Reserves?

[gazza]

in canberra for w/end.went to 2's on sat,for3/4,too cold and lopsided to stay outdoors.
best players were pretty spot on,however others to impress me were prior very likely and looks big enough to play seniors
shaw has built up since i last saw him at 2's gf,worked hard
phillips small but reads the game well,makes good position
laidlaw is very promising
vogels played ff for 1/2,then rested at chb
moore was the standout

still believe that grundy will never be a senior player,too slow,too lazy. takes a good mark and kicks straight,but thats not enough in my book
soon off to manuka go swans

[ugg]

http://sydneyswans.com.au/default.asp?pg=insidetheclub&spg=reserves

Only 38 for Schmitty this week.

[SimonH]

All credit to the guys, but if we're winning by 20 goals in a 'top of the table clash', then we have worse problems than I thought.

The issue of going to VFL has been done to death elsewhere. In short: it's not disrespecting our Sth Melbourne heritage to say that this is a Sydney team based in Australia's most populous state, and it's our/their job to make Aussie rules work up here. Getting our seconds to play in Melbourne would be seen as a very unfortunate 'cutting and running', rather than using our resources to help raise the standards of local footy.

The problems with the ACT are undoubtedly of our own making because we've significantly improved the quality of football played by our 2nds-- there is no way that the standard of players in the ACT competition has gone backwards (in any noticeable way) since 2004 when we were a mid-table team.

ACTAFL is going through some tough times, and if Wagga are thinking of packing up their bat and ball, it'll be that much worse.

The ideal result for us would be a NSW/ACT 'super league', because 7 other teams comprised of the best 150 players from the greater NSW/ACT area would give the Reserves a decent workout (and would have ancillary benefits like developing elite youngsters faster by giving them a higher-standard top level comp to play in). But it would require $ and support from the AFL (as well as the backing of Sydney, ACT and other local comps). In lieu of that, though, Sydney have to provide logistical support to get the ACT comp back on an even keel. Having thrown their hat in the ring with Canberra, Sydney can't just rock up every week and expect it to be there for them. I'm not saying that we're not doing anything, but self-evidently we need to do more.

As a 'low rent' version of the super league idea: if Wagga Tigers aren't cutting it, then a representative southern and Riverina FLs team would certainly be very competitive in Canberra. The big issue would be persuading the clubs to participate by releasing their best & brightest (which would presumably be a question of cash).

[Thunder Shaker]

Originally posted by ugg
I've noticed on the Canberra Times site that the Wagga Tigers are almost certain to leave the AFL Canberra comp. With Weston Creek struggling to maintain a competitive side, I wonder what this means for our reserves?

We should not field our own side in the reserves, but instead we should spread our players among the other sides. The SA and WA clubs do this with their reserves players and there's no good reason why we can't do the same.

The WAFL model would be a good model to follow. I think the players in the Eagles and Freo sides are drafted by the WAFL clubs with first pick going to the bottom club from the last season.

The draft tactics would be particularly interesting. A player like Spriggs would be worth a lot more in the draft than
a player like Goodes, because the former would be much more likely to play lots of games for the reserves club.

[SimonH]

Originally posted by gazza
in canberra for w/end.went to 2's on sat,for3/4,too cold and lopsided to stay outdoors.
...

Do you write the Swans website wraps on the 2nds? They quote the 3/4 time score as the final score!

[ugg]

Originally posted by Thunder Shaker
We should not field our own side in the reserves, but instead we should spread our players among the other sides. The SA and WA clubs do this with their reserves players and there's no good reason why we can't do the same.

The WAFL model would be a good model to follow. I think the players in the Eagles and Freo sides are drafted by the WAFL clubs with first pick going to the bottom club from the last season.

The draft tactics would be particularly interesting. A player like Spriggs would be worth a lot more in the draft than
a player like Goodes, because the former would be much more likely to play lots of games for the reserves club.

I can't see this working for two reasons:
1. The Swans have always stated the main benefit of having their own side (money considerations aside) is that they can dictate tactics and each player's position.
2. The geographical distances between the clubs would result in a logistical nightmare to send multiple groups of 4 to 6 players separately to different grounds.

[gazza]

Originally posted by SimonH
Do you write the Swans website wraps on the 2nds? They quote the 3/4 time score as the final score!

no i don't.
just another case of the swans website being incorrect

[SimonH]

Originally posted by ugg
I can't see this working for two reasons:
1. The Swans have always stated the main benefit of having their own side (money considerations aside) is that they can dictate tactics and each player's position.
2. The geographical distances between the clubs would result in a logistical nightmare to send multiple groups of 4 to 6 players separately to different grounds.

Reason #1 overwhelmingly favours retaining the 'single team' policy. There are plenty of players who I don't believe would have come on so well/quickly if they weren't playing every week under the direct eye and management of the coaching staff. Many Victorian clubs have some level of unhappiness and tension in their relationship with their VFL underling; and in SA (where the players are distributed evenly through the 9 clubs) there have been public spats between the Clones/Pahr and various SANFL clubs over AFL-listed-player selection. In an ideal world, they'd probably all prefer to run their own reserves in-house.

However, re reason #2: if Sydney decided to ditch the 'single team' policy and farm out its players to multiple teams, they would surely play in the SFL, not ACTAFL.

[liz]

Just got home from a weekend in The Nation's Capital where I froze my butt off on Saturday afternoon watching the reserves play, before repeating the experience on Sunday afternoon.

Over the whole game, I thought Moore was the stand-out - worked very very hard and was strong at the contest.

Vogels was on fire during the first half - he was marking everything that came forward and kicking well too. He didn't return to the field after half time, apparently being rested as an emergency for the seniors' game.

Bevan too was pretty good in the first half and he too was rested in the second half, again, I was told, in case he was needed for Sunday (despite not officially being named as emergency).

Other than those three, Laidlaw had a pretty good game, using his pace well and carrying the ball through the middle.

Phillips really is tiny (got to see him closer up than when I've seen him at the SCG) but he has very good instincts. He definitely knows where to run to the fall of the ball, and probably should have kicked another couple of crumbing goals.

Barlow also had a good game. He looks a bit gangly but is surprisingly agile. He set up some nice plays.

Willoughby and Schmidt were solid without being spectacular. Both were guilty, at times, of trying to do just a little bit too much when in possession. There were a couple of times when Wiilloughby was caught HTB when he really could have passed the ball off to advantage.

The overwhelming impression though was that the whole team is just exceedingly well drilled and right from the start they were too composed, too skilled and too quick for their opponents.

[chammond]

Just got home from a weekend in The Nation's Capital where I froze my butt off on Saturday afternoon watching the reserves play,

Looks like the basis for a match report, eh Liz?????

[liz]

Originally posted by chammond
Looks like the basis for a match report, eh Liz?????

Not really. What I've written is about as much as I can recall. Sometimes I take a few notes during reserves games but it was too cold to take my hands out of my pockets, plus I was chatting to a few people during the game too.

The sausage sandwiches were particularly good though.

[ScottH]

Originally posted by liz
Just got home from a weekend in The Nation's Capital where I froze my butt off on Saturday afternoon watching the reserves play, before repeating the experience on Sunday afternoon.

You must drive real slow.