Is our midfield now the best in the comp?

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

With GAblett moving to GC, I think our midfield is now the best in the league and probably has the best depth the Hawks have ever had. Add Bruce and Tuck to it and it is getting scary in quality and depth.

Midfield 1

Ce: Young - Hodge - Burgoyne

Ru: Bailey
RR: Mitchell
Ro: Rioli

Midfield 2

Ce: Ellis - Lewis - Bruce

Ru: Hale
RR: Sewell
Ro: Bateman

Midfield 3

Ce: Savage - Hallahan - Smith

Ru: Renouf
RR: Tuck
Ro: Shiels

 

[Hodginator]

That first midfield is very exciting, providing big Max gets up. Here's hoping he does!!

 

[Beandip]

Collingwood would certainly be arguing

 

[Chrissie90]

haha. if the midfield is the best in the comp and we have the best 2 key forward combo, why are we a middle of the ladder team? Do we have the worst backline in the comp to balance it out?

 

[tige19]

We are far far off the best midfield in the comp. We lack a quality ruck although I hold hope for Hale and we are still pedestrian slow through the middle. That of course will change if Rioli and Smith play alot of senior footy through the guts and Young stays injury free with Changa finding 08 form.

We are probably 5-8 in regards to midfield. It's annoying when fans/journos overate our squad, the talent is there but talent doesn't always translate into sustained success.

 

[MinerBoy]

Not until we start playing like it. Names mean nothing. We have been nowhere near the best half dozen midfields over the past few years.

 

[Flukey!]

We might have the names so to speak but we certainly dont play like we are.
Mid tier at best.

 

[B&GBlood]

Just like Lehman brothers 2008 investment portfolio........

Looks very good on paper but has under performed recently.

 

[Ordovician]

There is no way our midfield is anywhere near the best in the competition.

Good midfields, let alone the best, do not get regularly smashed in the clearances by no name midfields like Port, Swans etc.!

We are not even in the top 6. Our players are living off past reputations eg Sewell, Mitchell, and Burgoyne. The first and last named have some form of injury excuse so they better turn it on next season. The only elite midfielder is Hodge and he can get tagged out of the game relatively easily.

Overall our midfield is pathetically slow and combined with a dysfunctional defence leads to all forms of flooding and presses in order to unsucessfully cover for the teams many deficiencies.

However, our midfield would improve enormously if we had a quality ruckman eg Jolly, Mumford, Ottens etc., that could give them first use of the ball. Look at the ernomous impact Jolly had of the Pies this year and you'll get the picture.

So IFF Hale turns into a top ruckman or Bailey learns to land without rupturing yet anothe ACL, then we may have a top four level midfield provided we don't have any major injury traumas.

 

[Tasmaniac]

I think we're a fair way off.

Lacking a quality ruckman, plus incredibly slow.

Put it this way, we have the best, slow midfield.

 

[DannyJ]

On paper? Yes

In Practice? No

 

[worthy]

We have some excellent names but the balance is not quite right.

Fast mids - Young?, Bateman?, Rioli?

Inn and under - Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Lewis

Outside mids - Burgoyne

Run and carry mids - Young, ????

Gut runners - Bateman

We need more speed and run and carry.

Quality ruckman
???????????????????

Hopefully Bailey

We'll see - Savage, Shiels

 

[Hawks1994]

If it is spped and carry we need (and we do) then watch for Savage, he is incredibily quick and can kick a mile. (1.6km in the metric system)

Can't wait for the Pre season comp.to get a look at the new players and how the club have turned it around!!!!

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Yey of little faith.

With Captain Hodge at the front, an injury-free Rioli, Burgers, Bateman, Young and Ellis, as well as the introduction of Smith and Bruce, I epxect big things in 2011 !!

 

[Ordovician]

It is "Ye of little faith"

Archaic second person plural.

Anyway what odds wouldest thou offer on Hawthorn winning the flag?

 

[mrcurly]

I was on the Savage bandwagon after seeing him play toward the end of '09. Has some serious toe and a big hoof. This season he was unsighted.

According to the BHH boards he was sadly out of touch for most of the year, put in a few good ones toward the end.

Hope he can break through in '11. After the many promising draft picks we have seen come and go over the last couple of seasons i have lowered my expectations.

As for the midfield, on name and reputation it is the best in the business. Performance is another matter, they are playing like a solid group, nothing too special.

I think they need to be rotated with some new blood, so step up newbies we need another racehorse or two for the middle.

 

[mrcurly]

If we can land a first year half forward with the same impact Stratton had last season in the back half i'm booking my finals tickets.

 

[raff23]

imo we were 1-2 break the line/run and carry players short of having on paper a formidable midfield. Isaac Smith will slot straight in, from what i have seen of him it wont take him long to adjust to the tempo of AFL footy, heck it took him a few months to go from bush footy to the hawks, let him off the leash and we have 1 break the lines player done and dusted. If Savage can pull his finger out we have the other player to run and carry and pump it long, 2 on either wings doing that (clinton young) we will be very hard to beat. Not only that are people forgetting whitecross?, he has speed and if clarko has a plan to pinch hit him in the midfield next year theres another cog we can add.

 

[raff23]

There is no way our midfield is anywhere near the best in the competition.

