Preview R14: Changes vs. Sydney Swans

Remove this Banner Ad

With the rumour of ROB asking to go back to Victoria next year, does anyone think this is the reason he has been dropped the last couple of weeks ?

Or purely performance based ?
Looks that way doesn't it? If he has indicated he wants to study in Vic next year, we have to see what we have as our number 2. We also need to attract a ready to go ruck - which apparently has always been our strategy, i.e. Moyle. Not withstanding we have Thilthorpe and Murray on standby, presumably not the preferred number 1 rucks though.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

I do everything right handed, except handball. Every bat, club, ball, racket etc is swung at or thrown right handed. But for some reason when I started playing footy, I started handballing left handed. Probably because I wanted to hold the ball with my dominant hand.

How can you be clearly the best side in the competition if you don't even make the grand final?
Didn’t have ready access to stimulants at half time of the 2006 PF?
 
so have we
Mediocre is probably a stretch.

Post 1998:

0 flags
0-1 GF record
1-4 prelim record
x1 wooden spoon
currently on a 7 years finals drought
draft sanctions
camp controversy
had enough players to fill a team walk out

Lucky we arent one of those shit clubs hey.
 
Are you really trying to compare stats from a ruckman who plays almost 100% game time to a guy who mostly shared the ruck duties and played up forward at both Port and Sydney?

What sort of puddle deep level of analysis is that?
If ROB is a B grade ruck then so is Peter Ladhams.

One of our clubs biggest failures is to draft a young development ruck to be coming up behind the present ruck/s, that's generally the way clubs access the good/elite rucks.

Take the Swans they obviously didn't see Ladhams who played lead ruck early last year as the ruck they needed to take the next step or they wouldn't have pursued Grundy so strongly. Now even Hayden McLean seems to have gone past Ladhams in the pecking order remembering veteran Tom Hickey (now retired) also played lead ruck for the Swans in preference to Ladhams for the last half of last season.

Sydney already had a number Rucks in Grundy, Ladhams, McLean and McAndrew yet they still drafted one of the better ruck prospects in 2024 Will Green with their 1st pick #16. I don't get why we don't go down the path of drafting a potential good/elite ruck prospect.

SA's Alex Dodson if he chooses AFL over basketball should be one of our prime targets this draft, no ifs or buts.
It's looking very much like he won't get to our 2nd pick at this point and the Welsh pick probably would call for some trading in picks etc, possibly putting 2025 picks on the table to achieve getting a top end mid, Dodson and Welsh.

We sure as hell should not be pursuing Petty in 2024.
 
Last edited:
If ROB is a B grade ruck then so is Peter Ladhams.

One of our clubs biggest failures is to draft a young development ruck to be coming up behind the present ruck/s, that's generally the way clubs access the good/elite rucks.

Take the Swans they obviously didn't see Ladhams who played lead ruck early last year as the ruck they needed to take the next step or they wouldn't have pursued Grundy so strongly. Now even Hayden McLean seems to have gone past Ladhams in the pecking order remembering veteran Tom Hickey (now retired) also played lead ruck for the Swans in preference to Ladhams for the last half of last season.

Sydney already had a number Rucks in Grundy, Ladhams, McLean and McAndrew yet they still drafted one of the better ruck prospects in 2024 Will Green with their 1st pick #16. I don't get why we don't go down the path of drafting a potential good/elite ruck prospect.

SA's Alex Dodson if he chooses AFL over basketball should be one of our prime targets this draft, no ifs or buts.
It's looking very much like he won't get to our 2nd pick at this point and the Welsh pick probably would call for some trading in picks etc, possibly putting 2025 picks on the table to achieve getting a top end mid, Dodson and Welsh.

