While stats are fast becoming meaningless the peformance of our marquee onballer Nick Stevens was again poor when the game was hot in the first half.

4 possessions in a half of football for an onballer is ordinary to say the least and has become a common trend in Stevens' game.

Last year for instance he had 5 possessions after quarter time against his old team the power and Cornes towelled him up.

Last night it was Crowleys turn. as he racked 15 possessions.Stevens to his credit played better in the second half but by then the horse had well and truly bolted.This from the possible next captain.I doubt it.

Stevens body language at times is poor and I am sure his direct opponents are aware of this and that only enhances their peformance.


I just havent waited for the first opportunity to jump on Stevens either.This has been going on for a while now.


In my view he doesnt run hard enough when things are going against him and the team and he needs to run more and in essence become a tagger. He also is second in line in ball ups too often waiting for the cheap and easy stat..Crowley is no slouch and he can play.He and Mundy are underated players who can do a number on ya so Stevens needs to get angry and put some hard body on who is tagging him.Its tougher for Stevens now as he is our number one onballer .When he was at the power he sometimes went under the radar.

I reckon Stevo gets off to lightly on this forum as well wheres Houlihan cops it big time partly because Houlihan's deficincies are far more obvious.I thought Houlihan was fantastic last night coming back from being targetted by that thug Medhurst to being our best player as well as Fevola.

Houilahan is trying to change and take his footy to the next level and every Blues fan should be wrapped because the guy can play.


Stevens on the other hand seems content at where he is at. Turning up overweight pre season playing the odd blinder when the game is easy and polling the most Brownlow votes.Stevens body shape appears to have not changd in his time at the Blues.Perhaps he needs to hit the weights more to put on some more muscle and get some more testosterone in his system. He needs to become better defensively and be more aware of his opponent rather than chasing cheap and easy stats when the game is physical.

Just had a look at most of the posts of the game v Freemantle. And the normal whipping boys copped plenty .... Sporn, Chambers, DeLuca etc. etc. But for me those guys output whether large or small will almost always have little bearing on the result of the game.
The player that let us down the most last night was Nick Stevens. In the first half he got absolutely slaughtered by a kid who has punished him before. The buck stops with Stevo, he is one of our leaders and gets paid handsomely to perform EVERY week. His poor game last night had the biggest bearing on whether we won or lost.

Stevens is our most consistant player and our best midfielder - by a long way. Fev in form is the only player on the list who can legitmately claim to be a better player. He had a down game last night, but i fail to see how you dont have confidence that he'll make amends for it next week.

I will be interesting which bloke the swans play on him and how Stevens goes.

It depends on how as individuals we assess Stevens.

If we look at Stevens as a player who chips away at a game, then he does that.

If we look at Stevens as a player who is going too break a game open and be a match winner, then he doesn't.

Regardless I have expressed my opinion on Stevens's body type on here a few times - got me stumped.

If I was too be critical I would suggest that Stevens needs too lift his game a notch from the beginning - he is paid big bucks. Alternatively Pagan should keep him on the bench at the start until the 15 - 20 minute mark.

_________________
Supporting the Blues No Matter What

I agree Stevens struggles with heavy tags but really its up to some of the other guys to step up consiostently and draw the attention away from Stevo. We are seeing signs of that happening but with no Campo, Kouta being less damaging and the young blokes like Houla, Bentick, Simpson etc are just looking for the consistency in ball-winning before they attract their attention from Stevens.

Stevens will naturally have good and bad games, depending on the quality of the tag, but my main criticism of Stevens is that his kicking is not as damaging as it should be for that quality midfielder. His kicking for goal on the run is atrocious.

Stevens was copping it.Perfect chance for Scotland to fill the breach.No show your honour.Scotland is the big worry to me coz he is a very ordinary second stringer.Stevens is a class player,but for class to shine,you must br surrounded by class.We are screaming out for another class midfielder and we gotta keep turning em over till we find one.
Forget about Stevens as our next Captain.That has gotta go to Lance.He is the natural leader at our club.

_________________
All my dangerous friends

Two questions:

Was Stevens playing with some pretty nasty niggles? Answer: Yes

When Stevens was tagged out of the game, did such a level of focus allow other mids into the game with decreased attention? Answer: No.

It's pretty damn hard to break a close checking tag if you're underdone and not being lent a proper hand. I think you will find though that Crowley's effort on Stevens was borderline illegal and Crowley's team mates did their best to bump Stevens around out of the play in an attempt to tire him down.

Fremantle's idea of physicality, while effective in this instance, was just plain disgraceful. I hope the match review panel agrees.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

dont think stevens disposal is good enough to be considered a top line midfielder - consistent bad kicks recently, sometimes under little pressure

Efficiency in 2005 was 76% which is pretty average. At Port in 2002-3 it was 81%.

efficiency % doesnt tell the whole picture I dont think - when stevens makes a disposal error it tends be a fairly bad one

He is our numver 1 onballer. With Campo gone now we have no other running midfielder close hence the opposition will do everything in their power to shut him down.

_________________
"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

how many times u cough it up doesn't reveal everything about the quality of disposal. Stevens has THE most penetrating field kick in the team, he has the abilty to hit a pass low and hard over 50m at full tilt -no one else in the team can do that AFAIC. Simmo, Murph and Bentick are really promising talents but I bet every midfield coach that opposes us has one message and that's to target Stevo. Until our young fellas become genuinely dangerous as opposed to occaisionly brilliant, Stevo's only real support in the middle is Scotland. When those kids step up you'll see how good stevo is.

I still reckon he looks underdone, always winds up with a niggle just when we need him most.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Thats what i was trying to say blu944,but you put it better than me.Scotland is the big worry,not Stevens.

_________________
All my dangerous friends

Good post. I agree entirely. It's tough being a gun midfielder in a struggling midfielder. As Campo and Kouta have found in recent years.

He's a terrific player. Had a poor game. But he's still a terrific player. Easily our best midfieler. In a really good side, he'd be a chance of going all-Australian. He's certainly a better player than Chad Fletcher who has gone all-Australian on the back of playing alongside of Judd, Cousins and Kerr.

And in time team maturity will see the CHB or CHF come off the line and take out Stevens tagger.

Watch Neitz wipe out taggers for Melb. Without big mature bodies to do that anyone in Blue who gets tagged is tagged for the whole game without any assistance.

_________________
This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

Fair comment about Stevens...Freo smacked us in the middle and Haselby didnt even play...For $500K a year we have to get a better return...I think he has been down for 12 months or so and isnt in the A grade midfielder class anymore...is he injured?...his disposal when he does get it is also not as good as in previous years....

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

The problem for Stevens is lack of support. He's always been a receiver so with no ball being fed to him he's not going to do very well.

The major deficiency with him is his defensive side, which is very bad. Other than that I think that there are others who should step up to support him when he is getting tagged out of the game. For instance, Scotland and Houlihan are two marked to be there to help him out yet they both stand around waiting for the pill aswell!

FFS! Everyone says possessions don't count but then when one of our midfielders doesn't get it as much as normal, he gets criticised to the max. He's been on the end of some big tags, played injured in many games last year but on the whole has been great value for us.

Kouta, Fevola, Stevens ... who's next guys??? Supporters keep criticising our better players on the back of one isolated performance ... just like ABC Radio writing off J Brown after his game against the Cats. What did he do next round ... 17 marks against Essendon*.

Stevens will continue to perform at a high level for this club for many years. I'm not going to hang it on him for one disappointing performance after he has stood out like a beacon for us amidst a background of midfield mediocrity.

_________________
In WADA we trust