We looked ok with that regard just a couple of games ago against the Swans. Our biggest problem is all of those bigger guys are now injured. Our biggest mid yesterday in terms of bulk was Graham. We are going to need to either flip some magnets around (I'd have Marlion is as a tagger on their best clearance player until we get Hopper / Taranto back) as our midfield is way too scrawny.
I'm a stats guy and I think a lot can be read into our players and what happened with stats. Take a look at these possession stats from the AFL website. Yesterday we were monstered at contested possession, but we were also monstered off the ball with things like GBG's and loose ball gets. No surprise that our 2 best for both CP's and GBG's are Hopper and Taranto.
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Stats do make you start to think what type of players we have.
Dow - Below average for CP, but his CP rate is above average. So what do we have, a ball winning midfielder that doesn't contest the ball, doesn't win clearances and the doesn't win the ball when its on the ground either (average for GBG's). We know he doesn't get involved in chains through the ground either as his UP's are so slow. I just don't see anything with this kid that makes me think, oh that part of his game is AFL level. I see nothing.
Brown - CP are ok. I think I mentioned a couple of games ago, I'd love to see him get involved in more attacking chains so we can use that kick that he possesses, maybe with Short out, we can push him into a more attacking role. Intercepting has been good, CP have been ok, but need to get him involved. I'd love to see where he is for handball receives, probably not great, but thats part of his game we can improve on. I see AFL quality with Brown.
Mansell - Again this probably shows us what we know. His contested stuff is very good, need to get him involved in more uncontested chains.
Campbell - I reckon he's tracking really nicely. Covers a lot of ground, wins the ball off the deck, biggest issue with him is kicking efficiency.
MRJ - Contested work again is very good. His GBG's probably surprised me a bit, but thats probably down to his positioning. Hopefully we can teach him to position himself into better spots, he seems to get himself caught in no mans land a lot of the time.
The only other one that probably played a few games here and stands out is Sonsie and I think its what the eyes show as well. Just below average with everything that we want to see. CP's below average so doesn't win it at the contest, UP's also below average so doesn't get involved in enough chains and GBG's below average. Just not sure where he is at. I'd like him to be tried in the middle before we throw in the towel though but certainly not showing what I expected when we drafted him.
