Yeah, he has never found his niche, as I mentioned. Another player that, like Perkins & Cox has been moved around a bit and has possibly gone backwards in his development. Jones hasn’t really been moved around, but has also gone backwards. Could name a few others on the list in the same category.
It’s a bit of a plague at our club, the lack of development, isn’t it. Why so? Are we behind all other teams in this regard? Has happened to a lot of our higher end draft picks over the years.
Jones hasn’t developed because he hasn’t trained and played much for 3 years. You can’t develop if you’re in and out of rehab. Ditto Cox. They’re a bit different.
But Caldwell, Perkins, Cox (yes) a few of the players who look like they’re drifting and not settling into roles to help them develop. Caldwell has been around a bit, should be progressing more imo. Perkins still young, but he trained all preseason as a mid, now back in hybrid roles. What’s his role? I’m trusting they’re managing them well, just a concern and a watch for me that’s all…
Sanders put up 30 touches last night from half forward pushing up the ground, running hard and being strong in the contest. He only when to 5 centre bounces. Perkins and Caldwell should take a look at his match tape
he is a mid being played as a forward, and then people judge him on not having midfield numbers or influence.
I don’t mind him, but unfortunately while he’s on the list and the coaches don’t make a hard call on him and other players, it just stagnates everything else.
If you rate him play him as a mid, if you don’t rate him as a mid get rid of him from the forwardline cos even before the praccy match you look at our forwardline and the smalls in it, and my god that’s gotta be one of the worst looking small forward lists going around.
gresham, stringer, perkins,caldwall and menzie
only one of them is putting in defensive work which is polar opposite to how the good teams operate up forward.
outside of injuries, yet agian it’s going to be team balance and getting that right as the biggest issues for the coaching group.
Yes, he’s a good player. A big body very young helps…
Whos spot in the midfield should he take? If hes not good enough to play midfield which forward should take his spot in the team?
We played some of our best footy last season with Caldwell and Hobbs playing increased midfield minutes.
Setterfield is the one that should be pushed out of the rotation to accomodate Durham.
Setters is a VFL Scania.
Caldwell is playing midfield time. He’s just not attending many center bounces that constitute about 150 seconds total for a 2 hour game. The rotating mid-fwd role is absolutely critical in the modern game to prevent burn out of the first string players
Stop focusing on where the players stand at the start of each bounce. That positioning is completely irrelevant to the modern game.
Shiel went down in round 9 last season. Caldwell got midfield exposure the following week in dreamtime and had 31 disposals and 5 clearances.
It’s 100% Parish all over again. Inside mid playing at half forward.
thats the dilema the coaches are paid the money they are to solve/fix.
so far they’ve just continued previous administrations approach of head burying and hoping the problem fixes itself, which is only kinda does when injuries occur.
like it or not, he was brought to the club as a midfielder. he is now being played as a permanent half forward flanker.
a decision needs to be made on what his spot actually is, and if he’s actually the best option for that role.
Needs to be used forward pocket in a defensive role.
Patches in the midfield. He needs to work harder off the ball and when the pill goes into our forwardline don’t let it go out of it in ball ups or boundary throw ins, get front and centre when kicked into a pack situation and fetch the ball
The coaches solution seems to be that Caldwell is our 5th rotation midfielder pushing up to stoppages from half forward. Clearly you seem to think thats not a good solution, so what is yours? Who should he replace in the midfield and/or who should replace him at half forward?
well yes 2 coaches have thought that, ones sacked and one won 8 odd games last year, so it’s not exactly a glowing endorsement.
lets also not forget up until 21 darch parish was also a mid who played mostly forward until injury pushed him solely to being a mid.
see this is the problem, you want definitive answers and solutions, there are none because you don’t know what will or could work until you know you try it.
and yes i don’t think it’s a good solution, because you’re not actually making a decision, you’re just going along with the flow because.
again it’s quite simple
if he’s a mid, play him as a mid.
if he’s not good enough to solely play as a mid, then play him solely as a forward, but then judge his game on being a forward.
if he’s not producing as a forward then drop him.
this is why i say it’s the biggest issue the coaches face, cos caldwall ain’t the only one this issue is going to affect.
you have cox, hobbs, tsartas, durham, martin,durrsma you have to try and fit into the midfield rotation.
you have to do that while kelly and hepp also rotate through there and the backline.
you also have to give time to forwards like davey etc to allow them to grow.
so while you want a definitive answer and path forward with detailed plans akin to someone who gets paid 100’s of thousands of dollars to formulate ones, all i’m giving you is the path that doesn’t work and hasn’t worked previously isn’t going to work moving forward, for the exact same reasons it hasn’t worked in the past, becauseyou’re trying to turn a player into something his not.
it didn’t work with parish, it didn’t work with mcgrath, there’s plently of other examples from every club in the afl.
There are plenty of examples of players playing at a high level in a position that they wouldn’t have originally been drafted to fill.
From what I’ve seen, I just don’t know if Caldwell has sufficient attributes to own midfield / small forward roles and be a highly accomplished player. He came with high praise but I’m yet to really see enough traits yet, effort, commitment and courage aside.
That’s exactly what I would of said about Parish before his breakout season.
Jye will play as a defensive forward on attacking HBs, rotate thru midfield as a 2nd tier mid, and is expected to kick the occasional goal.
his career success or otherwise might depend on how well he adapts to this very mixed role.
Hes not in our best midfield group because Parish and Merrett are better then him.
Someone has to cover Parish and Merretts CBAs when they are on the bench. That person atm is Caldwell. If you want Caldwell to play permanently forward or be dropped then someone else needs to cover those midfield rotations and your going to have the same issue with their forward/midfield split.
Collingwood last year had Crisp and Daicos rotating between midfield and half back and Adams rotating between midfield and forward. Are they wrong to do that? How about the dogs playing Rhylee Sanders in that role the other day? Or Zac Bailey rotating between mid and forward for Brisbane?
not of midfielders being drafted to play as forwards or back pockets to play as midfielders.
We won’t have a full squad to pick from any point in the year; midfield, back, wherever. He’s depth, he’s gonna play and slot in fine because not all those guys are gonna be available all the time.
He’s what the good teams have.