u/Important-Breath-332

It currently looks like should the Blakey deal happen it will give us quite the draft hand. With Tasmania coming in access to high end talent will be difficult over the next few years aside from anyone academy tied (and even those rules got severely tightened). Is the best course of action to keep and use the picks, or is there some key defensive stocks in the vein of Sam de Koning that we should be targeting. It feels like the one position, maybe paired for lockdown small defenders that we are struggling for depth with. Tmac is amazing and had an unreal season, and it was a great 12-odd games for Wed. With Will out to start the year the Hammer and the Pelican don’t leave me comfortable. I think Melican had been great for a few years before having a stinker last year. Hamling fight hards and can be good in the air but doesn’t really have the composure you want from a defender with the ball. SDK is a physical freak with plenty of upside as both a second ruck and a KPD.
- Any other names to thinks about, or do we take the picks

Since the retirement of JPK, our midfield has looked outmuscled against most opponents, especially in the last few years against Brisbane. The inside craft of their midfielders, Neale, Dunkley, McCluggage, and more recently Ashcroft, has made matching them in clearance ridiculously difficult. Everyone in the midfield had a great game and led to the massive clearance differential we saw. One of the largest factors I saw was Jai Serong in the midfield: he just looked like he had time both defensively and offensively. It was like seeing JPK back out there at times, especially how he was able to be involved in just about any part of the chain to the outside before the clearance. I think there might be something about their physical similarities (I think they have a similar frame and run similarly).

The Hawthorn list managers would have been looking at this game thinking, oh, that might have been a major piece to our midfield... again (hopefully it doesn't lead to a three-peat for them again).

Obviously it wasn't just him; he was also enabled by the sheer physical pressure that came at everyone, but especially Rowbottom. He just seemed to spend most of the game putting Lachie Neale on his arse; it seems like something we maybe could have used a bit more during the regular season, to be honest, but I think he has become a more dangerous player overall from the time he has spent forward.

While our midfield on the weekend is affected by injuries (Rowbottom, McInerney), I think there were some really exciting signs of what is to come from the midfield. I think this is the first time since about round 6 that the pressure looked really good; the next one up mentality to put pressure on the ball carrier was much more evident.

• Serong through the midfield looks like someone who has some serious upside. At 192-3 cm tall, he has the size, and his skills look silky. Very interesting as someone who everyone thought was going to be a KPD depth, Hawthorn will be kicking themselves if he continues to show the midfield upside.
• Campbell has always had the traits; the kicking is excellent, up there with the first few in the league, but since coming back from injury he is just able to apply the athleticism (that even Heeney envies) to make a difference. He's been getting more of the ball and using it just as well as before.
• Dattoli, what a weapon. What he can do in the forward line is great, but how he can influence the ball movement further up the field is really promising; it's what he has shown at VFL if he can continue to deliver at AFL level, then he'll be an absolute plus in finals (feeling a bit bad for Rosas Jr, but he just needs to apply himself more consistently).

I think it will be interesting to see how the midfield rotations work, especially with Gulden, Warner and Heeney to a slightly lesser extent than at the start of the season, being in amazing form. I expect Mills will slot back into defence as Juzzy comes back. The weak link for me is Matt Roberts; he is great in the forward half, but every time he touches it behind the halfway line, it feels like a turnover.

Anyone else excited about some young, explosive and skilled depth for the midfield?

Every time Rampe is out of the side, it is clear that we begin to lack some organisation defensively. This game looks like one of the worst organised performances we have had in a while, players spoiling each other or jumping for the same ball with no Port player in sight. Not helped by a key-3 that have probably never played an AFL minute together before today. That being said, I think they did an awesome job of getting to every contest; it was just cases when too many people went up, leaving us open on the crumb. In the first, Serong and Kyle both went up against one and didn't kill the ball enough, a bit of a coach killer if you go the fist it needs to get out of the area, not drop to the back.

Rampe will be close to a return after the bye, which will be a big inclusion, especially with McCartin out. It will be interesting to see how much it improves with just a bit more experience.

He is a pure mid, will always be a pure mid, but with the extra time up forward, his crumbing actually looks good. If he can start to be a danger at a forward stoppage, I can see this paying off big time in September. End of game situation so often require strong play around f50 or d50 stoppage. Rowwy has always been a good stoppage player, and if he can add some more damage to what he does around forward 50 stoppage, he could be an absolute weapon in September scenarios.

Other observation from seeing the difference this weekend, while Papley has been great at around the ground stoppage, I wonder if his lack of defence around centre stoppage is actually hurting us more than he offence it is helping. His centre clearance stats aren't great (based on wheelo), but they don't give me the stats it actually want to use to compare it I'll just say of a general forward to attend a centre bounce his centre clearance % is the worst in the league, and he has 20% CBA, which seems quite high for the output.

Thoughts? Is it valuable for Rowwy to be more dangerous inside 50? Do we need to rethink how much we use Papley in the centre?

Given his dominance over the past two years, I am a little bit disappointed with 'The Chad' this year. It feels like he has been a lot less influential around stoppage, especially centre clearance, than in the last two years. He's at his lowest CBAs since 2023 and while I think he is valuable as a forward, I feel like when there are times that we lack a bit of strength at the coal face, he could help with that. Even if he is not the biggest mid, his fight through the contest has always been impressive.

Just a note: With how much our game is based on handballs at the moment, Chad's handball receives is actually down to the lowest since his rookie year. Not sure why or what it says, just an interesting point.

Do you think we should keep playing him 60-40 mid-forward (which might have worked better when Errol was running through the middle as well), or should we look to move him back through the middle a bit more, especially while Errol is out?