Agree with others here, its not the list, its good enough, its whether we play “the way we want to play” and whether the “way we want to play” is good enough to get us into the 8 and win finals. That’s up to the strategic minds among the coaches, the tactical responses on game day and the player development, not Dylan Shiel, the alleged “missing link”
In short, the focus is on the coaches now. 2019: " No more excuses"
Do you mean a youngin that hasn’t played much to force their way into the 22 or a youngin that is in the 22 already to become a lot better? I reckon we’re very well placed for the latter to happen between McGrath, Langford and Parish. One of them at least will step up
Guelfi after a full preseason?
Also heard some good stuff about Trent Mynott. He also bulked up alot over the year
Personally I don’t see him ever being more than a fringe player as a midfielder. Hope i’m wrong of course.
But i’d like him tried as a small defender
The reason we dominated the second half of 2018 is we had more midfield rotations than other sides. I think we bat quite deep through there. Sure there’s development, but we’ve a serious amount of talent that can play midfield.
Any of these players could attend a center bounce and you wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
Smith
Heppell
Shiel
Zerrett
Myers
Stringer
Langford
Fantasia
Tippa
Zakka
Parish
I think Guelfi might surprise a few people.
He got a lot of football in his first year at AFL level, but he hasn’t had a lot of coaching at this level. It will be interesting to see how he develops his game.
I do like that he has the ability to influence a contest.
I’m not completely sold on him yet either, but I do think he has scope for improvement.
Players capable of full time midfield minutes/ 14km running.
We still only have 1 big body mid capable of running a full game as a midfielder.
Hopefully Langford will be able to do this this year instead of playing mid/forward…
Myers is marginal. He seems to only play 70% tog.
Smith
Heppell
Shiel
Zerrett
Myers
Stringer
Langford
Fantasia
Tippa
Zakka
Parish
For what it’s worth Shiel is listed at only 77% on ground time last year.
Merrett at 76% and Myers at 74%.
Parish was above 80%.
I’ll let someone else pull the full comparison of midfield stats re time on ground together but a quick perusal across teams would indicate it is very dependent on the depth you have there.
The Weagles, who I don’t regard as batting vey deep in the middle have exceptionally high percentages for their top four or five mids - Yeo, Gaff, etc.
Geelong has a similar reliance on their best 5.
Collingwood, who I’d argue has more depth in their midfield, has a similar spread to us, with Sidearse the standout, but Pendles & Treloar below the 80% mark.
Oh yeah, and Joey wins our time on ground percentage wise, from Mitch Brown then Hooker.
Didn’t expect that.
The average across all players is 18/22 game time (82%).
Is it any great surprise that midfielders get a bit more rest than key position players etc?
Thanks for taking the time to check it out WindsockBoy, The thing that TOG stats doesn’t tell you is what time was spent on the ball. For Hepp, who covers 14k+ most games, he is on the ball or on the bench. Darcy, is on the ball or playing as a forward or on the bench. He is more a mid/forward.
Interesting observations re other teams, I think Mitchell is clearly a standout, because he plays 90% TOG, and is on the ball 100% of that and is top 5 in contested possessions. We run players through the middle a lot more than Hawthorn and Carlton. Ity begs the question do they play that way because they have players who can do it, or do they deliberately run their best player up to 90% on the ball to the exclusion of others.
Carlton fans a re worried that Cripps will be burned out in a couple of years because he is young and has been thrown in the deep end. On the other hand, Mitchell has eased into the 90% tog on the ball over 6 more years than Cripps and is probably less likely to suffer burn out becuase he is not a big body.
I think it’s more on the players.
Richmond, west coast and pies brought a defensive hunger in nearly every game. They used their skills, structures and personal to make it as hard as possible to not just score against but move the ball fwd against.
Teams get through us even when we’re well structured and we’re left with players shaking their heads.
Challenge everything thrown at you, fiercely competitive in the small battles is what we need instilled into our group, don’t give them an inch. It’s the essence of final style football and we need to learn it now if we’re to have success now. It can be learnt and implemented, I don’t believe it requires finals experience.
This is what it boils down to IMO (and a little luck with injury). This is the most complete list we’ve had probably since 2000 IMO. The talent is there, is the will/want/desire also there? For mine, much of what Richmond did was about mindset, ditto west coast not only in the GF from 5 goals down but they won 10 straight through the year! That’s application and mindset. We need to have that.
I think the drills aimed at blocking and impairing running is partly aimed at this issue. If you can stop someone running to where they want to go, it leaves a gap in the structure that can be exploited. If you slow a link up player, then they won’t be available to slice through the guts as always happens to us.
Individually yes, each player must be driven. But team play has to be trained so it becomes instinctive. Its comparatively easy to run, select a target and execute. Its when close in team play becomes instinctive, and is executed well and knowing where and when to run is learned and understood by all. This is imo how a Richmond won a flag, not so much due to a highly talented list ( except for a small number of top players) but by turning the whole team into a well oiled machine.
Im hoping we finally see full commitment from the players to perform each week
I’m sick of going to games not knowing which Essendon will turn up
