Todays game!!

[jenky28]

I am really proud of the way the swans went out there today and had a fair dinkum crack with nowhere near a full stregnth side!
Considering we had approx 6 senior players playing falling as short as we did definately did us proud!
All round fair effort!
What were others oppinions??

[footyhead]

I agree , good effort by Swans reserves side away from home, finishing strongly and with a bit of luck could well have given it a shake. Or come very close. No where near a blow out and excellent taste for the new kids.
Where was Ed Clarke?

[Nico]

Good positive effort.

Jolly - good,
Doyle - very good,
Moore - can he play - definite chance round 1,
James was good but for a couple of silly mistakes - good for R1 if Schauble is out,
Wiiloughby showed signs as did Vogels
No39 Heath Grundy showed genuine ability - dropped a couple of soft marks but showed he has a future
Earl Shaw - 18 Y.O ruckman who can play

If only the likes of Buchanan, J Bolton and Schneider had kicked to the top of the square instead of those stupid dinking sideways kicks, we may have pinched it. Have they learned at all? We had a tall in the square almost all game which it appears will be regular thing, yet they still ignored them.

[j s]

Originally posted by Nico
We had a tall in the square almost all game which it appears will be regular thing, yet they still ignored them.

Not to mention a "Hall" as well!

[j s]

I don't think Clarke played.

Did Shaw get any taps at all? I didn't see any! I was a bit worrried when he handballed off on that first free he got (uh-oh, is his kicking that bad?) but the kick he did later from a mark was good.

[TheMase]

Once players like McVeigh, Schneider, Moore, Willoughby etc progress to the next level, there will be no place for Spriggs.

Thought he was quite ordinary... his skills, his deciison making was questionable.

Not to mention he appeared to be very soft.

It wouldn't surprise me to see him not in the team 22 by mid-year.


As for our teams future, we look to have the kids to take us places.
Moore is going to be a gun I think, and Dempster was extremely promising (excellent skills!)
Powell showed signs of what we thought he was capable of.
LRT has improved out of sight, both in his deciison making and his skills.
McVeigh was solid, skills very good and didn't appear to be overawed by the opposition as he did many times last season (anybody that knows me know this is quite a big comment!)
Willoughby has excellent skills, and appeared to be quite quick also.

Vogels, Campbell and Grundy all look like they may have a future although Grundy did look a bit slow under foot

Doyle presented himself on numerous occations and took most of them.

Jolly was okay around the ground and up forward when given limited opportunities, however both Doyle and Jolly need to work on their ruckwork because they could've given us a lot more drive.

Heath James did a fairly good job although needs to not panic as much. Appears to have smacked on a heap of muscle in the gym in the off-season. So he is certainly stronger than in the past.

Schneider is definitely fitter, just needs to find the pill.

All in all not a bad effort, losing by 20 points to a full strength AFL side with our reserves team!

[Jeffers1984]

Good effort from our youngsters...lots of good stuff to work with this year. My take on some of the performances

Very Good:

Nicks - Hasn't missed a beat,
LRT- Was very solid...CHB is definately the possie for him

Good:

Vogels - Love my one grab players
Moore - hopefully we'll see more of Moore in the seniors this year. Good goal from 40 out
Doyle - Much stronger now, although still jumps early in the ruck
O'Keefe - Tireless worker, had butterfingers in the first half but came to life in the 2nd
Dempster - Glides through the ground, nice penetrating kick..if Okeefe is listed as 190cm..then Dempster is 195! He looks tall.

Average:
J Bolton - 4 weeks of skill training please!
C Bolton - Average, very poor kick in, in the 4th which cost us a chance at pinching the game
Buchanan- Bucky looked slow and has lost a bit of endurance
Spriggs - apart from that 1 nice assist to kirks goal, didnt do enough with his 13 disposals
Jolly- Really got lost with the new ruck rules. Still will be good for us.

[swan_song]

It was a good effort from the kids....with 13 of our "usual" starting 22 out, it was never going to be much more than a spirited training session for our B side. I was not overly impressed with Jolly's rucking (do we have a ruck coach?) but thought Spriggs did OK, likewise LRT, Kirk, Nicks and B2, and Schneids tried his best. I don't think the Bullies could really take all that much from the game. In reality they should have expected to win by a fair bit more, so great credit to our unsung heros for keeping the loss respectable. It will be different next time around with Hall, Ball, Willo, Maxie, Magic, Tadhg, Mathews, Leaping Leo, Crouchie, Saddo, Schaubs, Nick Davis, to name a few in the team!

