Shuey needs to be "The Man!"

[jknothimjustafan]

For us to be a success in the short to medium term, Luke Shuey needs to be our standout best midfielder. Being tagged and still universally accepted as our best midfielder. He has all the tools and has had individual games of dominance but he needs to be consistently dominating. It will allow our other midfielders to go about their work in a dangerous way

 

[eaglesfan99]

Might not get the tag with masten playing great.

 

[lmach]

He's like waiting for a kettle to reach boiling point. You know it's going to happen but you're not sure when.

 

[Marlin01]

One is no good, we need two or three potential AA mids.

 

[SpaceClef]

One is no good, we need two or three potential AA mids.

Yeah and they're not within our squad currently. I was thinking about it after the match - we might have to trade in a big name mid over the next year or two if we want to make the most of some of the older top line players in the side - Le Cras, Kennedy, Hurn.


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[LordHaart]

Honestly, Shuey had some great moments today but I thought Masten and Wellingham had a bigger overall impact on the game. We lost two of them for a large chunk of 2013 and it really hurt.

I'm not really sold on the idea that we just need one really elite player, rather I think we need to have a really consistent midfield at this point. Today showed that when Shuey, Masten and Wellingham are in form and backed up by the likes of Selwood, Hutchings and Sheed (and even Priddis) we can do pretty well. Rosa and Ellis/Yeo on the wings also makes a huge difference, and Gaff is one other card up our sleeve as well. Not to mention Natanui...

I don't believe you can make a clear call on whether a given midfield is good enough to win a premiership, as there's always an element of luck involved in that endeavor. But I think that if we stay injury free, we have a good enough midfield that if we did win a premiership, people wouldn't be that surprised.

 

[LordHaart]

Yeah and they're not within our squad currently. I was thinking about it after the match - we might have to trade in a big name mid over the next year or two if we want to make the most of some of the older top line players in the side - Le Cras, Kennedy, Hurn.

Honestly, if we learned anything from last year it should be that we can't trade Hurn. Even with Ellis and Yeo there today he was still our best rebounding option by a fair margin IMO.

Also remember that we just brought in Sheed, who had a pretty strong debut for someone who's never played at national level before, and we'll more than likely be drafting Waterman next year who sounds like a pretty great midfield prospect.

I think we should see the year (hell, at least the first 2-3 rounds) through before we pronounce doom and gloom. Many of our players are still very young and have some improvement left in them.

 

[SpaceClef]

Sheed and Waterman will take a few years to develop - we can't expect either of them to become AA inside mids before our older players are through.

Plus they're more outside types. I have very little faith in Selwood becoming an AA level inside mid, and Masten/Wellingham are again more out/in flank sorta players and unlikely to be considered elite.

Of course NN makes all of our mids that much better.


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[ep2018]

He's like a waiting for a kettle to reach boiling point. You know it's going to happen but you're not sure when.

I feel the same with Masten.

 

[mick06]

Sewell - plodder
Lewis - plodder who kicks goals
Mitchell - half back plodder goes through middle and hits targets - A grade
Hodge - half back plodder hard at it can hit targets - pinch hit in centre square
Smith - outside runner - wing
Hill - outside runner - wing
Rioli/Bruest/shiels/burgoyne - rotate through every now and then

1 A grade midfielder who played 40% at half back.
0 All Australian midfielders (Mitchell selected at half back)
2013 premiers.

 

[MIKE85]

Honestly, Shuey had some great moments today but I thought Masten and Wellingham had a bigger overall impact on the game. We lost two of them for a large chunk of 2013 and it really hurt.

I'm not really sold on the idea that we just need one really elite player, rather I think we need to have a really consistent midfield at this point. Today showed that when Shuey, Masten and Wellingham are in form and backed up by the likes of Selwood, Hutchings and Sheed (and even Priddis) we can do pretty well. Rosa and Ellis/Yeo on the wings also makes a huge difference, and Gaff is one other card up our sleeve as well. Not to mention Natanui...

