In my mind Durham should be playing a bit more on the outside and parish/ Hobbs are the key inside mids. Caldwell has a bit of pace and has good kicking and I think too can play a bit more outside.
Maybe I’m outdated in my views, but I think there is still a place in teams for a strong, slowish inside mid brute
I think there absolutely is, but if that’s the role I think you want him to be a fair bit bigger in both height and weight. But there are certainly examples of smaller players performing the role (Rowbottom springs to mind)
I actually struggle to see his future, I think clubs now back themselves to be able to get someone to play that role quite cheaply so that perhaps limits what we could get.
But, I think he probably stays for now. Tsatas could/will be a problem for him.
I think for hobbs to be any sort of useful, he has to have the presence of a worpel, he clearly doesn’t.
Part of the problem is these days the guys who are the strong, slowish, inside mid brutes are your Tom Green, Patrick Cripps, Ollie Wines, Bont, Josh Dunkley types who have him covered by about 10cm and 10kg.
Yes, of course there are some exceptions but you’ve got to be very good to mitigate that. Certainly you wouldn’t want to lose your feet in the contest as often as he does.
I looked again at the 2021 drat. Based on first 3 seasons I don’t think Hobbs would be top 25 if you re did that draft now
Libba?
Ideally, you need at least 1 guy in your main centre square rotation who can bound away from traffic with leg drive and speed.
Durham has that, and no one else has except for Shiel who shouldn’t be playing in '25 for us.
Geelong have 2 of them.
Swans have Warner.
Port have JHF and Butters.
Richards for the Dogs.
Young for Freo.
GWS & Haw probably don’t have a CB type player I’ve described, but both groups are very good, tough as nails and deep.
Cumming only interested in getting to Port I believe
Looking back on 2021 GWS did sensational business snagging Collingwoods first.
And finn callaghan looks like a serious player
I think the fact we had Duursma in mind played into us thinking Massimo was disposable though.
I personally would have preferred:
Instead of bringing in Duursma.
Or, if we value duursma over a second rounder bring him in, keep mass and keep the 3 late picks we gave to port for some reason.
Yep, absolutely. Nearly at the end now but he’s been a
gun coal face extractor animal for over a decade as a fairly small guy.
Perhaps the last?
I would highly doubt he goes anywhere expect here as he has family in Adelaide is close to broken hill and a lot of he’s mates from school are in Adelaide aswell
It’s very concerning if we were thinking this way.
Ultimately we had no idea that Massimo was capable of this level, or how to maximize his strengths.
Sadly, we’re going to be talking about it for the next 7-9 years with deep regret.
Could last longer than the ted richards regret
Matt Rowell
On Massimo I think you’ve nailed it really. Yes he is great field kick but he was (and still is…) a defensive liability. He played off half back for us and got exposed for it. He plays wing for the Hawks where his defensive short comings are well hidden. Fair play to the Hawthorn coaches for maximising his positive traits and minimising his frailties.
We did miove him to wing in the VFL,scott just didn’t play him
Yep, for sure. Certainly not a “plodder” though
