this obsession with pace is a bit of an illusion. What genuine elite inside mids have good pace apart from danger and ablett? Fyfe, no, mitchell, no, priddis, no, josh kennedy, no, the list goes on. you absolutely want you best clearance players in the guts, that is heppell AND watson. Look at Adelaide on the weekend, Sloane, Douglas and Crouch won most their clearances, none of those are very quick at all.
pace isn’t the issue
chemistry and structure around the clearances appear to be the issue.
They’re not very quick but the idea is to have midfielders who compliment one another. We have a lot of one-paced plodders running around in midfield (Heppell, Watson, Stanton, Goddard) who simply cannot cover enough ground in both directions to mitigate damage when the opposition break from a clearance.
It is for that reason we need to groom players like Laverde, McKenna, Long, Langford, Francis, Parish (just the ones that I’ve actually seen play) to be able to take our midfield forward in the coming seasons. Throw them in with Heppell, Merrett, Colyer, Zaharakis, Orazio (the ones that’re already proven) and the midfield dynamic completely changes in both offensive power and defensive running.
EDIT: Meant to put Parish in the proven category. Because he is.
Not getting the clearance stat and not being involved in the clearance are two different things. He’s also shown an ability to dominate stoppages at VFL level, but Blitz of course has no time for development or ideas.
Actually on that note, does anyone know exactly how they determine which player is credited with the clearance? If there’s a series of short handballs that get further and further away from the contest which one is the “clearance”?
Can we please just stick to truth based discussions. Langford played 3 VFL games last year & was only named in our best 3 in 1 game where we lost by 14 goals & he had 21 disposals. His best game disposal wise was 24, unless all 24 were clearances its a myth that he’s dominated stoppages at any level. Again, I hope like hell he somehow becomes a Fyfe type mid but so far he hasn’t even really shown any signs of it at senior level.
Maybe a lot too this are we overrating pace? I have certainly been on of the ones saying only one of the tractors in at a time but I certainly don’t know for sure if that is the answer, and perhaps you are correct. Once the team has played more footy together perhaps it will sort it self out.
Fyfe, mitchell, priddis, josh kennedy, all played in different teams.No one said Jobe and BJ were no good because they were tractors. Whats most people are saying is that we have too many slower and less agile players we are putting into the stoppages .
What we are talking about is adding more pace into the inside at stoppages. Thats is more Zerret, Darcy, Tippa, Trav.
But yes I concede it may not work as well as having Jobe Fyffe and Priddis playing for us, but we are trying to come up with a solution thats within the realms of possibility.
Lets bust a myth. About 25% of clearances ( around 15 per game ) come from the top 3 players, so the overall clearance performance is effected more by the depth players.
Historically. EFC top clearance players averages( not incl Ruckmen )
The truth is he was in the best twice and his best game was a 28 possession 10 tackle game against port Melbourne. He only had 6 handball recieves and 5 marks in that game so he won his fair share of contested ball and my recollection is that he absolutely bossed contested ball situations. http://websites.sportstg.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=124569653&c=0-118-0-392693-0&pool=1
Well I don’t know about stats, but I know what I’ve seen with my own eyes. He also played some very strong VFL games, including finals, at the end of his first year where he displayed similar traits.