Im not sure how good he is defensively but if we can add abit more polish to his offensive side he is one I’d love for us to make a play for, would be a weapon with that run and carry.
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runnin & carryun till the early morn
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Clarke is harder at the ball and a more physical presence than Mutch in my opinion. Pity about his kicking.
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Watson couldn’t kick when he got to the club, then he turned it around, then he forgot how to kick again. Much like Colyer.
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He doesnt seem to get as much of it either
He has been playing a fair bit forward more while Mutch has been a midfield fixture in the games I’ve seen.
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Clarke has been playing forward, but I think as he develops a physique to match his inside style he’ll start playing midfield.
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Throw him in the middle next season in VFL. We cant give these mid types anymore than 2 years to see if they can cut it.
We have a habit of hanging on to players for too long.
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He looks to have a physique that is pretty developed already in my opinion.
True in a general sense, but I wouldn’t say that he’s mature physically like a Kennedy which is what he would hopefully be aiming at over the next few seasons.
I thought this was the biggest issue with quite a few of the returning players. They seem to have "lost touch " in terms of efficiency with possession.
Turnovers killed us throughout the year and our disposal efficiency has probably been the thing that differentiates us for the top 6 sides. It has been like that for the last 5 years at least.
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The more I think about it the more I think our midfield can jump quickly next year.
We really only had 1 gun midfielder this year. Merrett.
Next year we could have 4 very quickly or at least well on the way to 4.
I’m confident that Heppell will get back to gun status with another preseason under the belt.
Then we have Parish and McGrath who will both get a lot more midfield minutes. These guys mightn’t star immediately but I reckon there is every chance they’ll move into our top 4 mids and immediately be performing better than our 3rd and 4th best did this year. They’ll both put in a lot more defensive effort for starters.
Zaka will be a handy 5th wheel. After that depth is still a problem unless a few youngsters step up or Myers and Colyer also benefit a lot from the second preseason
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Neeeeed D. Parish to have a breakout season and win the Critchton
Instant ? It wasn’t so long ago ( August 2017) our midfield was probably the worst in the AFL. They put our defence under pressure, they lost clearance battles in almost every game. Jackets seemed to have failed to recruit an elite “big body” midfielder since 2010. Coming into 2018 we had a very good list, but a poor midfield. I was worried.
…
12 months later our midfield is now rated 2nd in the AFL on a range of measures, .
We don’t have midfield woes any more. Can we assign credit to anyone for this ?
We have a terrific clearance coach, Pops Kelly clearly has footy smarts and can coach.
In Skippy, we have a capable general midfield coach.
We have an on field coach called Devon Smith, who sets the “contested footy” example.
Tommy helps us win a lot of clearances.
Heppel, Zerret and Zaka are all playing really well
Langford can stand up in a tackle and is cool under pressure. Disposal is excellent. Watch this space.
Worsfolds “rotate a lot of players through the midfield” is now up and running, bringing fresh legs into the midfield late in games.
Myers has repaid the faith the match committee showed in him, and is actually impacting games.
Parish, Stringer, Tippa, Fanta are all getting more midfield minutes and improving their craft.
Now we have a midfield that performs like this, we have a pressure cooker that will help the midfielders
in waiting , like Mutch, Clark, Redman, and Fridge, improve relative to a higher set bar.
Whatever happens in 2018 c’est la vie, but 2019: “boy oh wowie”
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Listening to the radio today, apparently we have the best under 25 in the league?
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That was our rating heading into the season, not sure whether we still hold that rating.
Where has this come from?
Where are you finding this?
I reckon it’s from champion data.
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As in list?
Agree