Full Forward - Best vs Would U Swap For Anyone Else

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What's his one trick?

Hanging a premiership medallion around his neck perhaps??

Sorry, you knew some West Coast supporter would say something like this :)
Nah, premierships are for gloating about. Good luck to you. No problems there.
Just think he's very much a Scott cummings type in that he could totally disappear off the radar in 2007. Don't get me wrong, I admire the improvement he has brought to his game. I just don't rate him as being a particularly good player. Good player in a terrific side. Would be ordinary in our team and that was the gist of the thread – who would I want in my team.
 

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Nah, premierships are for gloating about. Good luck to you. No problems there.
Just think he's very much a Scott cummings type in that he could totally disappear off the radar in 2007. Don't get me wrong, I admire the improvement he has brought to his game. I just don't rate him as being a particularly good player. Good player in a terrific side. Would be ordinary in our team and that was the gist of the thread – who would I want in my team.

Your last comment was basically what inspired the thread. Seen a couple of comments on here lately debating Lynch's worth and suggesting 'anyone' could have kicked 65 goals with WCE midfield supplying him. Got me thinking who could do better.

Guess there are many ways to look at this....

Point: Lynch is over rated, any FF would kick 65 gals in that team.

If defending Lynch I would counter by throwing up say A. McDougall...the Eagles tried him in the same side and without checking I would guess he averaged less than a goal a game. This is the AFL, the WCE may supply a lot of ball forward, byt if you play at FF you still have to beat Scarlett, Rutten, Michael etc to get a kick.

Point: Fevola winning the Coleman in a bottom team is a true good effort compared to Lynch getting fed by a premier midfield.

Counter: Acknolwedge Fevola had a wonderful season. Brilliant. Is it neceassarily 'harder' to kick goals a low team? Would argue that he probably is the target more often than say Lynch in a team that is renowned for having midfielders who love to run forward and kick goals. Lynch spends a fair bit of time watching goals on the run sailing over his head. Unfortunately, whilst the Eagles are magnificent at kicking goals on the run, one of their weaknesses (I think a by product of years playing without a spearhead) is kicking the ball into the forward line on top of a leading forward's head. Whilst Gardiner was awful in the 05 GF, the number of times the ball was kicked on or over his head was amazing.

Someone had some really good stats on who is used as the insdie 50 target most often by various teams. Now, I'm not saying Lynch is better than Fevola with these coments, let's be very clear. I think Fevola is a superior player to Lynch, just not automatically because Fevola had it 'harder'.

What I am saying is it's not necessarily a given that you should be able to kick more goals in a good side. Look at Dunstall and Lockett, one made a career out of kicking lots of goals in a winning side, the other played in predominately losing sides. Who was better? Lockett playing a lone hand in some awful St Kilda teams, or Dunstall competing with Brereton, Buckenara, Mathews etc etc for the ball to be delivered to him?
 
When McDougall was playing full forward he averaged slightly better than a goal a game. Over his career at West Coast he played 38 games and kicked 48 goals (including the single game and goal that he had last season).
 
Nah, premierships are for gloating about. Good luck to you. No problems there.
Just think he's very much a Scott cummings type in that he could totally disappear off the radar in 2007. Don't get me wrong, I admire the improvement he has brought to his game. I just don't rate him as being a particularly good player. Good player in a terrific side. Would be ordinary in our team and that was the gist of the thread – who would I want in my team.


Couldn't agree more.
 
Your last comment was basically what inspired the thread. Seen a couple of comments on here lately debating Lynch's worth and suggesting 'anyone' could have kicked 65 goals with WCE midfield supplying him. Got me thinking who could do better.

Guess there are many ways to look at this....

Point: Lynch is over rated, any FF would kick 65 gals in that team.

If defending Lynch I would counter by throwing up say A. McDougall...the Eagles tried him in the same side and without checking I would guess he averaged less than a goal a game. This is the AFL, the WCE may supply a lot of ball forward, byt if you play at FF you still have to beat Scarlett, Rutten, Michael etc to get a kick.

