Top 5 Midfields 2024

[Grand Uncle Horace]

footscray's midfield is consistently overrated in conversations like these

no other clubs midfield brigade concedes run of goals like footscray's do. one of the poorest performing on ball divisions in terms of defensive application.

including wing and rucks, either gws or melbourne should go into 2024 with the strongest midfield

cough … Sydney ….cough.

I have the Footscray midfield ahead of the 2023 Swans version.

We Have addressed that deficiency in part in the Trade period.

 

[Orange crush]

cough … Sydney ….cough.

I have the Footscray midfield ahead of the 2023 Swans version.

We Have addressed that deficiency in part in the Trade period.

You’ve picked up butcher adams …. You guys tag on Parker for his crap disposal so just wait till butcher starts turning it over

 

[Caligo]

Yeah agree lost clearances in both freo games in 2023 the last rd by 13 and your defence was exposed both times.
Freo doesn’t exactly have a rolls Royce fwd line either.

We generally do win the clearance battle, but it seems to really hurt us (more than most) when we don't.

Not sure if that is a lack of two way running in the midfield or issues in defence (or both).

That final round match against Freo was particularly bad though. I hope to not see that again ant time soon.

 

[Danw0w]

Dees are easily the best imo. Petracca, Oliver and Viney with Gawn providing them service and it's not even close. They just gotta work on the other parts of the ground..

 

[faible]

Can't see how a midfield of

Goldstein (AA), Heppell (AA), Shiel (AA), Stringer (AA), Parish (AA) and Merrett (AA) loses a single match, hell, loses a single clearance.

 

[rye]

Melbourne's is strong, especially if Oliver is playing and at his best, but they do have the tendency to just hack it forward. Petracca still sets up and kicks many goals. The others win stacks of ball and territory but don't use it well.

A lot of this simply gets brushed off as their weak forward line not able to capitalise on midfield dominance, but I'm not sure it's that simple.

A little bit similar for the Bulldogs outside of Bontempelli.

they lack that classy ball user with a balanced inside / outside game some midfields have in a mccluggage, dawson or josh kelly. but they do not really want for anything else. all of their mids are very good at actually winning the ball and if they dont all aside from arguably petracca are very good defensively, and their wings in landgon and hunter contribute even more to this with how much ground they cover and how they hold their width. the reason i rate them so highly though is gawn - i dont think any other club has a ruck that is such a presence around the ground as him and he is a true point of difference for that midfield.

 

[RonnieRaven]

We generally do win the clearance battle, but it seems to really hurt us (more than most) when we don't.

Not sure if that is a lack of two way running in the midfield or issues in defence (or both).

That final round match against Freo was particularly bad though. I hope to not see that again ant time soon.

It’s hard for young mids to do it for a whole game all games
Going to be some great midfield battles in the back half of the decade.

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

You’ve picked up butcher adams …. You guys tag on Parker for his crap disposal so just wait till butcher starts turning it over

haha…JPK was worse. We‘re used to it.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

Sorry, Champion Data ranked Neale "lower than most mids"?

What on earth?

Look it up

 

[TheUnicorn]

I did a top 10 instead, sue me.
This is not how I personally would rate the teams, but I basically looked at teams contested possessions, Centre clearances, stoppage clearances as whole. I then also looked at the differencials they give up in those areas, I then devised a points system based on how they preformed in said statistics. I also proceeded to sprinkle in some tackles, Hit outs to advantage, Score launces etc. with just a hint of bias in there for good measure and this was the outcome.

1. Bulldogs
2. Brisbane
3. Melbourne
4. Gold Coast
5. Adelaide
6. Carlton
7. GWS
8. Hawthorn
9. Port Adelaide
10. Fremantle

It's worth mentioning that Essendon and St kilda both scored well using this arbitrary points system I cooked up, But I don't believe they should be in this discussion so I purged them.

 

[Caligo]

It’s hard for young mids to do it for a whole game all games
Going to be some great midfield battles in the back half of the decade.

Consistency is the bane of young teams.

