Troy Luff Medal - rounds 15 and 16

[Charlie]

Hello and welcome, once again, to the 2004 Troy Luff Medal countdown. Tonight is our eighth instalment, covering the games against Adelaide at the SCG and Geelong at Kardinia Park. We have well and truly entered the business end of the season; with only eight games remaining after tonight, any player able to make a run against Barry Hall must do so in these two matches.

Before we get into the games themselves, let?s review the leaderboard as it stands at the end of round 14:
46 ? Barry Hall
28 ? Brett Kirk
22 ? Paul Williams
21 ? Leo Barry
12 ? Ryan O?Keefe
11 ? Paul Bevan
9 ? Jude Bolton
8 ? Jared Crouch, Adam Goodes, Ben Mathews

The Crows game in round fifteen was rather tedious to watch. There?s no denying it; the style of football the Swans employed in 2004 is far from enjoyable for spectators. In a game where only fourteen goals were scored, Barry Hall?s four were the difference. At the other end, Adelaide forward Scott Welsh ? who had kicked fifteen goals in the previous two weeks ? could manage only two. Leo Barry ? who only five weeks earlier had held Fraser Gehrig goalless ? applied the clamps, demonstrating how versatile a defender he has become. In the middle, it was Brett Kirk who dominated with 30 touches.

The votes:
5 ? Brett Kirk
4 ? Barry Hall
3 ? Jude Bolton
2 ? Tadhg Kennelly
1 ? Jason Ball

Kirk takes a vote off Hall?s lead, but at this rate won?t draw level until round eight, 2005. Congratulations to all five players, particularly Kirky. This was a noteworthy week for Kirk, as he polled, for the first time since the TLM began, every possible vote. Every voter who participated in week 15 gave their three votes to Brett Kirk.

The Swans travelled to Geelong the week after looking to challenge for a spot in the top four. They had won six of their past seven games, but the Cats promised to be a massive challenge. Unbeaten at home throughout the season, that record would survive the Swans match. It was an arm wrestle where Geelong broke late in the last quarter, the Swans running out of time and losing by fifteen points. Throughout, the Swans were too one-dimensional. Against Matthew Scarlett, Barry Hall was clearly beaten for the first time since round one, and while Ryan O?Keefe stood up and kicked five goals, the job was too big for one forward. Amon Buchanan returned to the side and continued his good form.

The votes:
5 ? Ryan O?Keefe
4 ? Jude Bolton
3 ? Amon Buchanan
3 ? Brett Kirk
1 ? Ben Mathews
1 ? Leo Barry
1 ? Matthew Nicks

Congratulations to all seven players. In the three year history of the Troy Luff Medal, this was the closest round of votes, the first time there has been so many ties.

This brings us to the updated leader board, and Brett Kirk may yet be making a late run at Barry Hall. He has closed the gap to 14 votes, with eight runs and several very good performances to come. Nevertheless, he will still have to poll very well.
50 ? Barry Hall
36 ? Brett Kirk
22 ? Leo Barry, Paul Williams
17 ? Ryan O?Keefe
16 ? Jude Bolton
11 ? Paul Bevan
9 ? Ben Mathews
8 ? Amon Buchanan, Jared Crouch, Adam Goodes

Join me tomorrow night as we cover the games against Fremantle at Subiaco, and Brisbane at the SCG. Please feel free to post any thoughts in this thread.

Charlie

[liz]

Re: Troy Luff Medal - rounds 15 and 16

Originally posted by Charlie
This was a noteworthy week for Kirk, as he polled, for the first time since the TLM began, every possible vote. Every voter who participated in week 15 gave their three votes to Brett Kirk.

Do you mean that this is the first time Kirk has done it, or the first time any player has?

[Mike_B]

Re: Re: Troy Luff Medal - rounds 15 and 16

Originally posted by liz
Do you mean that this is the first time Kirk has done it, or the first time any player has?

I read it to mean the first time any player has done it.

