Reading about GWS' Zac Williams torn Achilles tendon at training illustrates just how precarious the pre-season can be in shaping the run for a premiership. The loss of Wilson to Freo was mitigated by having Williams on the list, who played a similar role and was equally as good with his run off halfback.
The first month or so of our fixture is tough and we need to have a good run of luck on the injury front leading up the the start of the season. We don't want a repeat of last year.
I would argue that Zac Williams is even more valuable that Wilson because his delivery and run are so devastating. He just cuts teams apart and unlike a player like Johanison he just can't be intimidated. He is also very good defensively. It is not their backline that stops them from being a premiership side it is the lack of two way running of their mids and forwards. He can play so many roles too, back, mid, outside mid. Without that run they are going to have to try switching another mid back there or playing a raw player.
Yep
They will need to adjust gws
But back to us.......we don�t want to play them fully fit in a finals game if we don�t have too unless they are missing key players asnoer above
I will be interested to see how Heath Shaw manages in this up coming season without either of Williams and Wilson at GWS.
It makes me think of us with McVeigh operating down back without a Lloyd to run, receive and deliver.
In a weak moment in between podcasts, I listened to SEN this morning while they were commenting about GWS. Apparently, Wilson was number 1 in the AFL last year for metres gained, so when he went west it was quite a loss. However, Williams was listed as number 3 in the AFL for combination of tackles, metres gained, pressure acts, etc. The only two players ahead of him were Dustin Martin and Dangerfield. This would seem to be quite a loss for GWS for this year.
And Heath Shaw is getting no younger - and as finger-pointy as our Mr McVeigh
Figures re Wilson and Williams re metres gained were relative to the style u are allowed to play.
My gut feeling is that either player if at the Swans would not have been top 10 in metres gained due to our style of football being less runand carry fromthe backline
But the point not missed
These two enabled gws to be effective with their preferred runand carry backline transitions
I think it comes more down to playing personnel than coaching staff. Clearly the club has recruited to fill a gap, but it's a gap they've been trying to fill for a while and no-one has yet put their hand up and made it their own. COR is one who could offer some run and dash, as might Murray, had he stayed. And Ling and Stoddart are the latest two added to the roster. But they're all completely untried at the moment.
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