SOS vs Scarlett

[Bluebear]

I won't. That's because they won't be.

Thats how I see it as well, and I take ODN's point that these comparisons are all down to opinion.

I did marvell at Scarlett on Saturday night. Not only his contested ability (tossing Motlop aside legally was great) but his determination to run at every chance and provide an extra man in the midfield.

 

[krisholio14]

Yes, I did.

But asking a question to my question is not the answer to it.



I think it is important to note that Silvagni still got the FB position ahead of Southby in our very own TOC.

Point 1....He should have won the Norm Smith Medal last year, and didn't because he's a defender.

Point 2... You had to have Silvagni at FB in your TOC because the AFL had him at FB in theirs. Your selection panel aren't going to make a fool of them, and more importantly SOS, by saying we don't even rate him as our best FB let alone the entire competition.

FWIW all the Carlton fans I know who are my age or older rate Southby the better FB (but for the most part SOS the better all round player).

 

[wally funk]

Point 1....He should have won the Norm Smith Medal last year, and didn't because he's a defender.

how do you figure? why didn't he win it 'because he's a defender'?

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Point 2... You had to have Silvagni at FB in your TOC because the AFL had him at FB in theirs. Your selection panel aren't going to make a fool of them, and more importantly SOS, by saying we don't even rate him as our best FB let alone the entire competition.

Sorry but that is a self serving argument. I'm happy to give Scarlett credit as a great player but you are going beyond defending your player now. You are denigrating one of our champions by making up rubbish about how our TOC was selected. Fanciful stuff.

FWIW all the Carlton fans I know who are my age or older rate Southby the better FB (but for the most part SOS the better all round player).

And many of the old timers from the time swear Ollie Grieve was the best we have ever had including Southby and SOS. People are nostalgic about eras so it usually takes a good cross section of judges to impartially deliver a verdict. Garden variety football fans are the worst people to ask sometimes.

I watched both. I agree with the decision.

 

[len_jet]

Christ almighty, did people have a memory wipe recently that wiped out their entire memories of the 90s?

As good as Scarlett is, he is no Silvagni.

I have seen defensive efforts from SOS that Scarlett would have trouble doing - for example, Silvagni was the master of the last second spoil, even when the ball was at his opponent's chest a mile in front of him. Some of the spoils he would do were amazing, and incredibly freaky. You would always shake your head and go "how the hell did he get to that?" This sort of stuff was his artfor mand he would do it week in, week out - and no other FB would come close. Not to mention that he was a better mark - especially in contested situations. If you compare how many contested marks the two players would get 1v1, SOS would be in the lead. And this is against guys who were far superior aerialists than the current patch - guys like Carey, Ablett and Lockett. He was also fantastic 1v1 - perhaps arguably better than Scarlett.

The only thing Scarlett has over SOS is his kicking skills and his rebound from 50 - he did it more often than SOS and was more fluent, but somehow this made the misconception that SOS never made attacking runs himself, which I found quite absurd. Silvagni had quite the tank (no pun intended), and had the fitness and the pace to actually lead up a little into the midfield and he actually did those things, despite the comments from Geelong supporters.

Comparatively, here is what both FBs had to contend with:

Bolded: Silvagni's opponents
Italicised: Scarlett's opponents
Underlined: Both their opponents

1,360 Tony Lockett
1,299 Gordon Coventry
1,254 Jason Dunstall
1,057 Doug Wade
1,030 Gary Ablett
970 Jack Titus
915 Leigh Matthews
874 Peter McKenna
839 Matthew Lloyd
817 Bernie Quinlan
778 Kevin Bartlett
758 Matthew Richardson
748 Saverio Rocca
738 Stephen Kernahan
735 Bill Mohr
727 Peter Hudson
727 Wayne Carey
722 Harry Vallence
707 Dick Lee
681 Bob Pratt
662 Jack Moriarty
633 Alistair Lynch
630 David Neitz
629 Michael Moncrieff
607 Michael Roach
594 Stewart Loewe
593 Kelvin Templeton
588 Tony Modra
575 Simon Beasley
575 Simon Madden
574 Richard Osborne
572 Norm Smith
561 Paul Salmon
554 Chris Grant
549 Peter Daicos
548 Dick Harris
540 Lindsay White
540 Fraser Gehrig
539 Barry Hall
537 John Coleman
527 Brian Taylor
514 Peter Sumich
511 John Longmire

Not to mention the discrepancy between AA jumpers - SOS 7 as opposed to Scarlett's 3. If not anything else, this shows that Silvagni had been dominant in his position for a much longer period of time - also in an era where arguably there were better FBs running around so it's not like he was the only good one out there. He was also a more versatile player, who could kick bags of goals for you.

Should I not mention Silvagni's '95 finals series where he kept all of Carey, White and Ablett to a combined total of one goal? Has Scarlett done anything that impressive? Ever?

