Being at the game last night i noticed a common theme with a lot of our midfielders especially one in particular.

Marc Murphy just does not have a defensive side to his game at all!

There were 3-4 occasions last night where the bombers were running forward and i watched marc murphy within 10 metres of the player with the ball just lazily jogging back expecting someone else to do the hard yards.

I no carrazzo, houlihan, gibbs etc.. cop sh!t for being soft and lazy but noone ever mentions murph, i no he has an awesome attacking side to his game and some quality skills but every game i go to (almost every victorian game) i see the same things with him, unless he has the ball he just doesnt look interested.

There was one occasion last night in the 3rd quarter when setanta had the ball in the right forward pocket instead of dishing it off he snapped over his shoulder and the ball ended up out of bounds on the other side... murphy, scotland (i think) and robbo were all free and all had their hands up in the air calling for it, scotland and robbo went nuts accordingly, i straight away looked to murph to see his reaction and he didnt even look back, didnt give to stuffs, seemed like he couldnt care less that we just missed a golden opportuntiy to close in on the bombers.

It just seems like his disinterested in alot of games especially in the games we are struggling in, hes at the age and point in his career where he should be taking games by the scruff off his neck and lifting the team when we are down ( especially with no judd out there)

i cant see him ever being a future captain of the club as much i love him, i just dont think he has the passion and commitment to do the hard yards and lift the team when we're down.

your thoughts please.....

GO BLUES!!

Tagged and belted everytime he got it. Got no protection from others. I see all teams have players more attacking than others and others more defensive than others creating a balanced on ball fleet.
Marc was down last night and beaten in the end.

I am as dark as everyone else on the entire teams effort. I thought we were heartless last night.

yes but being an attacking player does not mean dont chase hard, it wasnt just last night, ive seen it plenty of times with murph where he just does not chase 100% the opposing player when they have the ball even out of our attacking 50..

In regards to taggers if hes going to be an elite player of the competition he must learn to handle it, C. Judd wont be around for ever to take the best tagger.

He is learning.

know.

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dane's trolling again

Post of the week.

I blame the property stewards for doing a bad job.

Foed.

you mean he'll learn from that - danny

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one you knock back is one you never have

Downhill skiing again???

good on you for having the guts to ask the question. watching on telly only shows you so much.

perhaps murph is pretty fatigued by having to win his own footy so much, but yes the bombers seemed to run loose all night. i doubt murph wasn't the only one putting in defensivley.

for what it's worth you comment about taking the game by the scruff off the neck when we are down, especially with judd out is exactly what i thought he did last week up in brisbane.

he's still young and improving and hopefully will get more of a chop out with judd getting the best tagger next week.

i think one of the problems is that all midfielders are taught to run and spread and when you turn over the ball as much as we have in the past few weeks......then you are made to look silly.

not defending him totally as he does need to work on this part of his game but he is not 100% at fault

Good post, and kudos for getting the question out there.

Murphy reminds me in many ways of Nick Dal Santo, who was of course dropped in mid-2008 for poor form in general, but for not working hard enough defensively in particular. As Dal Santo has displayed since, the ability to work both ways was always there, but it needed some stern coaxing to become habitual. In Dal Santo's favour, though, is the fact he's surrounded by team-mates who work more diligently for each other than ours do - it's this though that made his previous lack of defensive contribution so starkly apparent for all to see.

Only one player in navy blue worked hard enough last night, and ran hard enough both offensively and defensively, and that was Kade Simpson - a bloke with less natural ability than Murphy perhaps, but more of a blue collar attitude. Murphy needs to find the right balance with that, and the same could probably be said for Gibbs, but I think it will come when they further mature. It might only become second nature, though, when we put together a midfield group for whom hard work is the norm, rather than the exception.

The absence of a fit McLean or a Hadley was sorely felt last night, too, and the balance is all wrong without someone of this ilk in the middle, and it probably left Murphy a little exposed.

I thought Murphy had made some sort of romantic committment to Essendon* given how often he was being held by the arm.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

5 frees given and 3 frees conceded says it all; that's over 20% of all the free kicks paid in the game.

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