Just a couple of points: Durdin has been way more ineffective than Fantasia. If Motlop was fit I'd guess neither would play. With Moo back this week, I'd chuck Cincotta in the guts and add him to the midfield rotation. Played midfield in his VFL days, has size, speed, grunt and is a good driving (ie low) kick.
Durdin had one more effective possession than all of us on the forum last game so the bar is low.....Orazio is a 100 game plus player who should be doing a lot better in a team with two dominant big forwards imo. He probably should have started in the twos when the season began and worked into some form but injuries to other players forced his inclusion so he ended up in the deep end and has spent most of the season drowning unfortunately. I think the ideal small forwards can take a turn in the midfield and a lot of the better ones do and I wonder if Orazio given some real minutes in the middle it might be a catalyst to get him going...
I think the massive offer to Hayward shows there is concern from the footy dept we are a bit Charlie/Harry centric and need other goal avenue alternatives, especially with Martin intermittent in appearances and JSOS injured long term. Premiership teams of recent years have had that variety and we lack that Fritsch, Heeney, O.Henry, Townsend, Dickson, J.Elliott marking type who can also be a threat at ground level and its compounded by our lack of a consistent small forward/s who can kick a bag of goals every now and then and also we lack the midfielders who can kick go forward and kick a bag too... Sydney have average input from Amartey, McDonald and Mclean but the variety with Papley, Hayward, Heeney and Warner seems to offset not having dominant bigs and probably helps even more in poor conditions when marking is more difficult.
We got beaten in the middle - they had two taggers basically - Rowbottom was on a tackling warpath and Jordan kept holding onto Walsh restricting him from hunting the ball. We didn't reciprocate with our own tagger(s) - Pitto had zero tackles and Grundy had a party on him. I understand we are trying to implement our own style but clubs have figured us out and taggers are now back in vogue.
I agree, Hewett is probably our main run with player and Kennedy can do the job as well as provide some drive but both Warner and Heeney have them for pace and once goalside with a break on our players they were not going to be caught. The player we miss in the middle like I said before is Cerra who has a bit more toe and a bit more class and would have been a better match for Warner in particular and would have required both those Swans mids to pay attention to rather than being fully offensive players. When we have Cripps, Walsh, Kennedy and Hewett in the middle we can look slow on the chase as a few news articles have suggested, I'd like to see E. Hollands spend a bit more time in the middle and maybe do what a few other teams do and throw the odd different player in there..
Saad is very good under pressure, usually finds a target and can alter his decision making and find alternative targets quickly on different angles. I think Boyd is a good kick but is better when he is in the clear and heading forward, for a VFL unknown player I have warmed to Boyd and think he is in our best 22/23 and happy to give Austin a tick for his recruiting.
For a team that has consistently lacked run and effort lately, i'm not sure why people feel the need to drop Ollie Hollands.
He gives 100%, 100% of the time. He is not the problem.
If we start dropping people based on output, how far down our team do we get before we get to Ollie Hollands.....and how far down are VFL team to do we get before we find a replacement. I'll save the effort. There is nothing better below. Ollie stays.
I agree there is nothing better to bring in, Ollie's attacking game is ok, Im probably more concerned about his defensive side and opponents getting off the leash but he is still a newbie with upside so that should improve. Id even be trying him as a small forward and seeing if he can give us something more than the present occupants of those positions.
I suspect we miss Saad more, we've shown we can still score our problem seems to be stopping opposition scores.
I think Boyd has a done a decent job in filling in for Saad and even Cincotta defensively but we miss that rebound and accurate kicking that Saad provides as it breaks up the play and those quick switches across ground often lead to thrusts forward where our big key forwards can be one out.
Fogarty's rebirth has been based on work ethic and doing the one percenters well, reminds me a lot of the role McCreery plays at Collingwood minus the pace factor. Pies dont care how many goals, kicks etc he gets but just want him chasing, tackling, causing turnovers and being part of the chain of score involvements.
Problem with all those players is not what they are doing which is minimal, its more what the opposition player is doing who plays on them. eg You stick Williams forward then the opposition coach is going to run his best rebounders off him, Flanders had 37 touches last week playing from half back and even running forward, if I'm Hardwick I know who I am sending to play on Williams this week....
We let Heeney and Warner have too much space and left unmanned and when your mids are not quick once the Swans players got goal side in the middle it was over. Cerra is an important out as he gives Cripps and Walsh a bit more cover being quicker and has more class than Kennedy and Hewett.When he comes back in we will look a lot better...
Agree...Id probably reward Cowan after he gave us lift in the VFL when moved into the middle, problem with Williams is where do you play him and finding a soft opponent who wont hurt you too much if he gets off the leash.
Be handy if we could get Motlop and Saad back this week. In Saad Motlop Cowan Binns Wilson Out Williams Durdin Fantasia Marchbank O Hollands Chuck Binns on Ollie's wing, Wilson the sub Obviously if Weiters doesnt get up, bring Young in for him. Those ins could not possibly do any worse than what those I would drop dished up.
Think Voss said he expects Motlop and Saad back this week, normally I would want Motlop to have a game in the VFL but given the stakes are getting a bit higher Id play both of them first up from a spell.
It's not about the loss it's about how we rebound after it. Every side has crap losses. Sydney's one loss was to Richmond.
If we beat both Port and Essendon we are are back on track, lose one or both and we are going to play catchup with the top 4 imho. I expect to beat Gold Coast comfortably....
I didn't see anyone getting too worked up about the USA marching into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Those are the "good guys" invading. In war there are no good guys. Only victims.
There's the good old brand of freedom being dished out by the USA that no one cares about. Until they do. Ukraine or Russia makes no difference. There is no what next. There is no slippery slope. All there is is the next war for the next Territory or resource which will continue for eternity whilst people walk the earth.
Ukraine should have minimal impact by regime change in the states and has nothing to do with the price of fish because that war or proxy war lives and dies by NATO. The end.
re: Saddam,The supposed good guys were looking after their Oil, the USA only get involved where there is a dollar to be made or saved. As Prof suggested Ukraine might be in trouble if Trump gets in and Id be worried if I was living in Taiwan too...
