholder but I just can’t see what value he adds alongside those two.

I’d have thought with those two winning as much footy as they do you’d want a Merrett type (elite user) as first receiver.

 

[faible]

Fair enough. It’s all in the eye of the beholder but I just can’t see what value he adds alongside those two.

I’d have thought with those two winning as much footy as they do you’d want a Merrett type (elite user) as first receiver.

Of the two you'd prefer Merrett getting the ball with time and space to use it, being a stoppage player doesn't necessarily mean you get the time and space to kick the ball.

If the opposition is able to force Merrett to be first receiver and release the ball by hand, that's a win for them IMO.

 

[DERO]

Serious question….what would Parish’s role be if he was playing midfield with Petracca and Oliver?

Some people have really short memories around here.

Parish was getting bagged in here when he was playing as a mid / forward earlier in his career and I remember talking to James Kelly when he was coaching at Essendon and he mentioned that statistically Parish was ranked as one of the best mid / forwards in the game (ranking elite for the position) and was highly rated internally -this was just before his breakout year after Shiel went down.

I found that pretty funny because despite this, there were people potting him in here for being too small and not the “midfield bull” that we needed and blah, blah, blah.

 

[Vander18]

Some people have really short memories around here.

Parish was getting bagged in here when he was playing as a mid / forward earlier in his career and I remember talking to James Kelly when he was coaching at Essendon and he mentioned that statistically Parish was ranked as one of the best mid / forwards in the game (ranking elite for the position) and was highly rated internally -this was just before his breakout year after Shiel went down.

I found that pretty funny because despite this, there were people potting him in here for being too small and not the “midfield bull” that we needed and blah, blah, blah.

You are quite emotional about this issue Dero!

I’m not bagging or potting anyone….just don’t see Darcy the way you do.

 

[dank420_]

Haha emo DERO

 

[DERO]

You are quite emotional about this issue Dero!

I’m not bagging or potting anyone….just don’t see Darcy the way you do.

I'm not getting emotional - I'm just pointing out a few things. I have been pretty polite too, although I did refer to Bruno's thesis as a word salad which was probably a bit rude. BrunoV knows I love him.

 

[Run and carry]

Wow, people are really freaking out over one average game. There is a bit of a cycle here. Darcy has an average game and people come out and start bagging him and then he gets 30 for 5 or 6 weeks in a row and they disappear. It has been like this for a couple of years now.

We have bigger issues than Darcy Parish. On Saturday we got smashed in the midfield (by a bloody good midfield) and Caldwell, Setterfield and Hobbs in particular were also average. We also seem to have pinned our hopes on Tsatas who looks like he has similar flaws to Parish. Martin as well. Throw in the lack of talented big and small players up forward, our lack of consistent quality ruck men, the gaping holes in our defence and the main reason a why we lost are clearly highlighted.

We forget that he was sixth in the Brownlow one year and with 5 o r 6 weeks out he was a decent chance of winning it. At his best he is one of the better midfielders in the comp despite his flaws. No doubt.