That’s not the problem. The problem is Merrett hasn’t been himself since the hit, Heppell is slow, Zaka’s disposal has been deplorable and he’s not defensively minded and Colyer’s not even playing and when he is, not a clean ball user.
We have to get away from this idea the we need big lumbering bulls in the midfield. We don’t. Those big lumbering bulls we have now are hurting us. We need good runners who are coached to spread and pressure with and without the ball respectively.
We need players who can withstand the physical pressure, who can play body on body and not be out muscled. Big bodied players with strength dont need to be lumbering.
I know this was all canvassed last year. The club’s solution was
a) to use Stringer in the midfield but now we are hooked on him as a forward and he is rarely allowed to even participate in centre bounces or other stoppages.
b) train Langford as a big body mid. The club seem to have abandoned this idea and he is in limbo.
To illustrate our clubs lack of inside midfielders based on 2018 stats, and leaving aside the finer points of the “quality of each player” . A player who is strongly criticised on Blitz is our #1 clearance player. Myers comes in at 19th in the AFL for clearances. Thats similar to where we stand in the AFL for midfield performance.
Check out this table.
But where we are in serious trouble is the other mids. Hepp is 57th, Darcy is 83rd. Zac Merret 93rd, Dev Smith 93rd. for clearances.
Most good teams have at least 2 good clearance mids in the top 50. Carlton have 3 Hawthorn have 2. Colling wood 3 and so on.
Given the failure of the Langford and Stringer gamble, we have tried to address this issue by running lots of fresh legs through the midfield, but we really don’t select an extractor who spends enough time at the coalface and develop skills at it at the level.
Something needs to be done. Not a band aid solution, but fcs find a player who can play as an inside mid and form the core of the midfield going forward. Even if he is a limited player like Rockliffe, we need that type of player, because its costing us too much in player resource and destabilising our structures too much to compete against other midfields.
That, is a key part of Whats gone wrong.
The easiest thing to fix in Myers’s game is tackling. He needs to identify opposition players with the ball and run after them an grab them. Its doesnt matter if its not a crunching tackle, but it must interfere with his opponents disposal, like grab his arm and spin him, but I guess Myers has had his finger wrecked tackling in the past. Maybe that effects him ?
Dustin martin lays less tackles than myers
The issue isn’t myers not laying enough tackles, it’s that he doesn’t hurt opposition teams in other ways. Hardwick doesn’t care martin has no defensive game, he is offensively damaging and the rest of the tigers mids make up for it
Nah. He was with his mum who is lovely. Seems just as stressed as all of us re the Bombers.
Heppell is the one for me that’s the issue inside. He’d have the same impact on a flank or wing. Heppell playing the focal role is limiting our ability to burst from stoppages as he can’t do it and doesn’t provide protection to allow our burst players in Zerrett, Smith, Parish and Stringer. Stringer is the other one that’s confused me. He was to play stoppages and switch forward but he’s longer playing stoppages without being replaced. They got rid of Langford for Myers but Langford should now come in for Stringers midfield role.
Get your interchanges right and our midfield could be 2 of Myers, Langford and Heppell with 1 of Zerrett, Smith and Parish. Small cameos from McGrath, McKenna, Zaka, Stringer, Walla and Fantasia.
Langford has to come in and the likes of Zerrett, Parish and Smith to be the clearer’s.
Who would you say is our most offensive midfield weapon that could be given a similar license?
There are some of midfielders in the AFL, who are actually one way players, like Dangerfield and Ablett . They rely on others to do the defensive stuff, but they cause real damage offensively. Thats why they don’t appear in the top 20 clearance players, even though they could if they played that role this year. Myers is not tackling enough and not spreading and setting up as an uncontested receiver either.
Why is it all over for these guys in the midfield, particularly Langford, six games in? We were not a chance this year, we don’t have the midfield needed because of poor recruiting. Ok, the club should own their mistakes and blood Langford, Clarke, Mutch etc. and build for next year/the year after. The club should have treated this year as development, not built a stupid reliance off halfback ‘slingshot’ footy because we don’t have the mids and tackle pressure in the front third that the better teams have, (a fit Tippa notwithstanding). Fark me, last year and this year should have been development - farkin fark the short cuts… supporters have been bangin on about this for ages… build properly
I think Williamson committed pen to paper a 40 years early when he wrote “The Club” this is a much better plot. But right now the EFC would make a cracking reality TV series or satire for a production company like Working Dog, given that the club is unlikely to cooperate with Endemol.
More likely this decade at EFC will end up being a case study in Crisis Management 101 for MBAs
Myers greatest asset is his 60m hoof, and i don’t think I’ve seen it once this year.
I guess the point is he’s good at clearances and little else and needs to lift in that department, but we haven’t got anyone else close to matching him as a clearance player so he stays in as the best we’ve got.
The argument for clarke is at least he lays tackles…
Extremely doubt Clarke will get a game. Debutants are usually announced early for PR reasons, and xxx know we need good PR.
Agreed. They won’t play clarke in the same team as myers. I think we’re agreeing myers is one dimensional, for clarke to play alongside him he needs another dimension and myers will always be picked first while ge os still our best clearance player
And I am saying the issue is the missed tackles - not the never were tackles. The ones where we grab an opponent and they break free.
