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On paper the Eagles midfield look good but looking at them last night against Collingwood they got found out once Pendlebury, Swan, Beams etc kicked into gear. Priddis played a gem of a game but wouldn't be considered a dangerous player the opposition need to clamp down on, Shuey should be their No 1 midfielder but he has gone backwards from a couple of seasons ago, Wellingham has been a disappointment since crossing over from Collingwood, Masten has improved but a bit similar to Priddis, Gaf is an outside player.

They seem to me to have too many good average players but lack pace and the ability to hurt the opposition. They no longer have a Cousins, Judd, Kerr type who can break a game open. I reckon they erred years ago when they could have picked up Lewis Jetta but went for Sheppard instead.

I remember being at Bassendean oval at a SD v Peel game as a neutral supporter and saw Worsfold and the carrot farmer there as observers. Jetta and Morabito were ripping it up on opposite wings.

Wellingham was never a gun at the pies to be honest. More like a Des Hedland at the bears, the 5th mid fielder, but once expected to be a gun mid fielder, dont quite cut the mustard. eags mid field are vanilla. Good tuff tagging ball winning blokes, BUT as a generalisation dont kick goals and cut defences apart with penetrating kicks.

Correct DD the WCE midfield aside from Priddis & to a lesser extent Selwood are front runners who really only run hard one way so look out when the side turn it over which they do a lot.
No doubt NN will cop the blame for the WCE losing again from their theatre going no idea fans despite as a bonafide RUCKMAN winning almost every ruck tap to give his midfield the footy on a platter and crashing packs to bowl over a few Collingwood defenders in most marking contests he was involved in but hey he only had 5 kicks (17 disposals) so that must mean he was terrible right?

Pity he didnt take a mark, which MOST ruckman manage to do.

UNKA2 wrote: Pity he didnt take a mark, which MOST ruckman manage to do.

Yep true Unka he didnt take a mark but him crashing packs and taking out opposition defenders in the process contributed to at least 5 goals to the WCE off the top of my head ..not to mention quite a few ground balls I saw he fed out to Priddis & co.
Just out of interest Unka how many marks did Geelong RUCKMAN Dawson Simpson take on Friday Night vs NM?

These days anchor the majority of so called footy experts just look at Champion Data stats or their Fantasy/SuperCoach points to make judgements on how a player performed in a game.
I am just trying to make a point that unsung things like crashing packs and taking out opposition defenders from the play in the process & knocking the ball out from congested mauls into team mates path in space are sometimes far more valuable than picking up cheap marks & kicks alone in the back half that do absolutely nothing constructive other than beef up your own champion data stats and fantasy/supercoach points!

What I noticed about Nic is he always tries to mark from behind. I know he's got a great leap and it looks spectacular when it comes off but I think he needs to take a leaf out of Dean Cox's book and play the front position more often in marking contests. Even if he doesn't mark it more often than not he's going to be first to the ball and can do damage that way. And he will earn a few free kicks by playing in front.

@ A/M - I disagree regarding Masten. I think he has been pretty damn good the last couple of years. And I was surprised to see him given the red vest on Saturday. While he could kick more goals, I think his kicking into our forward 50 has been sublime. Instead of just bombing it in and hoping, he has been drilling them lace out to leading forward.

I still cant believe we lost that game. Our main forwards did nothing, JJK had an absolute stinker. I wonder if it was a mental thing after the GWS game, did he think it was just going to happen for him again? Dropping easy marks, poor kicking. Very frustrating.

And I cant believe that 50mtr penalty that Grundy was given against Brown.... seriously wtf. Umpires are sponsored by OPSM yet they quite often seem to be blind.

Wingard scored a pretty good 100 points in SC. Which is very good for 15 disposals.
Pavlich had groin surgery last years pre-season, he said it took to about Round 20 to get full fit again kicking 55-60 metres. NicNat has a ways to go yet with his fitness and all talk about it is myopic.
Dead right about the Grundy 50 yolo, Jesse White pushed Brown also. Commentator suggested maybe Brown should've gotten the free. Umpiring killed us but it's part of the game and we had our chances.
Agree with most comments on the Eagles midfield.
I have been saying for about a year now that the Eagles a Superstar short in that department. The Eagles have had chances to win all their games this year apart from the Cats but never have looked completely solid. A superstar is necessary.