Why are we being killed in the middle?

[Dry Rot]

If we want to dominate stoppages and centre clearance, we should play a ruckman.

Prior to doing that, we should (or more accurately would need to) recruit a ruckman

I think you are being harsh on English.

Tonight I saw him on occasion expertly tap the ball out of the middle to midfielders.

Unfortunately, they had black jumpers with a red slash.

[azabob]

That's All Australian ruckman Tim English you're talking about. He's an All Australian don't you know.

And champion of hits to advantage.

[ledge]

We get beaten in the middle because Bevo refuses to have any of our mids on the defensive side of the circle, if the ball goes that way the opposition are free to run straight through.

[AshMac]

There?s a couple of things here I think:

1. We are very weak in the ruck contest. Very weak - often the opposition ruck taps it to his teams advantage or it is neutral

2. We setup for an all in ball win - often don?t have players defensive side of the contest if the balls goes our way initially - means the other team streams out uncontested if they get hands on

3. Apart from Libba - our midfielders are totally incapable of dealing with any physical contact from their opponent

[Uninformed]

Could it be as simple as Joel Corey?

He gets huge praise from Bont. and the timing of our dominance to weakness seems to coincide with him leaving.

[chef]

We havent replaced Dunkley, our only true two way mid. No one else really wants to do the defensive stuff.

[Grantysghost]

We havent replaced Dunkley, our only true two way mid. No one else really wants to do the defensive stuff.

Fagan gave him immense praise recently.

Smith and Dunkley make things look a lot better in the guts.

[azabob]

Fagan gave him immense praise recently.

Smith and Dunkley make things look a lot better in the guts.

Hold on GG. Now you are back on keep Smith?

[Jeanette54]

We get beaten in the middle because Bevo refuses to have any of our mids on the defensive side of the circle, if the ball goes that way the opposition are free to run straight through.

I have never understood the wisdom of this. If you set up on the defensive side you can run straight through and are in a much better set up to attack. So often we are stifled because we have to engineer an extra possession or turn in order to be heading in our direction. Coming from the defensive side your attacking options are always in vision and you are better balanced to deliver the ball. So often we begin with an almost blind kick across the body.

[Grantysghost]

Hold on GG. Now you are back on keep Smith?

Never wanted to get rid of Smith he's a star.

I think he will leave though.

[angelopetraglia]

Phil Davis on our midfield mix.

https://x.com/1116sen/status/1778977658334011783

[Mofra]

If English was 192cm he might be the best player in the AFL. I?ve broken my brain over him too many times.

If English was happy to play 20/80 forward/ruck he'd be the best at it in the AFL.
Heck, given how good he is at chopping out down back he might even be a gun CHB.

Right now he is just losing trust as that week-in, week-out competitor. You can have poor weeks, you can have effort that is conditional.

[EasternWest]

If English was happy to play 20/80 forward/ruck he'd be the best at it in the AFL.
Heck, given how good he is at chopping out down back he might even be a gun CHB.

Right now he is just losing trust as that week-in, week-out competitor. You can have poor weeks, you can have effort that is conditional.

I think he'd be an amazing CHB.

[Mofra]

Phil Davis on our midfield mix.

https://x.com/1116sen/status/1778977658334011783

He's right.

I do think we've tried to address this with getting speed out of the backline (JJ back there, picking up Bramble) and playing Naughton up the ground. We just haven't quite adjusted enough though.

[angelopetraglia]

He's right.

I do think we've tried to address this with getting speed out of the backline (JJ back there, picking up Bramble) and playing Naughton up the ground. We just haven't quite adjusted enough though.

Sanders is probably too similar to who we already have too when it comes to pace and explosiveness. The player we are missing is a fit and firing Bailey Smith. He compliments the others.

He has struggled to find that form again. But in those massive finals wins in 2021 against the Lions and Port. In those two games he kicked 7 goals and had 50 touches. Our midfield did not look pedestrian in those games.