Ball!

[dimelb]

I mean Jason. Against Spider, widely touted as the best tap ruckman in the comp, Jason held his own and gave a real contest at every ball-up. And he was pretty good around the ground. A solid gutsy display, not error-free (whose was?), but gutsy.

[Mike_B]

Not at his 2001 form, but trying hard. Still very important to the make up of the team. Did a great job last week in Perth shouldering the ruck duties virtually single-handed.

As Roosy said at the aftermatch today - with Doyle out and the keep Goodes away from the ruck edict, we would have been in big trouble if Ball was not able to provide a contest today. He definitely held up his end of the bargain at the stoppages, but we still struggled to get clearances to a clear advatange.

[Go Swannies]

Re: Ball!

Originally posted by dimelb
I mean Jason. Against Spider, widely touted as the best tap ruckman in the comp, Jason held his own and gave a real contest at every ball-up. And he was pretty good around the ground. A solid gutsy display, not error-free (whose was?), but gutsy.

I just had to text a list of BOG to a friend in South Africa. The Swans list is: Best: Sydney: Goodes, Barry, Ball, Saddington, Buchanan.

I bet she still thinks there was a transcription error in transmission and that couldn't be right. But I reckoh it's pretty close.

[NMWBloods]

I thought he did a great job on limiting Everitt's impact, which was a key danger. Shame about some of his kicking though.

[liz]

Spider was the one Hawks player out there today with the ability to carve us up irrespective of what his team mates were doing.

He didn't.

So kudos to Ball for pretty much breaking even with him in terms of overall influence over the game.

[Go Swannies]

Spider was one of the danger men. Who was tagging him? And who was on Mitchell and Vandenberg - and even Crawf (who is becoming less injured every week)? They had much less impact today than they normally have. They were well held and that gave us room to move.

[NMWBloods]

Crouch was on Crawford and did a good job.

Maxfield was on Vandenberg I think and was probably beaten.

Kirk was on Mitchell and did a pretty reasonable job.

[Go Swannies]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Crouch was on Crawford and did a good job.

Maxfield was on Vandenberg I think and was probably beaten.

Kirk was on Mitchell and did a pretty reasonable job.

Thanks for that. Now I'm even more impressed with Stewie's effort today. Vandenberg did to Freo last week what Mitchell did to us last year. He looked like a fully mobile Crawford retrofitted with an afterburner. And today he was just one of the midfield. I expected him to be the one to put the Hawks over the line - him and Spider moving forward and being a metre taller than our tallest defender.

[dendol]

Ball did do a good job today, despite some poor kicks. It also worked out extremely well to have him follow Spider in and out of the centre bounces. I dont think anyone else could have stopped Spider at FF.

Did anyone else also notice how we had Bazza move to Spider when the Hawks had a kick-in (bloody 14 of them!)? Bazza would then follow him up the ground and as soon as the Hawks kicked to a contest, he would run back to the forward line. I thought it was a great idea, cos the Hawks would undoubtedly look for Spider as a target, but with Bazza minding him, the option is suddenly more dangerous.

Buchanan should also get the job minding the kick-in taker. His defensive pressure is topgrade - one example being the O'Keefe goal in the first quarter.

[anniswan]

Originally posted by NMWBloods

Kirk was on Mitchell and did a pretty reasonable job.

Brereton was full of praise for Kirk, the way he tackled Mitchell the minute he got the ball....

[ScottH]

Originally posted by anniswan
Brereton was full of praise for Kirk, the way he tackled Mitchell the minute he got the ball....

Correction .....the second he got the ball....

[TheHood]

Originally posted by anniswan
Brereton was full of praise for Kirk, the way he tackled Mitchell the minute he got the ball....

Off the topic a little, but that was a great move from Roosy because it shut down a dangerous in and under player and kept Kirky in the clinches where he is best.

Kirky ended up with 2 more possessions and a goal ahead of Sammy.

[sharp9]

Vandenburg definitely beat Maxfield.

Crawford was much better than Crouch but didn't influence the game like he can...so I guess that goes down as a win to Crouch (in our book).

As for Mitchell....well they had 15 clearances to 1 at one stage of the 3rd quarter. 15 to 1!!!!!!!

There was agoal they scored from a ball-up near the wing at 45 when Mitchell ran to space near the boundary line like he was running to receive a handpass from a man in possession. The only thing was this was BEFORE THE RUCKMEN HAD TOUCHED THE BALL! Sure enough it went straight into his ample breadbasket....goal. I was impressed.

Unfortunately our fumbles cost us again. Bolton (C) went on to Vanders and he got towelled as well.....V scores a goal (or assist, can't remember) froma centre bounce where Craig did not take possession despite the ball rolling into both his hands..it then bounced off his shins and straight to his direct opponent...goal. I was not impressed.

Why don't we have any crumbers?

When the ball goes into our 50 and is brought to graound we are very uncompetitive. Other teams score lots of goals against us from crumbing! (Matera, Ladson, N. Brown etc. etc)

[Go Swannies]

Originally posted by sharp9
Vandenburg definitely beat Maxfield.




Why don't we have any crumbers?

When the ball goes into our 50 and is brought to graound we are very uncompetitive. Other teams score lots of goals against us from crumbing! (Matera, Ladson, N. Brown etc. etc)

I wasn't saying that Stewie beat Vandenberg. But he limited his influence and after V's last week that was a good effort.


And yes our crumbing both ends isn't up to the opposition. In our attacking 50 I've come to expect that the ball will come out on the rebound. In our defensive 50 I dread seeing how they'll find a way to score as they too often do.

[Thunder Shaker]

Originally posted by sharp9
Why don't we have any crumbers?

Because Schneiderman is injured?