… in the ruck.
The Mark McGough of Grand Finals, only one big difference
To be fair it’s an average of only -5 a game, and they’re giving away an average of -20 in the ruck. Which, considering they play a turnover game is pretty good. It’s be more impressive to see how effective their opponents clearances were, I’d guess a lot of them would be under pressure and ineffective.
Defending the midfield won the flag for Richmond and Dogs, their opponents both had tons more midfield talent.
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Personally think Richmond have a superior midfield to Adelaide - but agree with defending the midfield well.
Thats the thing isn’t it? sustainability. will the tiges be there again this year? or will we see perennial flag contenders sydney giving it a go again…
Not sure if the Dogs issues are gameplan related, I think their leadership leaves a lot to be desired. Minimal experience on the park now.
Richmond look like they’re keeping it up, but who knows for how long. Crows were all about midfield strength & depth but couldn’t back it up.
I wouldn’t say Hawks were based on midfield dominance either. Ball movement around the flanks and a super smart backline.
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Cats had midfield dominance
Hawks had handy midfield - but was very good at possession footy
Swans have had a pretty strong midfield lineup and been thereabouts for a while but relied heavily on Buddy.
Dogs - luck, I mean they had a pretty strong midfield core, but it was more manic pressure over finals period.
Tigers - more of the same - forward pressure like Dogs, plus Elite match winner in Dusty, and Rance turns defence into attack. Tigers win ball from half back probably more than doggies did.
Giants - Elite midfield - but a bit soft in finals.
Crows - Had a great season last year, but midfield depth has fallen away due to injury, and so has their forwardline, along with ours 
due to lack of supply players leaving injuries, lack of synchronisity.
Hawks had great skills for sure but it was also their defensive heat. Turn it over & counter.
It’s the big thing that Tigers focus on.
Dogs also went ballistic all through finals with pressure when they hadn’t for most of year.
Essendon 2018 stats at the break!
Not taking marks in fwd half (no Hooker or JD) a huge factor as much as not tackling enough to trap it in (took a while to get our smalls going)
As for the pressure we doing amazingly well over last month or so. But it’s our skills breaking down under opposition pressure and also not capitalizing on fwd entries that hurting still.
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Well, there were a number through the Hawthorn sides and the runners up in 2016 & 2017 had some very good ones. If Franklin didn’t get injured in the 2016 Grand Final maybe we’d be saying 4 of the last 5 premiership sides were based on talls.
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Gaff, Gaff, Gaff
Yep, along with elite disposal by foot.
To say Richmond has an average midfield is conplelty ignoring Martin, who had probably one of the greatest seasons ever last year. The rest of the midfield was about creating pressure becuase they only needed one match winner. Martin stood up and won every game whenever he was needed.
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All of that just reinforces how much pressure should be our main point of focus, not clearances or contested ball.
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Yep and clearly we have turned that aspect around leading the comp for it.
Now need to find the players with skills / temperament to execute & associated ball movement patterns that work when we under that pressure from the opposition.
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For 5 weeks: we’ve shown we can do it.
We need to show we will keep doing it.
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I think the tigers were more talented.
Cotchin, Martin, Prestia, Edwards is a pretty ■■■■■■■ good midfield. Now includes two Brownlow medalists.
I think the crows were the less talented but deeper midfield. When the game was there to be won the tigers stars stepped up.
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Ultimately yes. But there’s a lot of bits to that. First they stopped the Crows (who had all the stats from midfield in the first half, IIRC); second half Martin et al stepped up and put the game beyond doubt. He’d been basically a non-factor the first half but was the one who basically cemented the win in tbe 3rd & 4th
I’ve heard a few people talk about how our midfield is doing really well, because they are dominating the statistics.
I think this view is a complete misconception.
We are playing 1-2 spareman at the contest to cover for the lack of contested players in the midfield.
Then we’re getting beaten in our forwardline, when the opposition has 2-3 players on each Forward.
We are robbing Peter, to pay Paul in this situation. Either way we’re getting beaten, whether it’s in the midfield or in the forwardline.
Until we have the talent to go man-on-man in the midfield we are going to continue being an average team.
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