The Big Sliders for 07

[rick James]

reduced to a 5 word reply with no substance, Rick James..This is your Life.

Well clearly you weren't taking the topic seriously so I thought I'd play along.

I'm just amazed you still think it's apt to call us marshmellows after we pulverised your side in a final no less. We own St Kilda, you know it, I know it. So if you're gunna muck around and make jokes I'm happy to play along.

But my appraisal of Sammy earlier was 100% factual and genuine.

He DID only have 4 touches, he DID give away that many frees and he DID get manhandled by Rivers when he tried to act tough.

 

[UpForGrabs]

I disagree, Freos improvement will be through a number of things:

1. Sandilands to become the best ruckmen i the comp, or at hte very least top 3. The guy will dominate and is constantly improving.

2. Addition of tarrant is massive as for the reason's I have stated above.

3. Pav factor, he is captain now and from when he had the role for a game of two he flourished.

4. Continued development of Mundy, Murphy, Peake, Crowley etc

5. McManus as per usual will be struggling to get a game, Parker's role will be further cut back with Thornton slowly brought in to replace him

Barring injuries we wont go backwards, you guys know better than any how good freo are.

I may hate the Freo football club with every fibre of my being, but that doesn't mean they didn't play good football last season. It's just a Perth thing, you know that

As for your points;

1. I agree about the big fella becoming top 3. Vitally important to your team, as much as Cox is to us. Needs backup though and I'm not sure Longmuir is the guy for the job.

2. Can't agree sorry. Tarrant is a loose cannon who is 50/50 as to whether he'll fire this season or not. You have to ask whether he's worth the risk. Hopefully for you guys he'll work out, but he's just as likely to bomb. Best case scenario with Tarrant is maybe a 50 goal season. Worst case is you end up with players such as Tarrant, Farmer, Murphy and Pavlich all fighting to get what they see is enough of the ball and the productivity for most of those four drops. Will Tarrant be able to handle not being the #1 target for the forward line? Will Farmer be able to handle the midfield thinking of kicking to Pavlich or Tarrant before they even look for him? Who knows...

3. Pavlich is one of those untouchable players in the league along with West, Judd and the like. Can't disagree with you there.

4. Didn't think their 2006 was as gun as others did, but there's talent there which should grow.

5. Ah, McManus and Parker. I just don't think they add anything at all to the Fremantle team anymore (to be honest, I despise McManus and have done so even before he started playing AFL so I question whether he ever added anything to your team, apart from the most ridiculous head in AFL history). I just wonder whether the Dockers are doing them a favour by hanging onto them for 'one more year', when in all honesty, having them in your side may be detrimental in that it keeps a young kid out of the team who should be getting the game time he needs. Parker doesn't need to be the old head in defense anymore - McPharlin has cemented his spot back there, and barring injuries is enough of a backline 'captain' for Parker to be given the heave-ho (pardon the terrible pun).

But that's just me

 

[Ron]

Sandilands is nothing but a very average ruckman.
He is tall so he wins a large number of hitouts, but only a small percentage of them would ever go to his teams advantage.

Watch a champion ruckman like Cox or Lade play, and you will realise that Sandilands has a long way to go yet.

Although its not like freo has ever gone around over-estimating their soft bunch of try hards before is it.

 

[PetePop]

Pretty hard to say, but I'll give it a go.

-------------------------------------------------

Adelaide: McLeod, Edwards
Bulldogs: Robbins, Possibly Grant
Brisbane: Nothing comes to mind?
Carlton: Nick Stevens, again
Collingwood: Buckley, Rocca (Perhaps a few others like Maxwell, Swan?)
Essendon: Hird, Hille, J. Johnson
Fremantle: Longmuir (sp?)
Geelong: Scarlett, King, S. Johnson
Hawthorn: Crawford
Melbourne: Robertson, Neitz
North Melbourne: Thompson, Simpson, Harvey, Archer
Port Adelaide: Lade, Mahoney
Richmond: Brown (Due to injury), Gasper, Chaffey
Sydney: Barry, Davis
St. Kilda: Hamil, Gehrig, Harvey
West Coast: Cousins, Wirrpunda, Sampi

Note: Some of these will still be good players (eg. Cousins, Gehrig etc.) but I think these could all drop off a bit from this (almost) past year.

