Our centre.

[SydneySainter]

I don’t think as a team we’re going to go anywhere as long as Steven, Dunstan, Ross and Steele are our on-ballers and Hickey and Longer are our best ruck options?

Dunstan and Steele - less better versions of Luke Ball.

Ross - gets a lot of the footy, but does very little with it.

Steven - by far our best midfielder and our barometer when he’s firing. But, too easily tagged.

Hickey - not the strongest body for a big man, gets lots of hit outs, but so do his opponents. Quite mobile for a big man, but doesn’t defend.

Longer - strong body and better record with hit outs than Hickey, but like Hickey still doesn’t dominate at stoppages and not mobile at all.

As long as that’s our centre, I fear we will win few games of footy. Unless, we at least add two classy outside receivers, which we’ve been chasing and have so far failed to get.

[chico2001]

Probably four of those I dont rate too highly despite several posters telling us how good they are. The top 2 and bottom 2 are all battlers at best

[bigcarl]

Richo’s preference for an over-supply inside grunt midfielders at the expense of those who can spread, run and carry is pretty well documented on this forum.

I’m not saying you don’t need that type. Of course you do, but they can’t all be that type.

At centre bounces, why the reluctance from the start of the season to try Acres in there? Gresham? Billings? I think that’s cost Richo dearly.

Not too worried about the rucks. I rate Hickey and Longer even though others don’t and Marshall looks capable, too. I have Hickey No.1 on football ability, but the others have their strengths.

[saintspremiers]

Cleary we are hopeless in the centre at centre bounces.

We hardly ever clear the ball into our F50 from a restart.

Where are those stats Alan?

We are OK at getting inside 50 entries - but these are from half back in a very shoddy stop-start manner with zero effectiveness.

Come on Mr Statsman Alan - give us juicy stats that mean something.

[spert]

I don't value much of what Dermie says on Fox sports, but he did say one relevant thing and that was that we have team of honest triers, no linebreakers etc etc. A plodding midfield of Ross, Dunstan, Steele and Steven wont carry us into big wins or finals. Really disappointed with Steven's inability to fight his way out of a paper bag with a heavy tag- poor game on Saturday for such a talented player.

Poor recruiting, poor coaching..the club needs to make some very big decisions about the list and coaching if we are going to step up the ladder.

[saintspremiers]

I don't value much of what Dermie says on Fox sports, but he did say one relevant thing and that was that we have team of honest triers, no linebreakers etc etc. A plodding midfield of Ross, Dunstan, Steele and Steven wont carry us into big wins or finals. Really disappointed with Steven's inability to fight his way out of a paper bag with a heavy tag- poor game on Saturday for such a talented player.

Poor recruiting, poor coaching..the club needs to make some very big decisions about the list and coaching if we are going to step up the ladder.

Spot on!

And can we use injuries as an excuse for our shoddy work in the centre?

Largely no!

Our only centreman type player missing is Acres - who is a big loss.

Clearly the loss of our backline has hurt us as that’s where our forward momentum comes from! How f***ed up is that??

[nw7]

This is our biggest issue. Not backs or forwards. Mids are slow but are not contested ball winners and have no outside run. Our backs struggle because we lose centre clearances and other clearances. Our forwards struggle because our mids dont have any leg speed to get clear and deliver a good ball to our forwards. We handball backwards a few times and the hack it forward. Plenty of inside 50's but not many good ones. We had 6 more than swans and lost by 70!!

[chico2001]

Just shows that some of these stats we trot out are meaningless.....used to justifys someones position in the side or support the coaching team after we get thrashed.

"not many good ones" is the most salient point from NW7's post

[bigcarl]

This is our biggest issue. Not backs or forwards. Mids are slow but are not contested ball winners and have no outside run. Our backs struggle because we lose centre clearances and other clearances. Our forwards struggle because our mids dont have any leg speed to get clear and deliver a good ball to our forwards. We handball backwards a few times and the hack it forward. Plenty of inside 50's but not many good ones. We had 6 more than swans and lost by 70!!

Centre bounce mids are slow and with the exception of Stuv can’t run and spread.

That’s an established fact and has been a recurring theme on this forum for at least the past three years.

But do you reckon he’s tried anything? Whack Gresham in there FFS. Webster? Try SOMETHING!

He won’t even put Acres in there FFS, except as a ruckman. Even though it stands out like dogs’ balls that is where he should be playing.

I warned on here last season that this issue would decide Richo’s fate and that he needed Acres and Gresham on the ball. Nothing has been done and it will decide his fate.

