Why are our mids so ordinary?

[RudeBoy]

Since Grundy has improved over the past couple of months, most weeks we are getting enough centre taps, but our midfielders are nevertheless getting smashed out of the centre, especially in the first quarters of games. Given we've got plenty of supposed class in our first choice mids in Pendles, Treloar, Adams and Sidey, I just wonder what the problem is. Our second stringers in Greenwood and Crisp are OK, but imo Greenwood has never really performed to the level expected consistently enough. At best, he's a journeyman. Crisp can be a beauty, but he's more of an outside player. What we need, imo, is a big bodied beast to smash through packs get the ball out to the class of Pendles, Treloar and Sidey. I don't know if he's good enough yet, but Wills seems to be good at doing this in the VFL, so I reckon it's time he was given a few weeks in the seniors and used in the centre square. At present, Adams is our only A grade in and under midfielder and he's almost a midget. He needs a bigger, stronger body alongside him to physically impose himself on the game, in the centre where it counts.

[inxs88]

correct. We lack brutes in the midfield to absorb that first clash of big bodies. If you look at the good sides they all have 1-2 of these in the guts vs our none:

* Carlton: Cripps
* Essendon: Jobe Watson, Heppell
* Bulldogs: Bontompelli
* North: Ziebell, Swallow
* Swans: JPK and Mitchell
* Hawks: Hodge and Mitchell
* Tigers: Cotchin and Martin
* Port: Boak
* Geelong: Danger and Selwood
* Dees: Nathan Jones
* Feo: Fyfe and Mundy
* Eagles: Priddis
* Saints: Dunstan and Ross

[thompsoc]

Plenty of people have stated that we need a couple of big bodied mids that are 188 to 192 cm tall.
But midgets are the flavour of the month.
And the slightly bigger bodies in Crisp and Greenwood aren't that talented.

[roar]

It's a fair question.

[watt price tully]

Who says our mids are ornery?

[roar]

The clearance stats do

[stui magpie]

[simon tonna]

bucks plan is to get grundy to do the rucking & roving

[1892_]

While we don't currently have anybody playing that role there's a few options on our list. Giving De Goey more centre square minutes would be a start and I wouldn't mind seeing what Maynard could offer up the ground. Last night would have been the perfect opportunity to see what Wills could do at senior level, not only is he a big mid he likes to try to take game and opponents on, although I think he's still getting the balance right in that regard. Sier with time scopes as another option, but he's a while off.

[RudeBoy]

[3rd degree]

[RudeBoy]

[courtza]

I dont reckon last night was a big bodied problem in that first quarter, seemed really loose and spacious in the middle when we were getting smashed.

They got a run on and the ball was bouncing there way. We really needed to tighten up hard on our players in the middle and our wings and defence needed to run tight on theirs to stop that run.

I was always told 2 goals in a row was a run and Bucks needed to stop it then. We did even up the contest eventually but by then it was to late.

[HAL]

[Pies4shaw]

The lack of defensive run kills us most weeks. Luke Ball used to stop opposition players running forward from the contest the way Gandalf stopped the Balrog - and then Thomas charged relentlessly from contest to contest all over the ground. Swanny, Johnno and Wellingham, too, were good at bursting up and down the ground and forcing the opposition to watch them because of their ability to run the lines. Sidebottom and Pendlebury have always been very slow, as was Beams, so they needed and still need players around them who can do hard defensive running. None of Greenwood, Crisp, Adams or Treloar does that (the first three because they don't have the leg speed; I have no idea why Treloar doesn't). Thus, if the opposition gets its hands on the ball first, we are stuffed, because there is no Ball to force the opposition to run away to the wings and no effective defensive pressure when they run forward. Like some others above, I don't think a "big-bodied mid" is the first requirement (although one who can run like Dangerfield would be just fine). I think we need 3 or 4 players who can cover the ground going back, when required, but all our potential options are one-paced. Some of them are also too small but they are, first and foremost, too slow to get the job done.