Hard to judge, but might as well have a punt on it.

This is rubbish.

Every player you have just mentioned is better than most of the western bulldogs fc besides West and B.Johnson.

Not to mention a couple of players you suggested to slide were players that already had a shocking season like King, Johnson and Hamil due to injuries.

Most bias post ive seen in my opinion.

 

[Khan]

Pretty hard to say, but I'll give it a go.
Richmond: Brown (Due to injury), Gasper, Chaffey

Is this from last year. Chaffey has retired, Browny is fit again and Gaspar will only play a cameo role and considering his form last year (injury etc) it can only be an improvment.




Khan

 

[evertonfc]

I'm just amazed you still think it's apt to call us marshmellows after we pulverised your side in a final no less.

Pulverised? Hardly. We just ran out of fit players.

You had to slog to overcome a team fielding missing 60% of its first team - and that's cause for celebration? Interesting.

Carlton would have flogged us with the team we put out there.

Not making excuses; you are only measured by the team which takes to the park, but I'm sure most Melbourne supporters would have expected a bigger and more impressive win that night.

============

As for this thread, from St Kilda, I'm pretty confident Fraser Gehrig will slide this year. Mind you I said that last year and he still managed some big performances, so maybe he'll prove us all wrong again.

Hamill has slid far enough; Harvey will just keep going - his skills are too clean and he's still extremely fit. An unbelievable player.

Not sure what Andrew Thompson has to offer apart from pinch-hitting, but he can be very effective in that role, we'll just have to wait and see.

Other sliders: I wouldn't be surprised to see McLeod struggle a touch, and how Ricciuto comes back will also be of interest. The game may just move beyond Kouta and Archer as well.

 

[rick James]

Pulverised? Hardly. We just ran out of fit players.

You had to slog to overcome a team fielding missing 60% of its first team - and that's cause for celebration? Interesting.

Carlton would have flogged us with the team we put out there.

Not making excuses; you are only measured by the team which takes to the park, but I'm sure most Melbourne supporters would have expected a bigger and more impressive win that night.

You ran out of fit players becasue we injured them in the process of pulverising them. Kosi, Harey, Gehrig and Clarke were all injured in play, they didn't come in to the game with those injuries - they got tehm during the game when Melbourne put the physical pressure on.

Make all teh excuses you want, your club is a disagrace.

 

[The Fireman]

You ran out of fit players becasue we injured them in the process of pulverising them. Kosi, Harey, Gehrig and Clarke were all injured in play, they didn't come in to the game with those injuries - they got tehm during the game when Melbourne put the physical pressure on.

Make all teh excuses you want, your club is a disagrace.

If you are going to continue to post crap then maybe you are the disgrace, those players you mentioned came in off injury, all underdone. Gherig twisted his ankle, how did your marshmellows do that?
But you would have relished in the fact that they were injured, that's your go

 

[rick James]

If you are going to continue to post crap then maybe you are the disgrace, those players you mentioned came in off injury, all underdone. Gherig twisted his ankle, how did your marshmellows do that?
But you would have relished in the fact that they were injured, that's your go

Gherig got rammed into the turf by Nathan Carrol, his ankle ended up under Carrol, then got twisted severely. That was all because Gehrig thought he could take Carrol on.

You didn't evenw atch the game, did you?

 

[The Fireman]

Gherig got rammed into the turf by Nathan Carrol, his ankle ended up under Carrol, then got twisted severely. That was all because Gehrig thought he could take Carrol on.

You didn't evenw atch the game, did you?

rammed into the turf lol, marshmellows don't ram anything.
As I said , although we were undermanned it was still embarrasing to be beaten by your marshmellows , diff story next time.

