it's time to go...... PAUL BEVAN

[Nico]

I think the red pen will come out for a few players on the list who haven't quite made it eg. Doyle and Vogels and hard decisions on a few others including - Dempster, Moore, Phillips, Simpkin and perhaps even Thornton. Brabazon appears to be good of late and maybe has gone to the top of the class on reserve midfielders. I doubt Crouch will retire as appeared a chance a few weeks back. Jack may not be a certainty to be promoted as a lot of people think. Rowe with a bit of height might be in the mix for promotion.

As I understand we must take a minimum of 3 draft picks.

[liz]

I think the red pen will come out for a few players on the list who haven't quite made it eg. Doyle and Vogels and hard decisions on a few others including - Dempster, Moore, Phillips, Simpkin and perhaps even Thornton. Brabazon appears to be good of late and maybe has gone to the top of the class on reserve midfielders. I doubt Crouch will retire as appeared a chance a few weeks back. Jack may not be a certainty to be promoted as a lot of people think. Rowe with a bit of height might be in the mix for promotion.

As I understand we must take a minimum of 3 draft picks.

I'd love Rowe to get another year, but he could be kept on the rookie list as a third year rookie. I know there's a limit of 3 second year rookies (which is why Simpkin was promoted last year - they also wanted to keep Rowe, Barlow and Jack). I don't know if you can have more than one 3rd year rookie.

Jack has to get one more year - his consistent reserves form demands that. But agree that he could maybe be kept on the rookie list.

Personally I'd keep Thornton ahead of Brabazon. It will be tough on Brabazon if he gets cut but despite dominating some reserves games, he just doesn't look "AFL" to me. If you compare him to Simpkin, he's played far better, more consistent football than Simpkin in the reserves. And if there was an injury crisis that meant one of them had to play next week, I'd pick Brabazon before Simpkin. But Simpkin has a few tricks that suggest he is some kind of chance (very long shot) of "making it", while I'm not convinced that Brabazon's style will. He's not soft, exactly, but he gets most of his possessions hanging off the back of packs. He's not slow but doesn't have the burst of pace that Simpkin has and his disposal is just so so. That said, even Brabazon has shown significant improvement this year so will be a tough decision to make.

And while Doyle's career does look to be drifting to a close, we'll have to hope than Jolly and Spida don't get injured next year. It's unreasonable to expect Currie to be ready to play senior footy for a year or two. And Ted Richards pinch-hitting in the ruck isn't ideal.

I think Dempster is safe, at least for now. Roos has made comments about him in the past that indicate he thinks highly of him.

Moore's a tough one. He's never really had much of a run, getting that finger injury mid last year when injuries opened up a spot for him was bad luck.

[Robbo]

GAWN: Shaw, Simpkin, Vogels, Davis, Doyle, O'Dywer/Smith and Brabazon

JURY'S OUT: Moore, Thornton and Dempster.

[connolly]

Brennan has a lot more upside to his game than Bevan.

There is no doubt thought that Bevan will retain his spot.

Yes for the obvious reason that he beat a much bigger and very dangerous opponent. Brennan got 11 possessions, five kicks - four of which were free kicks , which means he got one kick in general play , which was the one mark he took. He gave off six handpasses, all under pressure which is indicative of the choke Bevo had on him all night. He is credited with one gaol from a mysterious free kick about 50 metres away from the play. I Brennan thought he got two goals. So in summary Bevo kept the Lions second most dangerous forward to one kick in general play. Brennan did not get one kick off the deck. This is an extraordinary stat. for a leading forward. Two weeks ago Brennan had 23 possessions.
I realise the Bevophobes have pronounced that Bevos stats are meaningless as he is apparently a collector of junk back door possessions. But for the record Bevo had 13 possessions, nine of which were marks. Oh yes and he made one clanger. He tried to get some run out of defence by sidestepping an opponent he had towelled up all night.
Any fair estimation of Bevos game would be that he played a very good game.

[Robbo]

Yes for the obvious reason that he beat a much bigger and very dangerous opponent. Brennan got 11 possessions, five kicks - four of which were free kicks , which means he got one kick in general play , which was the one mark he took. He gave off six handpasses, all under pressure which is indicative of the choke Bevo had on him all night. He is credited with one gaol from a mysterious free kick about 50 metres away from the play. I Brennan thought he got two goals. So in summary Bevo kept the Lions second most dangerous forward to one kick in general play. Brennan did not get one kick off the deck. This is an extraordinary stat. for a leading forward. Two weeks ago Brennan had 23 possessions.
I realise the Bevophobes have pronounced that Bevos stats are meaningless as he is apparently a collector of junk back door possessions. But for the record Bevo had 13 possessions, nine of which were marks. Oh yes and he made one clanger. He tried to get some run out of defence by sidestepping an opponent he had towelled up all night.
Any fair estimation of Bevos game would be that he played a very good game.

You're a everyone-else-exceptBevophobe.

