All I will say is the club’s absolute priority was to lock away joe (its actually probably a shorter deal that what we ideally wanted).
However, now that is done, it’s well and truly game on…
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Love the D
GAME ON ■■■■■■■!!!
willie_dick is my favourite prophet.
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Only his 2nd year back playing footy (was playing basketball until AUgust 2015), so not really the same situation at all.
Would be kinda nice to reverse what they did when they offered crazy money for 3 years to some basketball kid from our rookie list. And I think you would need to offer something decent.
That said he’s a tall and that’s about the last thing we need, rather use that money on midfielders (as I’m always telling you!!!) 
Agree, that’s definitely the age profile and type of kid we should be chasing, maybe even a year earlier when they’ve only had a little taste. Get 2 decent mids ready to go into the mix and we’re cooking with gas.
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wat.
That’s like saying Daniher is a better goal kicking forward than hartley.
Of course watson and goddard will be in our top 4 clearence players, they play in the midfield most of the game.
the issue is stopping the opposition run the ball out with ease, and that’s the area both players are liabilities.
One could also argue that the quality of clearences isn’t that great with those two.
Like i said though, it’s not gonna happen this year so it’s pointless to discuss.
It’s just the principle is the same, you add kelly to the list, or martin and as a whole the midfield will still struggle, if he is surrounded by the likes of goddard and watson.
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Incredibly smart by Joe and his management. He will be what 26-27 right in his peak when he is coming out of contract again. He could garner a mammoth 5-7 year deal on massive money to take him to the end of his career.
He’s a tall mid. Going by his last game against the Hawks (small sample size I know), he’s exactly what we need. A potential Watson-in-his-prime replacement. Maybe we could trade Langford for him.
I agree with you on this one.
Most people associate size with clearances yet on the weekend Merrett actually had one more clearance than Kennedy. You wouldn’t realise it considering how much people go on about big bodied midfielders.
I have no doubt that Parish, Merrett and Heppell along with other combo’s can do the job at the coal face, but additionally in transition and open play would murder a slow midfield.
Our current setup of Jobe along with Heppell and/or Goddard is to slow and we are getting exposed on the outside.
What we need to do is build depth through midfield so that we aren’t getting tired towards the backend of games and continually rotate players through.
We are already seeing a lot of that this year with Walla, Fantasia, Langford, Parish, Daniher, Colyer, Zaka and others getting an opportunity around the clearances.
All we need to do is to continue to give these guys experience and responsibility and we will be able to outrun and outgun most midfields.
As you quite rightly pointed out, as long as our older, bigger guys remain in there we are not going to be able to move forward.
With additional players through drafting and trading I’m confident that we have a midfield for the future even though current output looks unlikely.
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Well, yes they play there because the club believes out of all the players we have they are the best suited. I agree we have real problems spreading especially defensively from stoppages however our bigger problem is just getting the knacker. We need to replace the likes of Goddard and Watson not just with quicker players but players that are better at winning clearances and quicker. The idea that less Goddard, Watson more Fantasia, Tippa = better midfield is just plain wrong. We would be beaten at the contest far more often.
I don’t believe our midfield is as bad as some others believe.
I think their is a lot of room for development in the current listed players we have and I think in a year or two we will start to see something closely resembling a top four midfield.
Some may be skeptical but when I go through our young mids we currently have on our list I feel that very few of them a performing the role that the club has them slated for and are still a year or two from starting to realise there potential.
Not factoring trading and drafting for the next two season I still see an opportunity for significant improvement if certain players are given more opportunity.
Parish - Is currently being developed in more outside role to compliment his strengths of winning the ball at stoppages. He’s probably undersize for a inside mid but has courage and has very good hands. Probably the most one dimensional mids on our list but should play the midfield anchor role for the next ten years.
Begley - For mine this kid needs to start his midfield apprenticeship at VFL level before the year is out. Has a big body and works his way through traffic very well. Has nice speed and plays to hurt. One factor that plays well into Wooshas midfield rotations is that this kid can play forward while resting and be a very dangerous forward in the Dangerfield mould. If he develops as I think he will then I believe he can be another to be in our midfield.
Merrett - Not much to be said here. Can do everything. Playing more a quaterback role this year but I suspect we will see him push further forward this year and be the guy delivering to the forwards more.
Langford - I haven’t lost faith in this kid yet. I think he will be very dangerous coming off the back of the square or off a wing and has all the tools to be star if given time to develop, and also with more support around him. I know people are giving up on him but i still firmly believe he has a massive future. Again, fits the Woosha mould of being able to play forward also which is great for losing opponents or rotating with teammates to create mismatches.
