Roast Luke Thompson

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PykeDream

PykeDream

Only the Betts
Veteran
Sep 2, 2011
4,700
1,902
AFL Club
Adelaide
I've defended the bloke in the past, said he deserved more of a run as a third tall in the time he has been overlooked since the 2012 Prelim. Today he dished up one worst games I've seen by a key position defender, to follow up a revolting game against West Coast three weeks ago, and two mediocre efforts in the last fortnight.

Ziebell could easily have finished with a bag of 6 given Thompson's ineptitude in the second half.

The search for an adequate Rutten replacement certainly needs to be ramped up.
 
Thommo51 said:
I've defended the bloke in the past, said he deserved more of a run as a third tall in the time he has been overlooked since the 2012 Prelim. Today he dished up one worst games I've seen by a key position defender, to follow up a revolting game against West Coast three weeks ago, and two mediocre efforts in the last fortnight.

Ziebell could easily have finished with a bag of 6 given Thompson's ineptitude in the second half.

The search for an adequate Rutten replacement certainly needs to be ramped up.
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I think he's a handy player on the right match up but putting him on Ziebell was suicide. Sando did him no favours at all, it's like putting Kris Massie on Buddy again.
 

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We have gone from seemingly having an abundance of key defenders to scrapping the bottom of the barrel is just a few years.

Clearly he isn't up to it and will be delisted if he cant be traded. The next part though is where do we get some from? We don't need one, we need 2-3. If Talia were go down in a heap we would have 0 AFL standard tall defenders.
 
Well I think we can see why Thompson hasn't had much of a run. Just doesn't seem to be able to impose himself enough in the contest. Every now and then he does something sublime but he's still leaking goals.

Rutten was even worse, aside from a 10 minute purple patch.
 
I still think it was the correct move to give him one last chance, given the information we had at the time, Rutten's retirement and Hartigan's injury, but he has not looked like he's improved anywhere near enough to make it. I think we can very comfortably delist the guy. No chance a trade will come up. He's still too light/weak over the ball in the air, and he still panics with the ball, or even when he needs to win a loose-ball.

I don't think the matchup argument is great. LT can't take tall or strong key forwards either. If he can't spoil or keep up with a resting mid, who can he stop?
 
JP Sauce said:
Thompson is a KPD and Ziebell is a midfielder.

This was Massie on Franklin 2.0. Ridiculous match up.
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That's the trouble with our line up.

Jaensch, Smith, Henderson would have all been disasters as well.

We don't have any good medium size defenders.
 

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crowsarethebest said:
I think he's a handy player on the right match up but putting him on Ziebell was suicide. Sando did him no favours at all, it's like putting Kris Massie on Buddy again.
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Certainly a lot of responsibility for it can be apportioned to abysmal coaching and diabolical midfield defensive pressure.

LT has two inches on Ziebell - who is slower than average and not a known aerial threat because of his bung shoulder. Time after time Thompson was beaten to the ball by a mile - when he did get it he panicked and turned it over. Ziebell had 9(!) shots on goal, 8 of which I believe were in the second half. Well done to Jack, but poor positional match ups or not, that just should not happen.
 
JP Sauce said:
Thompson is a KPD and Ziebell is a midfielder.

This was Massie on Franklin 2.0. Ridiculous match up.
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Ziebell is a big midfielder, LT is an undersized KPD. LT's feat is meant to be that he's more agile than you would expect from most players in his role. Theoretically it seems like an okay match up; I can see why Sandalwood went for it when Ziebell pushed forward.

I think the main problem is that LT is a rubbish footballer who seemed to be trying his best to concede a goal whenever the ball headed vaguely in his direction.

I don't know what kind of match up would actually suit Thompson. Maybe Butcher.
 
cmndstab said:
Had a poor game today, but hard to be too critical of him on Ziebell. The wrong matchup and everyone forward of the defensive 50 kept turning the ball over and letting NM target Ziebell at will.
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Thompson on John Butcher is about the only good match up I can think of for him.
 
I call bullshit on the OP!!

Thompson was no worse than Luke Brown, Rickie Henderson or Brodie Smith today, all were sub standard.

Absolutely no pressure on the ball deliverer through the midfield where NM continually brought the ball in from!!


Looked a perfect match for Brodie Smith who up to that stage was doing SFA, except for kicking it in long [Usually to a 2 on 1 contest, 2 NM players I might add].

Talia and Rutten were the only 2 defenders today that could hold there head high
 
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You should be able to pick up a serviceable medium defender from the state leagues. Requirements : be pretty fit and strong, be ~190cm, be competitive. Don't need to be amazingly skilful or a great decision maker. There's plenty out there.
 
Not just on today's effort by LT looks off the pace at AFL level

I just can't recall to many occasions where he has led his player to the ball
 
J_Moore said:
You should be able to pick up a serviceable medium defender from the state leagues. Requirements : be pretty fit and strong, be ~190cm, be competitive. Don't need to be amazingly skilful or a great decision maker. There's plenty out there.
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Swans seem to be able to find them for fun!
 
Dandy_GO said:
I read that and thought you were talking about James Kelly, not Jake, though I guess Sando bringing in a 30+ year old from Geelong isn't without precedent...
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To play as a medium sized defender no less! Sounds like a Classic Sando Masterstroke to me.
 
Would it be that suicidal to throw Jake Kelly into the side from next year, would it really be so ridiculous?
 

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Roast Luke Thompson

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