 

[rick James]

rammed into the turf lol, marshmellows don't ram anything.
As I said , although we were undermanned it was still embarrasing to be beaten by your marshmellows , diff story next time.

Watch the video and tell me he wasn't rammed into the turf at about 3 minutes in (also note Riv and Carrol manhandling your entire forward line hahaha!)

[youtube]bbjGnTpEsE4[/youtube]

Good viewing...

Brock knocking Kosi unconscious at about 1:50 is gold also.

 

[TheFridge]

Port to slide on to the wooden spoon! Their youngsters are crap, and West Coast will carve them up.

Stirling comeback, that!

- Youngsters are so crap, they got 5 rising star nominations, including the winner
- If reigning premiers and 2007 premiership favs West Coast carve us up, that by itself doesn't mean we will finish bottom (and do you realise that we did actually beat the West Coast in 2006, don't you?)

Are people say we are obsessed ...

 

[ShanBoi]

Sydney will be the big sliders for 2007.

Couple of key injuries and they will fall out of the 8. Watch this space! They don't really have depth they just have a majority of their team on the park every week. They have had 2 charmed seasons. A couple of injuries will force them to play inexperienced players and they will crumble

 

[rgauci]

Sandilands is nothing but a very average ruckman.
He is tall so he wins a large number of hitouts, but only a small percentage of them would ever go to his teams advantage.

Watch a champion ruckman like Cox or Lade play, and you will realise that Sandilands has a long way to go yet.

Although its not like freo has ever gone around over-estimating their soft bunch of try hards before is it.

You idiot. He towelled both those opponents in rounds 21 and 22. Cox was still recovering from an injury but Lade had no excuse.

Sandilands is one of the leagues best emerging ruckman. If you wanna see soft, watch him dominate Fraser at the hitouts and setup our wins against your club.

2006 round 15 MCG Collingwood 15.14.(104) def. by Fremantle 18.11.(119)

2005 round 18 MCG Collingwood 12.13.(85) def. by Fremantle 15.8.(98)
-i like this one the best, Buckley's 300th or 250th, Collingwood fired up for their captain etc etc.

2005 round 7 Subiaco Fremantle 28.12.(180) def. Collingwood 10.8.(68)
-though this one was fun to watch. Sandilands rucked by himself that day against Fraser, Richards and Fanning if i recall correctly.

 

[TheFridge]

Back on topic, picking individual players who will slide is hard as it usually has to do with lingering injuries (eg the 'slide' in 2006 of say a Brent Harvey). It is expected that older players will decline in output, but even that is usually a slow process and is more puntuated by inconsistency than overall poor form. Players in that bracket would possibly be Hird, Buckley, Chick, O'Loughlin, Lade, Riccuito, Micheal, Wakelin (both of 'em), Grant, Richardson... I will discount them, and instead commend them for their years of sustained performance at the highest level.

Instead I will try to guess (and it is a crapshoot, really) some players who should be consistently performing, but I will suggest may not have as good a 2007 as they did 2006...

West Coast - hard to pick holes in their team at all, but I'll nominate Fletcher as I think his hold on a spot in the starting 22 is slipping. Also did consider Lynch, just because I thought he was very good in 2006 but will need to work as hard, if not harder to sustain that form in 2007.

Sydney - Ted Richards, just can't see Ted playing 22 games in a season again...

St Kilda - Gehrig, and the Saints will need to continue other avenues to goal.

Adelaide - I would have said the obvious choice to be Biglands as I can see him being overtaken in the starting 22 by the up and coming rucks in Meesen and Maric, but as he is injured already I shouldn't. Instead I will say Brett Burton, as he relies heavily on his spring and when he starts to lose that I think he will slide quicker than most.

Fremantle - warning signs are on Peter Bell as he has lost some pace, and didn't play on the ball as much last year. However, he doesn't deservce the title of possible slider, so I will nominate Des Headland instead. Headland needs to improve his consistency to maintain his spot in a team who should be in the mix come September.