[Nico]

Yes for the obvious reason that he beat a much bigger and very dangerous opponent. Brennan got 11 possessions, five kicks - four of which were free kicks , which means he got one kick in general play , which was the one mark he took. He gave off six handpasses, all under pressure which is indicative of the choke Bevo had on him all night. He is credited with one gaol from a mysterious free kick about 50 metres away from the play. I Brennan thought he got two goals. So in summary Bevo kept the Lions second most dangerous forward to one kick in general play. Brennan did not get one kick off the deck. This is an extraordinary stat. for a leading forward. Two weeks ago Brennan had 23 possessions.
I realise the Bevophobes have pronounced that Bevos stats are meaningless as he is apparently a collector of junk back door possessions. But for the record Bevo had 13 possessions, nine of which were marks. Oh yes and he made one clanger. He tried to get some run out of defence by sidestepping an opponent he had towelled up all night.
Any fair estimation of Bevos game would be that he played a very good game.

Mate I was talking about the upside to our Brennan not Brisbane's Brennan.

[barry]

I quite liked Brennan's game also. He looked confident early and was pretty good after half-time. As you say, it was just around the time he got the knock that he looked shaky.

I've been a bit agnostic on Brennan up to now, even in the short term. But yesterday's performance brought me round to the idea that he's definitely a keeper for next season at least.

.

Keep in mind that Brisbane were letting him be the free man in defense in the hope that his disposal would cause a turn-over. Its a bit patronising, but we did the same to Merritt.

[connolly]

Mate I was talking about the upside to our Brennan not Brisbane's Brennan.

I was replying to your comment that Bevan will be retained for next week's game with the reasons.

[goswannie14]

I quite liked Brennan's game also. He looked confident early and was pretty good after half-time. As you say, it was just around the time he got the knock that he looked shaky.

I've been a bit agnostic on Brennan up to now, even in the short term. But yesterday's performance brought me round to the idea that he's definitely a keeper for next season at least.

One thing I like about Brennan is that he never gives up.

Against Melbourne in Canberra there was one instance in front of us where Brennan was beaten to the ball, but kept chasing, won the ball and as a result we kicked a goal. Big Al picked it up and was applauding Brennan's effort. If a guy continues to chase even when he has been initially been beaten to the ball, I'll have him in my team any day.

[connolly]

One thing I like about Brennan is that he never gives up.

He runs hard and straight at the ball, keeps his head over it (to his cost) and is a very good overhead mark. Leo Barry's heir apparent.

[liz]

Keep in mind that Brisbane were letting him be the free man in defense in the hope that his disposal would cause a turn-over. Its a bit patronising, but we did the same to Merritt.

Merrett was hardly the spare man in defence. He was playing on Barry Hall. I think you are refering to the commentators' comments that the Swans didn't mind conceding the first kick from a Brisbane kick-out to Merrett - not the same thing.

I'd have to go back and watch the game again but my recollection isn't of Brennan playing as a loose man in defence. It was a bit hard to tell because, beyond Bevan guarding Brennan for most of the game, the main aim of most of the defenders seemed to be to leave their man whenever possible to help out Bolton on Brown. But most of the game seemed to be man-on-man, suggesting we couldn't have had a spare man in defence.

[liz]

He runs hard and straight at the ball, keeps his head over it (to his cost) and is a very good overhead mark. Leo Barry's heir apparent.

Gee, I hope not. If he turns into a good mid-sized defender, great. But I'm kind of hoping we might find a full-back from somewhere who doesn't have to give up 3 inches in height to his smallest opponents. Barry's got away with it because he has an excellent leap and good judgement as to how to use it. But we'd probably have been a better team over the past few years if he hadn't had to.

Plus the benefit of having Barry as a FB was his rebound, not to mention his ability to befuddle the opposition with his dancing. I haven't yet seen any evidence of similar abilities from Brennan. But it's early days yet.

[connolly]

Gee, I hope not. If he turns into a good mid-sized defender, great. But I'm kind of hoping we might find a full-back from somewhere who doesn't have to give up 3 inches in height to his smallest opponents. Barry's got away with it because he has an excellent leap and good judgement as to how to use it. But we'd probably have been a better team over the past few years if he hadn't had to.

Plus the benefit of having Barry as a FB was his rebound, not to mention his ability to befuddle the opposition with his dancing. I haven't yet seen any evidence of similar abilities from Brennan. But it's early days yet.

He may not be a permanent full back but he will be a very good creative half back. The last "traditional" defender we had was Schauble. Every backman now has to be able to break out of defense and set up plays. Brennan fits well into that gameplan. Depending on the match up his marking is strong enough to play full back, depending on the opponent.

[shaun..]

He is the small backman playing on the big guys ala Leo Barry, Campbell Brown. I think he was on Leuenberger when he was up forward?

[Sanecow]

The reason I felt Bevan is more to blame for the loss than other players is the nature of his mistakes. A forward lining up for goal has his best shot and if he misses, well there's really nothing more he could do on the night. It's not a poor decision, it's just a limitation to their skills. Similarly a defender who is outmarked by an opponent; if he was in the contest and got beaten, what else could he do? To improve in these areas requires a lot of hours of work and may not even be possible (see: Dunkley's kicking).

But to give away a free off the ball that results in a goal or to try to sidestep and fail are errors of judgement that can be fixed without a second of training; it is just out-and-out undisciplined. And that is why I was @#$%ed off with Bevan's game far more than with any of the other players.