Mongrel and the absence of Cressa

[footyhead]

Mongrel is one of those x-factors in Footy, all great teams seem to have a bit of it. Certainly the Lions have it, Nth melbourne had it and the greate Essendon side of 99- 2000 developed it after being accused of softness by the Roos in 98-99.
Do we have it ??
I know every body was well imressed with our endevour last year.
But the retirment of Cressa is the last straw that will test this teams true resolve.
Kelly had mongrel so did plugger so did Dunks. Cressa was mongrel through and through.
Last year if the young guys needed to look for a bit of inspiration on the mongrel front, Cressa was right there.
Now who is going to be the hard man in the center ? who is going to create the focus there in the same way BBH does it in the forward line ? Who is going to run their opponant into the groung or put the niggeling hardness and agro blow torch test to the other team, even if the chips are down?
I like these kids, and Kirks endevour last year was truely extraordinary (beating every opponent !), but unless some real hard mogrel can be unearthed with in the current group, the Swans might find themselves pushed around this year.
The only 2 I think really have the mongrel are Stuwie and Barry Hall.

[TheHood]

Apparently Doyley can be a bit of a psycho if he is revved up.

Schneids might surprise after a full season. Might find him perking up and raising a bit of fear.

It's all a bit of a load of rubbish though. We've got plenty lf players with plenty of courage. I'd prefer heart and courage over "mongrel" any day.

The Dons have got the Johno boys, they had Barnard, Lloyd's a thug too, Fletcher is just a blantant ar#e hole and none of that was as impressive as Hird was during the year for playing the ball and not the man.

The Don's didn't have their best year but they had plenty of tough blokes giving frees away.

I haven't heard Roosy saying that he is keen to unearth the next Rhys-Jones! So I suspect it just won't happen over night.

[footyhead]

what team has won a premeirship without a touch of real mongrel ??

[EMJ]

I feel Luke Ablett has the get up and go and showed so on Saturday - he is mad keen to get into the team

[Mike_B]

IMHO there's a difference between mongrel as in take the player out, versus mongrel where you just give your own players a bit of inspiration. Kel nor Cressa were ever really the type who would put in the big bump, but rather the kind who could get the boys fired up (Cressa) or just leave you inspired by a piece of individual determination and brilliance (Kel).

I agree with the comment that we only have Stuey and Bazza as the types to put on the big bumps, but we have Schneids who can really get the players revved up (and the crowd too), Jude Bolton to really put in that extra effort as Kel used to (maybe not quite as brilliant yet, but the determination is definitely there) and then for sheer brilliance, we have Magic and Goodesy.

I reckon there's definitely a good combination of players who can provide the inspiration needed, whatever the type.

[undy]

..and just in case we do need someone to be taken out, remember the job that Maxie did on his good mate Richo last year.

[footyhead]

Mongrel is a quality much underated in the currently over politically correct world of AFL. It is still very necessary though. withought grunt and the threat of physical intimidation, it is impossible to "get under the skin " of certain teams.

[NMWBloods]

I tend to agree with Footyhead. It's not about players like DRJ who will actually belt the opposition, but more about guys who are tough and can intimidate the opposition through their physical play. Cressa's approach was more about niggling the opposition to put them off, yet was quite effective (witness his goal after the siren against North the previous year). We really lack any mongrel in our team and I wonder if that will be an issue in finals (which is our goal after all).

[penga]

Originally posted by undy
..and just in case we do need someone to be taken out, remember the job that Maxie did on his good mate Richo last year.

you remember that one, ill remember the hit that he put on licuria!!! that was big...

i think okeefe could step up to that mongrel plate as well as having stacks of heart... powell shows a bit of mongrel as well for his size, and leo wont take a step back and thewlis, i feel, has a touch of mongrel about him as well

[Nico]

I question the statement that Cressa had mongrel. Sure he was tough and hardy but a lot of his possessions were gained by his ability to get into space, particularly on the Half forward flank on his own by 20-30 metres.

Up until the last couple of seasons I and many other Melbourne Swans supporters doubted his value at the centre bounce. For many seasons the centre bounce was our achilles heel, and statistically we were close to the worst in the comp. Guess who was always there? To his credit Cressa really picked his game up in that area and was a big influence at centre bounces last year. Now where did we finish last year?

What we need is someone to step into the breach and pick up those average stats of 20-30 a game that Cressa regularly amassed.


Genuine mongrel was lost to us when Plugger and Dunks retired. How do you replace them?

Lets replace mongrel with "hardness". Hard footballers seem to just emerge, alah the Johnsons at Essendon. Some one or two will emerge for us, nothing surer.

[graemed]

IMHO the most inspiring things last year occured in games where the opposition had the mongrel and we had the guts:

Syd v Bris at the gabba:
Mongrel: Aka anywhen
Guts: LRT head over the ball and focussed.

Syd v PA
Mongrel: Hit on Kirk by "Man not the ball" Pickett
Guts: Kirk gets straight back up and starts hunting again.

Give me guts over glory any day.

[dendol]

I tend to agree that a good side needs a bit of mongrel in them. Successful sides of the recent past all have them, Brisbane being the most obvious example. No one ever questions the Brisbane side as being soft, and I think we need that hardness that the experts often speak of. A couple of enforcers (ala ice hockey style!) in the team is always a positive, especially if the opposition has alot of younger players who can be intimidated easily.

[Triple B]

Kelly had mongrel

I think that does the great PK a disservice.

There were NONE harder at it or gutsier, but he wasn't a mongrel in the Wallis, Plugger, Libba type mold.

He led by going at the ball as hard as any player ever has, not by belting blokes, unless they grabbed him on the Jatz crackers.

[Charlie]

Well... I don't ask for dirty players. I ask that our players
a) Give their all, go hard at the footy
b) Play it hard but fair

I also think that with Hall, Maxfield, O'Keefe, Kirk and Jude, we're in reasonable shpae when it comes to honest, tough nuts. Looking forward to seeing Nog and Powell join this group.

[Nico]

I must say as a Melbournian I have seen little of Powell, yet he seems to be a pretty skinny type, hardly the person some are touting as a potential enforcer.

Please explain?