Collingwood - harder to call given the mix of old and new in the Pies list. It seems to be more inconsistency than ability that affects Collingwood. However, I think Tarkyn Lockyer, Brodie Holland and Shane O'Bree seem to be on the slide and one of them may slide off the edge in 2007.

Melbourne - I will pick on one of my favourites here and say Byron Pickett. Showed glimpses of his scintillating best in 2006 in a new environment at Melbourne, but question marks remain regarding his level of commitment. 2007 could be the start of his last slide... (I hope not, as I love to see him in full flight)

Bulldogs - Again a hard team to pick a slider from due to the mix of old and new. Would be easy to say West, but he just keeps on keeping on. Instead, I will suggest that Akermanis may not have the impact expected at his new club....

Richmond - Patrick Bowden had a very good 2006 and I can see him not having the same impact in 2007. Jay Schulz and Ray Hall will both also need to work hard to maintain their spots in the team in 2007 with the inclusion of a couple of talls via the draft and trade season.

Geelong - gee, hard to pick at the Cats as they all had pretty sliding 2006's for a team that so much was expected of. For mine, the biggest missing link in 2006 was Tom Harley and I have doubts he will ever return to his outstanding 2005 form.

Hawthorn - hard to pick a slider from a list that has a lot of potential but not much form to work with in the "sliding" stakes. With Crawford and Smith exempt under the "too old to call it a slide" rule, I will nominate Brent Guerra, because of past form in being great when new to a club but then sliding thereafter.

Port Adelaide - no one will slide as we begin a meteoric campaign to the upper echelon of the AFL... . Realistically, I have doubts about both Tredrea and P Burgoyne's ability to return from injuries and also have concerns about our current ruck department, can Lade maintain his stellar standard from 2006? and will Dean Brogan not be so distracted this year. Josh Mahoney also seems to be on the slide a bit after being such a find in 2004 and backing that up in 2005.

Lions - obvious choice is Lappin, but unfair for mine given his injuries. Instead I will nominate Bradshaw as potential slider just because so much focus will be on him in the absence of Micheal and Leppitsch. Also, Jared Brennan needs to step up or risk sliding of the list for mine...

Kangaroos - to slide you need to start high, and not many of this list had a consistent impact in 2006. There is no reason to suggest the shining lights (Thomson, Wells etc) will slide at all. My concern will be with last years sliders in Grant and Harvey sliding further in 2007.

Essendon - The Johnsons, both of them. Slide terribly in 2006 and may be in free fall...

Carlton - The Fev is an obvious call for potential slider, had a big year in 2006 and has had a terrible off season. This could impact his performance on the field, especially given the perception of question marks around the stability of the coaching panel at Carlton.

As stated earlier this is all guess work, and based on my perceptions only... Clearly, I watch my team a lot closer than the others so do feel free to disagree, I won't be offended.

 

[daics cousin]

Too hard to predict.Why because of INJURIES.Every team is vunerable.Even the top teams could fall.Imagine any team losing their top 4 -5 key players for the season.Kiss the year goodbye.The sliders baring injury could be the pies(we are rebulding,loss of tarrant and didak and holland) will impact,haven't got depth to cover injuries,also may be the swans (again if they lose a few kpp it will hurt them,no depth) and possibly the cats and the dees(if they cop injuries).........If the teams mentioned stay relatively injury free then.....They have as much chance to contend as any team.

 

[MF]

Too hard to predict.Why because of INJURIES.Every team is vunerable.Even the top teams could fall.Imagine any team losing their top 4 -5 key players for the season.Kiss the year goodbye.The sliders baring injury could be the pies(we are rebulding,loss of tarrant and didak and holland) will impact,haven't got depth to cover injuries,also may be the swans (again if they lose a few kpp it will hurt them,no depth) and possibly the cats and the dees(if they cop injuries).........If the teams mentioned stay relatively injury free then.....They have as much chance to contend as any team.

