Undoubtedly your stats identify one of 2018's great problems Morgan. Definitely our midfield output was hopeless, and, yep ,the stats are damning.
But when you consider who we had running through there - or more importantly - who we didnt have running through there, there should be no surprises about our 2018 team putting up some diabolical midfield stats.
Those stats must be viwed in the context of 2 half fit Hills for the whole year,; our main driver & captain out for a significant portion; an 18 yr old 1st year draftee in there for a whole year; a rookie draft pick tagging the opposition's best midfielder; our #1 ruckman being out for almost half the year; and, our #2 ruck being extremely underprepared and; lacking a preseason; and our up & coming Mundy replacement being injured for 3/4 of the year. Add to that, injury to 'makeshift midfielder' Walters at the back end of things, and basically we are a trainwreck!
Consequently, it was a 'makeshift' centreline for the whole year and the only legit and regular 'midfielder' was indeed the bloke that has now taken off to Brisbane.
Yep, it wasnt a great midfield, and yep, the output was poor.
But, I reckon if you asked Docker supporters/watchers what they most despised about Freo matches in 2018, very few would bring up " a hopeless midfield" as their answer. The vast majority would identify the 'complete lack of a forward structure' when moving the ball forward.
When you consider how "half cut" our midfield was, it was blantently unfair & unreasonable for them to have few forward options whenever they did create an opportunity, and I still wince at the number of times in 2018, that we were caught trying to move the ball through the middle of the ground and a ball carrier had to hold the ball up to wait for the foward line to get back.
That all comes about for one reason, and its not because of a lousy midfield. Its completly & utterly the coaching strategy - the gameplan! . THAT was the thing that was hopeless in 2018...
Hopefully, the new rules put an end to all that crap...and whilst Blakely is now injured, if all the others mentioned above hit rd1 fit, ready & able, plus, a couple of hard bodied additions to the team, plus, new rules that 'encourage/force a coach to leave the forward liners where they should be, I see every reason to be optimistic about our 2019 season...especially if we can get Bennell back on the park.