Most Improved

[Old Royboy]

Monty for mine. I think it needs to be considered where they have come from - while both guys are now giving big contributions to our teams effort, Monty has come back from being de-listed not so long ago.

[dimelb]

I thought 'What? No LRT?', hit 'other' and then saw Liz's first post.
Hard to choose between the other two, perhaps NOG who's turned into a great stopper with a very good delivery into the F50. But Buchanan's hard ball gets and disposals out of the maul (excuse the term, ex-RU player, don't know what else to call it) are very useful acquisitions.

[Jeffers1984]

Bucky has given us more zip out of the midfield.
NOG has got the boot/clearances out of the midfield.

Very hard to tell, but i will say Bucky as he was close to being dropped twice, but came back with some absolute pearlers.

[Rob-bloods]

Has to be Amon, Luke has improved again this year but surely became 'established' during 2004, Buchanan has stepped up further this year.

Let's be encouraged that Dempster and Vogels have stepped in and not been disgraced and also LRT is finally showing some upside.

Once again we do not have access to the Judd, Deliddio Tambling quality single digit style picks, but there is apparently some depth in the draft this year so pick 16 might be really good!

Can anyone report specifically on Ericksen, Schmidt, Willoughby and Matthew Davis in the 2s?

[ItsAllGoodes]

All I can say about those four players in the reserves is based on the match reviews on the sydneyswans website and sportingpulse.

Schmidt would be very close to best and fairest in the whole comp...may have too many taking votes off him

Willoughby wouldnt be too far behind...has had some minor injuries i think...but has probably held him back

Ericksen is now injured (wrist), may sneak back for the last week or two of finals, but was developing quite nicely

Davis hasnt been mentioned that much...sneaks into the best players occasionally, but I would suggest he is behind a few in the list of most likely to play seniors...but he has probably been ahead of the likes of Powell and Sunqvist

[liz]

Originally posted by Rob-bloods
Has to be Amon, Luke has improved again this year but surely became 'established' during 2004, Buchanan has stepped up further this year.

A different way of looking at it is that there were more people on here (not necessarily the best authority, admittedly) calling for Ablett to be traded or delisted at the end of last season than there were for Buchanan.

Originally posted by Rob-bloods

so pick 16 might be really good!

Don't think we want to be aiming for pick 16. It is likely that 2 - or maybe even 3 - teams will qualify for a priority pick this year, so the premiership team is going to get around pick 18 as its first pick.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Originally posted by Rob-bloods
Let's be encouraged that Dempster and Vogels have stepped in and not been disgraced

Although have not had any rising star nominations this year, that's not the be all. I've been please with both and Moore & Malceski. I would also have liked to see Schmidt in senior company.

The improvement of both Noggy and Monty has been remarkable.

I think Ablett's work is really good in fact he may well surpass Kirk in a year or two.

Even though Monty still kicks floaters his speed off the mark has brought a new dimension to us at stoppages. One of the interesting effects of the umpires phobia about players pulling the ball in is that it's gunna bring about a resurgence for the true rover. So while Monty's improved massively the game seems to be changing to suit his type.