I think Zach would get almost as much ball off half back as he does in the middle. Look how much Martin and other designated half back kickers get. Forward he’d get a lot less but the touches he gets could lead to more scores than in defence.
Yes, other teams would probably rather he played forward or back, but the biggest reason for moving him part time are:
flexibility - clearly the coaching staff are huge on being able to play multiple positions.
Zach’s longevity - if he could learn to play forward or back well enough, it could add 2-3 years to his career (not that there are signs of slowing down yet)
development of young kids - we desperately need to give time to the likes of Tsatas and Durham. If Tsatas can come on as a gun midfielder (sure there’s some work to do) then the payoff would be enormous with Zach contributing strongly splitting his time mid and otherwise. Tsatas is not going to become a gun in any other position. That much is clear.
For what it’s worth, I don’t favour forward or back at this stage. I just back the move to give him less mid time. I hope they do the same with Parish (forward), to a lesser extend, simply as I don’t think he can do it as well as Zach.
Tsatas
Merrett
Parish
Caldwell
Durham
I want these blokes to all get significant minutes. I’d also love to see Martin get plenty of minutes, but that’s a challenge for the coaches (and possibly more reason why Zach spending time back is a good idea). They’d be my main 6 with Perkins playing forward with pinch hits mid (or reserves if he can’t find form doing that).
I don’t see Redman playing mid and keep Gresham away.
Have no doubt Zach Merret could be one of the elite small forwards of the comp if he focused in on it and small forwards are the highest commodity in modern footy imo.
What time does training usually finish? Will be flying into Tulla at 2pm so not sure if I should bother swinging by with the family for a look. Not that it’s far out of the way.
Players are usually there until somewhere between 3pm and 4pm.
But by that time all the field training is completed by about 1pm.
After that it’s more weights and stuff in the Hangar.
You might catch a small group of players doing something on the oval and you might even catch a few in the coffee shop. Other than that, I wouldn’t expect much.
He won’t be playing a Stringer role. I suspect it’ll be more of his version of a high half forward role.
I think he’ll be playing more midfield time than forward too and probably switching with Perkins. He’ll push up the field, be another ‘midfielder’ in play and allow more space for the forwards to work in at the same time as helping out with our forward press. Durham has also shown to be a very capable tackler so when he is in the forward line, he’ll be able to put more pressure on the opposition when he doesn’t have the ball than when he does. Stringer does the opposite.
I expect him to push up to 60% CBAs (he was at 50% last year) rather than the 30% Stringer had. Caldwell is also expected to push up to 60%. And Tsatas would be pushing for his 30%.
It’s finding the positions on the ground outside of their CBAs that has limited our flexibility. Parish for instance was played as a forward, yet none of it has helped him find a spot in the forward line when he’s not at the centre bounce. So he becomes another ‘high half forward’ player who pushes into the midfield too. Caldwell looks to be tracking a similar way. Hobbs is his own way is in a similar boat.
Sending Zac to starvation corner is up there with the most unlikely scenarios that will play out this season. We need the ball in his hand as much as possible. One of Zac or Martin will likely play as a defender. We need creative ball use in defence. Of those two, Martin is far more capable as a forward, and therefore more likely to play there.
I can also understand it if its a way to inject goals into our midfielders. Going by last year our best goalkicking mid was Merret with 14, making him the 21st best midfielder (labeled by the AFL website.)
Theres 10 teams who have at least 1 midfielder who kicked more goals than Merrett. Of those 10 teams they won 8 finals.
Theres also 8 teams who have 2 midfielders who kicked more goals than Merrett. Of those 8 teams they won 7 finals.
And in the grand final there were 5 midfielders who kicked more than Merrett, and 6 if you count Parker who was tied with Merrett.
Our next best were Durham with 10, Duursma with 9 and Caldwell with 8. And if you don’t want to count Duursma becuase hes a wing, next is Perkins with 5.
Zach is our captain & best player. He still is in the prime of his career and I expect him to have at least three additional years at peak.
Yes, all our players need to be comfortable playing in different roles and yes, they should be testing this out through pre-season.
Opening round I expect Zach to line up in the centre opening bounce. He should still play the majority of game time as a centre-mid. It’s what best for the team. 70% mid/30% fwd.
When it gets to the point he isn’t in our best three starting mids then we should move him to a forward pocket/back pocket. We won’t consider this until the other mids take his position.
If he is 35 and still in our best midfield rotation why should we be taking him away from centre bounces?
Your point that we have to wait and see is reasonable. Capitalising on versatility is something we should do if it opens up spots for up and comers, which is why I’m keen for Zach to play back. And how do you find out if a player can play multiple roles? By testing the waters. I just have doubts about Duz’s ability to adapt to a different role given that he didn’t last time. Happy to give it a shot but I sure as hell don’t want to waste his talent and development by waiting an entire season to realise that it doesn’t work, much like we’ve done with Marto.
As you pointed out, the split plays a role. I’d like to see him remain as much in the middle as possible but am prepared to concede that it’s subjective.
The fact of the matter is that we have too many similar midfield types that have similar limitations. Really makes me wonder where a soon to be 28 year old Darcy Parish sits.
