Not even that hard it seems, … " … made us “look” 4th rate"
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Why do our up and coming mids have to be cookie cutter versions of some other like ffyfe and cochin fcs. Cant they just be stars in their own right ?
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Deserves 1 IMHO.
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Agree, it was a deliberate sling. Could have led to a serious injury. The sort of tackle the league has been trying to stamp out.
I agree with 1, only got $1,000 fine though.
fines don’t really set a example for lower leagues tho, when it makes more sense to give them a match penalty over a fine.
After the Sydney game there was a lot of why doesn’t player x get more time in centre square. We saw Sheil and McGrath dominate the start of the game. Langford had a purple patch during the game. Parish and Merret killed it in the last quarter.
This is a good problem to have. But what do people see as being the real ideal rotations.
As I see it there are seven main mids. Sheil, McGrath, Merret, Heppel, Parish, Langford and Smith. I like all of them rotating through the centre but with a group that large it means many are going to have games of less than 50% in the guts.
Lots of comments to not put Stringer, Tippa in for bounces play Parish. Which might have a point, but really that’s a minor event, as it didn’t happen that much. Parish in particular didn’t play much on ball because we had other very good players like Sheil and McGrath playing on ball.
So if you want Parish and Langford to up their midfield minutes who’s are you reducing out of Sheil, Merret and McGrath. It’s not so easy anymore without a David Myers to easily point too.
A good problem to have and one that may evolve as the season progresses but you can’t play them all in the guts.
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I want to see at least one of Langford, McGrath, and Parish always present. And just work the rest around that. Langford has by far the best disposal of all our mids, is very good overhead, has amongst the best endurance in our side, and is big and strong enough to stand up in the heat. McGrath just needs to understand the breakaway speed he has over almost any other mid in the comp to realise he has time to steady (and I reckon I saw the start of that in Sydney) and his disposal will be up there too. He is also has an absolutely never say die attack on both the ball and the man. And Parish, who’s disposal improved markedly last season, and is way better than many give him credit for, is also, despite his size, without doubt our best inside mid. He can find the ball in traffic, can step through traffic like no one else in our side, and he has lightning fast hands.
So I’m thinking more in terms of combinations than minutes. Get the mix right and we have the personnel to be able to compete with any midfield imo.
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Does Langford playing ruck count towards his midfield time?
Yep I think I’m leaning heavily towards that. Those 3 with growth will lead to a much improved list.
Merret and Sheil can spend time on the wings as well as in the centre.
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It seems the McGrath and Sheil combination is the coaches number one at the moment. The two of them together do look very dangerous.
How awesome did Rowell look against the eagles who I thought had one of the best midfields.
Our midfield looks ok, usually breaks even against opposition. and has some speedy blokes who can burst away from stoppages.
We are really lacking a decent ruck someone who can compete with the Grundy/ Gawn types.
imagine if we had Ryder at his peak palming down to McGrath and Shiel.
Improvement relies on Parish/McGrath/Langford taking the next step and Draper offering more around the ground than we get from Bellchambers this/next year.
but if other mids are pushed to other positions they still need to be useful.
Agree, there were a few times against Sydney he did a Saad-style back his pace to just burst past people.
Not sure if this has been posted…
“Shiel attended every restart in the first half, and 17 of the first 18 in the match, finishing with 22 touches. There was just one centre bounce in the first three quarters that he did not attend. Alongside him for the majority (11 times) of those were Andy McGrath and Jake Stringer. McGrath (23 touches, seven tackles, seven clearances) continues to blossom, and Stringer, as noted after Round 1, is spending more and more time in the midfield as more than simply a burst, impact player that we have come to expect. Shiel, McGrath and Stringer were the only three players to attend more than ten restarts. The next highest attendees were Parish and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti with six each, and Devon Smith with five.”
Personally, I’d like to see Parish attend a few more centre bounces, with Stringer and Walla being limited to ‘impact’ centre bounce players (ie, when we need something special or are trying to bring them into the game).
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There is proper depth this season which is great and seeing Mcgrath ready to take a big step gives me hope. DP3 playing more midfield time I think is a must - he has some lachie Neale potential about him (wishful & hopeful).
But the issue I have and always have is the size of the midfield and it’s ability to win stoppages at important times of the game when we don’t momentum. Hopefully we find a prototypical mid like a Bont, Dunkley, Cripps, Taranto etc.
Our midfield has one glaring problem. Disposal Penetration. Other than perhaps Shiel, most of our mids can barely clear a jam tin. And when they do, it’s usually at a modest efficiency rate. Maybe I am seeing things but the amount of lollipop kicks coming out of our midfield is a forward’s worst nightmare. McGrath in particular seems to really struggle to connect with the ball when under pressure.
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Agree with that. It’s an area where we aren’t quite as good as a lot of other sides. We lack incisive and penetrating ball users.
We just have to try to play in a manner that allows us to construct goals with what we do have though. But yeah agree it’s certainly not a strength.
The guys off half back, Saad and McKenna are probably two of our more penetrating kicks of the footy.
Ridley and Langford are good classy users of the footy.
It’s really hard to gauge our midfield.
On one hand we actually bat really deep with very good players. Which is a strength.
But as far as star quality match winners we are lacking, and those who can get it done in the heat of a pressure final. We have no genuine gun extractor/distributor (Cripps, Kennedy, Mitchell etc), and no elite level star classy type (Josh Kelly, Bont, Pendlebury etc).
On their day Shiel & Zerrett can put up star like numbers. But in finals so far Shiel has been pretty ordinary. Not as much space to work in which he needs, more pressure on disposal which can be an issue for him. And Zerrett as we have seen can be tagged out of the game.
The gun mids of comp still get it done in finals and still find a way to work through tags.
A positive we have seen is McGrath has shown can step up in final, and this is his first year as a full time mid. And Parish has also shown can do so. We need them to.
IMO if we are to succeed it’s really going to have to come down to the power of the collective mid group rather than standout performances which isn’t a bad thing. However which way we can get it done is fine with me.
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Geez I’m blind. I didn’t think Stringer attended that many.
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Reckon Essendon goes alright.
Rate Merrett, Shiel, McGrath, Parish, Hepp goes alright.
Used in bursts Walla and Stringer know what they are doing.
Have a decent ruck division.
And we have a ripping half back line as long as our mids keep the pressure on the opposition.
Nah I am a bull not a bear.
Pity our forward line has been decimated by injuries. I would have called it our strongest line at the beginning of 2018 after we picked up Stringer and Smith.