Good midfields, let alone the best, do not get regularly smashed in the clearances by no name midfields like Port, Swans etc.!

We are not even in the top 6. Our players are living off past reputations eg Sewell, Mitchell, and Burgoyne. The first and last named have some form of injury excuse so they better turn it on next season. The only elite midfielder is Hodge and he can get tagged out of the game relatively easily.

Overall our midfield is pathetically slow and combined with a dysfunctional defence leads to all forms of flooding and presses in order to unsucessfully cover for the teams many deficiencies.

However, our midfield would improve enormously if we had a quality ruckman eg Jolly, Mumford, Ottens etc., that could give them first use of the ball. Look at the ernomous impact Jolly had of the Pies this year and you'll get the picture.

So IFF Hale turns into a top ruckman or Bailey learns to land without rupturing yet anothe ACL, then we may have a top four level midfield provided we don't have any major injury traumas.

You only need 1 or 2 quick players in the midfield for it to function properly, the pies have swan and didak with thomas and sidebottom on the wings. The most important players in the midfield are the players that can extract the ball from the stoppages and we have 2 of those hodgey and burger, Penetrating kicking into the forward line beats having a speedy midfield any day of the week, You dont need speed to pump it long.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Collingwood, Carlton and Melbourne have claims to have some serious talent in their midfield.

 

[hawks realist]

You only need 1 or 2 quick players in the midfield for it to function properly, the pies have swan and didak with thomas and sidebottom on the wings. The most important players in the midfield are the players that can extract the ball from the stoppages and we have 2 of those hodgey and burger, Penetrating kicking into the forward line beats having a speedy midfield any day of the week, You dont need speed to pump it long.

Isn't that going against the gameplan though?I'll be deadset spewing if the hawks continue the bullshit gameplan of recent times.

Love to see them bang it long to two or three big forwards who are actually within the 50 metre arc in the first place

 

[northmac]

Agree with you re savage. Haven't seen anything that looks awesome enough in our draft picks that is really going to turn things around this year. There was a lot of good names that left us last year, but those in the know are those in the know.

 

[Brant]

I would say that we have the deepest run of midfield talent in the league & probably have the best group of midfield players too - but we don't have the best functioning midfield team - if that makes sense.

I think our lack of centre square pace is exposed by our lack of a good tap ruckman. I explain that with 2 scenarios - one that plagued us for 2010 & one that hopefully occurs in 2011:

Scenario 1) Renouf competes against opponent ruck (loses) - ball is tapped to quick but otherwise ordinary opponent mid - mid takes off & burns our slower chasers. Essendon smashed us like this the 1st time we played them in 2010; as did Eagles.

Scenario 2) Bailey (fingers crossed) competes against opponent ruck - breaks even or wins tap - ball goes to Mitch / Burgs / Hodge / Lewis / Sewell / Ellis / Rioli et al. - our bigger & more talented bodies break tackles & dish off to runners from wings & flanks & suddenly we are away.

I guess what I am saying is that we get exposed by pace when we don't have the ball. IMO, make it a 50/50 ball or even get a tap to our advantage & watch our classy (albeit slower) mids restore themselves to an 'A Grade' unit.

 

[Roger Rogerson]

With GAblett moving to GC, I think our midfield is now the best in the league and probably has the best depth the Hawks have ever had. Add Bruce and Tuck to it and it is getting scary in quality and depth.

Midfield 1

Ce: Young - Hodge - Burgoyne

Ru: Bailey
RR: Mitchell
Ro: Rioli

Midfield 2

Ce: Ellis - Lewis - Bruce

Ru: Hale
RR: Sewell
Ro: Bateman

Midfield 3

Ce: Savage - Hallahan - Smith

Ru: Renouf
RR: Tuck
Ro: Shiels

Throw Franklin's name into the midfield mix and I reckon we end up on top talent-wise.

The points about the midfield functionality made by several esteemed posters are very valid. Assuming we have continuity in terms of games played with our midfield group it is only time until they click BUT the big issue is quality ruckman. If we find a quality ruckman from those on our list on 2011 then we are in REAL business through the midfield.

 

[burner1]

Its pretty simple - a midfield containing mitchell, sewell, lewis, hodge, burgoyne as its 'core' midfielders will never be an elite midfield due to the way footy is played and umpired these days - just far too slow/not agile enough/can't spread on the attack/can't defend or cover space etc etc. The midfield mix just doesn't work or function. Even when we have the ball we can't spread quickly enough and struggle to move the ball with fluidity. We generally got beaten all season in the clearences (which is our supposed midfield units strength) and then were even worse in midifeld defensive pressure and creative run/attack through the midfield

We have too many 'good' players who are the same type whichs stuffs the functioniong of our midfield- however we are loath to drop them as they appear far better than the youngster who would replace them - but in the long-term unless we make some tough calls our midfield won't be getting any better unless some new blood is brought in.

Due to the elite talents of some of our 'guns' in hodge, rioli, burgoyne our midfield often looks far better than it is when these guys have a blinder but over the course of a season it is below par.

IMO its not so much the pace on the wings which has been a problem (although savage and smith will help) but rather a lack of movement/run through/in the middle.

If smith, savage, WX, shiels, williams etc really come on in 2011 we may be among the better sides but it is a big if.