Jeff Wells

[Charlie]

Originally posted by BBB
Good on him. I thought it was a great read, as usual.

NOBODY commented on his amusing column last Monday re: Barry Hall never getting a free. I suspect this was because you all agreed with him. But when he has the audacity to criticise one of our little darlings certain sections of this board are up in arms. How dare he!! What would he know!!

Well as he pointed out, he actually does know. Dare say he knows a fair bit more than the majority of the inmates here.

The point of his article, hopelessly missed by most, was that he has been commenting on the Swans for years, mainly positively, but negatively if he sees fit, even in the days when the Swans got ZERO media coverage. He points out that it was HE who managed to get SOMETHING in the paper about the Swans in the dim, dark days before I guess a fair few here were not believers.

So what does he want? A medal? A tribute thread? If he wants to put his work out there in a public newspaper, he needs to accept he's open to criticism. From memory I didn't criticise the content, more the style.

[Mark]

Originally posted by BBB
Good on him. I thought it was a great read, as usual.

NOBODY commented on his amusing column last Monday re: Barry Hall never getting a free. I suspect this was because you all agreed with him. But when he has the audacity to criticise one of our little darlings certain sections of this board are up in arms. How dare he!! What would he know!!

Well as he pointed out, he actually does know. Dare say he knows a fair bit more than the majority of the inmates here.

The point of his article, hopelessly missed by most, was that he has been commenting on the Swans for years, mainly positively, but negatively if he sees fit, even in the days when the Swans got ZERO media coverage. He points out that it was HE who managed to get SOMETHING in the paper about the Swans in the dim, dark days before I guess a fair few here were not believers.

Is any of this relevant BBB, facts only cloud most issues on here these days !

[monopoly19]

He is the only name I can come up with when I try to recall a Sydney-based AFL columnist. That says something, I think.

I always find his columns entertaining (Just Barry Hall!) and today was not really any different, though I was surprised he would care enough to even consider writing what he did in regards to this board.

He's getting the Swans out there - that's all that matters, IMHO.

[swan_17]

Originally posted by Charlie
So what does he want? A medal? A tribute thread? If he wants to put his work out there in a public newspaper, he needs to accept he's open to criticism. From memory I didn't criticise the content, more the style.

exactly....
He shouldn't use his position of writing for a state newspaper to make cheap digs at us.
even though i wasnt involved in the dispute on here (i could not really give a damn what he wrote) i'm still angry at his lack of professionalism....
though i think in the past he has done great things for the swans in sydney

[Triple B]

From Mark:

Is any of this relevant BBB, facts only cloud most issues on here these days !

[Reggi]

I've always figured Wells as a passionate but dispondant Sydney supporter. Noted that Rocket used to call him a grumpy old man.

What's he said?

[CureTheSane]

Originally posted by lizz
Maybe we should be flattered that he reads the board and can be bothered to mention it. Just as he should be flattered that we can be bothered to have threads here about him. Most of us would probably prefer to be disagreed with than completely ignored...

Like I said, I agree with most of what he said, just the snotty 5 year old way he sought retribution.

If anything I am amazed that someone could get so worked up at some little Swans messageboard.

What a tool.

He gets threads here about him because some of us have nothing better to do during a boring Essendon vs Hawthorn match and figure they can take 2 minutes to slam Mr. Sooky pants.

He, on the other hand, is a professional journalist, and needs to develop a thick shin I would suggest.

Anyway, Jeff, mate, it's all in fun.
Actually, I was hoping to provoke a reaction in tomorrows paper.

We could have an Internet/Telegraph fued.
Wouldn't that be fun?
I'd be up for it

[Mark]

Nothing really, pretty much what you guessed !

Originally bemoaned our form, and as usual was slated on here, then obviously read same and stated his credentials, to make such comments.

suprised he could be bothered tho !

[Reggi]

So he called a spade a spade (in his own unique manner), and was roundly criticised for it?

If he has been having a crack at Sydney in the papers.

a) Good
b) They've deserved it
c) Finally the Sydney papers have seen fit to report on them when they are underperforming and give a performance appraisal (accuracy of assessment not withstanding)

[Mark]

Yes i know, some of our more precious paranoids dont cope well with the truth !

[robbieando]

Here is the article from a few weeks ago, below I will post a sample of what was said in response to the article.

Swans in a mess
Comment by JeffWells
May 17, 2004

MIDWAY through the fourth quarter in Sydney's 27-point loss to the ordinary West Coast Eagles, Ten showed a fish finger commercial that said it all. Some drongo, looking very much like a Swans supporter, is trying to pound some tomato sauce out of a big bottle with the heel of his hand, with nothing happening. Thump, thump, thump like a red and white beanie banging on a brick wall.

Finally, when the bottle is loosened up, like the Sydney game plan, there is a big red splat symbolising the Swans' season. Last week, after they had lost their third in a row, there were reported grumblings that the mongrel media had been too quick to turn on them. Bulletin, gentlemen. The sauce is on the carpet and the jackals are ready to lick. You have dropped your bundle and the critics are poised with a red-hot poker as you stoop to pick it up.