[Charlie]

Re: Re: Re: Troy Luff Medal - rounds 15 and 16

Originally posted by Mike_B
I read it to mean the first time any player has done it.

Correct.

[liz]

That surprises me somewhat. I would have thought there'd been the odd game before where one player was outstanding to the point of being clearly BOG - Goodes in the PF last year, for example.

[Charlie]

I don't have the records from last year, but I certainly don't recall it happening, and I'm quite confident that I would have. Generally, the better the performance overall, the less likely it becomes. The Port game last year would have gotten over 50 voters, and because it was such an awesome team performance there were several players worthy of three votes, although Goodes was a standout. The odds of there being non-conforming voters in such matches are thus considerably higher.

That shouldn't detract from Kirky's achievement. I doubt there's been many performances in the last few years - throughout the league - which could be unanimously rated as the best on the field by 29 different judges.

[Bron]

This is from the 2002 TLM:
"In round 12, 38 people voted, making 114 the possible number of votes which could be won. Willo got 112, all but two!
I don't need to mention that this stands alone as the single best performance by any player all year. "

I don't recall any comment like this last year, so I think Charlie's right. The Willo one above stuck in my mind as we had made a special note of it in the presentation, and I'm sure the same would have happened last year. I recalled the Willo one immediately on reading about Kirky above.

[RogueSwan]

This may be a big ask, but what would be great would be if I could see how I voted each week so I can see how saw the game compared to my esteemed RWO colleagues.

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by RogueSwan
This may be a big ask, but what would be great would be if I could see how I voted each week so I can see how saw the game compared to my esteemed RWO colleagues.

I'd be willing to bet that you gave Kirk the 3 votes in Rd 15!

[sharpie]

Originally posted by RogueSwan
This may be a big ask, but what would be great would be if I could see how I voted each week so I can see how saw the game compared to my esteemed RWO colleagues.

i second that if possible.

it could just be part of the control panel stuff perhaps.

[ScottH]

Originally posted by sharpie
i second that if possible.

it could just be part of the control panel stuff perhaps.

Ditto!!

[Charlie]

The only way that I would know how to do that is manually, and with three big assessments in the next nine days, I can't commit to doing those at the moment. Sorry guys - I could probably do 2, but it wouldn't be fair to do those 2 but not any others, when there could be 30 people wanting them.

Charlie

[sharpie]

Originally posted by Charlie
The only way that I would know how to do that is manually, and with three big assessments in the next nine days, I can't commit to doing those at the moment. Sorry guys - I could probably do 2, but it wouldn't be fair to do those 2 but not any others, when there could be 30 people wanting them.

Charlie

i can understand that, that's fine, but can i suggest that starting from the beginning of next year a system is put in place so that automatically after you have voted, your votes appear somewhere for you to refer back to whenever you want.

thats why i suggested it could be part of the control panel, or a separate link altogether. probably requires a bit of programming and setup, but you, or whoever else maintains this site, have plenty of time till the next ballup.

[liz]

Originally posted by sharpie
i can understand that, that's fine, but can i suggest that starting from the beginning of next year a system is put in place so that automatically after you have voted, your votes appear somewhere for you to refer back to whenever you want.

thats why i suggested it could be part of the control panel, or a separate link altogether. probably requires a bit of programming and setup, but you, or whoever else maintains this site, have plenty of time till the next ballup.

Alternatively, you could save Des a heap of time by buying a notebook and pen and recording your own votes as you cast them.

[sharpie]

Originally posted by liz
Alternatively, you could save Des a heap of time by buying a notebook and pen and recording your own votes as you cast them.

notebook? pen? huh? are you some crazy time-travelling genius from the 20th century?

haha, i realise this, but really, im not going to write that stuff down, and even if i did, i would probably lose it all midseason.

but on a serious note, i actually think it would be a pretty cool feature for this site. but of course it goes without saying that if it is too difficult and time-consuming to achieve, then it really isnt worth doing.