#3 Darcy "Darcy Parish" Parish - Shiel can play forward pocket instead

I don’t know why you bothered.

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I get your point but on the other hand it was working for him and probably was the best footy he’s played
At the time he was playing full time mid out of sheer lack of options too so that probably helped him

And you genuinely think that ‘the club coached it out of him’?

I’ve clearly lost track of the intricacies of this thread.

But I’ll just point out that it isn’t in any way a case of Parish in /Myers out = flag tilt.

What it clearly IS is a case of this kid needs to be part of growing the side and making us better over the short, medium, long term. He offers improvement and growth potential to a side that is so far from being good enough to simply maintain the current level. Who makes way can be discussed, and his success is far from assured, but at some point you either back your talent in or you slide away again without ever knowing. There’s no rose coloured glasses here, just a pragmatic observation that he’s exactly what the side needs if he progresses on to what his talents suggest he should.

We’re trying to build a legit tilt at the flag. There are multiple pieces missing. The build needs to be fluid and actually use what we have to be better. Parish should be one cog in that and imo has been consistently one of our better players when he has played this year.

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I genuinly think that our development has totally changed the way he goes about it, how thats happened i dont know but i dont think its been for the better at all

Coached him out of it was a poor choice of words i guess

I’ll give most things a few goes before giving up, regardless of how likely or unlikely success seems.

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Before coming to us Shiel was moved from his normal position, where he had dominated, to learn a new role to help the team and to help him develop as a more rounded midfielder. This is what is happening with Parish. Being manic or having swagger is all fine and good, but when the opposition work you out you need more strings to your bow.

Say he is played only inside mid, what happens when they start effectively tagging him out of games? Where do we put, what else can he do, do we just drop him? Teaching him to play other positions means that if he becomes ineffective in the main mid role they can adjust his position and get him back into the game. It also allows for midfield rotations which upsets the balance of the opposition setups.

Development isn’t just learning the one role really well, it is about developing an overall game and sometimes that will involve a step into a role you are not fully used to and it can upset your balance for a bit. It may look like you have gone backwards as a player, in reality though it is better for your overall game and better for the sides balance.

Shiel is a much better midfielder now imo than when he was being classed as brilliant, because he now has a much better outside game that can cut up the opposition.

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Good post.

Adding my 2 cents I don’t think it is a parish replacing Myers 1 for 1 equation. Positionally absultely.

But the coaches do need to work on the structures. If Myers not being in, does cause all these flow on impacts, it’s not just a pro for Myers being in, but also collectivity a bit of a slight against the whole team. It’s probably not Parish that fixes the structure but rather half a dozen players need to lift. If we’re talking 5 year time frames, I think everyone would agree Myers shouldn’t be involved in that time frame. So planning not just for clearance work but rather who are the defensive generals needs to be accelerated.

I’m far from convinced Myers brings defensive intangibles. He certainly can force a secondary ball up and maybe that’s a big win sometimes but if our opponent gets outside the stoppage he’s a liability.

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Word was at the end of 2018 pre-season that Parish was about to break out, and again at the end of 2019 preseason, the same sort of expectation surrounded him. I am not talking about folk that like to get on his bandwagon on social media, it was his team-mates and coaches mentioning his name in this context.

But while he might have excelled during the pre-season, they were training him at stoppages and as a midfielder, playing one half of the list against the other half.

Once he gets into the best 22, they push him down the pecking order and stick him in the forward line getting goes in the middle as the 3rd or 4th rotation.

Look. having large numbers rotating through the midfield is a good idea. But you would have to say now our best inside mids right now are Shiel, Merret, Heppel and Parish. They are the ones who should be spending extended time in the guts.

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It’s not so much his efforts, but rather him directing everyone. Without runners this year, he is heavily performing this on field role. The defensive structures looks best for mine, when he is plonked at the centre of it.

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We are not doing so well being 3 and 4 but have yet to lose clearances in any of the 7 games so far even against midfields which are reputed to be the best in the comp…

Clearance differential:

R1 +4
R2 +2
R3 0
R4 +2
R5 +9
R6 +11 ( Collingwood )
R7 +4

There is more to a midfield that being a top clearance team, but its a very good start. I reckon Darcy can help provide the other attributes we need if he keeps playing like he did last Sunday.

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Yes, but… I’m gonna let you fight this one :smile:

I agree he needs to be able to play different midfield roles but i dont agree he needs to play HFF (ironically where Langford should be)

notice the part where I said 10 more cm’s?.

You need help mate. Go and see someone.

Mcgrath is 177 cm’s, he is very small.
Parish is listed at 180 but when standing next to other players listed the same he is taller than them so he probably is about 182-83.

I never said height or width alone determines overall size, while you are wrong (his shoulders certainly arent one of the widest in our team) Andy’s shoulders arent small. But overall he is small. So I dont know why you replied to my comment other than the fact that your life must be miserable and thats why you are always sniping people on here lmao.

Anyway im not reading what you have to say anymore because literally 90% of what you post are just comments intended to attack anothers intelligence. You must think yourself so high and mighty lmao.
cya mate.

Stop with this ■■■■, or talk to yourself.

I think you’re looking at it too simplistically. His job is in one part to force that second ball up but it’s also about positions at the stoppages and how he works opposition over in them.

I’ve just gone back and taken a video from the North game, one of the very first few clearances which I will upload shortly (he wasn’t in at the centre).

Before the first bounce look at where he is directing players to be and then ultimately where the ball went. Then, look at how he pushes players (Cunnington) INTO the contest, which leaves us with good spread on the outside. He is consistently setting up structures and creating 1 on 2’s, 1 on 3’s inside the contest which allows free players on the outside.

This is just clearance work. In contrast, go watch the clearance work against Geelong again… where we were getting out, how many times we got outnumbered on the outside and had too many inside the contest etc.

His first instinct is defensively which we don’t really have in the team. This also comes into it on turnovers and how quickly we transition to a defensive state. He’s very good at this, and good at getting others into it too.

To be fair though… I don’t think he’s competing with Parish at all! I would rather Parish take Zaka’s spot and give us another inside midfielder capable of spread and hitting the scoreboard. Shiel IMO has replaced Zaka.

Anyway, this has derailed an already derailed thread!

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I share this view. And I also think a stereotype of “inside mid” for Parish is mistaken. I want him at the stoppages because he has good hands and can spread through and from them, not because he’s going to be inside the pack and bullying the ball out. Parish offers a versatility that I think will be invaluable. He’s building nicely and should not be the first dropped after a loss in which too often he’s been stuck in a forward 50 patrolled by Stringer, Raz etc.

Versatility isn’t always about playing multiple positions. It’s also about playing different facets of the same one and hurting the opposition in differing ways. He’s far more likely to kick goals , and set goals up , from the midfield than as a forward. That’s just how he plays. We should see that multi-facet emerge in the 50-100 game zone.

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I think after his performance on the weekend he’s bought himself a few games to prove consistency. I’d be pretty surprised if he was dropped in the next few weeks unless he has a couple of shockers in a row.

That’s a good post. I look forward to the upload.

I think the issue is that this contribution is very valuable against weaker teams but good teams exploit him more efficiently. He was awful on Anzac and im not sure you could attribute our improved midfield structure after quarter time to him.

Regardless, if he does contribute as you say (and certainly I can think of games in the past where it was clearly evident that he does) what is the club doing to train that stuff better so we aren’t as reliant on a player whose weaknesses are so easily exploited.

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