Is Our Midfield Hard Enough?

cps · Post: # 650767Post **cps** » Sun 21 Sep 2008 11:19pm

Hawthorn beat us 11 - 2 in getting first possession from stoppages last night.

So here's my simple question: excluding Lenny and Ball (and of course The Great Man), are our other mids hard enough at the ball?

cps · Post: # 650773Post **cps** » Sun 21 Sep 2008 11:22pm

Whoops, forgot about Bakes.

Still my question remains.

bobmurray · Post: # 650777Post **bobmurray** » Sun 21 Sep 2008 11:28pm

No...

We have so many weaknesses that we are trying to cover with GOP's...

I think it's a given you can't turn a GOP into a great player even if there were 30 hours in a day and they trained 29 of them...daily...

Statsman · Post: # 650814Post **Statsman** » Mon 22 Sep 2008 12:29am

Definitely not hard enough! This has been our biggest problem all season.

Hayes and Ball are our only true inside midfielders. Dal Santo and Montagna play plenty in the midfield rotation but they are really outside receivers who belong out on a wing. It's great to see Goddard starting to play more through the midfield as he certainly has the ability to win his own football at the contest. We desperately need Armitage to develop into a senior player as he's the type who can win the hard ball (but doesn't do it enough at AFL level just yet). Ideally we'd have Hayes, Ball, Goddard, Armitage and perhaps on other as our tough, hard, contested possession winning midfielders who can then distribute the ball to the outside players in Dal Santo, Montagna and Gram to deliver inside 50.

Otiman · Post: # 650841Post **Otiman** » Mon 22 Sep 2008 1:23am

Quick description of the players you might consider ball winners.

Goddard - In career best form, on the verge of breaking into superstardom.
Hayes - Playing injured
Ball - Injured
Dal Santo - Can't break a tag
Montagna - Inconsistent (from good to brilliant)
Armitage - Doesn't get the ball enough
Jones - Can't use the ball well enough
Birss - Playing in the VFL
Mini - Too busy tagging

On another note, I don't think it's our inside mids that are the issue. We can get first possession, but the opposition outside mids will collect the ball from a spoil/tackle because we've got no-one to dish off to. It's a HUGE issue that we seem to be developing a team full of ball winners, but then have no-one to dish off to.

Statsman · Post: # 650847Post **Statsman** » Mon 22 Sep 2008 1:46am

I think its a little of both. I don't think we have enough pure ball winners so to compensate we are trying to turn our outside receivers into in-and-under on-ballers. For example, I'd class Dal Santo and Montagna as "possession getters" rather than "ball winners". That's okay though, as you need players who can use the ball once we've won possession. The trouble is we rely too much on Ball and Hayes to win first use. If Goddard and Armitage can help out in that area, then we can use Dal Santo and Montagna on the outside where they are more damaging. With Ball out injured we're relying on Dal Santo and Montagna to get in-and-under with Hayes and then, I agree, we have nobody to give it out to. We need depth in that in-and-under category so our outside receives can play their natural game.

Otiman · Post: # 650849Post **Otiman** » Mon 22 Sep 2008 1:49am

Statsman wrote:I think its a little of both. I don't think we have enough pure ball winners so to compensate we are trying to turn our outside receivers into in-and-under on-ballers. For example, I'd class Dal Santo and Montagna as "possession getters" rather than "ball winners". That's okay though, as you need players who can use the ball once we've won possession. The trouble is we rely too much on Ball and Hayes to win first use. If Goddard and Armitage can help out in that area, then we can use Dal Santo and Montagna on the outside where they are more damaging. With Ball out injured we're relying on Dal Santo and Montagna to get in-and-under with Hayes and then, I agree, we have nobody to give it out to. We need depth in that in-and-under category so our outside receives can play their natural game.

Spot on.

It's no coincidence that we turned games on their head by putting Gram, and Sam Fisher in the midfield.

SaintWodonga · Mon 22 Sep 2008 2:31am

Not only are we not hard enough, we must do alot more to address our lack of speed issue. We were really shown up on Saturday nigth with our lack of not only foot speed, but in our speed in decsion making. We were slow to get the ball flowing. We should be trying a faster game style than chip around.