Hopefully Stevie J will be able to teach our players how to kick the around the corner goal. Especially Reid because he always misses when he tries it!
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He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball)
There's a popular dish with foreigners around here. It's an Irish stew with hot chili sauce called a Thai Kennelly.
Stevie J is a genius, who will teach our forwards more than they could possibly imagine. His competitiveness gets confused with selfishness at times. He knows he can execute better than anyone, so always wanted the footy in his hands.
Movement around the ground, leading patterns, body work, skill execution. All things our forwards struggle with. They provide great pressure to create repeat opportunities and turnovers. But they're not overly functional with their structures.
I agree with this, in the main.
Towards the end of the season, especially against the weak and mediocre sides, our midfield was dominating to such an extent that it was almost impossible not to score, though I do acknowledge that goal conversion efficiency was pretty good, which added to the scoring potential. In the week between the Essendon triumph and the Geelong capitulation, David King described the Swans as an offensive machine.
But earlier in the season, when the midfield was just getting into its strides, I thought there were many games where we didn't get bang for our buck on the scoreline. Some was poor conversion of good scoring opportunities but the structure of the forward line wasn't always effective.
Back in 2003-6, when we had a pretty modest, if hardworking midfield, the main reason we were able to match it on the scoreboard with the dynamic midfields of teams like Brisbane, Port, West Coast etc was because our forward line was remarkably good at turning forward 50 entries into scores. MickyO, BBB, ROK, Dicky Navis, the Schneiderman and Monty worked very effectively together. They were a pretty talented group individually but together they became even more than the sum of their parts. If we could get anything close to that synergy going with Buddy, Reid, Hayward, Papley et al sitting in front of a far more dominant midfield (on its day - let's ignore the off-days when it all falls apart), going to the footy could become even more fun.
As an aside, our forward line coach during that early to mid naughties period was John Longmire, so you think he'd understand the value of a forward line coach who actually spent his playing days as a forward.
It was a little odd that Kirk was the forwards coach. A great footy brain, but you can't really compete with someone of Stevie's quality, and understanding the modern game so well.
Footy has changed so much in the last 6-8 years, it's almost unrecognisable strategically.
The good coaches, particularly Clarkson, are propped up by a strong modern coaching panel.
Stevie will add plenty to this panel. Both as a fresh set of eyes, but also from his knowledge of how to play footy in 2018.
As of ten minutes ago I am no longer a Swans supporter. I will not support a club that hired Stevie J, no matter how brilliant a footy brain he has, no matter how personable he is off the field. He set a bad example on the field by his habitual dirty tactics and if that is what is perceived as necessary to win, then I want no part of it. Goodbye.
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