Swans in a mess

[Damien]

Originally posted by sharp9
Because he writes well and has insightful things to say.

I took your tone to mean that you wouldn't regard ANYTHING he said of being worthy of your reading (even if you agreed with him) just because he doesn't spend a life in football.

I find that weird.

LOL........ I don't respect his football opinions and really don't enjoy his style...SIMPLE.

My opinion, and it isn't going to change because you find it weird!!

[sharp9]

Originally posted by Damien
LOL........ I don't respect his football opinions and really don't enjoy his style...SIMPLE.

My opinion, and it isn't going to change because you find it weird!!

Cool

[Charlie]

Originally posted by sharp9
Fair enough, Charlie. I'm surprised that that's your preference though, given your fondness for penning long sentences of your own.

Lol... yes, fair enough. What I'm more referring to, though, is Wells' habit of using often bizarre analogies and annoying cliches. It's not so much the structure, but the style that bugs me. Sheahan is much more readable because he writes in a traditional style. He isn't nearly as adventurous, but you can understand what he's trying to say.

[chammond]

Originally posted by Charlie
Sheahan is much more readable because he writes in a traditional style. He isn't nearly as adventurous, but you can understand what he's trying to say.

Yeah, but Sheahan, Walls and that gang write such simplistic tripe, and, even worse, it's all the same tripe. Add to that the troupe who write whatever Fast Eddie tells them (or writes himself), and it quickly adds up to a waste of time.

I hardly ever agree with what Wells or Smith have to say, but at least I always feel that it was worth taking the time to read their articles.

[Go Swannies]

You need the mix. The opinion pieces are interesting as they show how popular opinion is shaping. That's true no matter how they are written. Adam Goodes makes Mick Malthouse look like a seer after his Friday spray about centre bounces. But Jeff Wells is one of those rare joys - a sports writer with a nice turn of phrase. (Roy Masters on league was another, but that faded.)

For the bulk of footy writers all I want to see is that they did some research. Most tell me more than I can find out at RWO or Big Footy and lots more than the Swans site tells me - and I thank them for that. I find that level of information on both Fairfax publications and the Tele. But, strangely, I rarely find a well researched article from the Herald Sun. It seems to run on preconceptions and tired news - except for good think pieces from a few intelligent players and coaches (and a lot of bad ones from the others).

[Triple B]

FWIW I enjoy reading Wells, as I have for years as I mentioned in a thread on Wells a few weeks ago when somebody else was yet again offended by him for having the audacity to criticise our babies.

Anyway my beef:

What REALLY ticks me off is the person/s who caption the photos. They consistently get the players identities wrong, almost weekly.

Heath James was described as 'Jared Crouch running out of the backline' in one of the Sunday papers on the weekend.

[Go Swannies]

Originally posted by BBB
What REALLY ticks me off is the person/s who caption the photos. They consistently get the players identities wrong, almost weekly.

Heath James was described as 'Jared Crouch running out of the backline' in one of the Sunday papers on the weekend.

You have to cut them a bit of slack as they are probably just relying on the captions provided by the photographer.

Ages ago I used to work for a magazine next office down from Rugby League Week. We all decided the ultimate nightmare job would be photolibrarian for RLW and identifying hundreds of thousands of pics of football players covered in mud.

[Triple B]

I don't really see the need to cut them any slack at all.

This isn't a one off. They CONSISTENTLY get it wrong.

I mean, if they don't know the players by sight themselves, why are they employed to do the job of identifying players?

[Go Swannies]

They aren't - they are employed to find a photo with some relevance to the article. They are probably pretty proud that they remember the Swans are the ones in red and white (don't ask about photo files in the days of B&W negatives). Then they are relying on the several hundred captions that the photographer submitted with the pics on Saturday night. If there's a series of shots of Crouch then a quick grab of James then back to Crouch then the photographer looking at tiny images in the browse function of Photoshop may miss the difference.

And no, it's no good trying to find the photographer as he or she is probably out photographing a restaurant or a politician (and you try to describe the difference between Crouch and James over the phone). Anyway it has to be on the presses in 30 minutes and there's still four pages of Rugby League to find and caption pics for.

[BAM_BAM]

I think it's the boots. They both have the same blue boots. I was watching the game only when going to the bar on Saturday and I saw blue boots and said go Jared, only to realise he'd been standing in quick grow, because it was Heath.

Well that's not really the reason, but it seems a good enough one to me.

[Charlie]

Wouldn't it be as easy as having a sixteen-page booklet with the official AFL headshot photos for each club?

[ScottH]

Originally posted by Charlie
Wouldn't it be as easy as having a sixteen-page booklet with the official AFL headshot photos for each club?

No Charlie, too many look alikes in our team!!

[sharp9]

They need to hire an umpire. Apparently all the umpires are required to memorise the first names of all 600 AFL players.

[sharpie]

Originally posted by sharp9
They need to hire an umpire. Apparently all the umpires are required to memorise the first names of all 600 AFL players.

Why dont they try memorising the rules instead