03-04-2017, 01:31 AM
(03-03-2017, 10:42 PM)cookie2 link Wrote:Maybe a combination of both?It is absolutely a combination of both, and they are obviously inter-related. To be able to win your own ball consistently at AFL you need to have a decent size and strength about you to take the knocks and keep doing it for 4 quarters.
If you look at the WB they have 7 players in the top 100 for Contested Ball in 2016 - we had 3. We have Cripps [who is ranked 2 behind Josh K] and then we drop away to Curnow and Gibbs. The obvious point is we don't bat deep, and if Cripps gets injured we have a massive hole that we can't fill.
Dalhaus and Macrae and those types are not huge, but they are strong and seasoned now. Like many on here I thought we needed to add a Barlow or a DeBoer to our group to provide depth and coverage to this area of our game, but we went a different path. Last week we got absolutely smashed in this area, and we don't have the defensive pressure of say a Hawthorn to get the ball back once we lose a contest.
With the midfield we have in today we will probably get smashed again in this area.