Huh? whats Gumby got to do with it? And no he wasn’t.
You can carry ONE, maybe two players like Heppell, Myers, Langford and stringer through the middle
Compare that group to two way pressure guys like Collingwoods midfield. It doesn’t compare. Our guys are individually good, but the mix is wrong.
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Hey- Gumby was right up there and what we needed at the time when Knighter kicked off.
It’s not a question of personnel. It’s a question of commitment.
A premiership midfield group really only needs to contain:
Two inside mid beasts
Two classy outside players with great disposal
Eight insanely fit, maniacal pressure players, who can run and run and run all day and can also midfield a bit too.
That’s it. It’s the commitment to run and run and run and run all day which is what we lack. Sometimes we do it for a quarter, sometimes for a game or maybe two. But always, we run out of appetite for doing it long term and fall away.
We need to do it next season, from the first minute of the first game, for 22 games in a row. Stop relying on the fact that Daniher might be awesome or we might get Shiel or whatever, that doesn’t matter.
Success is as a result of a whole club commitment to work harder and run harder and pressure harder than anyone else. It’s not pretty, it’s not easy. But it’s the only thing that wins flags.
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Yeah he was. But Sidebottom was 2 drafts later.
Pies took over 100 marks for the game vs Tigs 50 odd. They played on at all costs and kicked the ball far more than handballing it - hence the large marking differential. I can’t help but wonder whether coaching tactics influenced the game more tonight than simply the personnel out there.
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Apologies
I tend to agree with this. Everybody has good players, but you need a good game plan that the players all buy into from day 1.
We are good enough imo, we just need to want it enough.
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Well said, SMJ.
Why would anyone care? It’s just sport entertainment.
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Fair bet most Collingwood supporters watched last year’s Prelims and thought:
“Damn… We are miles off.”
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Salary cap pressure due to a highly paid marquee forward failing to win a team a flag whilst the midfield is dismantled & packed off will do that to any supporter
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Collingwood have had the best midfield on paper for 3 years… but for injuries and someone to kick a score, they would’ve performed better in that time. The difference has been de Goey, Cox and Mihocek… they’ve now got guys who can score and assist in f50
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Do you think we currently have the personnel to win the flag in 2019 (legit question)?
Our losses to the Tigs, Pies, Dees were telling for mine. I think we need more quality mids, however, I reckon a solid game plan and an unrelenting desire to win are also equally as important. 2-3 more quality mids and strengthening of our coaching unit and I reckon we can win it in 2019. We need to continue to believe, though. And work ridiculously hard in the preseason. It is such a fine line at the pro sport level. Harvs mentioned it in a podcast interview not long ago. Very little % wise can have a massive influence over success and failure at this level.
So jealous. Especially when they put on the tv banner “Collingwood break 7 year GF final drought”
7 years?? FFS!! I’ve always thought of us as a powerhouse club with lots of resources. What happened? (Apart from a saga that I won’t mention).
Can only hope this motivates the boys towards success.
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Yes, I think we do. Doesn’t mean we don’t need to improve in quite a few areas, and rely on some improvement in particular players, but certainly.
I don’t think our midfield is the barren wasteland everybody likes to say it is. Langford, Parish and McGrath will be vital over the next few years.
And let’s not get too carried away with Collingwood, they aren’t premiers yet.
They may even lose next week to a team with big key forwards.
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We were fading in the 3rd quarter until we started rotating more players through the midfield, we actually bat pretty deep.
In my best 22 I see 13 players who can at least perform at a decent to elite level in the midfield and 8 of them (*) I see going up a notch or two in 2019, partly inspired by the effort of Smith. I would love it if we can get another one or 2 good to go midfield beasts in the Trade and Draft period. Also 4 of the defenders in my best 22 do good work in the midfield as well as defence and could function there if needed (as defenders they should stay part of the back structure).
- Heppell
- Merrett
- Langford*
- Myers
- Smith
- McGrath*
- Parish*
- Zaharakis
- Stringer*
- Fantasia*
- Walla*
- Guelfi*
- Redman*
- McKenna
- Saad
- Gleeson
- Francis
- McKernan
- Daniher
- Hurley
- Hooker
- Bellchambers
Colyer
Begley
Laverde
Clarke
Mutch
Ridley
I think Dodoro has picked plenty of good to very very good midfielders, we just need one or two elite beast midfielders, and we know that he has been trying but not able to nail the likes of Bontempelli and Cripps maybe due to our draft penalties.
I think SMJ is on the right track though, if we continue to be inspired by the effort of Smith, and he has been dragging players along with him, our midfield fitness should go up a notch this year and if we can evolve, Langford and Stringer into one constant menacing midfield and forward presence and we get another elite beast to make Myers great depth, I think we would be pretty close to an optimal playing list.
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I agree. I too am jealous and angry. No matter how you look at it Essendon went backwards this year. Sadly my only mark for success next year is to win at least one final. Shows how mediocre Essendon has been over the last decade.
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Cheers. I tend to agree with this (after what I have witnessed this year), however, we were kinda blessed with very few injuries to our mid core - Heppell, Zerrett, Smith, Parish, Pidge, etc, this year. If we lost a few of these players through injury, our struggles would be epic.
Go Dees.
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Trade in quality ready made players into the midfield
get the players to buy in and have the same kind of commitment that Collingwood and Richmond do every single week,and we are top 4
We almost have the squad to compete with the best, but talent is nothing without hunger
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