Shane Edwards - the key midfielder to Richmond's finals campaign (Herald-Sun)

[one-eyed]

The key midfield links to your club’s finals campaign
Herald-Sun
September 1, 2015

THEY loom as September’s ­silent assassins — the men who can inflict maximum damage when the stakes are their highest.

The Herald Sun has identified the most damaging midfielders of this year’s eight finalists — and the names of some may surprise you.

For while the coalface warriors like Patrick Dangerfield, Josh Kennedy and Matt Priddis turn the key in their team’s engine rooms, it’s the “link men” who truly put the foot to the floor.

And it’s in the heat of finals, more than any other time, that these link men can wreak havoc. If these guys get off the leash come finals time, you’re in strife.

It’s why the tactically astute Ross Lyon would send his ­attack dog, Ryan Crowley, to less-heralded players such as Mathew Stokes, Richard Douglas and Pearce Hanley.

Lyon shocked many by sending Crowley to Stokes in the 2013 qualifying final before switching him to a red-hot Steve Johnson.

“We just thought Stokes had been getting really on the outside and breaking the chain a lot so we went that way,” Lyon said after the famous win.

So who enters this September as marked men?

Richmond has the likes of Dustin Martin and Brett Deledio, but it’s Shane Edwards who wields the big offensive stick for Damien Hardwick.

Edwards has been involved in an average 20 possession chains a game, with the Tigers scoring from 32.6 per cent of them — ranked second of the club’s midfielders.

Simply, when Edwards gets the pill, good things happen for Richmond, but he hasn’t been tagged once this year.


NO CHAIN, NO GAIN

Most damaging midfielders

Shane Edwards (Richmond): 32.6% (possession chain to score), 2nd (club rank)

Luke Shuey (West Coast): 30.3%, 2nd

Lewis Jetta (Sydney): 28.8%, 1st

Issac Smith (Hawthorn): 32.7%, 1st

Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs): 29.2%, 3rd

Nat Fyfe (Fremantle): 28.7%, 1st

Jack Ziebell (North Melbourne): 27.3%, 1st

Rory Sloane (Adelaide): 31.2%, 1st

Source: Champion Data

http://www.news.com.au/national/the-key-midfield-links-to-your-clubs-finals-campaign/story-e6frfkp9-1227506731463

[1965]

If Shane is second then surely whoever is first would be our key midfielder?

 

[Hard Roar Tiger]

If Shane is second then surely whoever is first would be our key midfielder?

 

The context is more so about the lower profile players who have a bigger impact.

[tdy]

Maric might be a key. If we win our first game prob against Nort then the Sydney rucks are being lauded in the papers but Pyke is limping badly and wont be able to play 2 games in a row. Maric to the fore me hopes.

[one-eyed]

Jack praising Titch on the Sunday Footy Show ...

“We were both drafted in the same year (end of 2006). He had a really light frame, but he’s been able to put some weight on,” Riewoldt said on Channel Nine.

“Shane’s actually got a really hardened body, and we feel really comfortable with him around stoppages.

“He’s nearly our best stoppage player, and he’s just got that ability to always help other blokes hit the scoreboard.

“He’s an elite handballer and a really tackler, and you know when he’s around the ball he’s going to impact.

“To be honest, I think up until he broke his leg about six weeks ago, he was probably All-Australian half-forward . . .

“Inside our four walls he is rated very, very highly.”

Full article: http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/2015-09-02/riewoldt-sheds-light-on-edwards