Midfield Depth

[B.M]

Agreed

Steele is the big one!

If he gets injured, it’s like Cripps, Fyfe, Mitchell etc getting injured at their clubs!

I firmly believe that if Hannebery stays injury free and gets to 80-90% of his best, the midfield will be an area of strength.

Crouch, Steele and Ross are now experienced inside big bodies

Gresham, Jones and Clark can get in and out of traffic at clearance

Hill, Billings and Hannebery are very good users

Dunstan, Bytel and Byrnes provide midfield depth

Added to that we have a good tap ruckman and another ruckman who is excellent around the ground

[skeptic]

17 players listed in the OP

8 of them don’t primarily play in the midfield
3 are highly injury prone
Only 4 of them weren’t available to play in the team smashed by Richmond on the semifinal... 2 due to injury, 2 were elsewhere

It’s a little early to start boasting IMO

So are you concerned our midfield is a weakness in 2021

Not a weakness but I don’t think we have incredible depth

We’ve got a few injury prone mids amongst our lock in bests and the other replacement mids like Bytel, Higgins, Dunstan etc aren’t nearly as good (yet).
Guys like Clark and Billings may become as good this year or they might remain as players better suited flanks at this time

if Steele goes down or dips in form then we’ll have an okay midfield that pbly won’t be able to compete with the best

A drop off in standard or a large number of players that are as yet not proven to be as good is not my idea of depth. If Hannebery, Crouch and say Ross go down... we’re looking a bit shaky. The OP is essentially that we have a lot of players that could play in the midfield to varying standards

[B.M]

First choice inside Mids
Crouch, Z.Jones, Steele
Second choice inside Mids (rotation)
Ross, Clarke, Gresham
Third choice inside Mids (if required)
Dunstan, Hannebery, Bytel
Fourth choice inside Mids (if desperate)
Higgins, Byrnes,

First Choice outside Mids (wingers)
Billings, Hill
Second choice outside mids (rotation)
Hannebery, Battle, Sinclair, Clark
Third choice outside mids (if really needed)
Byrnes, Connelly, Allison

First choice ruck/forward
Ryder
Second choice ruck/forward
Marshall
Third choice ruck ruck/forward
McKernan

To me, that a lot of depth

First Choice Midfield
C: Hill - Crouch - Billings
R: Ryder - Steele - Z.Jones

Rotation
C: Hannebery - Ross - Sinclair
R: Marshall - Clarke - Gresham

Even the B Team looks pretty good, and you’d never have a situation where your entire B Team were playing midfield anyway

[Vortex]

17 players listed in the OP

8 of them don’t primarily play in the midfield
3 are highly injury prone
Only 4 of them weren’t available to play in the team smashed by Richmond on the semifinal... 2 due to injury, 2 were elsewhere

It’s a little early to start boasting IMO

So are you concerned our midfield is a weakness in 2021

Not a weakness but I don’t think we have incredible depth

We’ve got a few injury prone mids amongst our lock in bests and the other replacement mids like Bytel, Higgins, Dunstan etc aren’t nearly as good (yet).
Guys like Clark and Billings may become as good this year or they might remain as players better suited flanks at this time

if Steele goes down or dips in form then we’ll have an okay midfield that pbly won’t be able to compete with the best

A drop off in standard or a large number of players that are as yet not proven to be as good is not my idea of depth. If Hannebery, Crouch and say Ross go down... we’re looking a bit shaky. The OP is essentially that we have a lot of players that could play in the midfield to varying standards

Yeah our midfield development is going to be a fascinating sub plot to watch this coming season.

So the tank has been filled, the tyres have been pumped up, the oil is checked. All we need now is a little luck along journey.

I must say though I'm excited and bullish about what lay ahead. I haven't had this feeling for nearly 20 years.

That's worth the admission alone as they used to say in the classics.

[skeptic]

17 players listed in the OP

8 of them don’t primarily play in the midfield
3 are highly injury prone
Only 4 of them weren’t available to play in the team smashed by Richmond on the semifinal... 2 due to injury, 2 were elsewhere

It’s a little early to start boasting IMO

So are you concerned our midfield is a weakness in 2021

Not a weakness but I don’t think we have incredible depth

We’ve got a few injury prone mids amongst our lock in bests and the other replacement mids like Bytel, Higgins, Dunstan etc aren’t nearly as good (yet).
Guys like Clark and Billings may become as good this year or they might remain as players better suited flanks at this time

if Steele goes down or dips in form then we’ll have an okay midfield that pbly won’t be able to compete with the best

A drop off in standard or a large number of players that are as yet not proven to be as good is not my idea of depth. If Hannebery, Crouch and say Ross go down... we’re looking a bit shaky. The OP is essentially that we have a lot of players that could play in the midfield to varying standards

Yeah our midfield development is going to be a fascinating sub plot to watch this coming season.

So the tank has been filled, the tyres have been pumped up, the oil is checked. All we need now is a little luck along journey.

I must say though I'm excited and bullish about what lay ahead. I haven't had this feeling for nearly 20 years.

That's worth the admission alone as they used to say in the classics.

Absolutely Vortex and don’t get me wrong...
If Steele backs up
Hill and Gresh play close to expectations
Billings is a b it more consistent
Clarke transitions into the middle and Long provides good cover on a HBF
Hannebery stays on the park
Crouch and Ross play close to the standard of which they’re capable...

All of those are very realistic possibilities... Dan’s pbly the most unlikely but he’s been doing better every year so far... then that’s a brilliant looking midfield.

Like you I feel incredibly optimistic about 2021. Personally I think with a full strength team in the semifinal, we would have been a good show to knock over the Tigers... maybe it’s just the trauma of being a Saints fan which is urging me to be cautious but the sky is certainly the limit