[Nico]

Forgot LRT. I thought he was excellent at CHB. Put the ball under the arm and shrugged off tackles in some excellent attacking moves. Kept his feet well and seemed to read the play well when the ball was coming in overhead.

Would think Roos would be smiling with his effort and now gives more options for Goodes. Can only get better particularly with quality players around him.

Nicks was also in fine form although lairised a bit at times.

[BonBon]

In the first half of the game, Ry played crap and dropped the ball a few times. I filmed him getting a behind. I thought his headband was very posh. I want to buy one. (Seriously). Atleast nobody got injured. I thought Luke Vogels did well. I thought we were coming back in the end but I totally don't give a stuff that we lost. If the game really affected the H&A season, Roos would've put the 'real' team out on the field eg Stu, Hall, Schaubs...

[Slick Swans]

I don't know if it's just pre season or young players, but did anyone else think that our players looked slow compared to the dogs today?

[BonBon]

My only opinion on that is the youngsters were given a go to play.

[Bleed Red Blood]

LRT was fantastic.
I was dissapointed with James.
Grundy didn't do anything.
Kirk struggled, as did Jude's field kicking. Fosdike was awful.
Vogels looked good. Campbell started slowly.Willoughby and Scheider looked good but didn't get enough of the ball.
I was NOT impressed with Jolly and Doyles ruck work.
I was impressed with Spriggs.
Powell was 50/50.
Dempster was good.
Nicks looks as good as last year.
Craig Bolton didn't play very well.
I liked McVeigh's game.
Buchanen didn't do anything.

[Benevolent Ert]

Here's my breakdown of each players performance:

McVeigh: Got a bit of it and looked classy - looks likely to take another step up this year

O'Keefe: First half woeful - dropped everything that came near him - Second half very good

C. Bolton: A mixed day, good at times, but made some shocking errors at others

Willoughby: Showed some signs, might get a chance later in the year

Spriggs: Another mixed bag, was godd in parts, ordinary in others

Fosdike: I hardly spotted him - didn't seem to do much

Schneider: Not quite the Schneider of 2003, but not awful - did some good things

Doyle: Beaten early, but worked his way into the game - took a superb hanger

Jolly: Gets first hand to the ball, but doesn't seem to direct it, was passable, but hopefully improves on today

James: Got caught out once or twice, but battled hard, did pretty well

Nicks: Didn't we write this guy off 12 months ago? Guess we messed up on that call - he was great

J. Bolton: Provided a lot of good drive, but frustratingly went sideways a little too often

Dempster: Looked impressive, if he keeps it up he might push for a Rd 1 spot

Powell: Did well down back, got his hands to a number of spoils and generally kept his opponents quiet

Lew-Bob-Tom: Wow. Clearly the stand-out performance for me. Stood his ground at CHB, marked well - even kicked to the right options - hopefully this form keeps up!

Kirk: Reliable as always - stood out as an obvious senior player among the rookies

Buchanan: A little quiet, but had an impressive patch in the second half.

Moore: A lot to like about this kid. Showed some class

Campbell: Handy without being outstanding, Has a thumping kick

Vogels: Good. Clean mark, and good kick. Kicked 2 goals.

Grundy: Very fumbly early, but settled a bit later - probably needs a bit more time.

Bevan: Hard as nails, but didn't do a lot with the ball

Shaw: Looked a little lost early, but grew more confident as the game went on

Potter: Did a couple of nice things, but didn't stand out

All in all a solid performance by a very inexperienced group.
The thing that made me happiest was the form of our young talls - Lew-Bob-Tom, Dempster, Vogels, Campbell, Powell and James all showed a lot of promise - hopefully a couple of them can force their way into the 18 - there's a gaping hole there at CHB for a start!

[dread and might]

my 2 cents (from TV).

Spriggs- Better disposal than i had expected considering the reputation, could have done moree with it. Don't know about the "soft" call the dude is tiny

Moore- Looked great when he had it. Surely will get some seniors time off the bench.

James- OK at best. tough job to do.

ROK- came good after sloppy first half

Vogels- I like i like

Dempster- Looked good when he had it.

J Bolton- Usual hardworking game with a few questionable disposals

Jolly- OK. As referred to in the tv commentary, needs to keep eyes on the ball in the ruck or it will cost us.

mc veigh- Looks like he is ready to step up to the next level this year. Classy.

LRT- fantastic. possibly our BOG???

Thought the Dogs were average. usual suspects reliable cooney looks dangerous and gilbey as well