Round 8 pre-match thread - v Suns 1:45 PM Saturday @ SCG

[Aprilbr]

TB, you have some wonderful insider knowledge. You mentioned J-Mac’s new contract before the press release went out and you knew that Goodes was mentoring Bell.

I’m starting to believe that you are possibly a former Swans / South Melbourne player or that you have a relative working at the Swans.

I doubt through that you’ll give anything away.

I find your idolisation of The Bloods to be excruciating, BS. I doubt that I'm the only one. So can you point me to which exact post by TB provided inside knowledge of the J-Mac's deal before it became knowledge? I suspect he just said that J-Mac loves the Club and is going nowhere. This is quite frankly, something that any of us could have said beforehand based on his interviews.

All of us get things right and wrong - TB is no better or worse than the rest of us. This time last season TB was calling for Blakey to be dropped and traded at the end of the season. He was wrong. I never thought McVeigh would make it after his first two seasons. How wrong was I? We all make predictions as avid supporters. Sometimes we are correct, and often we are wrong. There is no poster on here that is immune from wrong calls - so please stop putting one person on a pedestal as being more knowledgeable than the rest of us.

[The Big Cat]

Interesting that Harry is out but there is no inclusion of a small to mid-sized player to replace him. This suggests to me that a player like Ollie or Campbell will play in defense to take a small forward and Joey will be medical sub again.

Joey is in the team.

[Aprilbr]

No real surprises at the selection table I guess now the conjecture will be over who will be the medisub. Didn’t Sam get selected in that role previously?

Interesting that Harry is out but there is no inclusion of a small to mid-sized player to replace him. This suggests to me that a player like Ollie or Campbell will play in defense to take a small forward and Joey will be medical sub again.

[Faunac8]

No real surprises at the selection table I guess now the conjecture will be over who will be the medisub. Didn’t Sam get selected in that role previously?

[Mark26]

It's good to see Gould and Clarke named as emergencies. Hopefully Gould gets a chance to debut soon. Clarke's been racking up the numbers (and while I'm not a huge fan of his disposal) he deserves to be in contention. Let's hope our boys are fired up after losing to Brisbane last week. I want to see four quarters of intensity.

[Faunac8]

TB, you have some wonderful insider knowledge. You mentioned J-Mac’s new contract before the press release went out and you knew that Goodes was mentoring Bell.

I’m starting to believe that you are possibly a former Swans / South Melbourne player or that you have a relative working at the Swans.

I doubt through that you’ll give anything away.

I would think an ex player would be a bit more supportive of current players.
They would probably not suffer from blind allegiance and refuse to be critical in any way but they definitely wouldn’t be so relentlessly focused on bagging a player unless they maybe had an agenda.

[SwanSand]

Thanks for your concern, but no need to worry about me. I don't need salvation. I'm not the one who has invested my identity in predictions about players. I have my playful Ludwig's Future Stars, but it doesn't bother me if I make a wrong call, like I did with Abe Davis. Now it's just a lingering joke. I know how to move on.

It's sad that you believe it really matters to me and most RWOers if we are hopeful about a player who might not come through in the end. We feel bad for the Swans, because we are all hoping for team success. We want every draft pick to be a star, be we are realistic in the knowledge that most recruits don't quite make the grade.

Well said Ludwig ! This man is full of himself and absolute disgrace at the persistent shameful attack on a young player who is doing what the coaches are asking him to do. Otherwise RB would have been out by now.

The whole RWO site is being hijacked by this man and his ego and I think this site is just going to be ruined forever by the persistent nature of this attack.

[707]

Bit surprised McLean preferred to Sammy. Is it due to youth over age? Neither were very effective last week so it may have come down to that.

McLean kicks for goal a lot straighter!

[Ludwig]

Rory Thomson is playing his first game in 4 years. He was a very good key defender way back when, but I can't imagine that he will be anything close to AFL speed. (Watch me get fooled on this one ). This should be something we can exploit. All of our tall forwards should be able to run him ragged.

[Roadrunner]

In Logan, Paddy
Out Sam, Harry, James B

Bit surprised McLean preferred to Sammy. Is it due to youth over age? Neither were very effective last week so it may have come down to that.

[707]

Emergencies : James Bell, Will Gould, Ryan Clarke, Sam Reid

Doubt they would start Gould as Medi Sub given he is yet to debut and they won't use a tall in Reid so Bell or Clarke as Medi Sub. I've seen enough of Bell at present so make it Clarke

[i'm-uninformed2]

I never said it matters to you , just that you will be disappointed in the future. But fair dinkum none of it matters in the big picture . Players come and go , the club is always there and think we all just want to find the 22 swans who will get us the flag .

I was disappointed for Zac Foot. I was disappointed for Jake Maibaum. I was disappointed for Ryley Stoddart. I am disappointed for every player on our list who wants us to succeed but doesn’t make it.

If James Rowbottom is no longer best 22, I’ll be disappointed in that too - but mainly for him. Right now, I’m just disappointed this goes on and on and on, particularly when the coaches clearly think otherwise. Hell, he had an average game last week. If the coaches had lost faith, they had every reason to drop him. But they didn’t. So I hope he succeeds and helps us succeed.

[i'm-uninformed2]

A couple of thoughts on our backline. I would agree with a few posts that Ramps and Lloyd don't seem to be playing at their best at the moment. They are doing okay but we are accustomed to seeing them as the solid rocks or glue or whatever. Dawson is gone and players like Fox and even Melican and before that Mills have been part of their set up. Now it is Blakey, Campbell and PMac, not forgetting TMac, which creates quite a different dynamic. Adapting to each other's strengths is a work in progress and could explain some of the unfilled 'holes' and two or three going for the same ball as well as the cramping of Ramp's and Lloyd's usual 'space'?

This is a very good observation.

As for the idea of resting players, I’ll come at it from a slightly different perspective than Bangalore. I’ll be interested to see when we do manage players at both ends of the age spectrum. By playing him two weeks in a row, we arguably rested JPK - even allowing for doubts about his place these days.

I’ll be more curious how we approach the younger guys. Last year, you could see Gulden, Campbell and Chad tiring a bit before they blew up and were out for good stints. Logan wasn’t even playing twos for a short stretch whilst they got strength work into him. I get they’re hardened by another off season and all tracking beautifully right now, but wouldn’t be surprised if it happens at some point.

[The Big Cat]

In Logan, Paddy
Out Sam, Harry, James B

[giant]

I’m surprised that there is no support for my idea for Rampe to have a managed week off. He is horribly out of touch and something needs to be done to assist him in finding form.

We're all waiting for TB to suggest it, then we'll jump on board.