I think you will find Martin plays significant time forward often isolated. Their fwd line relies on medium fwds like him now since they had JRiewoldt one out.
The recruitment of Caddy and Prestia was done to allow him to spend more time fwd
Since when has Caddy been a fwd? Drafted as an inside mid and been playing inside mid at every club he has been to from GC/Cats/Rich… it’s just that he has capacity to take a mark that they rotate him fwd now switching with Martin.
In terms of clearances stats for 2017, both Cotchin and Martin are up with the elite where the rest of the their inside mids are amongst or below the Essendon inside mids.
Yes, a bit of both. The draw early too doesn’t help. Our Midfield should be better than last year I agree, but defence is a worry. It’s only pre-season so let’s see when the real stuff kicks off.
If we are relying on Myers to find form forget it. He’s had a decade to do that and all bar a few games never has. I like him, but the facts are he’s a C grade player.
Ideally we would have a big body A grader to go in the middle, and I agree with your description of Myers as a C grader in 2017.
However I suspect given our current roster that he will be in the round 1 side and will continue to be in the side as long as he stays fit, given he will block and use his strength to support our smaller players and he will get his share of clearances as well.
Given he has had a better preparation in 2018 than most, if not all, of his career, I would hope that he can have a good year this year and elevate his game from last year.
However if he gets injured and Langford takes his opportunity and shows more than a little; or we can cobble together a strong enough midfield presence without either, with cameos from Stringer, Goddard, Begley, and Heppell, Zerrett, Smith, McGrath and Parish giving 110%; then that may be it for David.
If Myers can have a good year, I suspect he could elevate the rest of the midfield and I will be posting in the lid off thread. But to pin my hopes on Myers playing well and staying fit, or our midfield functioning well without a consistent strong bodied midfield presence, that is reason enough to be posting in the lid on thread.
However, he has had a good preseason, and has played an important role for us through the middle in previous seasons. Given that the role he plays is one we are lacking in, I’d say a C grade year from him would make a big difference to how the side performs.
Hearing Hardwick speak last night on the couch reduced my confidence. They had a lot of unknowns heading into last year as did we this year. We really need everything to go right this season and I don’t think we have the maturity to take major steps this year.
Then we wont many games espically finals if we just rely on outscoring the oposition. The club has been preaching all pre season about being better in winning contsted footy and defense. I hope they prove me wrong on Friday but from what I’ve seen over the 2 JLT games not much has change imo.