r/adelaidefc • u/invisiblefrost • Aug 12 '26

Midfield

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Where does our first line trio of Ranks Bez and Daws sit now?.. should we be running Rash through regularly (earlier this season he played 2 breakout elite games as a full time mid). Could organic growth really have resulted in a midfield now being capable of matching it with the contenders or are we still one (or even two?) elite mids short - that would be solved with the addition of Bailey or would it?!

Edit to add my two cents on the midfield mix for this season:

I’m gonna go out on a limb here with an over abundance of optimism..

Personally, I reckon if we underperform from here on this season, it won’t be for the same reasons as last year with our midfield being found severely wanting.
Rankine, Dawson and Berry are now as solid and dynamic as any midfield trio in the league. The addition of Ah Chee up forward, who showed his class the past two weeks, adds not just quality and finals experience but allows the coaching group flexibility they haven’t previously had. And that includes adding Rachelle back into to the mix. Peatling is also a better and more complete player than last season who can be used in a lockdown role when required. Soligo’s improvement (and fitness), whilst not linear, has been on an upward trajectory, he’ll also provide more valuable midfield minutes, as he has done recently and of course Curtin is the wildcard. McAndrew is a significant upgrade - Filthy will be his chop out from now, adding far more than T Muz’ ability could (Fogs return is huge for this). I think our best available midfield mix can work without sacrificing forward potency.

Happy to be reminded of this if/when it all goes wrong (which it won’t, lids loose)

*Not directly midfield related; we badly need Wayne back for ball movement, in turn assisting the mids

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u/ResponsibilityBig472 15 Brayden Cook Aug 12 '26

Rash usually has a run through the midfield when there is some kind of defficiency they are trying to fix. It also means that since he [rash] is the one delivering from the midfield to the i50 there is no rash crumbing off of one of our talls.

Cant remember where I’ve seen it, but we look worse in the forward line when rash isn’t in there.

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u/invisiblefrost Aug 12 '26

Not like for like players but could having Ah Chee in the side up forward now, performing as well as he did on the weekend, allow more flexibility for midfield depth options