We sure as hell should not be pursuing Petty in 2024.
Plenty of us have been calling for a developing ruckman for years.
I think it is too late now.
We will have to pay through the nose to trade one in.
And the way the club is going at the moment, that might be easier said than done.
Surely list management can see having 3 ruckman on your list isn't asking too much
 
Plenty of us have been calling for a developing ruckman for years.
I think it is too late now.
We will have to pay through the nose to trade one in.
And the way the club is going at the moment, that might be easier said than done.
Surely list management can see having 3 ruckman on your list isn't asking too much

We could have drafted Ned Moyle, but instead we took Patrick Parnell one pick before him
 
We could have drafted Ned Moyle, but instead we took Patrick Parnell one pick before him
How could Hamish resist PP.
A short arse HBF'er that looks more suited to the jockey room

Could have got Moyle with a rookie pick and now we will have to pay up to get anything half reasonable

I really do think our drafting philosophies and the positions players are played, should determine your draft structure
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

How can you be clearly the best side in the competition if you don't even make the grand final?
If you don’t know this already, I’m not sure how to help. Maybe watch more sport?

In our premiership years, we finished 4th and 5th. Brisbane never finished top during their 3peat. The list of examples throughout many sports is endless. You win premierships by being fit and in form at the right end of the season, assuming you’ve done enough during the season to give yourself a chance.
 
I feel really bad for Smith. Have really loved him as a player over the years. The coaches and other selectors have thrown him in it by not acting on his bad from sooner.
The hate should be directed at them not Smith.

Whilst I feel bad for Smith for what is happening on social media and how the club has handled his decline in performance there needs to also be self awareness by the individual.

What social media is he reading, if it is his own then block those individuals. If it is the club’s page, don’t read it. Simple.

And what is worse, is he makes it to the leadership team. Just sends all the wrong messages.
 
Last edited:
If you don’t know this already, I’m not sure how to help. Maybe watch more sport?

In our premiership years, we finished 4th and 5th. Brisbane never finished top during their 3peat. The list of examples throughout many sports is endless. You win premierships by being fit and in form at the right end of the season, assuming you’ve done enough during the season to give yourself a chance.
Are you saying that Brisbane weren't the best team 2001-03?
 
Shiels is purely playing for on field leadership. No idea if he actually provides that, but it's a Clarkson special

I'm confident, however, that Laird does not provide on field leadership
Laird is unfortunately the opposite of a leader. Puts individual before self.
 
If you don’t know this already, I’m not sure how to help. Maybe watch more sport?

In our premiership years, we finished 4th and 5th. Brisbane never finished top during their 3peat. The list of examples throughout many sports is endless. You win premierships by being fit and in form at the right end of the season, assuming you’ve done enough during the season to give yourself a chance.

Spot on.

Not to mention Essendon in 1999.
 
Whilst I feel bad for Smith for what is happening on social media and how the club has handled his decline in performance there needs to also be self awareness by the individual.

And what is worse, is he makes it to the leadership team. Just sends all the wrong messages.
Our entire leadership team is the wrong message, unless the message you want to send is "we panic under pressure and kick awfully into F50"

Dawson Captain
Keays, Smith, ROB are VC's
Fogarty Murphy Milera Hinge
 
If you don’t know this already, I’m not sure how to help. Maybe watch more sport?

In our premiership years, we finished 4th and 5th. Brisbane never finished top during their 3peat. The list of examples throughout many sports is endless. You win premierships by being fit and in form at the right end of the season, assuming you’ve done enough during the season to give yourself a chance.

The best team is the team that wins the premiership, because premierships are the only measure of success that matters

We were the best team in 1997 and 1998, and not the best team in 2005, 2006 and 2017
 
In terms of the last part: it's too simplistic to say names have changed. The ship of the Argonauts. You can rotate personnel, but if you hire hem based upon the same philosophies and criteria?

You don't think that moving from Trigg to Fagan was a big shift?

Then the club after Fagan left has changed dramatically again.

What has meaningfully differed in our clubs game selection approach for 20 years?

I think a lot has changed from the Craig era to the Sanderson era to the Walsh/Pyke Era to Nicks.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Preview R14: Changes vs. Sydney Swans

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top