Changes for Round 17 v GWS

[Blood Fever]

Fair call Ludwig. The exciting thing is that we have a number of excellent young players.

[Ludwig]

Think you are a little bit tough on Florent. Obviously struggling a bit the last 2 weeks and should go out this week but has produced flashes of class with ball in hand including goal assists and a crucial goal against Essendon. Also his pressuring is very good for a young player. Is struggling physically a bit at the moment as a young player but I feel he has shown enough for me to think he will be a gun.

I think it's been a great experience for Florent to have played so many senior games in his first year and will go a long way to making him a better player. I am not being critical of his play. It was toss up for me whether he would be better than Jai Simpkin, who went to NM, but having seen both play, I think we did very well with Florent. I just feel that given we are in much better shape on the injury front, we can bring in more physically mature players for the run home.

I can't imagine Hayward coming into the side after not playing 2 weeks. That aside, he's probably shown more than Florent, but I would still go with any of Aliir, Marsh, Laidler or Cunningham (when fit).

[Beerman]

Agree re Newman, Ludwig. Think you are a little bit tough on Florent. Obviously struggling a bit the last 2 weeks and should go out this week but has produced flashes of class with ball in hand including goal assists and a crucial goal against Essendon. Also his pressuring is very good for a young player. Is struggling physically a bit at the moment as a young player but I feel he has shown enough for me to think he will be a gun.

Just to summarise this thread so far. There is a debate about whether Florent will be gun or just bloody good, and lots of discussion about whether Newman has just made a few missed kicks vs. being slightly off his early-season performance.

Pretty indicative of where the Swans are at in my book...not doing too badly!

[The Big Cat]

Pity that Membrey will be our for our game. Usually contributes zilch against us (or any other decent team when the heat is on).

[Blood Fever]

I don't understand the criticism of Nic Newman. Even with the few kicking errors he made last game, he was still much better than Hannebery. But I understand that Hanners was playing with a corked thigh and is a star of the team. Newman's defensive work has not dropped whatsoever during this stretch of 8 consecutive games he's played. The previous game v Melbourne he had 25 disposals, 8 marks and 5 tackles and was one our better players. In the Essendon game, he kicked 2 critical goals that helped get us over the line. So what is the criticism about, other than a few miskicks that every player makes from time to time?

I'm very pleased that we selected Ollie Florent in the draft and he shows all the signs that he will have a very good career. But except for a few moments of good play in each game, he hasn't produced all that much this year and looks very much a rookie player getting adjusted to AFL footy. Even if Aliir is not chosen this week, there are still several other players, including Marsh and Laidler, who would contribute more than Florent has. We are heading into a very tough part of fixture and we have to be playing our best players for here on.

Agree re Newman, Ludwig. Think you are a little bit tough on Florent. Obviously struggling a bit the last 2 weeks and should go out this week but has produced flashes of class with ball in hand including goal assists and a crucial goal against Essendon. Also his pressuring is very good for a young player. Is struggling physically a bit at the moment as a young player but I feel he has shown enough for me to think he will be a gun.