Fantastic news!
Noice
I've never understood the flies Reg sometimes attracts on here, and consider our defence without him, so a big cheer from me.
'Delicious' is a fun word to say
he will be slower than me in 3 yrs ! It says to me that club doesn't have great faith in back up stock defenders
I think its because when he cocks up, its usually a good @@@@-up and playing in the backline, often quite costly. I'm the first to admit that my heart is always in my mouth when he gets possession, anywhere on the field - as he really does seem to have 'on' and 'off' days in terms of using the ball - either quite good or terrible.Originally Posted by i'm-uninformed2
But then again, when you think across his career, and in particular in recent years, its hard to come up with more than a few examples of where he has been comprehensively beaten by his opponent across a match. It happens to all the best defenders at times, but I think he has done good service to the club, and its great to see him commit for a bit longer. After all, even with 3 years, he will only be slightly older than Teddy is now at the end of 2018.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
Or that the club would rather take a graduated approach to replacing the key defenders, and want the extra security of knowing that Grundy will be around till the end of 2018. Teddy will go sooner rather than later I'd expect (my guess end of 2016), but at least then we are only trying to replace 1 key defender at a time, not 2.
Anyone that watches the Ressies can tell you that both Allir Allir and Xav Richards have the goods to make it at the top level - whether they do is another question, but they need time to continue to develop their footy.
Assuming we don't trade in to replace Teddy, I think Xavier will get first shot to replace him. You also must remember it takes time for most defenders to develop (not all - McGovern at West Coast being a good example of an exception) - Teddy being a perfect example, with his career appearing almost over in 2009-2010 at one stage before he finally clicked to become the brilliant defender he has been for us.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
As a defensive unit our backline is almost without peer and has been for years. It has the occasional brain fart with ball in hand and Reg is prone to be among the offenders along with Rhyce and Rampe, but the amount of crap/abuse they cop here leaves me constantly bemused.
I want my defenders to defend first and if they are capable of providing rebound, well and good. Malceski for one was a god awful defender in the early days, some of those games at ANZ when Daisy towelled him year after year still live in the memory. He got smarter as he got older, but he was always value to the team for his run and carry out of the backline, not his defensive capabilities. Rhyce is in a similar boat and now that he's lost a bit of zip looks to be faltering to the line and a Jones/Newman switch would not surprise me by the time the season ends.
I guess what all that means is I'm glad Reg has committed and is likely to see out his career in red and white. You beauty...
Driver of the Dan Hannebery bandwagon....all aboard. 4th April 09
If you think reg and our Backline is dodgy , just take a look at any other backline with the same eyes as you view the swans and you'll come away weeping. (At how bad they are)
i bemoan reg a lot for his brain farts.
But am also glad he has stayed.
Another big body defender.
Has probably saved more scores than given up anyway.
I don't agree with you very often Barry, but on that point I do. We mark our backline very hard all things considered - given for a decade now, a quality defence has been a hallmark of our team. For all our whining about a brain fart here or there, we have very much been spoilt over the years by having such a good back 6.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
I'm pretty happy that Reg signed too. I agree with most here that our backline has been pretty solid over the years and Reg has been a big part of that.
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