Point: Fevola winning the Coleman in a bottom team is a true good effort compared to Lynch getting fed by a premier midfield.

Counter: Acknolwedge Fevola had a wonderful season. Brilliant. Is it neceassarily 'harder' to kick goals a low team? Would argue that he probably is the target more often than say Lynch in a team that is renowned for having midfielders who love to run forward and kick goals. Lynch spends a fair bit of time watching goals on the run sailing over his head. Unfortunately, whilst the Eagles are magnificent at kicking goals on the run, one of their weaknesses (I think a by product of years playing without a spearhead) is kicking the ball into the forward line on top of a leading forward's head. Whilst Gardiner was awful in the 05 GF, the number of times the ball was kicked on or over his head was amazing.

Someone had some really good stats on who is used as the insdie 50 target most often by various teams. Now, I'm not saying Lynch is better than Fevola with these coments, let's be very clear. I think Fevola is a superior player to Lynch, just not automatically because Fevola had it 'harder'.

What I am saying is it's not necessarily a given that you should be able to kick more goals in a good side. Look at Dunstall and Lockett, one made a career out of kicking lots of goals in a winning side, the other played in predominately losing sides. Who was better? Lockett playing a lone hand in some awful St Kilda teams, or Dunstall competing with Brereton, Buckenara, Mathews etc etc for the ball to be delivered to him?
All fair points BK and, look, Lynch did have a good season. As i said, I admire players who improve and Lynch obviously did on his 2005.
It just wouldn't surprise me if he slipped back into obscurity in 2007. If you want me to point out facts, then I can't. It's just a hunch that I have. I could easily be proven wrong.
No, not any idiot can 65 goals in a season. The thing with Lynch is that he is rarely out of scoring range, thanks to his prodigious kicking. I do think however that Lynch benefits from enviable midfield delivery, something Richo has never had the luxury of, thus why Richo is one of the best contested marks in the game. I think Hunter could have played FF for you guys and kicked more than 80. Hansen probably would have kicked 70.
Just don't think Lynch is that good. Adequate, handy, maybe even good, but not very good if you know what I mean.
 
All fair points BK and, look, Lynch did have a good season. As i said, I admire players who improve and Lynch obviously did on his 2005.
It just wouldn't surprise me if he slipped back into obscurity in 2007. If you want me to point out facts, then I can't. It's just a hunch that I have. I could easily be proven wrong.
Just don't think Lynch is that good. Adequate, handy, maybe even good, but not very good if you know what I mean.

Fair call.........I do hope 2006 wasn't just 'one out of the box' for obvious reasons, and he backs it up with an even better 2007.

Certainly his size and range make him a dangerous proposition as best case scenario he will become a Saverio Rocca type. The worry with Rocca for other teams was that inside 50 he could outmuscle you all day long, but unlike most full forwards who you may give a little latitude for a cheap kick 60 - 70 metres out, you had to play him just as close out there too just in case.
 
Point: Fevola winning the Coleman in a bottom team is a true good effort compared to Lynch getting fed by a premier midfield.

Counter: Acknolwedge Fevola had a wonderful season. Brilliant. Is it neceassarily 'harder' to kick goals a low team? Would argue that he probably is the target more often than say Lynch in a team that is renowned for having midfielders who love to run forward and kick goals.
You fail to mention the fact that Fev, quite commonly, has 2 or 3 players hanging off him, and another blocking the holes in front of him on the ground.

That's what makes Fev a top player. He can beat 2 or 3 opponents. Blokes playing in top teams don't have to deal with that sort of attention all the time.

imo it'd be a heck of a lot harder to kick goals playing for lower teams. Ask the FFs of those teams that get beaten 30 goals to 2 every week in the country leagues how easy it is to kick goals.
 
You fail to mention the fact that Fev, quite commonly, has 2 or 3 players hanging off him, and another blocking the holes in front of him on the ground.

That's what makes Fev a top player. He can beat 2 or 3 opponents. Blokes playing in top teams don't have to deal with that sort of attention all the time.

imo it'd be a heck of a lot harder to kick goals playing for lower teams. Ask the FFs of those teams that get beaten 30 goals to 2 every week in the country leagues how easy it is to kick goals.

