Saying it untold times doesnt make it true. The statistics are a reflection of reality.
The past 5 years our midfield has been better than most.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

This is interesting! Parks himself front row.

BV i disagree... the game is played differently now.

Bottom 3 midfield going forward.

Who are these midfielders everyone is jealous of???

All of them have massive defficiencies in the way the game is currently played.

What picks has this club invested in midfielders???(Go back 5 drafts)

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Yes - when Judd, Murphy, Carrazzo, Simpson and Scotland were peaking.

Take 5 midfielders out of any group over a period of 2-3 years and they will suffer greatly, problem is we have no one coming in to replace them.

Lucas is about it for first rounders

Problem is too many blue collars and few white collars

It's as if club thought a few no.1 picks would be all we need, but these days you need depth and need to bring in quality each year which typically means first round

Look at Richmond - Cotchin, Deledio, Martin arent enough so they get Conca and Vlaustin and now are supposedly leading race for Adams. Let's not forget they stole Grigg. Emphasis is on mids

We go for Bootsma, Watson, outside Yarran, skinny soft Lucas

every club knew you have to invest in midfielders because thats the game now......... except us....

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Does anyone else remember the "not another @#$%&! midfielder" days?

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#GUILTY

absolutely agree

we sat on our hands and expected Judd to deliver us a premiership, doesn't work that way

now we are relying on Curnow and Robinson to be part of our premium mids, they are C grade at best

obviously this will now change

should have been a priority when Judd was in full flight ie 2-3 years ago

Not really....

Since individual contests died off.. its always been about the midfield...and contests between teams.. not ust in the midfield but a rolling swarm of mids...getting as many players to contest as possible.. so its no longer about individuals.. swarming is numbers...more numbers higher the %.. but there is a scientific/ strategic way to do it..
its not haphazard anymore

Just the types and roles of mids have also been adjusted...everyones a midfielder... the more u can that can attack.. create and defend whilst going from contest to contest.. the better u stand

Not only must they create they must go from contest to contest and defend ...and attack

cant have judd and murph in a semi have one tackle between them... thats captain and previous captain

leadership.....

setting the tone...

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BV, you can throw all the stats you want about clearances and contested possessions. Bottom line is, they are statues without the ball (and this was even prior to MM)
They were and still are predominantly one way players with little intensity when it comes to covering back. In my eyes, that makes them pretty ordinary in the modern game. And our current and ex captain are biggest culprits.

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EFA

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I have just had a look at the stats for this year and this perception that Murphy and Judd don't tackle and run both ways is misleading. Both averaged 3.4 tackles a game this year. Compares favourably with some of the gun midfielders including Hanneberry (2., Sam Mitchell (3.1), Cotchin (3.4) and Swan (3.4). Even Simmo only averaged 2.1.

I just don't think they had enough support in the midfield to be truly effective. Can be quite taxing on individual players if they are carrying the load for others.








I just think they did not have enough support to be truly effective.

Asking to define a midfielder is pointless.

You need three different types for effectiveness:

Inside
Outside
Lock down

All three need to be gut runners and possess either elite disposal by hand or foot, preferably both.

Multiples of these are in every top 4 team both on the park and in the ressies.

Not rocket science.

Watch the Bullies come on in the next year or two. They have this mix progressing nicely.

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no there are different kinds of tackles.
there are tackles in the scrimage .. the guy next to u has the ball... u tackle him

then there are tracking back harrasing people from getting clear kicks off

theyre in the scrimage alot.. ok the ball is in dispute...

theyre nowhere when the opposition as the ball......

dont kid yourself..

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I take your point but I don't agree, think you are being too harsh

If players are attempting to create the play in the scrimmages and still lacking support around the ground, then you can't expect Judd and Murphy to be your offensive and defensive weapons, especially when hard tags have been applied

as I said in my post, this is too taxing for most players to cope with. Even Selwood would struggle in Carlton's midfield due to a lack of support

you also need to remember that Judd was on one leg and Murphy has been struggling with his knee all year

They certainly do. Liberatore, Wallis, Smith, Hunter, Macrae, Hrovat.

We have got the outside players covered picking up Yarran, Bootsma, Lucas, Menzel with first round picks over the last five years, now it's time to build up the ball winners to get it out to these guys.

Synbad you did answer me... Im truly chuffed that you would bother, oh no wait a minute, you werent addressing me were you. Still i will take it.
So i now know that your answer is " everyones a midfielder" . Ok now i get it, i dont know what a midfielder is because..... Well... There is actually no way to know whether someone is a midfielder because like god they are omnipresent, they are everywhere, so no need to know what one is at all, because we are all one. Aww shucks I still dont get it synbad, how could i NOT know what one is when they're everywhere. Gee wizz i must be really dumb... I cant even get it right when everyones a midfielder. Doh

..not really dude, and looking back over our drafts i can't see us ever really going heavy on mids for years to get us 'sick of them'.. .... ..it may have been said in discussions briefly when we ignored kpps, but we're not flush with mids, and we haven't even drafted a bunch of dud mids that we've delisted over the years either [except retreads]..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

..not sure i agree with this.. ..too many rotations through the middle now to have 'specialist mids' in there.. ..you need your mids to be both inside in and under as well as outside pace to spread or elite kicking to make up for pace lacking.. ..your outside mid types these days are your wing/hbf types.. ..as for lockdown/tagger mids, they need to get their own ball and be damaging as well, otherwise they're only ever gonna be B grade mids..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

padre how can i take u seriously???

the names u mantioned... as some kind of midfield group wouldnt be what teams want in their engine.

dont be chuffed....

these are guys that are not what clubs are actually prioritising

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