Rnd 20, vs GWS at the SCG, on Saturday 30 July, 2:10 PM

[Velour&Ruffles]

To further cement his place in history as a great coach I would have thought taking North and making them relevant again would be the challenge that would confirm his legend status.
It makes sense emotionally and would be a great story if he could do so.
Love him or loath him ( as most of us Swans supporters do ) he has a cracking record and it’s not surprising after 15 or so years he moved on from the Mustard and Turd.

The only win he had that suggested he was anything special as a coach was the 2008 flag. After that, he had one of the best squads in the last few decades at his disposal. Basically anyone half-competent in the coaching arts could have coached them to sustained success. He moved on because for his last 5 years he'd been an erratic, aggressive bully who had alienated a lot of support staff and failed to bring on his young players. So not much of a COACH, maybe a good strategist when he had fully developed resources already provided to him.

[Thunder Shaker]

Leek Aleer is also debuting against us in the ruck.

Edit - he is listed as a key defender

The same weekend as Mac Andrew's debut for Gold Coast. It's good to see diversity in the AFL.

I watched the video of Aleer getting the news of his debut. Good to see news of a debut is not low-key.

[Maltopia]

If I were him I would prefer to have the GWS squad even though they are likely to lose some players this off-season due to Cap issues. Still a lot of talent there including young players. Having said that, the jungle drums are beating heavily for him to go to North down here in Melbourne. He is firm favourite with the betting agencies for them.

GWS in my view has had a chronic problem of overpaying it’s players to try and keep them. “Go home” is a factor of course. After all their concessions (extra squad size in the early years, higher salary cap in the early years and all the extra picks), they had too many good players so they keep losing them as not enough playing time and then not enough salary with the extra pressure of their salary cap came coming back to normal. The last part is an indictment - that they didn’t plan better for when they would have to bring their salary spend on players back down to the rest of the league.

They can’t bring in elite players when they lose their players as they have no salary left, so they keep getting more round 1 and round 2 draft picks and then the cycle repeats itself over and over.

To their credit, they appear to have drafted very well and developed those early picks. But they really should have appeared in more finals with the talent they had, so they wasted their opportunities.

[Faunac8]

If I were him I would prefer to have the GWS squad even though they are likely to lose some players this off-season due to Cap issues. Still a lot of talent there including young players. Having said that, the jungle drums are beating heavily for him to go to North down here in Melbourne. He is firm favourite with the betting agencies for them.

To further cement his place in history as a great coach I would have thought taking North and making them relevant again would be the challenge that would confirm his legend status.
It makes sense emotionally and would be a great story if he could do so.
Love him or loath him ( as most of us Swans supporters do ) he has a cracking record and it’s not surprising after 15 or so years he moved on from the Mustard and Turd.

[Aprilbr]

Alistair Clarkson watching this game with interest. Who would you take on, LOLNorf? or GWS who have a very good side on paper?

Danger game!

If I were him I would prefer to have the GWS squad even though they are likely to lose some players this off-season due to Cap issues. Still a lot of talent there including young players. Having said that, the jungle drums are beating heavily for him to go to North down here in Melbourne. He is firm favourite with the betting agencies for them.

[Faunac8]

Anyone who thinks James is being dropped is either not watching games closely or has an inherent bias .
Hard to argue that the Chad has become probably our best player under 25 but James would be one of the first picked each week based on what he delivers for the team on the field.
Based on that I don’t know where we play JPK and lord knows I want him in.

I couldn’t find the existing thread for James but thought this warranted viewing and shows why he is such an important player for us.
Mods please move to the appropriate location if required

https://twitter.com/FansRowbottom/status/1552780077225877504?s=20&t=R0xLHt7dov6EFAG0BYmOsQ

[Agent 86]

Important we don’t let them get a jump on us like last time. We’ve been finishing games off pretty well lately - whilst GWS have tended to fall away after being competitive (against good teams) in the first half.

[707]

Alistair Clarkson watching this game with interest. Who would you take on, LOLNorf? or GWS who have a very good side on paper?

Danger game!

[Maltopia]

Leek Aleer is also debuting against us in the ruck.

Edit - he is listed as a key defender

[jono2707]

Clarke to do another job, this time on Whitfield, who normally goes to water when given a decent tag.

[MattW]

How's the ins for GWS - H.Perryman, J.Kelly, L.Whitfield, J.Hogan, T.Green!

Yes, hmmmmm.

[SwanSand]

How's the ins for GWS - H.Perryman, J.Kelly, L.Whitfield, J.Hogan, T.Green!

If they have set themselves for the fight I am sure our players are also thinking the same. They took us down last year in the finals and this is the game we run over them and stamp our authority.

[Meg]

They've set themselves for this game. Danger!

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Mark McVeigh determined to best his kid brother??

[H2F]

They've set themselves for this game. Danger!

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They rested players last week to get up for this game they exist to derail our season need to be on our A game for this.

Get through this and i reckon we will have a strong finish to the season.

[Ludwig]

We might be able to see the value of continuity vs. discontinuity in side selection in this game. No doubt, GWS have a strong side on paper, but how will they gel on the ground? There are many other factors at play here, especially regarding GWS, that are difficult to measure. One team has nothing to lose and the other has everything to win. Who gets the advantage?

I will be surprised if Joey is not the sub, which always seemed in the cards.