I never said we'd prefer Sloane to Berry. As I said in my first post on the topic, since this time last year Berry has effectively been replaced by Sloane. However, I think this reflects Berry's performance more than an arbitrary preference for experienced players, given he's been dropped from the side completely rather than shunted to another role. Not every young midfielder is going to make it, and unlike some of the other young mids we have I don't think Berry would particularly excel outside of the midfield. This was a complaint people had last year as well - that he was being asked to play out of position in the forward line when he wasn't in the midfield, and was pretty ineffective in that role.Dawson is a senior player, and the team captain. He wasn't developed at our club. He demanded his insertion when the club continued to play him in the back pocket, and had the leverage to achieve it.
Sloane did his knee last year, there is precisely zero evidence that we'd prefer Berry to him if both available, if anything this year proves the opposite. We picked Crouch for recall this year, after recalling him numerous times last year. We've far from written off breaking glass on that 'solution'.
Repeatedly suggesting that we're doing the same thing as Port does not make it true. The numbers alone captured at this point of time do not reveal the full story. Our players CBA attendances are trending down, the less than golden oldies players trending upwards. The circumstances of the two teams were dramatically different, and remain so. They've got an embarrassment of riches in the midfield, we've got sweet * all, and yet they still have found a way to get JHF sixty percent attendances this year.
It would be far more reasonable to take a measured approach to midfield exposure if you had a star midfield already, than it is when you have a midfield that has spent longer in time stinking than the average AFL career.
In my opinion, the club's view is:
- Laird and Dawson are our best mids and are being prioritised for midfield roles, with the other main midfield spots being split between Sloane, Keays mostly as a tagger/defensive mid, and the younger players.
- Rachele, Pedlar and possibly Soligo (his place in the side is certainly less secure) have a big future in the midfield, but are lacking the physical traits at this time to sustain continued midfield minutes. The goal is to get them exposure to the midfield without harming the performance of the team, by rotating them through there while they have a primary role elsewhere on the field where they can still be useful.
I predict that Pedlar and Rachele will have significantly more midfield minutes next year, unless they are injured. If they don't, by all means come back and say I told you so, but I suspect you also believe this is the direction the club is heading.
I also think this gradual increase in midfield minutes is a pretty standard feature of youth development across the AFL, particularly with young players who don't have the tank or other physical traits yet for prolonged midfield exposure. JHF, Walsh etc. are exceptions rather than the standard, and Rozee and Butters represent an obvious example of this, which is why I pointed to them, not because the clubs are totally identical in every way. Speaking broadly, midfielders starting their careers playing a lot of minutes either across half-forward or half-back before transitioning to become fulltime on-ballers is very common. Far more common than these 'top 5 draft pick is a full time midfielder from day 1' scenarios.