Some people seem to think Scarlett is better because of his run from FB alone. They forget that the prime job for a FB is to stop his opponent from kicking goals and having an influence on a game... and SOS was better than him at doing that, on far superior opponents. Everything is secondary and merely a bonus - if you want to discuss run from D50, then that is what CHB and HBFs do more often than not because their positions allow more freedom to do that.

As for the scragging issue, pay no attention to that. Defenders scrag all the time, even today. How many times have we seen Scarlett scrag Fevola for example? Yes, that's right - many times. Yet some Geelong supporters would some believe that the scragging SOS did meant he was an inferior FB. Quoting the different rules and using them as a basis to argue who was better is incredibly foolish - you can only compare players by what they did, what they achieved. By their respective strengths and weaknesses... things that they can use in any era.

You sure SOS didn't play against Barry Hall and Brian Taylor?!

 

[#1 Dogs Fan]

Being an outsider and a non Carlton/ Geelong supporter I personally think Sos is better from what I hear but Scarlett is better from what I have seen.

This is mainly due to the fact that I saw Sos mainly play in the later stages of his career and have seen Scarlett play pretty much through out his whole career so based on what I have seen I say Scarlett sorry guys.

 

[skilts]

I still have no information about the meeting at which it was decided that Jack Regan wasn't the greatest full-back of all time. Was this meeting held in-camera?

 

[Monaro Gundapa]

Stephen Silvagni is better and so is David Dench,Gary Malarkey and Chris Langford.

 

[Blue Dawn]

Stephen Silvagni is better and so is David Dench,Gary Malarkey and Chris Langford.

Come on now be serious.

 

[thylacine60]

Come on now be serious.

Easy mistake to make. He meant Frank Gumbleton.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

I still have no information about the meeting at which it was decided that Jack Regan wasn't the greatest full-back of all time. Was this meeting held in-camera?

You still have no information?

Funny, the rest of us received a top secret envelope containing a footage disk as soon as the meeting wrapped up.

Have you contacted Australia Post?

 

[chelseacarlton]

Being an outsider and a non Carlton/ Geelong supporter I personally think Sos is better from what I hear but Scarlett is better from what I have seen.

This is mainly due to the fact that I saw Sos mainly play in the later stages of his career and have seen Scarlett play pretty much through out his whole career so based on what I have seen I say Scarlett sorry guys.

if you didnt see him play you have no right to assume

 

[Thrawn]

Being an outsider and a non Carlton/ Geelong supporter I personally think Sos is better from what I hear but Scarlett is better from what I have seen.

This is mainly due to the fact that I saw Sos mainly play in the later stages of his career and have seen Scarlett play pretty much through out his whole career so based on what I have seen I say Scarlett sorry guys.

*Gives you tapes of games from the 90's.*

Enjoy.

 

[pansies]

In SOS's day Full backs got away with Murder.

It's much harder to be a defender nowadays considering an enthusiastic spoil is worth a free kick.

Would have loved to of seen how SOS handled the "hands in the back" rule, regardless of his opposition. Scarlett also attacks and creates better than any full back ever.

I actually think the new interpretation of the the 'hands in the back' rule would help SOS.

What people seem to forget is SOS had tree trunks for legs and mostly had the better position on his opponent. He would have been the one getting the free kick.

 

[Mike_blues]

SOS easy not been biased but the opposition he vsed the likes of lockett and carey...
no doubt scarlett is a great fb but not better then SOS

 

[len_jet]

I actually think the new interpretation of the the 'hands in the back' rule would help SOS.

What people seem to forget is SOS had tree trunks for legs and mostly had the better position on his opponent. He would have been the one getting the free kick.

I agree with that... SOS always tried to get the front position to which he succeded quite often... the old days the forwards were able to lean and push in the back to get SOS out of the way, today he would have plenty of free kicks

 

[skilts]

You still have no information?

Funny, the rest of us received a top secret envelope containing a footage disk as soon as the meeting wrapped up.

Have you contacted Australia Post?

Bugger. It might have something to do with me forgetting to pay for my P.O. box. Is it possible to kick, mark and handball a footage disk?

 

[Korn]

Scarlett is a great full back and possibly the best in the league at the moment.
But he's no way better than SOS, in fact there are heaps better than Scarlett.
I think from seeing footy classifiled we all know Archer is a dumb guy, writing one of these newspaper space filler.

 

[Dramoth]

If you think that any player to ever pull on an AFL geurnsey, let alone a Carlton one is better than SOS, you're in pure denial, plain and simple.

Actually mate... if I remember rightly, it was a close call for the AFL TOTC committee between Southby and SoS.

Southby was an awesome fullback. Both were brilliant players but I have to give the nod to SoS by a whisker.

And Southby also played on two of the alltime great full forwards as well in Hudson and McKenna.