Midfield is an interesting thing at AFL clubs, especially at Essendon.
It operates more as a right of passage than any objective indicator of quality.
The annointed get opportunity. How do you get annointed? Sometimes it's draft profile and sometimes it's because you were there first. You get stats and then you are assumed to have the same impact of good players who share those stats. The football industry as a whole cannot see the forrest for these trees.
I recall a match this year in which we were as much as 12 goals down in the third quarter when the performance of our midfielders, with good stats, was being held in high regard.
Hell, I recall a match an All Australian played against West Coast in 2014 in which he missed a target with all but 2 or 3 of the 19 second half touches he had which got him votes for almost every award.
The simple reality is that, at least prior to Covid, the VFL was full of ball magnets who either got dumped from the system or who never got their chance but for who opportunity was the only thing to separate them from their counterparts they routine matched or defeated at the lower level.
I once said that Kobe Mutch was basically Dyson Heppell and was laughed at. I ask, when was the last time Heppell was clearly AFL standard? He has supposedly been in decline since 2014. What is more likely, that a player who was never good was overrated, as a media story, or that absent any issue with his body which would rob him or strength or mobility, he has inexplicably regressed for 8 years of his 11 year career?
It's not like we haven't seen Rising Star winners end up average. Palmer couldn't get a game as a senior player at GWS or even at a struggling Carlton. Lewis Taylor was supposed to be a good player.
Shane Woewodin is a brownlow medallist but I doubt anyone other than his mum regards him as a champion or even as A grade.
We make the same mistake with Parish as we have with Heppell, pretending he is elite. Merrett has been allowed to become a cheap stat merchant who plays with no impact on games despite the potential to kick the eyes out of it.
I doubt any midfield with these 2 can be balanced. At least Dusty, Fyfe, Danger, Bont, Petracca etc break the game apart.
If you gave Kavanagh, Mynott, O'Brien, Aylett, Clarke and Hibberd, to name a few, the absolute freedom we have afforded the likes or Parish, Heppell and Merrett, the absolute lack of defensive accountability, they would all get the ball 30+ times a game and would be considered good.
This is not to say that we should give those players the opportunity to be mediocre. That's a realisation I have come to, certainly about Kavanagh.
The only midfielder Essendon has had since Tim Watson who was genuinely and consistently A grade, who could take a game apart regardless of the attention of opponents, and who was good enough to be excused from defence, happens to be his son Jobe. I'm obviously excluding the likes of Hird and Mercuri because they were forwards as much as they were mids.
It's gets worse. We play a midfield with no physical presence and which can't run. It's staggering we could be is this position. It's actually unforgivable.
It would be a waste of Perkins' talents but he's the only guy we have, currently slated as a potential mid, who has the running power to operate defensively. The only other guy would be Voss and he is probably not considered a mid. That's leaving a lot to wingmen.
I might be wrong, but as long as we build our house on this foundation of sand I'm not sure I will ever have expectations.
It operates more as a right of passage than any objective indicator of quality.
The annointed get opportunity. How do you get annointed? Sometimes it's draft profile and sometimes it's because you were there first. You get stats and then you are assumed to have the same impact of good players who share those stats. The football industry as a whole cannot see the forrest for these trees.
I recall a match this year in which we were as much as 12 goals down in the third quarter when the performance of our midfielders, with good stats, was being held in high regard.
Hell, I recall a match an All Australian played against West Coast in 2014 in which he missed a target with all but 2 or 3 of the 19 second half touches he had which got him votes for almost every award.
The simple reality is that, at least prior to Covid, the VFL was full of ball magnets who either got dumped from the system or who never got their chance but for who opportunity was the only thing to separate them from their counterparts they routine matched or defeated at the lower level.
I once said that Kobe Mutch was basically Dyson Heppell and was laughed at. I ask, when was the last time Heppell was clearly AFL standard? He has supposedly been in decline since 2014. What is more likely, that a player who was never good was overrated, as a media story, or that absent any issue with his body which would rob him or strength or mobility, he has inexplicably regressed for 8 years of his 11 year career?
It's not like we haven't seen Rising Star winners end up average. Palmer couldn't get a game as a senior player at GWS or even at a struggling Carlton. Lewis Taylor was supposed to be a good player.
Shane Woewodin is a brownlow medallist but I doubt anyone other than his mum regards him as a champion or even as A grade.
We make the same mistake with Parish as we have with Heppell, pretending he is elite. Merrett has been allowed to become a cheap stat merchant who plays with no impact on games despite the potential to kick the eyes out of it.
I doubt any midfield with these 2 can be balanced. At least Dusty, Fyfe, Danger, Bont, Petracca etc break the game apart.
If you gave Kavanagh, Mynott, O'Brien, Aylett, Clarke and Hibberd, to name a few, the absolute freedom we have afforded the likes or Parish, Heppell and Merrett, the absolute lack of defensive accountability, they would all get the ball 30+ times a game and would be considered good.
This is not to say that we should give those players the opportunity to be mediocre. That's a realisation I have come to, certainly about Kavanagh.
The only midfielder Essendon has had since Tim Watson who was genuinely and consistently A grade, who could take a game apart regardless of the attention of opponents, and who was good enough to be excused from defence, happens to be his son Jobe. I'm obviously excluding the likes of Hird and Mercuri because they were forwards as much as they were mids.
It's gets worse. We play a midfield with no physical presence and which can't run. It's staggering we could be is this position. It's actually unforgivable.
It would be a waste of Perkins' talents but he's the only guy we have, currently slated as a potential mid, who has the running power to operate defensively. The only other guy would be Voss and he is probably not considered a mid. That's leaving a lot to wingmen.
I might be wrong, but as long as we build our house on this foundation of sand I'm not sure I will ever have expectations.
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