 

[Liam Boy]

Carlton
Adelaide
Melbourne
Fremantle
GWS

Spat out by a random name selector, which I reckon means about as much as picking them in the November before the season starts. Not a bad list though. It landed on Carlton twice, should fill them with confidence

 

[Caligo]

Carlton
Adelaide
Melbourne
Fremantle
GWS

Spat out by a random name selector, which I reckon means about as much as picking them in the November before the season starts. Not a bad list though. It landed on Carlton twice, should fill them with confidence

Adelaide would be amongst the worst in the league I would have thought.

 

[naysayer]

Look it up

And you think if I look up Lachie Neale's champion data rating, it will say "below average"? That's what "lower than most mids" means.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

And you think if I look up Lachie Neale's champion data rating, it will say "below average"? That's what "lower than most mids" means.

I know he wasn't in the top 200 players in the league after rounds 7 or 8 but he improved from there.

 

[Lsta062]

I’m going with Carlton, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Western Bulldogs, and one of Melbourne or GWS. Maybe it’s still Melbourne, but I wouldn’t be surprised if GWS’ midfield goes ahead of them next year.

 

[Warwick]

Lol to those who don’t understand how CD’s stats and their “expectations” work.

But look who it is - it’s hardly surprising..

It’s how Taylor Walker

13

Taylor Walker

Age

34

Ht

194cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.0

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

5.7

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

8.0

2star

K

6.4

3star

HB

1.6

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.6

5star

was rated one of the top 5 players in the entire comp.

 

[JayJ20]

I'll make it a top 6:

Collingwood, Brisbane, Melbourne, Carlton, GWS and Bulldogs.
Port and Gold Coast would round out a top 8.

 

[naysayer]

I know he wasn't in the top 200 players in the league after rounds 7 or 8 but he improved from there.

Given he finished with the Brownlow medal I'd say that's a pretty big understatement.

But why did you tell me that Champion data had Neale ranked "lower than most mids"? Despite the dubious nature of using champion data to assess a player's quality, it's also not true.

He's the league's number one clearance and contested ball player. That doesn't mean he's the best player, which he's not, but his proficiency as a ball-winner, tackler (ranks 30th for tackles, 6th for pressure acts) and runner (he's 12th in the league for time on ground, the only inside mid who rank in the top 30), combined with the fact that his disposal efficiency this year was 75% (higher than Zach Merrett, Scott Pendlebury and others who are fancied as good users of the ball), mean he's well and truly beyond reproach as a high quality midfielder.

 

[Jeremias]

I
If you watch him play, his kicks to forwards are underwhelming. He gets a lot of possessions and clearances ,but his disposals aren't involved in scoring chains that much at all.

Top 20 in the league for score involvements in 2023. What on earth are you talking about?

 

[naysayer]

I
If you watch him play, his kicks to forwards are underwhelming. He gets a lot of possessions and clearances ,but his disposals aren't involved in scoring chains that much at all.

By "not involved in scoring chains much at all", do you mean the 11th highest for midfielders in the league?

Seriously mate, you do not have a leg to stand on. Every single criticism you trot out actually makes him look better. You say he's underwhelming and overrated, while every stat, opinion and comment from players and coaches alike will contradict you. But you're entitled to your opinion, of course. It's helpful actually, you're make everyone else in this thread look smarter by comparison.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

Top 20 in the league for score involvements in 2023. What on earth are you talking about?

Where is that stat from?

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

By "not involved in scoring chains much at all", do you mean the 11th highest for midfielders in the league?

Seriously mate, you do not have a leg to stand on. Every single criticism you trot out actually makes him look better. You say he's underwhelming and overrated, while every stat, opinion and comment from players and coaches alike will contradict you. But you're entitled to your opinion, of course. It's helpful actually, you're make everyone else in this thread look smarter by comparison.

11th highest for mids, but the highest possession mid.
I think the Bont, Pendulbury and others are much better kicks to forwards. Do you watch him closely at all?

 

[Jeremias]

Where is that stat from?

Footy Wire

 

[Caligo]

Where is that stat from?

2023 AFL League Total Score Involvements Leaders

2023 AFL League Total Score Involvements Leaders.

www.footywire.com