I don't believe you can make a clear call on whether a given midfield is good enough to win a premiership, as there's always an element of luck involved in that endeavor. But I think that if we stay injury free, we have a good enough midfield that if we did win a premiership, people wouldn't be that surprised.

Couldn't agree more with this. People are so hung up on having this one "elite" or "a" grade mid that will bring us instant glory, it just won't happen. Guys like Masten and Wellingham are starting to show some of their best and will hold their own against most other sides mids if fully fit and confident. What we need is a settled midfeild set up and every player doing their bit. In 06 we had guys Like Cuz Kerr & Judd, but we also had Stinga, RoJo, Braun and to a leeser extent A Sel & Chick that all did their bit with little to no fan fare, if we can get that sort of scenario again, we will go a long way, add in Nic and we start to look pretty scary for other teams. It's only one game so far, one that means absolutley nothing at this point, but there were some promising signs.

 

[TheGhostOfJohnBelushi]

^^^^

Yeah, it's pretty much the sum of the parts that makes a great team. Gold Coast have the best player in the comp in their midfield but it's gonna take their whole team to gel and lift to even just make the 8.

 

[ndot]

our most talented mid by quite some way now that kerr is gone.

if he stays fit and plays to his potential this year, we will make the 8 comfortably

 

[LordHaart]

Sewell - plodder
Lewis - plodder who kicks goals
Mitchell - half back plodder goes through middle and hits targets - A grade
Hodge - half back plodder hard at it can hit targets - pinch hit in centre square
Smith - outside runner - wing
Hill - outside runner - wing
Rioli/Bruest/shiels/burgoyne - rotate through every now and then

1 A grade midfielder who played 40% at half back.
0 All Australian midfielders (Mitchell selected at half back)
2013 premiers.

So much this. The quality of the individual players is peanuts compared to their ability to work together as a team and string consistent games together. Our midfield was in flux last year with all the injuries and this did more than just reduce the number of quality players at our disposal. We have great defenders, ruckmen and forwards - if our midfielders can just cleanly get it out of our backline and into the forward line then we'll do fine. And having a good spread of talent in the midfield means that it's very hard to tag our offensive capabilities out of the game. Shuey and Gaff being tagged? Move the ball through Yeo, Rosa and Masten instead.

In addition to the above, having Yeo, Ellis and an uninjured Hurn in the side actually gives us some rebound (even Bennell contributed in this regard a bit), which is a drastic improvement over last year's team. In 2013, if it got past our midfield we generally had a very tough time extracting it out of our defensive 50, but this game we were much better at half back (and Gaff wasn't playing either).

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Couldn't agree more with this. People are so hung up on having this one "elite" or "a" grade mid that will bring us instant glory, it just won't happen. Guys like Masten and Wellingham are starting to show some of their best and will hold their own against most other sides mids if fully fit and confident. What we need is a settled midfeild set up and every player doing their bit. In 06 we had guys Like Cuz Kerr & Judd, but we also had Stinga, RoJo, Braun and to a leeser extent A Sel & Chick that all did their bit with little to no fan fare, if we can get that sort of scenario again, we will go a long way, add in Nic and we start to look pretty scary for other teams. It's only one game so far, one that means absolutley nothing at this point, but there were some promising signs.

I get what you're saying mate, and i partly agree. Those periferal guys like Fletch Braun etc did their jobs well, but we cant compare Judd, Kerr & Cuzz to anyone who we currently have in our midfield.
If we were to win the premiership with our current midfield, this year, everything would have to go our way and maybe have some other teams drop off or lose impact in some way.
Hopefully Sheed, Yeo, Newman and whoever else we have that are earmarked as mids can develop fully and then we may have a greater impact from the midfield in the future, instead of relying on Nic Nat to win his own tap, break through the pack and get it forward. I believe Simpson is working on rectifying this situation presently.

