Shakin77 wrote:
DownUnderChick wrote:
dannyboy wrote:
See I'll ask again - someone answer.
Are you happy with the defensive side of Stevo's game, his eeforts in chasing for example, his 1% when they have the ball, contesting a mark for example? Hell no - needs to do more. being a good disposer if the ball, doesn't cut it anymore. If Judd can get his own ball, then so can Stevens.
if no, how would you try and improve it (I'll give you my answer I think he can get better and so I was wondering in the train how, and so I chose the most radical to see what people might come up with - again, I have said numerous times I think he is a good player - really that's my point, how can we make him better?) Stick him on the most attacking player in the Doggies team and tell him to nullify him. Is his lack of accountability costs us the game, then drop him to the Ants until he learns. The days of Stevo being our playmaker are passing a rate of knots, he can't hide under that bushell anymore.
or do you just accept it? No Is that good enough? No
or will he be replaced by the time we are ready to seriously challenge? If he doesn't change his style of play, yes he will be. He needs to speak to Josh Francou or maybe we should get Josh Francou to the club.
See this is where the argument losses all validity for me.
Believe it or not AFL footballers play different roles based on their skills and attributes and we have inside and outside players. I have no doubt in my mind that Stevens is playing a role and if you want him to win more ball (Rank 3rd behind Judd and Bentick only) then I suggest you vent your anger at Brett Ratten and the MC.
The MC clearly wants Stevens to be one of the final links of the chain and the reasons for this are obvious to all. I would love Bentick to bang goals 55 on the run but his skills lay elsewhere.
The lack of accountability for midfielders only applies to the whipping boys like Stevens. Blokes like Judd, Kerr and Ablett wouldn’t give a flying who their direct opponents is because most of the time it’s the bloke holding onto their jumper. And how much defensive effort do you think they would put into Luke Ablett, Ryan Crowley or Andrew Welsh? Judd is not accountable at all and nor should he be. His job is offensive and to win the ball not to worry about some pleb like Luke Ablett. Like Stevens he chases and tackles when we don’t have the ball (Stevens 3rd in tackles again behind Judd and Bentick).
When Judd was injured against the Bombers Stevens takes his role in the engine room and gets 10 contested possessions for the game. He can play that role when required.
May only concern with Stevens is that when he is beaten like he was against Dempster and Ablett the MC don’t seems to have a way on getting him into the game. Playing back pocket on Jared Moore is not it. He played a great game on a half forward flank after getting touched up by Peverill last season in our great come from behind victory against the Bombers. Maybe even a half back flank for deeper forward to provide support to Betts.
some good points and the question is how many unaccountable midfielders can we have? (and it is not just tackles, in fact of all my criticisms of stevo that's probably the least - they are all small relatively but I'm just wondering)
I agree Judd doesn't - though I wonder how much of that is also that his zip has yet to return - next year will tell us more.
More importantly - can we have players with vastly different skills sets in all sorts of areas of the game? If this now our weakness (ignoring rucks/chf and skill with the ball?)
Do we need to even up, not just the bottom 6 as some are harping on about - which I think will happen anyway both through development and through the drafts.
I'm wondering how to even up the players I think will be there come finals time. I'm was wondering if we could get a more even spread - if this might make us a better/stronger team. And so I started with stevo probably because that chase in the last really pissed me off.
See I think stevo is one of our better weapons but his weaknesses (like Judd's I agree) can be used against us. Can we improve this area - or do we accept it?
Do we think when the rest of the team gets better his weakness will be okay?
Can stevo be better than he is - if so, how to go about it? I guess also I'm thinking about addressing it this year - not next year - maybe the coaching staff will address it over summer?
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