[chico2001]

Cant see Acres being the savior, one of the better player in the side IMO but thats not saying much. He needs a real breakout game before I would class him as a top midfielder. He lacks pace, has the size but does not use it effectively. I still dont think they have found the right position for him yet. Has played nearly 50 games so they should have a rough idea of his main position.

[Scollop]

Hopefully our club have already spoken to Sloany and we just need an A grader like him to come to the club (maybe they need to offer him the captaincy). At his best and without his current injury woes he is the leader required in the centre.

Once Sloan is announced it might help us to trade in a few other names....similar to when Aaron Hamill arrived and Saints became a destination footy club

[Impatient Sainter]

This is our biggest issue. Not backs or forwards. Mids are slow but are not contested ball winners and have no outside run. Our backs struggle because we lose centre clearances and other clearances. Our forwards struggle because our mids dont have any leg speed to get clear and deliver a good ball to our forwards. We handball backwards a few times and the hack it forward. Plenty of inside 50's but not many good ones. We had 6 more than swans and lost by 70!!

Spot on nw7 a good summation of our problems.

[bigcarl]

Cant see Acres being the savior, one of the better player in the side IMO but thats not saying much. He needs a real breakout game before I would class him as a top midfielder. He lacks pace, has the size but does not use it effectively. I still dont think they have found the right position for him yet. Has played nearly 50 games so they should have a rough idea of his main position.

Yet he’s never been tried as a starting mid at centre bounces as far as I know. That makes it difficult to have a breakout game in that position. Same goes for Gresham.

Instead we’ve got Dunstan, Steele, Ross. Good solid grunts, but I don’t see much flair there.

Point I’m making is he hasn’t even tried these things and is content to stick with a formula that fails week after week and season after season.

[parkeysainter]

We need to draft the best mid in the draft. Sam Walsh from Geelong is my front runner. Unless we finish last, then we take the kid from SA. He is apparantly the next Riewoldt.

We need to start pushing Gresham, Clark and Coffield into the guts more for speed and dynamics, but they might take a bit of time to become very good onballers. If Freeman comes on, then that would be a bonus. He is quite quick and explosive, has good skills and gets heaps of the footy.

In any case, we do definitely need to overhaul the mids a fair bit. Its killing us. Even slap a Rory Sloane in there for next year and its looking better already.

[The Recruit]

Hopefully our club have already spoken to Sloany and we just need an A grader like him to come to the club (maybe they need to offer him the captaincy). At his best and without his current injury woes he is the leader required in the centre.

Once Sloan is announced it might help us to trade in a few other names....similar to when Aaron Hamill arrived and Saints became a destination footy club

Agree with this
Getting Sloan attracts others like Gaff. No one is coming to our current list especially the way it is performing.
WIth crows looking like they may miss finals and with the current SA A grade talent in the draft...Sloan is a lock at the Saints for 2019 IMO...which will sell some hope and belief over the preseason...by god we will need it.

[freely]

Hopefully our club have already spoken to Sloany and we just need an A grader like him to come to the club (maybe they need to offer him the captaincy). At his best and without his current injury woes he is the leader required in the centre.

Once Sloan is announced it might help us to trade in a few other names....similar to when Aaron Hamill arrived and Saints became a destination footy club

Sure it wasn't the promise of being coached by Blight that brought them in (and him probably)?

[Scollop]

Hopefully our club have already spoken to Sloany and we just need an A grader like him to come to the club (maybe they need to offer him the captaincy). At his best and without his current injury woes he is the leader required in the centre.

Once Sloan is announced it might help us to trade in a few other names....similar to when Aaron Hamill arrived and Saints became a destination footy club

Sure it wasn't the promise of being coached by Blight that brought them in (and him probably)?

So you want Clarko as coach to be announced first and Sloan as the first of the FA's? That's fair. I don't think we're being greedy

[Viscount Jeremiah]

Cleary we are hopeless in the centre at centre bounces.

We hardly ever clear the ball into our F50 from a restart.

Where are those stats Alan?

We are OK at getting inside 50 entries - but these are from half back in a very shoddy stop-start manner with zero effectiveness.

Come on Mr Statsman Alan - give us juicy stats that mean something.

I agree. The reason we're good at generating inside f50s is because we bomb it in from halfway, if we moved it in there with system and with method we would probably have less entry but better result.

Our game plan worked well in 2016 but we lacked the talent, now I actually think our talent is ok but our game plan has been figured out and Richo hasn't adapted.