I dont think he is a full forward and for most of his career has not played as one. last year in an attempt for him to gain form be played in the back half and looked alright. As for playing out of full forward you could rotate Heeney Reid and Parker down there as they are all decent marks and with less rotations and a perceived improved mid field depth mids like Parker can do this
Its like everything old is new again....Matt80 come on down
It really does feel like there is a back story in there somewhere..... he could have a Mitchell 57 posession game and I still feel like there would be complaints heading his way for this, that or something else.
I don't see it necessarily as a direct competition between the two at all - at least not in the medium term. I think they'll both be named for Rd 1 - I wanted to see Warner back up what he did last week and he definitely did that today. Rowbottom showed good improvement over a bit of a sluggish performance at times last week. Again, I get a feeling he is one that may have that ability to 'turn it on' come the real footy, and today was a good step up from last week.
While we may well go in with '1 midfielder too many' compared to traditional wisdom, I would not be suprised if we aren't the only ones to do it across the league, as everyone fully nails down the implications during the early rounds of longer quarters then last year combined with lower interchange.
Great to see Wicks have a good game today - love his effort and commitment, and definitely what we need in the forward line. And McDonald showed on a couple of occasions exactly why he has a huge potential future in front of him. I'm not convinced they will pick him for Rd 1, though on pre-season, one could mount an argument that Reid should be under serious pressure for his place in the 22.
Some really interesting selection conundrums to come, and looking forward to seeing what team we put out for Rd 1 - and even better, looking forward to being at the Gabba to watch us play (Not that I expect us to win, but can't wait to see the first steps in the next stage of our development).
Last edited by mcs; 7th March 2021 at 07:02 PM.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
Longmire's post match interview reflects my feelings and what I said in my previous comment, that we have some things to work through and it's going to take some time testing out various options and see what works best.
I don't like Hayward playing full forward. He's done his best work up the ground and is better suited to play a high HF running on the wing. It wasn't too bright of us to bomb the ball long deep in our forward line when we were clearly outsized. If we want to replace Hayward, Sam Wicks would be my choice. For round 1 we might try a forward line of Reid, McDonald, Heeney, Papley, Gulden and Wicks.
I think it's worth exploring playing Kennedy and Parker more in the forward line, and Heeney more in the midfield. Florent looked good on-ball; RB and Warner can also play big minutes at the stoppages. It's a different look than the past, but I'm liking the development of our on-ball brigade.
We did miss Mills down back today, but I wouldn't consider shifting him out of the midfield. We need to find the player to do that role. With Aliir gone, it was even more evident that we need that intercept marker who reads the play well. We tried Hewett; it might work. Dawson can develop more in that role as well. I'm hoping though that it will come from Gould or COR.
I'd love to get a report on the reserves game. I wonder how McLean and Amartey went. They sound like they're improving and hope it's good enough where they can take on a KPP role at either end of the ground.
Will have to catch the press conference when I get a chance - sounds like he had some interesting things to say.
I was told off by some on here as almost 'writing off' JPK by suggesting that he might need an extra string in his bow in coming years - I tend to agree with your suggestion, but expect it will be Parker that spends more time in the forward line then Kennedy. But definitely feel like we will see a bit of that move with one of them, both being senior players that can play high % of game minutes, and still be effective when resting up forward etc.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
I wonder if Reid might eventually become the modern LRT, drifting around the play providing a chop out in the ruck, a marking option down the line or popping up at either end to take a grab or spoil an attacker.
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