Reserves Results

[SimonH]

Official Swans' match report is now up.

I'm pretty sure that the sportingpulse best players are supplied by the clubs. As a result, interesting that they've had 2nd thoughts, and excluded Davis from the best list for the official website review. Oh, and someone tell whoever wrote it that Colombo was selected in the national draft, not the rookie draft.

With Crouch, the Vespa and Brett Meredith now back out running around, our injury list is the lowest it's been for a while. Just 5 blokes: Spida should hopefully play v Woods, Barlow and Laidlaw being listed as just a week or two off, and then the 2 seasoners DOK and Thornton.

I guess the only possible reason why Mathews got 'rested' is 'cos there was a fear that someone wouldn't come up. Makes almost no sense to me why this game wasn't played as a curtain-raiser at Manuka, but there you go. Also seems that Nick Smith got the weekend off for some unknown reason, which is a shame: the Swans were maxed out on 18 listed players, so (under the AFL Canberra comp rules where the Nong get our surplus players) he could have swapped guernseys and played for the other side. Just like parklands footy.

[NMWBloods]

I'm pretty sure that the sportingpulse best players are supplied by the clubs. As a result, interesting that they've had 2nd thoughts, and excluded Davis from the best list for the official website review.

Wouldn't match with the coaches' recent comments.

[gazza]

went to both games in canberra.left greenway oval convinced that we have plenty of depth and the future looks good.some thoughts on the younguns.
veszpremi just back from injury but ran homself into the ground,has the attributes for a gun midfielder including a brain.
currie great rucking,good taps,has bulked up,nearly ready for seniors
o'dwyer outstanding game,reminds me of kirky
murphy has the body for senior footy,quick for his size,skills improving
orreal long term project but shows plenty,will make the grade
faulks loads of footy talent but needs a lot of muscle
white looked much happier up forward took some good marks in 2nd half

[swan_song]

Nick got the 6th vote in the best for swans category, but seems the official swans version only goes to the best 5...
Grundy's 6 unfortunatly could mean a recall to the As....maybe for Goodsie...

[NMWBloods]

Nick got the 6th vote in the best for swans category, but seems the official swans version only goes to the best 5...

There are six in that link:

Best: O?Dwyer, Faulks, Currie, Grundy, Murphy, Terlich.

[gossipcom]

Any word yet how long Fossie will be out with his hammy?

[liz]

I am just about getting over my pissed-offness that I arrived at Greenway Oval about 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter. (Something to do with the friend who was meant to pick me up at 8.30am so that we had time for a nice leisurely drive and maybe even lunch arriving instead at 11.30.)

By the time I finally arrived I was too irritated to really get into watching the match (and it was absolutely freezing too).

But some random observations:

Thought the team played pretty well in the 3rd quarter - some quite cohesive and inventive football. By the time the final quarter started, they all looked like they'd had enough. Skill level was down, most of them looked completely exhausted, and they had the game in the bag.

I think Reg must have scored most of his goals in the first half. I think I may have seen him kick one, possibly two (wasn't keeping tally). In the time I did see him he was playing well up the ground, leaving the goal square to White. His marking wasn't as secure as it normally is - maybe the cold had something to do with that - but his work rate impressed me no end. He looks to have maybe picked up a little bit of speed -still not what one would call quick but probably not far off O'Keefe's pace. Whether he's quicker or not, his overall mobility is looking better and he looks fit. Elsewhere people have been discussing Playfair's value to the team and whether Davis would be a better option. I'm not writing off Davis but I don't think he's the natural alternative to Playfair in the current structure. Reg might well be. I think Playfair is overall a better mark than Reg, mostly because he's that much taller and has better reach. But Reg may well present a better all round package and I reckon the selection committee are going to start discussing which of the two is the better option.

Murphy played pretty much all the second half in the forward line, roaming around CHF. It's the first time I've seen him anywhere other than CHB. I thought he, Grundy and White worked very well together as a tall combo, not getting in each others' space and trying hard to set the others up. It does look as if Murphy is finding the going tough, physically. That's not surprising since he is still very young and hasn't been through the rigours of playing and training professionally before. His footspeed was far less apparent than earlier in the season and whenever he came off the ground he looked completely exhausted.

My other reserves favourite, Vez, also looked completely buggered every time he came off, and that was despite being selective in which contests he made an effort to get to. I suspect we have zero chance of seeing him playing senior football this year. But then he's missed a lot of football and had no preseason so it's hardly surprising. I still reckon he's going to be a gem when he gets his fitness base up. His awareness and ability to create an extra split second of time and an extra yard of space were clear to see.

O'Dwyer, on the other hand, looked fresh as a daisy even at the very end of the slog of the final quarter. Since I didn't see the first half I have no idea whether that is because he didn't work so hard early in the game. Seeing as he was named in the best, probably not. He made a couple of absolute skill howlers but was mostly good with his disposal and was constantly running to present as an option. I was very impressed with the little I saw.

Currie dominated in the middle and won some important (non-rucking)contests around the ground. Definitely going to become decent player in the not too distant future. And Orreal's grasp of the game is getting better with each outing. He is quickly learning where to run to get involved. At his height he should be able to mark overhead, but it looks to be quite natural to him (moreso than Murphy, who himself is still getting better in this department).

