Cox gave him a chopout & he’s an elite level endurance ruck so I’m not really buying that he wasn’t fresh enough. He still dominated the ruck duels but its his ability to get the ball himself & play like an extra mid that was a big reason why they made the GF. He only had 10 disposals in the GF, thats the least he’s had since round 7 2016. I had to go back to 2013 to find a worse game from Sidebottom.
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Adding Shiel is an incredible improvement to our midfield. Nobody has any idea how good we are now that he has come on board.
It pushes most, if not all, of our mids back a rung.
He adds more than just his own contribution. He also potentially frees up others to do their thing.
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2 Razs would be handy!! I know he’s been very good in some midfield cameos but I just think his value inside 50 is just too important to have him further up the ground. Hopefully the depth we now have means we don’t need to have Raz play much mid time.
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Grundy 89%, Vardy and Lycett 61% each
Oh I think we are far from the dark old days of bombing it long onto Alywn Davey’s head territory as an inside 50 play.
I do however think that the better sides have a few jets in that regard and we have just lost our best field kick. (BJ lacking in other aspects of his game… Namely pace)
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We won’t know that until the end of 2019.
As it stands, you could throw a blanket over Merrett, Heppell and arguably even Smith as far as individual importance to our midfield goes. Merrett for his ball use, Smith for his defensive work rate and Heppell for his heart. Adding Shiel to those 3 is exciting. The potential development still left in Langford, McGrath, and Parish is frightening.
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It’s only my opinion. I put him probably on par with Merrett. Think those 2 are our best.
Hepp is a monster when on song.
The game time isn’t really relevant because I don’t believed Grundy significantly tired, he wasn’t worn down late in quarters & fell away he simply had very little of the ball through the whole match. His game time was less than the prelim & given that he played all year as the near sole ruck, I think its fair to say he was fit enough to carry the load. Again he had 49 hit outs to 29 in total for WC so it wasn’t his ruck work that was the issue. Vardy no doubt had one out of the bag & was very important to WC winning but I still believe the ultimate difference was Collingwood’s top end let them down.
I’d probably agree with you on that too
Franga pretty much replaces Goddard in the disposal stakes.
But I don’t think you’d see Vardy taking the ball and running away from Grundy, unless the latter was really battling. I think the Eagles made a point of running Grundy ragged early.
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IIRC it was noted after that post the ruck contests the WC rucks basically tagged Grundy so he couldn’t have an influence as that extra mid and be so damaging like he has been
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He is very aggressive by foot and he certainly has significant ability but I have seen his disposal completely fall apart in a couple of games. He needs to find some balance. Goddard was one of the best kicking players of the last 20 years though so it’s a very high bar.
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I’ve seen Francis attempt absolutely outrageous passes round the corner off a step through the eye of a needle but more often than not they have come unstuck so far. I figure the fact that he thinks he can do them is a good sign that maybe we might see something special emerge.
Goddard wasn’t perfect of late either.
We need to accept that we have a high risk strategy. We are going to turn the ball over a bit.
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I think it was @Humble_Minion made the point about Francis. In juniors, every so often he’d start a game terribly and simply wasn’t able to turn it around.
We seen a few of these games in the VFL. The coaching staff need to read his body language, and be onto it straight away. Otherwise he’ll have an absolute shocker. If he starts off poorly, they need to move him quickly to a new position. Because his head drops and keeps making terrible mistakes.
But obviously he has a similar situation with his good games, if he starts off the game like a house on fire… your in for a show!
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Just no. Coaches should teach people with a problem like that not to drop their head, not say"oh ■■■■ mate, you’ve lost it, we’ll put you somewhere else." Never ever should coaches just paper over the cracks rather than fix the problem.
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Couldn’t disagree more.
For so many reasons.
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There is a reason coaches no longer tear shreds off a player if the fails to execute a difficult kick if it was the correct decision.
The early reports about Francis’s ambitions this preseason make me think that lack of confidence may no longer be as big an issue as it was.
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As with all things, there is a time for both methods.