Marty Matt - Early Season Assessment

[TheHood]

I am interested in eveyones take on Marty Mattner.

His up side so far has been:
Plays tall and good overhead
Great hussle and always busy
Quick when in space

and

Needs to work on:
Using his first instinct and not overthinking kick-ins etc
General decision making when under pressure
Tidy up general disposal most of it from kicking on the run whilst unsteady


I am uncertain of positional changes if we are to get Mal back and Spida with LRT still to go down back. We seem to have a pleasing depth this year but selection head aches aplenty.

Craig Leo LRT

Mattner Tadhg Nick M


Other defenders in the mix:
Grundy
Bevo
Brennan (disposal is not at AFL standard)

Thoughts?

[ScottH]

Mattner has improved with every game. Except for his running too far, On Sat nite, it was hard to find too much to fault him by.

I think he has been a good pick up for us, and whilst I liked Dempster, Mattner is far ahead of Dempster IMO, thus our defence has been the best of any team this year.

I would guess Grundy would go forward when Mal is back, but that could be from this week for 7 weeks now.

Bevan to fill a utility type role, go where ever needed. I recall he hit Hall on the chest with a great pass on Sat. He has done this many times before, I think it is under pressure he tends to panic with his disposal.

Brennan has been fantastic, full of confidence, however as you mention his disposal has let him down badly. By all reports though his disposal in the Reserves last year wasn't that bad.

[liz]

I think that once Malceski is back and securely fit, he'd slot in well further up the ground, where his ability to deliver pinpoint passes into the forward line can be used to even greater effect. But even if we see him back this year, a HBF - where most of the running is in straight lines - is probably the safest place to play him.

It's a very handy group of tall, quick runners with penetrating kicks that the team is gathering together - as well as Kennelly, Malceski and Mattner, you can add Barlow and Goodes, O'Keefe (not so quick but with endurance, work-rate and marking ability that makes up for that), and waiting in the wings Laidlaw (not that tall, but plays taller than his height) and (hopefully not too far away) Murphy and possibly White. Plus Craig Bolton can play this way too, when he doesn't have a JB or NR to mind.

The big challenge that looms is how to turn one or more of these players into imposing key forwards over the next year or two for when Hall and O'Loughlin have moved on.

[stellation]

What I really like about Mattner is that he really looks to have true defensive smarts, being a solid defender and being a good running backman don't always go hand in hand.

Brennan has been fantastic, full of confidence, however as you mention his disposal has let him down badly. By all reports though his disposal in the Reserves last year wasn't that bad.

I really like Brennan, I think his defensive work is excellent and I'd rather persist with him for a couple of weeks than one or two of the other fringe players (despite his kicking). How many clangers did Brennan have from kicking on Saturday night? I don't really recall him having any more than any other player.

[stellation]

Bevan to fill a utility type role, go where ever needed. I recall he hit Hall on the chest with a great pass on Sat. He has done this many times before, I think it is under pressure he tends to panic with his disposal.

That was a good kick, but I thought Paul was a bit poor overall on Saturday night. I think he has shown a fair bit of improvement in his games this year, but he looked to me to have regressed a tad against the Eagles.

[Ludwig]

Don't forget Teddy Richards.

He has really looked great this year. We could actually have games where LRT and Richards can take the 2 tallest forwards releasing Barry, Bolton and the rest to dash forward out of the backline.

I thought Brennan was quite good. Most of his errors were mental, even many that looked like poor kicking. I think it was rather that he wasn't quite sure of what his team mates were doing than poor execution. It looked like he was kicking to where he anticipated a team mate to be, but lack of senior playing experience contributed to the mistake. Hopefully this will be rectified with more playing time.

It is conceivable to have all three, Richards, Brennan and Lrt in the same backline. This would release both Mattner and Malceski to play in the midfield and on the wing and along with Goodes, could set up a very potent run and attack through the midfield. I think Kennelly will remain back, as he is such a good outlet from the back line with his pinpoint kicking and unstoppable bursts of speed.

The Swans depth is looking particularly good at the moment.

Also saw that Schmidt was likely to play in the ressies this week.

[ScottH]

I really like Brennan, I think his defensive work is excellent and I'd rather persist with him for a couple of weeks than one or two of the other fringe players (despite his kicking). How many clangers did Brennan have from kicking on Saturday night? I don't really recall him having any more than any other player.