If you keep losing to bums like West Coast, kids will be booting you out of clinics and mums pelting you with scones. Let's hope you can get a hand to some of them. You went from to 3-4 to 3-5. After beating the Kangaroos in round four you were world-beaters. Now, if you are egg-beaters, the eggs are even money.

This will be remembered as the day that Sydney started Jason Ball on the bench and Adam Goodes in the ruck and Stephen Doyle was dropped. Had I not heard coach Paul Roos explain that Goodes was simply not big enough to carry the ruck? But the rumblings had started. If Goodes won a Brownlow Medal in the ruck he should be back in the ruck and not fumbling around the forward line. So what happened to the Roos' method?

He has been universally hailed a genius and a saviour but he didn't stick to his guns. So now who is coming up with these brilliant ideas? So you pick two ruckmen on a big ground and start them at the bounce. Goodes, at 194cm and 96kg, takes the bounce against 204cm and 104kg Dean Cox. Both lead with their right knee and Goodes reels away with his smashed. And, after 10 seconds, that is the last we see of him.

Sydney now have only one ruckman, the yeoman Ball, who proceeds to play an inspirational game against Cox with Jason Saddington - who is as much a ruckman as he is an astrophysicist - as back up. Ball managed 23 hitouts to Cox's 27 but eventually the load wore him down and Cox came into the game, with a bunch of other tall young players who can actually take marks.

But apart from Brett Kirk, who was surgically dissecting Eagles star Ben Cousins until the third quarter when he was dropped by a kamikaze charge from Daniel Kerr, which went on report, Sydney again struggled to frighten anybody. Kirk could end up being a very confused young man. He is like some kind of AFL Simon Poidevin, always crawling out from under a stack of bodies after putting his on the line, while his teammates allow the opposition to sweep the ball away.

Sydney actually won the clearances 40 to 35 but around big Subiaco gathered only 156 kicks to 175. Barry Hall, with 10 marks and five goals, and Michael O'Loughlin, three goals, were worthy targets. But Ryan O'Keefe, Nick Davis, Jared Crouch and Leo Barry picked a bad day to take holidays. Little dynamo Adam Schneider was badly missed.

West Coast had all the emotional advantage with the announcement that big Glen Jakovich was playing the last of 276 games. They put him up front and, even though he is a defender who has moved about as nimbly as an aircraft carrier for years, he was able to kick three goals in the first quarter against shrimp Swan key backs such as Craig Bolton and Heath James.

If things keep going this way the Sydney administration will have a lot to answer for. If the promised people power ever surfaces the board could find itself selling beanies on Driver Ave. Goodes sacrificed. Captain Stuart Maxfield on the bench at the start of the last quarter. What a mess.

It was one of those days when you could run down the list and not stop groaning - or reaching for an axe. James and Bolton are both goers, but should be in back pockets. Tadhg Kennelly is a major talent but is wasted on the full-back line when he could be running through the middle kicking goals. Sydney haven't recruited the key position big guys. Look at who has been running around as the new boys, as Roos claims to be planning a couple of years ahead as well as trying to win games this year.

He got lucky when Schneider bolted out of the blue - a little hunk with an instinctive football brain. But Jarrad McVeigh, Amon Buchanan, Paul Bevan, Luke Ablett, Mark Powell, Matthew Davis, Jarrad Sundqvist and Aaron Rogers are no Wayne Careys. They are there to replace a bunch of players, including Maxfield, Paul Williams and Matthew Nicks, who are starting to show the inevitable signs of age - just as Wayne Schwass and Daryn Cresswell did in the last couple of years before quitting.

And O'Loughlin is becoming a week-to-week proposition in a weak-to-weaker team.

[Mark]

Bit worried about DRJ tho he seemed almost suicidal a few weeks ago

Is his channel ten contract up for renewal soon or something ?

[Reggi]

Yeah DR J - the Richmond game would have killed him.

Robbi - the JW article looks pretty fair to me. Where's the controversy?

Looks to me like a pretty accurate assessment of the coaching and structure during the West Coast game.

[Charlie]

Reggi, it is. The issue is actually his printed reaction to criticism on RWO. It was in today's Daily Tele.

BTW - good to see you back.

[CureTheSane]

The article is entitled "Swam's Rat Pack - Reality check for fans"

And it is directed solely at us.

He used a huge amount of space to have a sook about our mean coments we made about him.

The worst thing is that he is wrong.

If anything I notice more negative things posted about the Swans here than positive.

He lumps us all in the one basket as Sydney based supporters when clearly a significant % of us are Victorian based.

In the wash up, he just looks like a big sooky la la.

What we SHOULD do is email every media outlet, drawing their attention to his comments that HE put out there in the public realm and them post links to our responces.
Yes, wouldn't it be great if his comments improved awareness of this site?

haha

The only reason I can't resist posting again and again on this topic is because I envision him diluting his soup with his tears.
I hope he has a big comfort teddy