Opinion Big bodied inside mids. Who would be in our top 5 since our last finals win in 2004?

[Burzum]

Understandable. But teams do care about this stuff, such as Carlton whose recruiting team had some Oakland Raiders statisticians out working with them this year to help improve their scope of data collection.

Not sure the Raiders are who you want to be going to for help.

 

[BrunoV]

BrunoV

"Since then we've also drafted Laverde, Langford, Begley, Francis and Ridley with the stated aim of playing them as mids"

whos stated aim? was it Dodoro on draft night, on repeat saying they have scope?

or genuine match day coaches and strategists (who actually make these things happen)

i agree with the dissconnect - Feels evey bit like Dodoro runs his on race to an extent, he can draft all the projects he likes but they will never end up being finished if everybody isnt working to the same set of instructions.

As some philosopher once said, when you are in your own lane...there is no traffic. I can see dodo driving off into the sunset with his arm out the window, whistling dixie...

Dodoro has repeatedly said it about each of the players I've mentioned, although the comments about Francis are really just limited to 2015 and 2016. Even at the end of last year there was that dumb piece on the website in which Laverde was saying that he wanted to play midfield (that's not something that comes out of nowhere).

I take all footy comments at face value unless there is a clear reason not to.

In deciding whether there is a clear reason not to take Dodoro at face value, I'm thinking about the fact that if he wasn't being truthful he's basically done nothing to develop a midfield which, at the time the decisions were made, was reliant on aging stalwarts such as Watson, Goddard, Hocking and Stanton. At the time at which the decisions were made, he'd replaced 2 of 4 crucial midfielders (using picks gained from the loss of quality players).

I'm then faced with a decision between crediting Dodoro with a rational motivation and an alternative which is essentially incompetence that is so extreme that it's not negligent but closer to being criminally wilful and couldn't be considered rational in any way.

If I'm balancing up all of the competing factors, it is much more likely that the decision makers (Dodoro included) were chasing success via the trade table. To conclude that was the basis of decision making means that I only have to accept a standard level of incompetence on display in the footy industry. It's not that hard to see us believing that the style of 2017 could succeed (remembering that Adelaide made a GF that year playing the same style). So it's both not an unlikely scenario but also has the rational motivation of chasing success (even if based on an erroneous view).

I think it is much less likely that Dodoro was ignoring the aging midfield when drafting players between 2014 and 2016.

 

[Mikevk123]

Jobe Watson
Brendan Goddard
Joe Misiti
Dyson Heppell
Can’t find a 5th

 

[eth-dog]

Watson, Misiti, JJ, Heppell, Hocking

 

[Rustyrich]

Mark Johnson, Misiti, Watson, Goddard and Heppell

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

Jobe Watson
Will Hams
Nick O'Brien
Elliott Kavanagh
Kyle Langford

 

[NAB777]

Serious lack of big bodies in some of these names

 

[the PILL]

We are all over the place recruitment, strategy, coaching wise without the right visionary clout of someone to sew anything meaningful together and its very obvious we haven't had the harmony there for so so very long...

We've got bits n pieces of awesomeness but it doesn't gel into a competitive race car come September and we've got the drought to show it since all n sundry now have the ability to analyze stats as time and hindsight pass. (16 years no finals win but hey, we look fantastic here n there lol)

Essendon have been though this cycle before ironically and I'm sorry but it's our arrogance as a big club that stiffles us greatly. A very very special man broke this cycle once giving us all we desired but alas we turned back into the same thing once his tenure became a bit stale and so called bean counters started pressuring for faster results. Until the club finds a geniune cohesive medium we will keep bumbling about Im sorry to say.

The game is midfield driven now (if you think otherwise you're just a casual punter) and we suck at developing them system wise. Oh we can win at draft tables but that's about it.

It is very interesting to see that other big arrogant clubs have faced similar situations and been able to rectify it (rather rapidly), not by recruiting a star ingredient but by stimulating a system that counters individuality.

Deep down i think, yes we need a big bodied extracting bull mid and have believed it since probaly the emergence of Bont, Martin, Cripps, Fyfe prototypes (Pies have a slight different take on it midfield wise which we probably lean to as a style but we are just so hot n cold in there it struggles uless we are given slack on any given day)

What i also find wierd is we tried the the press n lock in style with a below par mid strategy of gaining possession at later contests and it worked pretty well (last half of 2018) then got Shiel and reverted back to run n gun ??? Which kind of proves my point on our disjointed arrogant approach.

This is where i really worry about our structure as a club, Worsfold should of been able to of identify this and change it in areas that required, he was bought in to not only sure up our image post saga but create competetive systems remembering his sucess was actually a strong midfield driven defensive mindset coach. What the hell is he trying to promote pretty attacking footy for. It's almost like he is being guided by some other agenda ay???

I think next years going to be a clone of the last 3 unless we wake the F up and realise our disjointment as a professional club is getting way past other laughing stock 9-thmond/Colliwobling/CarlJudd eras...

Recruit any mid type you like EFC, you will anyway but for the love of God clean out the long term club internal shadowy influences and backslapping of meritocracy.

15/16 years of thinking we are better than we are by a top heavy administration is quite enough I think.

 

[Foxx]

Myers was an interesting one because he was drafted as an elite wingman type. Slender, athletic, agile and fairly quick. We built him up to be that big inside mid which ruined him. Look up his under 18 highlights - incredible looking. Its light and day, between the type he was and what we changed him to.

 

[MattyB3150]

How are we looking? Do we have the types on our list to develop or do we still need for Adrian to draft one?

 

[BrunoV]

1. Laverde

2. Voss.

3. Jobe

4. Hocking

5. Mitch Hibberd.

 

[faible]

1. Laverde

 

[carnthedons]

1. Laverde

2. Voss.

3. Jobe

4. Hocking

5. Mitch Hibberd.

I think you’ll find that’s exclusively flanker Mitch Hibberd thanks to our coaching staff

 

[Bunk Moreland]

This thread highlights the need for a bigfooty title tag 'depressing'.

Hopefully Clarke and Mynott turn into something good.

Haha, made me giggle

 

[Darealrath]

Watson, Hocking and Shiel would have been an incredible centre square combination.

 

[Chief Hopper]

I remember reading this thread in 2019 thinking our club would someday soon get that big bodied mid.
Now it's 2022 and we still don't have one.

My top 5
Watson
Jason Johnson

Jason Johnson

Age

46

Ht

180cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

20.6

5star

K

13.0

5star

HB

7.5

5star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.7

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.8

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

1.2

2star

T

1.0

3star

Hocking
???

Here's hoping we don't go another 3 years without one...

 

[fishardansin]

Jobe Watson.

I was also hoping for Laverde too BrunoV