Tell your mate - thanks, but no.
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I think itās fair to say that the list management team donāt regard it as a problem. In 2015 our best young midfielder was a small mid in Merrett, and then the mid we drafted with pick 5 (and the only definite mid we drafted in the ND) was a small mid in Parish. Then in 2016 we spent our first round pick (1) on a small mid in McGrath. Then in 2017 we traded our first round pick (with something back) for a small mid in Smith. Then in 2018 we spent two first round picks on a mid who maybe isnāt small but doesnāt address any potential size problems in Shiel.
There were plenty of opportunities along the way to make different decisions if they regarded the overall size of the midfield group as an issue. I donāt imagine they woke up Hangover-style after the 2018 draft, looked at the playing group and said āoh ā ā ā ā , we forgot the big midsā
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I think height of midfielders is almost completely irrelevant to how good they are.
If youāre good, youāre good. If youāre not, youāre not.
You need height in ruck and marking/key positions.
You need agility, toughness, power, fitness and skill in midfield.
Having height just gives mids a bit more flexibility - I donāt think it makes any difference to how good they are in midfield.
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Oh except we canāt say ābullā ācontestedā āinsideā ābeastā if someoneās 183cmā¦
but we can if theyāre 187cmā¦
or something.
Which matters to some people, for some reason.
Yep, even when we have had chances to take mids in the pick 20-40 range we have chosen to take flankers.
The only full beast mid we arguably have taken is Dylan Clarke and he was a very late pick.
Big slow beasts are a thing of the past.
Big bodied mid is just a big myth.
How many are there in the comp? Cripps, Fyfe, Bont, Mundy, Kennedy, Grigg Thatās about it. Most of those teams that have those players arenāt in the eight, so not sure itās a defining characteristic.
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Why does āBull Midā seem to mean exclusively inside mid to you?
Are Danger? Martin? etc exclusively āInside Midā to you?
Not meaning to be cruel or anything, so donāt take it to heart.
This is the thing. It only exists as a stick to beat Dodoro with.
Itās just what the parrots keep saying we donāt have.
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And, hilariously, most of them (Fyfe, Mundy, Danger, Kennedy) started as flankers who transitioned to mid.
When Dodoro does itā¦ bad thing.
When other clubs do itā¦ good thing.
Shrug.
EDIT: I think what is important is power through the midfield. Guys who can size up a tackler and decide ānup, youāre not tackling meā. That can open up the direct route to goal.
Speaking in broad terms: Stringer has that, Shiel has it, Tippa has it. Begley is a possibility.
Myers, Langford and Heppell - our 3 tall mids - donāt have it.
Height, shmeight.
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The good thing with our small midfielders is that they all play with a very different style, so it isnāt too same-samey.
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And the scary thing is our midfield will get faster as we phase out Bellchambers, Myers and even Zaharakis with a faster younger crop.
Whatās your criteria for this that includes Kennedyās height and Griggās role but doesnāt include say Wines, Pendlebury, Dangerfield, Macrae, or Yeo?
Edit: I could list quite a lot of not good players, too, probably.
No criteria, was just off the top of my head.
Height usually means more weight, bigger quads, longer arms, longer strides etc. which together can make it easier to stand up in a tackle, withstand a bump, free your arms above your head, reach to grab a guyās jumper as heās running past, cover more ground in your first 3 to 4 stepsā¦ all pretty useful for a midfielder. Not the be all and end allā¦ but useful.
All we really need in our midfield is a replacement for Myers. A guy, of similar size, who does all the little things Myers can do and isnāt a tortoise with zero versatility.
Someone like Jack Crisp would be ideal.
I could see Laverde playing a similar role if he could ever get his body right for more than a month at a time.
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We can replace Myers the player tomorrow.
Itās replacing the vice captain(unofficially) and midfield general thatās harder.
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Heppell, Merrett, Shiel and Smith should be more than enough leaders through the middle.
āUsually meansā - does it? Says who?
Is the tallest player in the AFL then the fastest, strongest, & best midfielder? I donāt want to say thatās horseshit, buuuutā¦
thereās plenty of gangly tall buggers, and nuggety shortarses. I donāt know why youād go off tall = powerful/fast as a rule of thumb, rather than, I dunno, just measure it?
And itās not like clubs are only allowed to measure 1 number, and have to infer the rest - the draft camp measures standing & running leap, arm span, hand span, sprint times, agility, etc etc etc.
the whole gamut.
And Iād argue, if it did go one way or the other, short guys (by and large) get off the mark quicker, not slower.
Eddie, Tippa, Caleb Daniel, Ballantyne. They might not be that quick at top speed, but they accelerate quick.
Cf any of Usain Boltās races, long stride length - heās rubbish out of the blocks, runs everyone else down at 60-80m.
Itās not really about leadership.
Merret and Sheil should be attacking, creating overlap and running into space. Not worried about the structure.
Smith targets a player/players for close attention.
Itās heppel and Myers who direct the whole group to structure up. Take Myers out and the team structure is worse.
They need to develop others to take over this role. But right now I donāt think they have anyone.
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Yeahā¦ except I didnāt say tall players make the best midfielders. Just that being tall is useful - taller means longer limbs / longer, larger musclesā¦ itās simple biomechanics. Itās not the be all and end all, just useful - you still have to be able to play the game, be fit etc. to be a good footballer.
Why is it good to have extra reach when reaching vertically (e.g going for a mark), but not when reaching horizontally, (e.g. trying to lay a tackle)? Rhetorical question coz everyone knows your arms donāt get shorter when reaching sideways.
Seriously mate, this is a silly argumentā¦ everything I said is just common sense. Letās both quit while weāre both behind, because this whole thread is pretty childish.