Very disturbed to see Rohan's numbers from the last two GF's. I know he doesn't get a lot of the ball, but 5 & 7 touches
is terrible. 12 touches in two games, he may as well not been there. We all love the guy, and I'm sure he'll get picked if we make it,
but maybe someone needs to have a little word with him beforehand. Something along the lines of.... nothing short of cardiac
arrest from repeated efforts to get to the ball will be accepted.
Hayden Kennedy is employed by the AFL and must toe the line. His comment about the Mills / Betts incident was the umpire should have made the call to play on earlier than he did. I though Mills had played on but the umpire had not called it when Betts made the tackle - hence the 50 m penalty. In general, Kennedy only comments on the frees that were paid. The issue that we all have is the lack of frees given to the Swans. Of course he wouldn't comment on these as it would be an open admission of bias. He'd be out the door in about 5 minutes if he did this.Originally Posted by crackedactor
Don't expect him to talk about lack of frees, but if you are going to mention controversial incidents , why not mention it from both sides? Why Jenkins was allow to drop be tackled and drop the ball (about 3 times) and why Lloyd was pushed in the back in the 3rd quarter and free kick and resulting goal was paid to Cameron. I just don't understand any of these decisions, and would not mind an explanation at least.
I agree with the one ruck idea.
Neither Sinclair or Tippo are good rucks or match winning forwards - they are average at both and go missing in big games.
Bring AA in - not only can he ruck but he can be move to defense and has now played up forward with the reserves.
Hyphen (Lewis Roberts-Thomson) used to be our swing guy, but having two in a side would be brilliant.
Also AA is very hard to match up on; fast, tall and strong - Hayward is just going to melt come finals.
doof-doof
It seems the AFL/Hayden Kennedy only want to talk about the 'controversial' frees that the (Vic bias) media highlight.....of course they are not going to make a song and dance about free's that weren't paid to the Swans.....that would not be towing the official (Vic bias) AFL line! Only Brereton made a general comment about the umpiring ("Swans got reamed by the rough end of the pineapple") but he didn't raise specific examples for AFL scrutiny, unlike the rest of the media who squealed about Mills 50m penalty and Buddy's long run to goal and completely ignored the events which lead to such a lopsided free kick count, as if this had nothing to do with Adelaide getting so close to winning.
The bloke sitting behind me at last year's GF went into cardiac arrest and he didn't go for the ball once
What should happen:
IN: Naismith - clearly our best ruckman. Newman - We need him playing off the half back line.
OUT: Sinkers - toss of the coin between him and Tippett's ceiling is much higher so give him another week to help him find his best form. Towers - had a few good games but ordinary since then. He will crumble under the pressure of finals footy.
What will probably happen:
IN: Naismith, Newman.
OUT: Sinkers, Hayward.
A difficult decision made more difficult because the two have a bye this week. I suppose whomever misses out could play the NEAFL the following week but then they won't be as fresh for the first final.
I think Rohan's numbers as given above need to be seen in the light of:
1. He seemed at times to still be coming to terms with his injury from a season or two back.
2. He was getting moved around all over the park and not to have a sense of where he belonged.
3. Since playing as a forward on a regular basis he has kicked goals and generally frightened the life out of various defenders.
He is now where he belongs and I wouldn't dream of dropping him.
He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball)
I've regained my composure now and can provide some additional analysis to Scottee's original post.
Our match committee seemed to have recommitted to the failed 2 ruckman policy, or at least giving the forward �dream� trio of Buddy, Tippo and Reid another life. Although Naismith is our best pure ruckman, he hasn�t been anything special this year. He holds up well in the ruck contests, but doesn�t add much around the ground and hasn�t kicked a goal in his 13 games this year.
Tippett offers the best general option of having an adequate ruckman who can go forward and kick a goal. This type of ruckman (Ryder, McEvoy, Kreuzer, Gawn) seems the way to go in 2017. I don�t think Tippett offers enough to play mainly as a key forward, especially with a plethora of other targets, like Buddy, Reid and Rohan. How much more value is added by having Tippett in our forward line? Or is he just clogging up space for others to lead into. As a ruckman drifting forward, he has good value.
An article on the Swans website is talking up the 2 ruckman policy as a benefit in case the primary ruckman gets injured during the game. Making a selection in the expectation of a player injury is laughable. Why not play and extra tall defender in case one of our defenders gets injured? It seems to be playing to our weaknesses rather than our strengths. We are weak in the ruck, so let�s play 2 of them, as if 2 Jesse Whites make 1 Buddy Franklin.
It seems that little was learned from the Adelaide game. We had to limit ourselves to playing one ruckman in the 4th quarter because it was evident that we couldn�t afford to carry both on the ground at the same time. That extra ruckman was taking the place of a much needed key defender. Tom Lynch ran amok, got 24 possession, 7 marks and kicked a goal, which Mitch McGovern was too good for Melican and kicked 4 goals. But we could do nothing about this, because we had no options. Rampe and Grundy were already tied up covering Walker and Jenkins. Adelaide, on the other hand, were able to switch Keith off Franklin after he kicked 2 goals on him, because they had Talia, Lever and Jake Kelly to fall back on. Talia held Buddy to his one miracle goal for the rest of the game.
If we go deep into finals we are likely to come up against both Adelaide and GWS, both teams with tall forward lines. We have repeatedly been caught out in these mismatches, our only solution is to limit the effectiveness of our forward line in the last 3 minutes of quarters by playing Reid in defence.
If we want to play both Naismith and Tippett, we have to resign ourselves to moving Reid into defence. He will effectively be a wingman playing against the likes of Tom Lynch and Rory Lobb. It�s not the worst option, but I believe we would get more value playing one ruckman, keeping Reid in the forward line and bringing Aliir in to bolster the defence and be that player that usually pairs up on the opposition tall wingman. It also gives us the option to have a plan B in case a problem arises where a designated defender is having a bad day with his matchup. He can also provide ruck relief and the option of switching with Reid if thinks aren�t going well; just to give the team a different look.
Dean Towers has improved this year, but he still falls over when the going gets tough. He is skillful and athletic, so he will makes some good plays in most games. But there were many times when we needed him to lay a tackle or at least help putting physical pressure in a contested situation where he let us down. Nic Newman is the kind of player we need for the finals and should replace Towers.
We all love Will Hayward and I don�t think there would be an issue if this were 2018, but he is simply not physically developed enough to handle finals football this year. Otherwise, he�s a great addition to the team. If Cunningham is fully fit and ready to resume where he left off before he got injured, he would be the logical replacement, but he hasn�t quite shown that level in the NEAFL so far, although he hasn�t been bad. I would lean slightly to giving Dawson a go, just to see if he can produce something close to his NEAFL form at AFL level. He probably would have been the NEAFL MVP this year had he played the same number of games as the winner. If it doesn�t work, Harry will have another reserves game next week and we can take it from there. Rose also deserves consideration, given his recent form.
I don't know what his GF stats are, but I'm pretty sure you could add Tippo to your list.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect... MT
It's a fairly long road to a Granny just now.
Tippet ok in 2014, 16 possessions.
Poor in 2016, 10 possessions.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks