Re: RD 4: Carlton VS Melbourne
Reply #92 –
@Crash
Interesting post that made me think that a lot of our problems both forward and back are down to our weak midfield and their age old sins. This is putting our defence under a lot more pressure and it's giving our forwards little chance to do anything. That is the area we should be really focussed on fixing up first IMO.
Cookie, in many ways it is. Our mids have not been known for some time as being particularly hard working and they also have the reputation of being one way players.
That is pretty unfair, but that is how they are perceived.
In the past we have been able to get over this by having Carrots, one of the hardest working players there is, take out their best mid, and by having Juddy really make a substantial difference in the way we get the ball out.
We haven't had these 2 guys in and at their best for some time now and it shows.
Murphy has had a lot on his shoulders, but he has been able to ganged up on, as opposition teams do not fear our other mids.
The other thing is the ruck: our ruckmen have not developed as we had hoped, around the ground or in the centre square. Ignoring Warnock for a moment, who has different problems, we lost Jacobs just when he was turning into a star. He directs the ball well. Hampson wasn't bad, but he got less taps and less ruck time than others. Kreuzer did not direct his taps well and has developed least of the 4 young rucks we had at that time.
Of our 2nd stringers, none of them really directs their taps to advantage.
Wood doesn't either.
Secondly, our mids lack that someone explosive who can not just get the ball but deliver it dangerously to forwards. Our opponents, especially the Hawthorn's and Geelongs of this world, do that very well. This is something we need to address more than anything else, as we just don't get a whole lot of value from our clearances.
Great summation Crash - therein lies the root causes of our predicament IMO. Obviously other areas need improvement but THIS^^ is where we should be starting.