I've never had it but from all reports, turf toe is not fun so I don't think you can really judge Ling on anything from this season. The good news is that he has probably spent a fair bit of time in the gym getting stronger and putting on some weight. This is something that normally can't be achieved in the first few seasons as they are too busy running 14+kms a game.
I agree. He is looking like a real steal isn’t he.Originally Posted by 707
Has he signed a contract extension yet ? If not we need to prioritise that too
If there was a bookmark feature for posts on here, I'd love to use it for this one (so we can refer later). You may well be right in the long run, but as Liz validly points out, his 2018 season has basically proven a wipeout ever since that injury in pre-season. Lets see how he gets on fighting fit next season hopefully before we throw him on the dustbin. If every player was judged solely on their first season, a hell of a lot of the very best players in the game would never have got their chance at all.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
Exhibit A - Adam Goodes close to being delisted!
Nobody is death riding Ling, hopefully he turns into a good player for us, but at the moment the Bulldogs have one in the bank with Richards, and we have an as yet unknown quantity. I know which position I'd rather be in
When was Goodsey almost delisted?
There are plenty writing him off when he basically hasn't been on the park for us though - its one step off that stage.
You could come up with a similar argument almost every season for every club - we took x but could have had y - what terrible recruiting, blah blah blah. At the end of the day, you win some, you lose some. We win a lot more than we lose, and its far too early to truly judge Ling and where he might be at.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
I don't think anyone's written him off at all
A few have expressed concern for the following reasons:
1. Most experts didn't have him in their top 20 prospects so it was a surprise that we picked him over more highly credentialed draftees (i.e. Richards and Higgins) who are performing well at senior level; and
2. He struggled to find the ball in the few NEAFL games he did play
Given he's been injured it's too early to tell how he'll pan out, and he's contracted for another 2 seasons so hopefully we'll get that opportunity but at the moment there's not enough evidence to call it.
What the earlier poster was saying is that on their performances to date Richards (and Higgins) have shown enough already to suggest that they are going to be long term AFL players. Injury or not, we can't make that call on Ling yet.
If we can't yet make that call on Ling, why have you already assessed his drafting as an error?
As Liz has highlighted, you've already broadly seemed to have reached a conclusiond that it was an error to draft him - that to me is basically equivalent to writing him off - saying 'we could have done better for sure' when we don't know what we have yet.
It wasn't obvious at the time, but with the nature of the injury ling had, its fully understandable why he struggled so much in the few NEAFL games he played.
We may well have erred, but lets give him a chance before declaring his selection to be erroneous.
Anyway, only time will tell hey.
Last edited by mcs; 13th August 2018 at 03:33 PM.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
Bit of talk in the media today on the proposed Hannebery to St Kilda trade:
- Tom Harley refusing to give this story "any oxygen" today saying Hanners is contracted for next 3 years, has not requested to be traded & the club is focused on making the finals.
- Longmire saying he's not involved in any list management & focusing coaching team into the finals.
- Sam McClure on SEN this evening reckons a deal will get done.
- Quite a few in the media think St Kilda chasing Hannebery is not the right move & question if Hanners would want to go to St Kilda.
- Caro on Footy Classified reckons Swans are not happy with how St Kilda approached Hannebery & also thinks this is a act of desperation from Richardson to get quick fix, as his coaching position will be on the line next year (performance clause in his contract). Saints are chasing many players including Jarryd Roughead & Daniel Menzel. I also heard both Dylan Shiel & Josh Kelly have already knocked St Kilda back outright, having no interest going there.
- HS headline reporting the Swans are demanding St Kilda's 1st round (top 10) pick for Hanners, but I can't get past their paywall to read article in detail.
Last edited by KSAS; 14th August 2018 at 01:48 AM.
I somehow managed to read the article by following a link on Twitter. I can’t work out how I managed to do it now. Anyway, the suggestion was that the deal would involve a pick upgrade where we get their pick 4 or 5 in exchange for Hanners and our pick 12/13.
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