JASON Akermanis believes he has been unfairly dubbed "out of form" and is frustrated the footballing world has not yet noticed the shift in his responsibilities as a midfielder to those of a forward.

Akermanis said the fact he isn't racking up the same number of possessions he did at the Lions doesn't mean he isn’t playing well.

"I'm playing a different role," he said. "I think the general consensus is that I'm a midfielder. I haven't really played a lot in the centre where you've got that scope where to be around the ball, you're naturally a chance to get more touches."

"When you're playing forward, there are a lot of factors. If your midfield is dominant, you're going to get the reward of that. That's the part of the team you don't talk about.

"If I'm covering off and doing the right thing and taking the spare man, who is running, or taking my man out of the play, it is awesome team work.

"Yet, the people, like yourselves and people who just observe it, generally look at the numbers and say, ‘What's going on here?’

"There is that type of thing. People just haven't caught up. I've changed my role, and this is what I'm fulfilling at this club."

Akermanis said it's taken him "almost 10 rounds" to get used to the shift in role, but is enjoying his new team-orientated duty in attack.

"It's not number-based. It's clearly what I'm doing for the group. If you're tackling, you might cover off and take a guy who is easy to take out of the play and he just wants to follow you around and open up space, that's awesome. That's teamwork," he said.

"You can keep telling, "He's not in form", and all this, yet I know, and the people that matter know, if that is happening or not."

However, Rodney Eade doesn't believe the shift means Akermanis' days as a straight-out midfielder are over, and looks forward to using the Brownlow medallist in a variety of roles.

"He played a little bit (in the midfield) on the weekend. I think he has a mixed part to play there," he said.

"We don't view him either percentage either way and I think he'll spend a bit of time doing both."