Without looking at the stats I reckon it was at least 3 passes that went nowhere.

1 led to the Eagles one and olny goal of the 1st Q
1 went OBOTF.
I don't recall the 3rd but I'm sure it was there somewhere.

[ScottH]

That was a good kick, but I thought Paul was a bit poor overall on Saturday night. I think he has shown a fair bit of improvement in his games this year, but he looked to me to have regressed a tad against the Eagles.

Not sure if he was on the ground much. He was barely sighted on the TV coverage.

[stellation]

Not sure if he was on the ground much. He was barely sighted on the TV coverage.

Aren't you the wonderful guy that types up the RWO stats for each game? Including the TOG %?

[ShockOfHair]

I

The big challenge that looms is how to turn one or more of these players into imposing key forwards over the next year or two for when Hall and O'Loughlin have moved on.

Yep, that's the bigger problem. The back six seems to be sorted.

Henry Playfair is another option. He must be rueing his hammie right now.

[ScottH]

Aren't you the wonderful guy that types up the RWO stats for each game? Including the TOG %?

Too busy getting the stats on RWO, to actually read them.

[stellation]

Too busy getting the stats on RWO, to actually read them.

Ahhhh, well Paul was on the ground for 3/4 of the game it looks like.
Watching the game I just thought he looked generally dumb out there. He ran into the wrong space, started to offer leads at times when he was only about 15 metres away and ran 2 metres then had to gave up on them, ran too close to receive handballs. Just generally looked to be a poor night out for him (to me at least). It happens.

[TheGrimReaper]

Don't forget Teddy Richards.

He has really looked great this year. We could actually have games where LRT and Richards can take the 2 tallest forwards releasing Barry, Bolton and the rest to dash forward out of the backline.

I thought Brennan was quite good. Most of his errors were mental, even many that looked like poor kicking. I think it was rather that he wasn't quite sure of what his team mates were doing than poor execution. It looked like he was kicking to where he anticipated a team mate to be, but lack of senior playing experience contributed to the mistake. Hopefully this will be rectified with more playing time.

It is conceivable to have all three, Richards, Brennan and Lrt in the same backline. This would release both Mattner and Malceski to play in the midfield and on the wing and along with Goodes, could set up a very potent run and attack through the midfield. I think Kennelly will remain back, as he is such a good outlet from the back line with his pinpoint kicking and unstoppable bursts of speed.

The Swans depth is looking particularly good at the moment.

Also saw that Schmidt was likely to play in the ressies this week.

Big Teddles has been super this year to date.

[NMWBloods]

Don't forget Teddy Richards.

He has really looked great this year. We could actually have games where LRT and Richards can take the 2 tallest forwards releasing Barry, Bolton and the rest to dash forward out of the backline.

I thought Brennan was quite good. Most of his errors were mental, even many that looked like poor kicking. I think it was rather that he wasn't quite sure of what his team mates were doing than poor execution. It looked like he was kicking to where he anticipated a team mate to be, but lack of senior playing experience contributed to the mistake. Hopefully this will be rectified with more playing time.

It is conceivable to have all three, Richards, Brennan and Lrt in the same backline. This would release both Mattner and Malceski to play in the midfield and on the wing and along with Goodes, could set up a very potent run and attack through the midfield. I think Kennelly will remain back, as he is such a good outlet from the back line with his pinpoint kicking and unstoppable bursts of speed.

The Swans depth is looking particularly good at the moment.

I'd agree with all of this. I like Brennan so far. Makes a few horrible disposals, but how many Swans don't! I'm hoping that gradually improves.

I think Mattner is more a winger than a defender and I'm looking foward to him moving into the midfield. With him and Malceski on the wings, we finally will have some goalkicking wingers, which makes our attack far more dangerous than before.

[Old Royboy]

I think Mattner is more a winger than a defender and I'm looking foward to him moving into the midfield. With him and Malceski on the wings, we finally will have some goalkicking wingers, which makes our attack far more dangerous than before.

There will clearly be a few more options for goals from the midfielders. Aswell as Mattner and Malceski, I'm sure everybody took notice of the running shot from 50 that Cracker launched (just missed but easily made the distance) and the long set shot from 50 that the Cheese made look so easy. As we've alluded to elsewhere, Cheese kicks goals like that in his sleep.