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AFLW 2024 - Round 6 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Because I live a sad and lonely life.
I'm not asking for Ladhams to become an elite mid at all, but it's not a lot to ask for more 2nd efforts and perhaps a bit more smarts. His brain fades suggest there isn't much happening between the ears and that's going to limit his potential. He's not Blicavs but he could be formidable in his own way. The rucks you mention have learned to add more to their arsenal. Rowbottom came into our midfield under-sized and hardly rated, yet he's a classic example of the size of the fight in the dog being more important than the size of the dog in the fight. He made up for lack of size and skill by sheer will power. He went harder, he got better, he learned from others. Reid has found ways to reinvent himself, to add to his armoury. There are lots of areas Ladhams could work on but just turning up for training isn't enough.You're pretty much asking Ladhams to be an elite mid & ruck. That's not going to happen. Blicavs is the best at what you describe & he's a freak of nature. I think people need to temper their expectations with Ladhams considering it's only his 2nd season with us, that also with a proper ruck coach. Sam Reid is a close comparison to Blicavs with the things you've mentioned. Sam Reid is a different player to Ladhams, it's unfair to expect either player to play like each other. Reid has made plenty of mistakes during his career too. He's let players mark against him, he's let players break through tackles etc. Reid isn't perfect & neither is Ladhams.
Ladhams went at nearly 80% disposal efficiency, previous week v tigers he led the clearances & was one of our top contested possession getter. He's showing different attributes, it's inconsistent but it's improving.
Swans fans expectations about Ladhams are unrealistic & it's an unfair expectation on him. He's not Blicavs, he's not Gawn, he's not Tim English nor Sean Darcy. It's fine to expect him to improve but the outcry over his performances have been over the top.
It's easy to blame Ladhams when the real issue has been our poor contested ball numbers & pressure. That's on the midfield & team as a whole. I would love to see Ladhams improve on his contested ball work but I know right now it's going to be inconsistent, similar to our young mids.
I disagree with your disagreement. Hickey with Reid as backup would be needed for our full strength midfield, plus we needed Mills, who was tied up baby-sitting a gorilla. We ended up with a half-gamer newbie minding the gorilla. We didn't have the tools to stop Dangerfield in full flight, nigh impossible to stop, and he was sharking any taps we won. He's torn us so many new a-holes we had a selection of orifices to shit out of, and shit we did.I disagree
Midfield was at full strength
Some excuses I understand but a drubbing and not to even kick a goal after half time is not afl standard
We are a joke
Buddy did something very similar early in the season, player dropped as Buddy went to bump shoulder to shoulder, copping his head instead. It cost him a week and the instant hostility of the Victorian media. Consistency would be good. Giving excuses for deliberate bumps to the head should never happen. If that had been Paddy McCartin instead of Stephens, that would've cost him his career and a one-way ticket back to the black depths of depression. It would also have cost Tom McCartin an 8-10 week ban for throwing retalitory punches at Duncan's faceNot go for it? have a duty of care, I dunno
Buddy did something very similar early in the season, player dropped as Buddy went to bump shoulder to shoulder, copping his head instead. It cost him a week and the instant hostility of the Victorian media. Consistency would be good. Giving excuses for deliberate bumps to the head should never happen. If that had been Paddy McCartin instead of Stephens, that would've cost him his career and a one-way ticket back to the black depths of depression. It would also have cost Tom McCartin an 8-10 week ban for throwing retalitory punches at Duncan's face
All bodies matterBig bodies matter,
And here we are, in the finals, on a winning streak -
Makes it fun to look back at the truly dark times.