PORT ADELAIDE’s midfield coach Jarrad Schofield is expecting the AFL’s new rules to benefit his side because of its wealth of inside midfielders.
The Power has at times been criticised for having a number of similar big bodied inside midfielders and not enough run.
But Schofield says what he has noticed about the new starting position requirement through the club’s internal hit-out and trial game against Adelaide, along with last night’s JLT Community Series opener between Carlton and Essendon was that inside midfielders seem to have more time around stoppages and there is less congestion at centre bounces.
“With players not being able to come off the centre square allows the guys inside to really go to work and have a bit more time and space and that was evident last night with the game, and with ourselves when we played the Crows in the under 23 game last week,” Schofield said during an interview on Adelaide radio station SEN SA.
“I think we kicked five or six goals in the second half direct from centre bounces so if you get your job done there, and we’re looking to obviously – with guys like Paddy Ryder and Scotty Lycett – having those two ruckmen in there, hopefully it gives us the first look and we can be effective from there.”
Port Adelaide lost outside midfielder Jared Polec in the off-season but has recruited strongly with young talent in Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma, who can both play on the wing.
Schofield said the criticism about the Power having too many similar midfielders was unfounded.
“We don’t want to be all the same type of player in there so I’ve really tried to drill down on the point of difference that each of the players will bring,” he said.
“It’s about us getting the right mix at the right time and not having too much of the same in there.
“You’ll see more of Travis Boak going through there, we know how good Robbie Gray is in stoppages… and when you’ve got guys like Duursma come in, Rozee – you’ll see them around the midfield.
“And where you see a lot of sides rotating forward with mids, we’re going to look at exploring rotating through our backline as well and hopefully that will give us that run and drive from stoppage or from half-back as well.”
The Power comes up against Adelaide at Memorial Oval in Port Pirie on Saturday to open its pre-season campaign.
Having beaten the Crows in an under-23 hit-out last week, Schofield said his side wanted to win again but was also focussed on continuing to implement changes to its game-style.
“We always want to get off to a positive start, and sometimes that can be guided by the wind, but for us it’s just that we’re ticking the boxes in all of the area where we’ve made adjustments over the pre-season,” he said.
“We’re looking to see our players really going at the game and we’ve spoken about giving them a bit more freedom to really go at it.
“For me as a midfield coach it’s just about creating that synergy with a lot of numbers being able to roll through and what we’re looking for throughout 2019 is we’re looking to see that their connection is spot on with our ruckmen and how they go about their business around the ground, with the limit in the amount of feedback we can get in from our runners.
“There are a lot of things to tick off but at the end of the day we just want to make sure we get off to a positive start.”