 

[MIKE85]

I get what you're saying mate, and i partly agree. Those periferal guys like Fletch Braun etc did their jobs well, but we cant compare Judd, Kerr & Cuzz to anyone who we currently have in our midfield.
If we were to win the premiership with our current midfield, this year, everything would have to go our way and maybe have some other teams drop off or lose impact in some way.
Hopefully Sheed, Yeo, Newman and whoever else we have that are earmarked as mids can develop fully and then we may have a greater impact from the midfield in the future, instead of relying on Nic Nat to win his own tap, break through the pack and get it forward. I believe Simpson is working on rectifying this situation presently.

Very true, but I reckon guys like Masten, Wellingham, Shuey & maybe Scooter can get to a pretty high level, a level high enough to get us close to a flag. Like has been said, every premiership team has a fair amount of luck during the season & especially the finals, if everything falls into place it could happen.

 

[Dark Sharks]

Still think the Yeo acquisition has been underrated. He had a quiet first quarter yesterday but his overall game was awesome. Really good disposal on both sides of his body, good overhead, and has pace.

Would like to see him in the mid but our backline with Glass, Mckenzie, Hurn and Yeo looks solid.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Very true, but I reckon guys like Masten, Wellingham, Shuey & maybe Scooter can get to a pretty high level, a level high enough to get us close to a flag. Like has been said, every premiership team has a fair amount of luck during the season & especially the finals, if everything falls into place it could happen.

They can get to a good level at times, but its the lack of consistency at a very high level on a game by game and year by year basis that is lacking at the moment. Having said that, we had 3 midfield geniuses (genii??) playing for us at the one time so it would be hard for any midfield to live up to that.

 

[Ian Dargie]

I don't believe you can make a clear call on whether a given midfield is good enough to win a premiership, as there's always an element of luck involved in that endeavor. But I think that if we stay injury free, we have a good enough midfield that if we did win a premiership, people wouldn't be that surprised.

Clearly the midfield needs to improve.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Luke Shuey averaged 24 disposals a game if you take out the two games he was injured in. When he shouldn't have been playing.

Outside of three games he was well held he averaged 27 disposals and played at a higher level than he's done before in previous seasons.

What he needs to do is break free more often and get into more space. That's where he stands out and has the most impact.

 

[nameless]

Luke Shuey averaged 24 disposals a game if you take out the two games he was injured in. When he shouldn't have been playing.

Outside of three games he was well held and he averaged 27 disposals and played at a higher level than he's done before.

What he needs to do is break free more often and get into more space.

That's why he's a lock for my Dreamteam
When allowed to play well he dominates, it's that getting free he struggles with - something I hope he overcomes this year with a better midfield around him and a better fitness base.

 

[Matera LeNui]

Our midfield is well balanced, just doesn't always perform. The problem is like this thread hints at-we need a "Shuey" to step up. We need 2 A Graders. Shuey, Masten, Gaff etc are B+ territory. Hopefully a couple come through. Masten has been one of our best improvers in 2 years, if Shuey could improve at the same rate we may have an A grader...

 

[Prem87]

Yeah and they're not within our squad currently. I was thinking about it after the match - we might have to trade in a big name mid over the next year or two if we want to make the most of some of the older top line players in the side - Le Cras, Kennedy, Hurn.


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Hopefully we can get Waterman and keep our first rounder this year (Superdraft this year) - hopefully we can pick up a gun mid.

Any free agents we'd look at? We'd have a bit of cash with the past and coming retirements.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Need some more leg speed which Watto won't really add.

 

[lmach]

Still think the Yeo acquisition has been underrated. He had a quiet first quarter yesterday but his overall game was awesome. Really good disposal on both sides of his body, good overhead, and has pace.

Would like to see him in the mid but our backline with Glass, Mckenzie, Hurn and Yeo looks solid.

Our whole off season recruiting-wise has been underrated.