Makes the GWS midfield just look scarier and scarier.
They have basically everything covered from inside mids with pace, to straight contested bulls, to elite outside runners who accumulate plenty of footy, freakshow HFF/mids. Even the player they use to do defensive roles consistently gets 30+ possessions.
Callan Ward still has plenty of years ahead of him, as per Tom Scully. Experience & leadership on inside and outside.
Then they have:
Shiel. Coniglio. Kelly. Whitfield. Smith. Hopper. Setterfield. Taranto… and a bunch of others in 2’s dominating now plus continual access to academy kids.
Mutch, Clarke and Langford are all playing midfield roles in the VFL to develop their games even when we have players like Hocking, O’Brien and Howlett in the side and would most likely be preferred if we were playing for wins only!
Langford in particular needs midfield time to practice the craft but due to the senior players coming back they cant fit him in the seniors.
In regards to the one dimensional players, all of Fantasia, Walla, and Parish are all getting an opportunity to go through midfield as well as play forward so as to improve flexibility going forward but also allow tactical flexibility within a game.
Zac Merrett this year is playing a deeper role so that he can provide that first kick into the midfield from half back that can be the hardest to execute but also the most rewarding in setting up a fast route to goal.
Basically if you aren’t a key position defender you are rotating through midfield at some point and that’s why their are teething problems in regards to the players learning the systems. As they get more experience playing this brand of football they will understand their role and how others are within the system and it will make for an exciting brand of football.
Doggies do it very well and that’s why you might see Bont drifting forward at one stage of the game and then another with Stringer running through midfield. It’s to create mismatches but also so you lose your opponent and can drift forward unattended.
It will take a couple of years to fully develop and we are still yet to work out who’s playing where, but once developed hopefully it can be a successful brand of football.
The last time a midfield with this kind of core mix worked for us was 2013. That team had 2 things we are missing at the moment (without factoring in fluid things like form and fitness):
Ruckman whose value when the ball hit the ground makes them an extra mid, and who also led hard around the ground, often presenting to mark our kick in after an opposition behind. (Ryder)
A spare man who ran from contest to contest without necessarily getting the ball but clearing the way for our ball winners to get out and dispose of the ball effectively. (Don’t laugh… Kommer)
To me, the first point poses a question about McKernan, the second, I dunno??
Lol, you know its really bad when you can only think of 2 examples & 1 of them didn’t even happen. We traded Heffernan to Melb, not the other way round.
It’s not ‘due to returning players’ in my opinion, but due to the fact that Langers needs to improve in some areas. When the selectors determine that he offers at least equal to others in a required position, he’ll be back in.
Or maybe he’s just not a midfielder & its trying to turn non midfielders into midfielders that has seen us with the worst midfield in the comp - just a thought.
In part I agree with you but I think for the future of the club I would prefer him in the middle than Jobe.
But I recognise that Jobe is a champion of the club and is entitled to go out on his terms.
Its still valuable for Langers to get experience at VFL level through the midfield as opposed to playing half forward at senior level. Hopefully he comes back a stronger player because I feel he has lots to offer.
We clearly don’t have depth through there yet but thats not to say that its not going to be good even as soon as next year!
We have players returning from a year off and on top of that we have young players rotating through midfield to gain experience.
And if thats not enough they are working under Leuey who hasn’t played with some of these guys until this year and working with totally different structures and gamelans!
It may appear to you that its dysfunctional and without system but I can assure you that theirs a great deal of work going on behind the scenes and given time we will start to see improvements.
Look, I get that we all hope its going to get better but FFS its been a problem for 15 years & its most likely going to get worse before it gets better. Watson & Goddard are at or near their last year - they are head & shoulders our best clearance mids, still. We simply have not drafted & developed anywhere near enough mids to keep up with where the game was heading & we have not shown an ability to trade in to fill the gaps in the list that poor drafting has left.
I’m clearly more optimistic than you but I feel it can turn around quickly.
I think our forward and back half are both of a very good standard and now all we need to build is depth through midfield. I think we’ve already got some very good quality mids that have had senior exposure and we also have some that we are developing.
The thing about midfields is sometimes all it takes is 10% improvement from the guys you have (Parish, Langford, Laverne, Mutch, Fantasia, Walla, etc), uncover a star or two(Merrett & McGrath) and then add another couple of draft picks and you are on your way. Factor in time together playing and in two years this will look an entirely different unit.
We start putting runs on the board and a big club like ours that plays in front of massive crowds at the “G” starts becoming a destination club again!
We have the bookends and also some of the best smalls in the game and now we just need to compliment it with midfielders that can run all day and I think we’ve got a team capable of going deep into September.
The irony is the 2013 draft is probably the best result we’ve had like ever!
While I agree the saga drove some players out of the club & would hardly have been attractive to entice talent, its still a bit of a copout to blame the saga because we couldn’t get trades done before it.