Another fair call re multiple defenders. As I said Fevola was awesome this year, no two ways about it. That's the thing there are so many variables. We've seen top FFs kick lots of goals in both over the year. I just hate seeing them split as na automatci gut reaction because "he kicked goals in a top side, he's over rated", or "he kicked lots of goals in a bottom side, in a top side he automatically would have kicked more". There are soooo many variables, many of which can't be measured.

I agree on your last paragraph...if we were talking about country or amatuer footy. A weak country team could be getting beaten 40 goals to 1 or 2 every week, absolute grave yard for FFs. But let's face it, the AFL
is nothing like that. Even the worst team in the competition is still going to generate X number of entries into the forward line and give the FF a number of opportunities, albeit perhaps less than the FF of a top team.
 
If anything Lynch is under rated. There are not too many blokes his size (big blokes take longer) & age who are as versatile as him.

Bit of improvement left in him yet IMO.

Lynch was initially over-rated, as West Coast fans saw his size, raw ability and potential and talked him up more over and above what he was capable of performing as a young forward (and because they were short of options).

Now he's peaking as a player, and has developed into the complete package - big, strong, reads the play well, and kicks goals; he's become one of the most under-rated players around because a) people still think of his as the guy from 2-3 years ago who didn't meet their unrealistically lofty expecations, and b) his improvement can be written off as just his having an awesome midfield supplying him.

On the other FF - Fevola was close to the best player in the comp last season. Just a dominant player, and as above, often competed against 2 or 3 defenders in the air. I don't think people fully comprehended just how good he was - but its been 50-odd years since someone won the coleman medal in the wooden spoon team, and he did out without a single regular goal-scorer alongside him to take some pressure away. Carlton would have been an absolute basket-case without him there - seriously, we would have been at Fitzroy levels.

That said, I'd trade him for Brown, Tredrea, Pavlich or Hall in a second, with my pick being Hall. Fev just doesn't make players better around him like they do, doesn't inspire his team-mates to perform. Plus he's just too eratic - at some point over the next 2 years he's going to have a complete meltdown and its going to come back and bite. But he's possibly the most exciting to watch now, so thats not a bad thing.
 

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At this stage would definitely trade Lynch for Pavlich. However, I think Lynch has a lot of improvement left in him. It's intersting to note that before being drafted Lynch and Kerr played together at Aquinas College. Kerr was the runner-up F&B to, wait for it....Lynch! Being a little bloke Kerr has obvioulsy developed much faster. There is a lot of potential for improvement in Lynch, I just hope that potential is realized.
 
From the following group of full forwards / spearheads, which do you think is:

a) just the plain best of them, and

b) would you permenantly swap your club's for one of them effective immediately (this may not necessairly mean you think they are the best, but a better prospect for some reason than what you have now)

The Contenders

D. Bradshaw
T. Hentschel
B. Fevola
A. Rocca
M. Lloyd
M. Pavlich
N. Thompson
Q. Lynch
B. Hall
D. Neitz
M. Williams
B. Johnson
F. Gehrig
N. Ablett
W. Tredrea
M. Richardson

Personally, I think the best of them is Mathew Lloyd.

Which (if any) would I trade Lynch for?

Fevola - only 25, so if I'm going to swap a 23 y.o coming off his best year, I don't want to swap for an older player who I may only get 3 - 4 years out of instead of perhaps another 7. He plays Subiaco really well and kicks from angles beautifully which is an advantage with the pockets at Subi.

Would also swap Lynch for Pavlich but probably none of the others. I am NOT saying he is any better than any of the others, but most of them are late 20s or older, so again no value in swapping a 65 goal a year FF for an 80 goral a year FF if they only have a couple of years left in them.

Looking at that list, no current full forward is within cooee of the likes of Lockett, Dunstall and Ablett. Probably only Fevola, Gherig and Lloyd are can pnly be thought of in the same breath.
 

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