Game Thread: Sydney Swans VS Gold Coast Suns

**chalbilto** · 29th July 2012, 02:50 PM

I was wondering if any RWO's went to the game last night and if so can they tell us if there was any dew on the ground as a lot of players seem to have problems with their footing and also handling of the ball.

**GongSwan** · 29th July 2012, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by DamY

Was it just me or did TDL look pretty ordinary in the GC game?

No, you're not the lone ranger there. Not hard enough at teh ball

**DamY** · 29th July 2012, 03:58 PM

I'm still eating my hat, LRT had another cracker of a game. Wonder if Mitch Morton will get a run in the forward line.

**Ludwig** · 29th July 2012, 04:19 PM

One of the advantages of having TDL in the team is that it frees Benny up to tag a top mid. He's actually a very good tagger and has done some great tagging jobs even when he was at Hawthorne. He would be a perfect match to stop Murphy next week, who wouldn't even expose him for height. He's fairly good value as a small format, but his speed and pressure are first class for a tagging role.

I thought TDL's game was pretty good. Had a dropped mark and fumble, but otherwise, kicked 2 goals and set up Jude and Goodes on a couple of others. He usually gets good value out of his possies.

**DamY** · 29th July 2012, 04:32 PM

Fair enough, what sticks in my mind though was a couple of really poor tackles that were a little more than a cuddle. Having heard he needed to work on his defensive pressure brings that even more into focus.

**Ludwig** · 29th July 2012, 04:45 PM

He's just not strong enough to make his tackles stick. I think he tried to tackle Ablett once, which was a bit of a joke. Hopefully he can bulk up a bit in the next couple of years and improve on that aspect of his game. He's clearly not the complete package yet, but has a lot of good attributes and has shown a real willingness to work on the weaker parts of his game.

**Dirtyburt** · 29th July 2012, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by Cheer Squad

I do remember ROK's outburst before the EF against Carlton in 2010. He came across as petulant. And that game turned into a classic.

With Goodes, he actually said some nice things about ANZ last year, about how the dimensions of the ground helped them prepare for the match against Geelong. Remember? We played St. Kilda at ANZ for a win, then beat Geelong at home the following week.

None of that changes the fact a number of players have stated we would prefer to play at the scg.

**jono2707** · 29th July 2012, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Ludwig

He's just not strong enough to make his tackles stick. I think he tried to tackle Ablett once, which was a bit of a joke. Hopefully he can bulk up a bit in the next couple of years and improve on that aspect of his game. He's clearly not the complete package yet, but has a lot of good attributes and has shown a real willingness to work on the weaker parts of his game.

Good points - I think his overall game is coming along pretty well. When he's in the team we expect him to kick or set up a few goals, which he did. He's also expected to run and chase and apply pressure, which he did to varying degrees of success last night. He's also credited with 5 tackles which is a fair effort.

**Melbournehammer** · 29th July 2012, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by Ludwig

He's just not strong enough to make his tackles stick. I think he tried to tackle Ablett once, which was a bit of a joke. Hopefully he can bulk up a bit in the next couple of years and improve on that aspect of his game. He's clearly not the complete package yet, but has a lot of good attributes and has shown a real willingness to work on the weaker parts of his game.

Gee whiz that's hard on him. I saw a lot (LOT) of swans fall off tackles on ablett, including some of our best defenders such as smith.

He is not in the team primarily to defend. He is there to stop the ball coming out easily. And his delivery to teammates is a lot better than that of a certain brownlow medallist who is struggling with his hand passes at present.

As for that same medallist - having watched the game again he certainly is crashing packs as often as he can. He just rarely looks like more than a couple of goals a game (acknowledging he may get some soft ones due to the great work of our strength the midfielders)

I just have vision of a fit Gibson or maxwell coming over the top and spoiling over and over - and the ball coming out and being delivered to franklin or cloke on centre wing and then more goals. Perhaps I have been scarred by recent history, but until we have a mechanism for dealing with this we need goodes as well as reid and maybe mummy to actually take some contested marks.

**Ludwig** · 29th July 2012, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by Melbournehammer

Gee whiz that's hard on him. I saw a lot (LOT) of swans fall off tackles on ablett, including some of our best defenders such as smith.

I didn't mean it as a criticism, actually a compliment for his effort, that he tried to tackle Ablett when players with twice TDL's strength would equally get shrugged off. I am very much a TDL fan and think he has a good chance to develop into a very complete small forward.