Ronke was much quieter when Papley came back into the side, perhaps this was just coincidental. I was very much looking forward to see them both playing together but it didn't play out as expected (granted they were maybe only given 1 game together before Ben was dropped).Originally Posted by Ludwig
I love what Amartey brings, he's in very good touch but I'm hoping that Ladhams/Hickey can spend some solid game time together to see how they can combine.
My point was that they were picked purely for their defensive work. I think we should assess Wicks and Bell in the same way and not question how many goals they kick
Mark, even if as you say they were picked for their defensive work, nevertheless they contributed significantly on the scoreboard. Wicks did that in the early games last year but then he lost his kicking boots and gave away too many frees to be an effective pressure forward. Bell just made up the numbers, unfortunately, in most of his games.
So, while I acknowledge that forward pressure can be very helpful to our other forwards, my take is that these two don’t show it effectively and often enough. But I hope I’m wrong!
If you accept that a defensive forward is picked or dropped based on his defensive work, then it’s illogical to argue about how many goals they kicked.
I think Wicks performs in that role. Not convinced about Bell.
Assuming that we class Rioli as the best of the three Richmond players offered up and Sam is our best option let’s look at the stats and see how they compare at the same age for Rioli this was 2020
Wicks vs Rioli same age
It certainly gave me more appreciation of how well Sam is tracking and if he continues his progression and matches Rioli performance in the years to come most of us should be happy.
Rowbottom appeal unsuccessful: Fox Footy on Twitter: "BREAKING
Sydney has lost at the AFL Tribunal.
MORE: https://t.co/dRUeEVrUEC… "
So it's simply Campbell in for Rowbottom, then shuffle the deckchairs a bit.
Its not a like for like swap so we would have to move someone else into the midfield as Campbell is not playing in the guts at present. I think a like for like swap would be:
In Clarke
Out Rowbottom
Clarke is no star but he can play a tagging role and has plenty of grunt around the contest which is what we really need to match Carlton in the contest.
Cripps, Hewitt and Walsh are a formidable starting midfield for us to counter. Hopefully, we can nullify them on the night. Cripps is the one that most worries me as he is in rare form and can be a match winner if we give him too much room.
Last edited by Aprilbr; 18th May 2022 at 02:37 AM.
Shame to see Jimmy Rowbottom rubbed out. It was worth a challenge but i can't begrudge the ruling. The head must be protected in footy! More of a shame is that it is now on his record - if I had to guess any Swans player who would end up suspended this year he might've been one of my last guesses!!
What we will miss is his ferocious tackling.. he had two desperate tackles that caused a Bomber player in the corridor (!!) to end up spraying their kick out on the full last week.. only monster tackles could throw a footy player that much off balance that their ball travels 40-50m in the wrong direction!! I know he fell 2 touches short of the disposal count that seems to have become someone's measuring stick around here!! But those 2 tackles that won US possession of the ball surely made up for it!!
A friend of mine made an interesting point last week. Rowie's incident was in the 2nd quarter.. we had to know he'd be in trouble.. we were up by over 50 points mid way through the 3rd.. should we have rested Joey for the remainder of that match, with an eye to the Blues game ?? I am thinking that his strength and size may make him the perfect candidate to help the tackling machine Millsy take down the Blues big bodied mids .. Cripps, Hewett, Kennedy.. but if Joey isn't in peak condition, at his age, even he might not be up to it .. food for thought??
CHEER CHEER
I very much agree with bloodspigit, congratulations to the Great Dane on his 200th game.
An absolutely wonderful player and character, I'd certainly put him into the same defensive class as Dennis Carrol and Mark Bayes.
He's also always been a bit different, which I've generally enjoyed. I wasn't sure about the Alice band he began his career with or his goalpost climbing, and tripping over a chain fence outside the SCG was just weired. But he has always played the game in a thoroughly sportsmanlike manner, I remember him checking on a tiger opponent who he'd accidentally concussed on one occasion, and my wife was much enamoured with his actions when he was about to collide with goal umpire Chelsea Roffey - says it was "very Errol Flynn of him" view
Loose translation from the Latin is - I am tall, so I hit out.
Doesn’t have to be like for like. Could move McInerney or Florent from defence to midfield again
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