Schmidt was reasonable. He looked like he was pushing himself hard right until the end but looked as tired as the rest of the team. He didn't look any more classy than most of his team mates, which was a little disappointing. He had one running shot on goal that I would expect him to get more often than not but sent it way way out of bounds on the full. Possibly just tiredness.

I can't remember many specifics about other players, except that Faulks caught my eye a few times with some impressive plays. Oh, yes, and Davis. He may have had a very good first half but I was very unimpressed with what I saw in the second half. He kicked one nice goal but his work rate off the ball was practically non-existent and he just looked disinterested. I think he's been good to reasonable in most of the other reserves outings I've seen him play, but this was definitely the most disappointing half of football from him that I've watched.

[swans song]

What about White and Brabazon?

[SimonH]

Hey liz, thanks.

So pleased that someone is corroborating what I saw in the seniors earlier in the year: Grundy has picked up half a yard of pace (or at least his anticipation and ability to get to the contest has improved), with the result that he actually looks like a useful 3rd tall within the Swans' gameplan; rather than a 1980s KPP (lead: mark: kick: do little else) stuck in a new millennium game, as he was wont to look in the past.

If Daniel Currie succeeds, then the Swans' longstanding policy of 'never, ever use high draft picks on rucks' will be vindicated. Just 2 years ago, this guy was on no-one's radar as 'gunna be a star ruckman of the future'. Decent ruckmen are at a premium and take forever to be ready, so if we can develop one in just 2 or 3 years from pick 49 in the draft, that's just insanely good. (With Spida on the way out, and trading picks for established players to be viewed as sacrilege in 2008 with the GC and WS to dominate the next few drafts from 2009 on, we need him to come on, too.)

[Triple B]

If Daniel Currie succeeds, then the Swans' longstanding policy of 'never, ever use high draft picks on rucks' will be vindicated. Just 2 years ago, this guy was on no-one's radar as 'gunna be a star ruckman of the future'. Decent ruckmen are at a premium and take forever to be ready, so if we can develop one in just 2 or 3 years from pick 49 in the draft, that's just insanely good.

That's a fair way from reality.

Currie was on just about everybody's radar, but the Swans were the first one's prepared to pick him up as an underage and let him stay in school and in essence forego a draft pick as they believed he would go top 10 if allowed to mature another year.

I'm not really in a position to go into details, but I have it from an impeccable source that a top club, a finalist last year, made a big play for Currie at the last trade week, offering their first round pick, albeit a late first rounder + a regular first grader for him.

The Swans said 'Thanks, but no thanks.'

[caj23]

Collingwood

[liz]

Just spotted this report on last weekend's game in the Canberra Times.

http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/sport/afl/swans-win-battle-of-the-birds/794396.aspx

Davo's 28 possession haul suggests he must have worked pretty hard in the first half, since I doubt he got many in the final quarter I saw him play.

And 41 touches from O'Dwyer indicates a very hard-working game, getting into Malceski / McVeigh territory from a couple of years ago. I'm sometimes a bit dubious of very high possession counts from onballers because they can sometimes get several scrappy possessions in the space of one contest, especially if they fumble. But from an "outside" running player, that's quite an achievement, even at ACTAFL level.

[gossipcom]

Nice work by O'Dwyer. I sure hope the club keeps him at the end of the year and he isn't traded due to a lack of top level action.

[pigatfullfoward]

I would love to see him have a go in craig birds spot for a week, just to give him a sniff at top level!

[SimonH]

That's a fair way from reality.

Currie was on just about everybody's radar, but the Swans were the first one's prepared to pick him up as an underage and let him stay in school and in essence forego a draft pick as they believed he would go top 10 if allowed to mature another year.

I'm not really in a position to go into details, but I have it from an impeccable source that a top club, a finalist last year, made a big play for Currie at the last trade week, offering their first round pick, albeit a late first rounder + a regular first grader for him.

The Swans said 'Thanks, but no thanks.'

I'll trust that you are right about the offer. The point is that just one year before that same club could have had him, as of right, for a late 3rd rounder. And chose not to.

Obviously from this distance I couldn't say what conversations were occurring within clubs, but the fact is that he wasn't anywhere in most phantom drafts (e.g. Matt Burgan's at afl.com.au which is normally at least based on well-connected info), and the whole notion 'he would've gone top 10 in 2007 but clubs weren't prepared to have him sit out a year' doesn't really make sense.

The draft is much like the stockmarket-- a value gets assigned to a player. There is no difference between their perceived value (to the person who values them most highly) and their actual value (i.e. they're worth exactly what the highest bidder says they're worth). If the market knows with absolute certainty that a share will be worth $10 in a year's time, then that will have an inevitable effect on its current price-- in very short order, it will shoot up to nearly $10 (to sell it for less would be giving money away). Similarly, if there was a broad-based belief that Currie was going to be worth pick 10 or so in the 2007 draft, then it would have been irrational for any club who held an interest not to pick him up at pick 25 at latest in the 2006 draft. The 'missing year' has to be trivial where it takes at least 3-4 years for ruckmen to develop to AFL standard (barring the odd athletic freak), and he was never going to do nothing during 2007 anyway.