It should tell you how useful a stat clearances are, if we were better last year than this.
Stuffing the side with guys who’s only real strength is to not lose contests will help you “win” clearances on the stat sheet, but won’t help you win many games
Of course raw stats don’t paint the whole picture, clearances can mean you get the ball 1st & then turn it over to the opposition in a dangerous position - that’s something we do far too often. You also don’t get extra clearance points if you effectively clear it straight to a goal. I think what the stats support is that last year we had a more settled midfield structure including a defensive component to the way we set up. I’d also suggest that last year Lberger was more effective at his tapwork than he was this year or what Belly has been. A big part of our clearance work last year was Bird who for some reason hasn’t been given a sniff this year. He was in or around the top 50 in the league for average & total clearances. I though for the most part last year we were competitive around stoppages without having that depth of class to ever really get on top or capitalise. This year I don’t think we have had as settled a structure & at times it feels like our midfield is getting dominated more than even 2016. We seem to concede effective (almost unopposed) clearances & have stretches where we seem incapable of getting 1st use of the ball. I believe this is a major reason why we struggle to control momentum swings like the last 2 weeks.
A little too simplistic. The game has changed since last year, no third man up for a start. Ask the Bulldogs who were no.1 in contested ball but now find themselves ranked no.16. Clearances Dogs have gone from no.2 to no.10. The Bont went from a dominant factor when allowed to being third man up to struggling more this year to impact. Ditto Little Libba.
Granted, they’re only stats & there’s likely other factors involved but it’s too simplistic to say it’s purely personnel. TBell is now our first ruck with Jobe, Heppell, Myers etc running through that midfield with Parish, Merrett & Fantasia & Walla at times. It’s going to take some time to work that out as a collective IMO. Personnel & the game having changed since last year let alone 2015 are probably in combination at likely reason for our struggles.
Having said all that, I too am frustrated by losing clearances & contested ball week after week given the efficiency of our forwards and believe Bird should’ve been given a go before now. I do think we’ve seen some improvements in that area but you’re correct in saying we require a whole lot more if we’re to compete with the better sides more consistently.
Yep, and I’m not saying drop all the speedsters in the team and replace them with Bird, Hocking, Clark & Myers.
I’m saying the balance between contested football, and non-contested football is out.
Currently, if you stop Essendon’s run through the corridor, you stop Essendon winning the game.
Great insights there, thanks mate. Top post
I think last year we threw everyone we could into the midfield because when we lost the clearance we’d concede a goal. Might have been a more defensive setup, but it wasn’t necessarily a good one. We need to add guys who contribute to winning clearances, but also guys who can defend at clearances. And contribute around the ground.
Stuffing the side with another 3 Jobe Watsons would make us a worse side on balance IMO.
Agree, I think our balance is about right. We just need to upgrade a few players.
Its games like yesterday when you can see that in a couple of years a midfield of Merret, Parish, Mcg and Heppel is going to hold their own. Still want more mids, but the cupboard isn’t bare.
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It’s not bare but it’s missing the elite inside player that Jobe was in 2012, plus the required long term replacement (and upgrades) on Myers and Hocking.
Zerret, Parish and Zaka/Fanta/Walla etc will be absolutely thriving if we have 2 bona-fide gun inside 2-way-running mids feeding the ball out to them.
If those new players can kick well than we are ahead. If they are reasonably quick we are way ahead. If they can run both ways, we make finals consistently.
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"[quote=“Rhino-D, post:932, topic:10289, full:true”]
It’s not bare but it’s missing the elite inside player that Jobe was in 2012, plus the required long term replacement (and upgrades) on Myers and Hocking.
Zerret, Parish and Zaka/Fanta/Walla etc will be absolutely thriving if we have 2 bona-fide gun inside 2-way-running mids feeding the ball out to them.
If those new players can kick well than we are ahead. If they are reasonably quick we are way ahead. If they can run both ways, we make finals consistently.
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Tippa and Fantastia are hardly regular midfielders, they’re forwards, infact they’re spurt players at best in the middle and neither have shown anything other than a few games here and there last year. Zaharakis can be BOG or do absolutely nothing with the latter occurring more often, so history has told me not to rely on him unless we can draw Collingwood 23 games next year. That leaves Zerrett, and Heppell who hasn’t pieced it together full yet.
The state of our midfield is in a shambolic state, Zerrett and Heppell help paper the cracks and Parish looks promising. Goddard will be retired in 2 years, Watson probably has this year left, and we have no young midfielders outside of Mutch coming through. I don’t see any upward trend in our midfield outside of Parish, with Zerrett, Heppell and Zaharakis having minimal improvement left and then throw in Goddard and Watson who’ll retire. If we draft anything but pure midfielders this year I’ll be very fcking disappointed. The fate of our next 5 years depend on finding some good midfielders to help the few good ones we have.
Huh? McGrath, Begley, Mutch, Clarke, Parish, Langford and Long were all taken in the last three drafts with a long term view of them as midfielders.
Redman and Laverde may end up playing midfield as well.
Now whether you think that’s a good enough crop is one thing, but saying there’s no-one besides Mutch (who hasn’t even played a game) is a flat out lie and makes your argument look ridiculous.
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Or it means that it’s not enough and they’re not the right type
McGrath was a back who played bits in the middle, and guess what, he’s played all this year down back.
