Lets assess the Swans midfield vs the best

[sfan]

To me the swans recruiters have got it wrong and are still recruiting to a 2005 game plan of lock down football.

Most of our mids are slow and very strong body types who are not great kicks therefore cant compete on the
big and wide MCG come finals time.

McGlynn, Parker, Bolton, Bird, Moore, are hard nuts but not super quick. McVeigh, Hannerbury and to a lesser extent Jack are just ok speed wise but again kicking can let them down and are more in and under players rather than Judd, Murphy and Gibbs like breaking pack players.

Rohan and Jetta are the type of midfielders are more of the type of midfielders we need to recruit in the future if we are to get back up the ladder IMHO

[toothy76]

Tom Mitchell. Just wait.

[Dosser]

Tom Mitchell. Just wait.

Tom is in and under.

[Nico]

Tom is in and under.

My assessment of Tom Moitchell on his highlights reel is that he is a Greg Williams type who gets in and gets the ball off quickly with deft handpassess, and kicks well. Hanners is similar but his kicking lets him down. He had a set shot from 50 last week and didn't have the confidence to take the kick, opting to handpass off.

[Dosser]

I agree. As I have said in here before, he is a distributor - not a line-breaker.

[Bleed Red Blood]

The problem with ours it is inflexible, which of them can move to half back or pocket, or forward? Jude is good in bursts on the lead. And I would trust Birdy on the last line, but I cannot see Kennedy, Hanners or Jack anywhere else. Thats what the great sides at the moment can do, half of Geelong and C'Wood can take a turn through the middle and rest forward.

[sfan]

Yes the more I think about it we are very one dimensional thru the midfield and once teams work us out we do not seem to have another game plan we can adopt. We need Goodes to come in themiddle for spark and he is not getting any younger. Jetta is too slight and will only ever be an outside runner.

[BSA5]

Of course we're one dimensional through the midfield. Ideally we'd have Jetta breaking lines, but he's in rubbish form. Rohan should be plying his trade off HB and linking up, but he's been injured. Sumner is in SA. McVeigh is at his best at HF. Jack has been injured and struggling to get back to top form. Goodes is being held up forward (though with Spangher's inclusion hopefully he'll be able to move to the midfield full-time). Basically, we don't have a full-time outside midfielder. This is what the Danyle Pearce thread is about. It's why Jetta is being persisted with despite being pretty much rubbish most of the year. It's why Rohan has been rushed back, and why Spangher is in at FF to release Goodes.

HOWEVER, the cornerstone of a good midfielder is the type of midfielders we have. I'd much rather have a team full of inside midfielders than a team full of outside midfielders. While we need to address the balance of the midfield, having Kennedy, Bird and Parker as our inside midfield brigade, and Hanners and Jack as inside/outside midfielders, we've got a set-up that will take us far when the likes of Goodes, Bolton and ROK retire. We just need to find the icing on the cake.

[swansprincess]

Judd is not a 'pack breaker', he waits around a pack for someone else to get the ball out to him. The hard in and under type players are underrated in my opinion. In games we have played well in, we've proven that our midfield doesn't need pace to be successful. Pace isn't everything, skill and consistency is; which is where we lack.

[BSA5]

Judd is not a 'pack breaker', he waits around a pack for someone else to get the ball out to him.

Um, ah, hmm.... what? Have you ever watched Judd play? Judd is the ultimate pack breaker. Judd defines pack breaking. This is quite possibly the most incorrect sentence I've read on this website.

[Far Reach]

Judd is not a 'pack breaker', he waits around a pack for someone else to get the ball out to him.

Try binoculars for the Carton games. He's been down though the last few weeks. Injured? Might help us in the final.

[Triple B]

This is quite possibly the most incorrect sentence I've read on this website.

Agree, although the OP included Gibbs in the 'pack breakers' as well earlier, that's also in the final. I hasten to add I like Gibbs and don't subscribe to the 'Bryce Squibbs' perception he has on some 'other' interweb places, but he aint no pack breaker.

[Triple B]

Try binoculars for the Carton games.....

Is that a clever play on Visy or just a typo??

[Chookbilly]

Pace isn't everything, skill and consistency is; which is where we lack.

This is key for me.

Pace of a team can be an optical illusion.
Swift accurate movement of the ball can make the most pedestrian of team seem pacy, and this is where we fall flat.
The amount of times we miss targets by hand and foot astounds me. This often slows or destroys any chance of flow or link up play.

We need to both work on our skills, and recruit for skillful players, regardless of being a supposed inside or ouside mold.

[basher williams]

Cant understand how you come to this conclusion. Judd is one of the best hard ball gets in the competition

[Melbourne_Blood]

I think your thinking of Judd circa 2004, when he played for west coast and was skinny as a rail.

[liz]

I think Chookbilly has hit nail on head. Footspeed is an overrated commodity compared to brain speed and skills. It is useful to have a couple who can break the lines but we arguably have these with Jack and Goodes on the inside and Jetta and Rohan on the outside. We just need players willing to do the gut running that Hanners has managed to do even when the team has been poor, and we need to use the ball better.

I do think the club actively started targeting more foot savvy players in the draft a few years ago . Rohan and Lamb tested very well at camp, LJ is a superb kick, Meredith is pretty reasonable, and even Vez offered much by foot (sadly not with his endurance). I think Campbells foot skills are decent too, and Sumner has some tricks. We just need to be a little patient and hope that several of these can establish themselves as regulars over the next two or three seasons.

[Matimbo]

I wanna give credit to Josh Kennedy after today's game. He and Mummy absolutely great combo and was key to us winning the clearances.

[BSA5]

I wanna give credit to Josh Kennedy after today's game. He and Mummy absolutely great combo and was key to us winning the clearances.

Absolutely. Kennedy reads Mumford so well, and is just so STRONG. Myself and those I were sitting with today were just in awe of how strong he was in the stoppages. 12 clearances to Joey tells the story.

[dimelb]

I wanna give credit to Josh Kennedy after today's game. He and Mummy absolutely great combo and was key to us winning the clearances.
Yes. TLM points from me.