Contributions in 2003 - rankings

**Go Swannies** · 28 October 2003, 06:01 PM

Okay, I'll bite. The list seems pretty fair to me. But the thing that stands out to me is that you probably have Cressa in the right position - and we may miss him more than I'd really thought. Over at BigFooty there is still talk that we overachieved this year. I'm hoping that some (Pebbles, LRT, Schneider) will improve a lot and play with new maturity but there are big boots to fill.

On the lighter side, very late at the Club Champion dinner (and what a great night that was) I was talking to LRT and said he needed to bulk up over the break. He replied "Jeez, I'm drinking beer as fast as I can". And he was. Then he mimed coming back next season with a huge beer gut and bouncing the opposition off the field. Very funny.

He doesn't have long to bulk up. Pebbles (same night) was saying that their contracts give them a six week break before they resume pre-season training.

And while reminiscing about the dinner (the first time that we were all there as equals rather than them in season and us as groupies) I asked Magic if he would have played if we'd beaten Brisbane. His reply was "Maybe - but at best the odds were 50:50 so probably not."

I'd had a drink or two and decided it was time to ask Paul Roos what happened in the last quarter against Brisbane in the PF. I asked if they lifted and we couldn't match them; or did injuries and extending ourselves finally catch up; or was it finals nerves. He replied that it was probably a combination of all of these factors. And, echoing what Bazza told me "we ran out of steam about five quarters too early".

But, if you watch Leo and Jared and the Captain and BBB in the IR you can see that the Swans players are giving the whole team its enthusiasm (and even the Hun - that didn't notice Sydney existed this year, until the finals - has seen that).

I can hardly wait for next season to begin. If they all continue to improve as they have under Roos it will be an exciting year.

Back to the original theme of the thread, I don't know if we can judge who gave what with such precision. Does NOG's power crawl exceed Nick Davis' mark in front of goal? Can you rate Leo's remarkable blocks above Andrew Shaubles unobtrusive blocking of even more influential opposition? I'd be curious to know what others think?

**Bleed Red Blood** · 28 October 2003, 06:49 PM

For me you have the bulk of the list right but things like -

31.Daniel Mcpherson
32.Heath James

I believe that should be swapped.And -

19. Jason Saddington
20. Nick Davis
21. Ryan O?Keefe

these should be changed, Saddo didnt play all games Davis did. And I thought O'Keefe had a better season than Jason.

**dimelb** · 28 October 2003, 07:48 PM

A pretty good call I think. But I'd put Fosdike and Davis up to 15 and 16 and shuffle the rest down.
This thread could run for a while!

**Charlie** · 28 October 2003, 08:15 PM

Originally posted by dimelb

This thread could run for a while!

Well... something has to entertain us for the next 5 months!

**liz** · 28 October 2003, 08:53 PM

To be honest, I reckon you can't really go past the standings in the B&F. Quite apart from the fact that these were judged by the people who know best what role each player was given in a game, they have the added advantage that they were voted on at the end of each week while the game was still fresh. Ranking efforts now - unless you go through every game and watch it again - is likely to bias towards those who were stronger at the end of the season.

One example from Charlie's list is Kennelly. He finished 6th in the B&F yet Charlie has him down at 14. Go back and watch games from early in the season and you will be reminded just how very good he was. At the half way mark his name was even being bandied around as in AA consideration (and that was in the official list of players that the selectors make known halfway through the season). He probably dropped off a little in the second half but still played a very good season overall.

Similar arguments could probably be made for other players. I'd definitely have Maxfield much higher, for example. He struggled mid season a bit but definitely lifted when it counted and I reckon his influence on the team was huge, even when he wasn't starring.

**monopoly19** · 28 October 2003, 08:55 PM

5. Barry
6. Schuable
7. C. Bolton
8. O'Loughlin
9. Cresswell
10. Williams
11. Ball

19. O?Keefe
20. Davis
21. Saddington

From 22 on I don't think I saw enough to rank them. The two that stand out for me though, are Powell and Ablett.

**jixygirl** · 29 October 2003, 07:24 AM

Pretty spot on, except I believe that Davis and O'Keefe should be before Saddington. Also, one of the main reasons that we did so well in this year was that we played well as a team, with all of the individual performances coming together.

Contributions in 2003 - rankings

Contributions in 2003 - rankings

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