Begley is a forward and has only played forward, not sure how he resembles anything even near a midfielder as his goalkicking is what got him on the map draft year. You’re sh*tting uphill to thin khe’s gonna be a midfielder.
Langford was a half forward who can play wing, and watching draft videos he says himself his preferred position is half-forward and a bit of wing. The bios on him all say half-forward or utility draft year. Not outright mid.
Long was a freakin’ rookie who has bursts all over but definitely not pure mid. Really went all out to address our midfield issues there.
So that leaves Mutch who was drafted with pick 42, Clarke drafted in the 50’s and Parish who was the obvious selection early along with Oliver. So all we have are two kids drafted in the 40/50’s and a top selection. That’s a pathetic attempt to address these midfield issues. We need to stop the continuing trend of drafting players who we “hope” can play midfield and draft players that are master in the midfield trade. Redman was a forward in draft year and Lav has barely got near the midfield since being drafted and has played forward.
The midfield players we have on our list has a huge chasm of the 21-26 year olds. It’s basically kids we drafted last year and then Hocking/Howlett/Stanton etc. Pretending if we have gone out to draft midfielders is laughable, Using a few late picks is hardly addressing any issues.
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I agree that we need to pick more midfielders in the next two drafts (and pretty much every draft for the rest of time), but that wasn’t what I was addressing in that post.
I think picking up brown and Heartly has really saved our bacon with regard to being able to use high draft pick on mids for the next two years.
I’d like to see R1 and R2 on pure mids this year and then see what we have. Either that or offload both R1/2 for a proven mid.
Right and you handpicked a specific sentence in my post about Mutch. You then tried telling me that we have in fact drafted a lot of midfielders by giving me a list of forward flankers, forward pockets, and half-back flankers, and then I told you those players will not address any midfield issue nor has the club tried to address them by drafting these bit part players.
Outside of our current team, we only have Mutch as a young midfielder coming on. We then have Clarke. Both of these guys were drafted just last year in the 40’s/50’s. If you want to keep telling me the club has infact drafted with the intention of fixing our mids by drafting Redman, Morgan etc then we’ll end our discussion here because it’s a waste of time.
So much negativity.
We have enough on younger depth. Even our skipper is young enough.
Clearly a post that hasn’t read the thread or watched the vfl.
Sorry @Crazy_Bomber, you’re either ignorant or severely pruning the facts for your argument. McGrath spent significant time in the midfield last year - hence why he racked up more clearances than McLuggage, a state I referred to in the lead up to the draft. Sure he’s playing back now - so did Heppell in his first season. Begley spent the second half of the TAC season playing midfield, not forward. He only played forward for 3-5 games before making the switch. Ridley also played significant time in the midfield (as well as forward and back), and has been deemed a future midfield candidate. Obviously you missed Clarke who never played anywhere else. Fantasia, and Walla have spent time in the midfield this year, and Langford, Laverde, McKenna and Redman all have midfield potential, to varying degrees.
Saying we’ve no midfielders other than Mutch coming through is just blatantly wrong.
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If you want to list me all the names that could and sometimes do go midfield, I’m sure we could list 30 players. I’m talking about players that were pure midfielders, drafted with the sole intention of playing midfield. Not flankers, pockets or any other combination that we HOPE can one day can play midfield. I’m not counting players who occasionally get game time in the middle, I’m talking their predominant position. I’m happy to concede McGrath who although I still think did his best work down back (and has played all back so far) can become a good mid, playing him there at least a few games might help.
My point is I want us to draft PURE midfielders, not guys who are good utilities who could go midfield and spends a little time there, or people showing me examples of how draftee x played 3 games there in the pre-draft year. Full time mids. Give me that. Most of these guys are utilities who have shown bursts in the middle but realistically won’t be full time midfielders. I understand some do spend time in the middle as most AFL players do now at some stage, that’s not what I’m saying. Redman? Umm I don’t possibly see how he’ll become a top flight midfielder, and he’s rarely played any VFL time there bar occasionally running through the wings. Drafted as a forward, now used as a back to get him into the game. Begley, yes, spent time in the middle, but he was a good forward pre-draft year, kicking 31 goals from memory, realistically he’ll be a forward for at least 3 years. VFL time suggests forward for now, and again he’s not a pure mid, just someone we hope can spend time there. He played forward in the pre-season games too. I’m not saying he won’t be a good mid one day maybe, I’m just saying evidence suggests we intend on him being a forward/high forward. Fantasia, again, can be good for 10 minutes in a burst, full time mid? No. Tippa, good for 10 minutes, full time mid? I can’t see it in the immediate future. Langford? Again, drafted as a forward flanker (he said himself that’s his best position pre draft) who can play on the wings sometime. I understand we’re trying to work him into a mid, but he’s shown his best football imo up forward. LAV? again we’re planting up forward and I can’t actually recall much mid time in his career at Essendon so far (obviously some random bursts occasionally aside). McKenna was a forward for us, now back. Yes he does run through the middle and spend time there every so often but he was a international pickup so it was very optimistic to think he was going to be our midfield savior.
Again like I said outside of Mutch and Clarke who we got late 40’s/50’s just last year, we’re failing to outright address the midfield. If people are happy drafting more flankers who can become mids one day but spend the first 3-4 years in their predominant position first, then so be it. Just don’t be shocked when we have a huge chasm when the older plonkers retire, which will be soon. I just don’t see any young mids coming through outside of Mutch and giving me flankers/pockets who have barely spent time there doesn’t impress me either.
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