To Small in the midfield?

[BUCKS]

I look at collingwoods midfield Licuria, O'Bree, Scotland, Adkins, Dimattina and Lockyer they are all small.

We have a few tall midfielders like Buckley, Steinfort and Lonie
but we need more.

Look at Brisbane - Lappin, Notting, White, Headland, Voss - (Plays big),the 2 Scotts (good over head marks) and Pike.

You ask me the way of the future in football - are footballers like Lonie.

Lets hope we use our first draft pick to get a player in the Nigel Lappin mould. About 187cm and plays anywhere.

[Brown26]

A lot of those Brissy guys are HFF or HBF, so Add Nicky Davis in there, and we've got Davis, Bucks and Lonie tall players.

More important than tall is balance - you need up-and-under players (Didak, OBree), tough nuggety players (Lockyer, Liccuria), and tall players (Buckley, Lonie, Davis).

Another tall would be ok, but I Think Lockyer and Licca play pretty tough, and they're only going to get tougher, and that' more important that height sometimes.

Lonie, Buckley and Davis is height spread around the ground, pretty well I reckon. I wouldn't be too worried.

Pies for Premiers 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6....

[Cyclops]

I think Clement and Steinfort were recruited with the tall-midfield quetsion in mind. We've had two ruckman (McKee and Fraser from memory) in the centre square on a couple of occasions to address height deficiencies there.

My opinion is we're too light in the middle. O'Bree is a top burrower, but Buckley and perhaps Lockyer and Rintoul are our only midfield "tanks" to really take hits. Strong players who can extract a ball stalled in a pack, or soak up one or two or three tackles to release to a teamate are the basis of the great sides.

Compare us to Brisbane and you see what I mean. Molloy started in the centre square in the third quarter vs Brisbane this year just to match their grunt. Brisbane have a very "bang crash" midfield-plenty of class, but primarily a head down arse up Leigh Matthews unit. They storm into packs and get their bodies right over the ball-at the moment if our kids try that they get knocked down.

Our blokes are mostly young-toughness and weight will accrue over the next few seasons. If we could snag Misiti, he would add a good deal of strength and class to a very skilled and promising unit.

[MarkT]

You can add Clement and Rintoul to that list as taller/stronger midfielders. I agree with Brown26 that a balance is needed. What is very importand is a mixture of strength and speed. We have the speed with L.Davis, Shaw if he comes up, Adkins etc and strength with Bucks, Clement, Rintoul etc. Height is not as important as body strength. Whilst you would rather have evryone in the side being able to mark well overhead, rarely do games get decided by midfield marking.

I actually think our midfield, with all the players mentioned in these 3 posts and a few others like Brodie Holland is going to be very potent. I don't think we should be preoccupied with matching the Brisbane because we will loose focus on our game plan. We need to maximise our forward potency. Good centre clearance players and skilled forward delivery combined with space up forward will win us games.

[Brown26]

It's only age and pre-seasons that give a guy that tank approach to football - harness and toughness. We'll have the best midfield in the comp for years to come, Locks, Bucks, Rintoul all are stong enough now, but OBree, Lonie, Johnson even Licca will put on more mass and be able to throw their weight around.

Give it time

Pies for Premiers 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6....