AFL Insider tonight

[jono2707]

I thought it was an interesting piece and its always good to see the Swans players getting some kudos from outside the club and Sydney. I did think it odd that Goodsey was mentioned - I thought it was a given that not only can great players have a direct influence on a game, but they can also have many indirect influences on where the play goes, who matches up on them, how they can influence the opposition's gameplan etc. I thought Teddy would have gotten a mention but maybe he is now getting the recognition he deserves?

[dimelb]

I didn't see either show, but on the Goodes nomination, I wonder if it was done (a) partly for its surprise value and (b) as a way of saying, "You think he's good? He's not good, he's superb." And I agree AJ is the obvious alternative, although Teddy could stake a claim. Glad to see Brad agrees with some of us (and the club selectors!) on Bird, and interested to see his thinking on Jesse.

[Bas]

I'm with you Liz - I was gobsmacked when Ross said that he hadn't a plan for some Swans players and they had surprised him when they dominated. Huh?

Of all coaches you wouldn't think Lyons would be the one to underestimate us - especially after three weeks ago when we would have flattened them if we'd kicked straight.

I thought it was bizarre at the time. Now that I think of it more it does seem even more bizarre.

I can't even think of a logic answer.

On AFL Insider, I'm assuming Liz you watched it from your comments, I didn't think he was patronising but it seems like at 4pm that afternoon someone said to him, Brad can you do a segment on the Swans, your choice of topic. AJ would have been more logical a choice.

Scott did say that Goodes just pipped Jesse in his choice. I immediately thought of the anti-Jesse pundits here.

[Industrial Fan]

Not that we are out of the woods with GWS yet, but I think the fact that our players are generally underrated has helped us with raids from the new clubs.

Of course they would be after Sam Reid / Rohan but there are other targets that would be worthwhile that I cant see them going for due to our relatively 'low profile' list.

[Go Swannies]

I'm with you Liz - I was gobsmacked when Ross said that he hadn't a plan for some Swans players and they had surprised him when they dominated. Huh?

Of all coaches you wouldn't think Lyons would be the one to underestimate us - especially after three weeks ago when we would have flattened them if we'd kicked straight.

[liz]

I didn't really understand the point that Scott was trying to make with Goodes. The gist of it seemed to be that St Kilda don't like the opposition marking the ball in the forward 50 (does any club?) and they defend this by getting a third man up to the contest. This man is often Sam Fisher. But because on some occasions Reid was able to take contest marks where Fisher wasn't in the contest ( lets ignore the fact that Reid was beating more than one opponent in the air), Goodes' role is underrated because not only is he quite a good player but he was distracting Fisher.

Big "huh?" from me. Hasn't Scott just described the way most effective forward lines work, and why having more than one marking target is a good thing?

I actually thought the whole segment was a little patronising. Almost as if Scott had watched the Swans at the weekend with no belief they would win and came away thinking, "OK, maybe they do have a few good players after all". I realise Scott probably didn't instigate the segment, and as an opposition coach he probably knows the capabilities of our players pretty well, but I still thought it came across a bit oddly.

Mind you, on OTC on Monday, they showed a snippet from Lyon's post game press conference where he commented that the game was lost at match committee because they planned for Goodes, Mumford and Kennedy but not for other players (he listed a few of which I can only remember Hanners). The OTC discussion centered around whether this was Lyon deflecting responsibility away from him and onto the assistant coaches. I reckon that was a bit of a red herring. I was amazed that a coach would declare that, for a final against a decent team who had beaten his mob only a few weeks earlier, he/his assistants hadn't bothered planning for more than a few of the opposition players. Even if that was the case, would you confess to it after losing the game?

[Primmy]

What the heck. The whole team is underrated!

[Melbournehammer]

The reality is that any of our players could be described as underrated. Pre-season there were any number of people who simply had not recognized or remembered the swans performances from september 2010. The vast majority of people tipped us to finish behind teams like melbourne. I reckon that grundy, richards, spangher, etc could all have claims on that list. We are perceived to have a few stars and a lot of role-players but I actually think we actually have a vast number of players who could play at AFL standard but few stars. And in time most of them will be rated as AFL players. Maybe good ordinary players but what do they say about a champion team ?

[ugg]

So Teddy gets shafted again! Does that mean that Scott rates him or that Scott rates that the rest of the comp rates him?

[mcs]

It is hard to say Adam Goodes is underated if you ask me... the obvious no 5 on that list is Alex Johnson. Every Swans supporter knows how superb he has been for us this season, but not many other supporters even know who he is, let alone how good he has been. The guy is a first year player but he has fitted in like he's a 10 year veteran. Give him another good pre-season for next season and I have the feeling he is going to develop into a very classy defender indeed - a perfect find with the loss of Craig Bolton. In many ways, he looks to me like he could be a new Mach II Craig Bolton - does his job perfectly, works hard for the team, a classy defender, but when at his best you barely notice him. Just like Nick Smith - who if he played for a Melbourne club would have teams drooling over his ability to take players out of the game. His job on Milne on Saturday night went a long way towards winning us that game.

Lots of good press around for us this week - lets hope the boys read and hear none of it, concentrate on the game and come out Friday night and show the footy world our true potential!

[Bas]

Brad Scott went through the Swans list to find the 5 most underated players, who although may be rated highly within the Club but not so externally:

1. Nick Smith - his outstanding defensive role;

2. Benny McGlynn - his outstanding roles on Joel Selwood and Montagna;

3, Rhys Shaw - elevated to another level this year with his rebound;

4. Craig Bird - for his specific tagging role this year and they put up a list of players he has tagged and their disposals Cotchin, Fyfe, Judd, Murphy. Contrary to some on RWO.

5. Adam Goodes - Dunstall nearly fell over but Scott said that he is underated in terms of his affect on the game and the things he creates that you don't actually see. He said everone sees the goals.

Great observations from a rival coach.