The Swans having no depth is a myth. The fact is most of our young talent is a completely unkown factor. The ones who have been given a chance have been very impressive (Grundy, Dempster, Vogels etc). I'm not saying that we have got a lot of depth but you can hardly say that we have none given the lack of oppourtunities reservers players have had over the past 2 seasons.

 

[Lach72]

Sandilands is nothing but a very average ruckman.
He is tall so he wins a large number of hitouts, but only a small percentage of them would ever go to his teams advantage.

Watch a champion ruckman like Cox or Lade play, and you will realise that Sandilands has a long way to go yet.

Although its not like freo has ever gone around over-estimating their soft bunch of try hards before is it.

AHAHAHHAHAAAHAHA!!!

You know the bottom the barrel just got scraped with that post.
A huge man who's rucking was so good by the end of the season it was scary, forcing the opposition to rove off him, not there own ruckman.
Getting more mobile and smarter as he goes along.
Gave both White and Cox a bath when he played them (except when the UFO hit him in the first derby that is... )

 

[Bestbird]

AHAHAHHAHAAAHAHA!!!

You know the bottom the barrel just got scraped with that post.
A huge man who's rucking was so good by the end of the season it was scary, forcing the opposition to rove off him, not there own ruckman.
Getting more mobile and smarter as he goes along.
Gave both White and Cox a bath when he played them (except when the UFO hit him in the first derby that is... )

As the original poster intimated

It's no good getting heaps of ruck taps if the opposition gets most of the pill.



The prelim final vs Sydney as an example.

 

[Ripper]

As the original poster intimated

It's no good getting heaps of ruck taps if the opposition gets most of the pill.



The prelim final vs Sydney as an example.

Lol. We scored 5 goals directly from ruck taps.

 

[stopnprop]

Easy, WC, they have the furthest to fall and the least to gain

 

[Blues_Man]

Only a complet moron would claim Sandilands was no good ...he will dominate in the ruck for the next few years

 

[Falchoon]

3rd best backline in the comp statistically, and the hardest backline in the comp to take a mark in (and it isn't flooding, its RIVERS).

Our issue isn't any particular area of our team, it isnt' forward, it ins't back it's not in the middle.

It's whether we haev the mental ability to maintain the rage for 22 rounds, AND whether we have enough to compensate for the fact wen don't have a genuine star player.

We don't have a Judd/Hall/Pavlich type player - Brock took some good steps towards it last year but he would have to improve on that AGAIN to get into the league of those three.

Neitz is as good a FF as there is in the comp right now, and will kick his 70+

Davey is still Aaron Davey, only needs it ten or so times a game and it will hurt the opposition

White is a very good ruckman and jamar/PJ offer adequate back up without being flash.

Rivers and Carrol are going great guns in defence with Matthew Whelan marshalling the troops back there.

TJ/Bruce/McDonald form a good experienced core for our midfield but the place where we really need the improvement to come from is: Sylvia, Jones, Bate, Miller

If those guys step up another notch this year we can do anything we want.

No matter how hard you try to mask it Melbournes weakness is soft frontrunners. The softness of the more experienced players will again be a thorn in the side, hopefully for Melbourne supporters the young will lead the aged in this regard rather than the other way 'round.

Will be some very interesting team dynamics at the Dees in '07.

 

[Falchoon]

You ran out of fit players becasue we injured them in the process of pulverising them. Kosi, Harey, Gehrig and Clarke were all injured in play, they didn't come in to the game with those injuries - they got tehm during the game when Melbourne put the physical pressure on.

Make all teh excuses you want, your club is a disagrace.

we were only in the game because of the pea heart efforts of Green, Yze, Pickett, Davey et al. When the sting went out of it the Melbourne supporters were cheering their "efforts" louder than ever.

 

[Falchoon]

We own St Kilda, you know it, I know it.

2005 aside? it was only 3 meetings ago we kicked our second highest score ever v your mob at an important jucture of the season, particularly for your mob.

But then games that mean something have never been Melbournes forte