McGrath - Looks a star to me. Explosive and committed to the team things. Potential top ten player.
Laverde - haven’t seen enough of him playing midfield but hopefully he develops that part of his game. Could be a great winger in my opinion with his speed and marking ability.
Factoring in these guys along with Fantasia and Walla rotating through and our current captain I think that we have the capacity to cause great headaches and could see us competing with the big dogs sooner than people might believe. We still have Mutch, Redman and Clarke developing also and hopefully they can provide depth.
We do need to add more depth but I think this is a great foundation for what could be a very exciting midfield.
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Nope, its not good enough. You need to add more than just depth. You need top end quality.
I’d love an experienced top level mid to see us through the post-Watson era. (Rockliff)
I’d be devastated if our first pick in the 2017 draft wasn’t the best inside midfielder we can get our hands on.
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Depending how high we end up, we might have to not do that to get the best available talent. For example an oliver florent type player.
Theres 3 i think in terms of contested ball winners that are top 10 picks because they have different elements to their games. I’d be more than happen to get someone thats more balanced if we’re past the top 10 rangeof picks.
I agree it still needs work. One way of improvement is of course through the draft but I get the impression that people don’t rate what we already have.
I am just saying that I believe their is more depth and talent in our squad than how it appears.
If for example we had no further access to drafts or trading the next two years I still believe their is sufficient top end talent and depth to form a formidable midfield. Most people just look at current output and think that there is no further room for improvement.
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I don’t see what you’re basing that off though. In the vfl most of our nidfielders are past the equinox of their footy careers. Hocking and myers. Even howlett. The young kids for the most part are playing hbf hff and in the pockets with brief cameos in the midfield. Begley Francis ridley redman Morgan. Then you’ve got Mutch who I think can be a player but he’s not speedy which is our pressing need (speedy ball winners) Clarke looks like hes physically hurting when he tried to kick.
I seriously dont see the makings of formidable or a solid midfield depth.
In the words of that great movie…“tell ‘im he’s dreamin’”.
I too like to imagine what players might become. And I have very high hopes for Langford / Begley / Laverde / Clarke / Mutch / Long / etc. But the number of players I’ve thought positively about, but just have never developed how I’d hoped is countless. Why? Because I see everything with rose-coloured EFC glasses.
But even with those glasses firmly on, I cannot see a “formidable midfield” without adding 2 more high quality midfielders to our squad.
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Your remark in regards to them playing out of position is true. I mentioned it in my post a couple above.
They are playing out of position because guys like Langford and Myers are playing significant minutes there for promotion to the senior team. This is to be expected as the senior side should always get precedents.
All of the players I named played midfield through juniors and having watched them every week in the VFL I believe that moving to midfield is a formality.
You mentioned Mutch and Clarke but f you read my original post I have them as depth so if you are going to quote me maybe you should do it accurately.
You are in a far more fortunate position than I am. I actually expectations that these guys are going to play a significant part of our future so it wont come as a surprise for me. For you though when it happens it should be pleasant surprise.
Its not that there is no room for improvement but we know that Watson & Goddard are near the end of their careers & they have been champions. Even a guy like Stanton who is underrated by many has been a prolific ball winner for 10 years but has not yet been effectively replaced. We have no idea if we have anyone who will get remotely close to that level who isn’t currently in the side. We can hope that Mutch, Laverde, Langford etc have that type of improvement in them but its probably not likley & certainly not a hope we should be hanging our future on. We have depth right now beyond just about any club. Who else has guys like Hocking, Myers, Stanton, Bird & at times Howlett running around their reserves - thats a hell of a lot of experience. What we don’t have is top end talent. Watson was arguably the best contested ball winner in the game for 4-5 years but he’s nowhere near that now. Goddard was 1 of the best utility players in the league who could play anywhere & had elite disposal, now he’s starting to make more & more mistakes & has lost a bit of pace. Kelly is another very good player who helps out around the clearances in the backline who’s experience will soon be gone. We know what we are losing, we have no idea what we’re gaining. There’s good reason to believe we are going to lose more quality than we gain over the next 1-2 years based on pure onfield performance. We may add some top young talent from the draft but it most likely won’t be ready to fill the void in the next 2 years. If we don’t add any established talent to the list via trade or free agency then we could see another period of near bottom finishes waiting for the next wave to establish.
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