OUT: Crouch IN: Anyone

[DST]

I am glad to say Cheese did improve in the second half. He had to, his first half was ...............soft.

Crouchy, someone tell him. However who do we bring in for him. Taylor Gilchrist? No? Not available by rules?

Schneider? Oh yeah, gawn and having a wonderful time elsewhere3.

Mal? Probably, we need superman back.

Buchanan? Might have too.

Luke? Too injured.

And on top of that poor ole Macca was barely able to hold his own, he was in real strife with that shoulder, and can anyone see him getting up next week?

Houston, we have a problem.

Frustrating part is that if we had all of Merideth, Vez, Schmidtt, Murphy, Laidlaw, DOK, Thornton playing two solid years of football that we would actually have something to work with when you add them to Bird, Jack, Moore and White.

We have a solid base to work with.

DST

[Jeffers1984]

Looks like Crouch carried a knee injury and Roos regrets picking him.

http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7106/newsid/79096/default.aspx

Roos praised the courage of midfielder Jarrad McVeigh, who injured his shoulder in the first quarter but carried the knock through the rest of the game.

But he was less pleased with the output of McVeigh's fellow on-baller Jared Crouch, who laboured through the game with a knee injury despite declaring himself fit on Thursday night.

"Crouchy probably shouldn't have played," Roos said.

"It's probably disappointing from his point of view that he put his hand up and said he was okay to go but clearly the whole game, he went around with a wooden leg and that really hurt us in the end.

"He only trained for 20 minutes [on Thursday] night and he said he was fine but he didn't look fine to me tonight."

"Most of those senior players, you go by what they say and their word and generally they back up their performance ? he certainly was confident going into the game but clearly he wasn't able to do the things we asked of him."

[hammo]

Crouch was ordinary and just looks off the pace in the modern game and has no idea what to do when he gets the ball.

I have no idea why Barlow is the new whipping boy here. I thought his game was good and nothing wrong with his intensity.

[Robbo]

F.i.n.i.s.h.e.d

[Triple B]

Crouch was poor, but it was his first poor game of the year. Deserves another chance.

What was wrong with Barlow? I was very, very happy with his intensity this game. As I said in the game thread, I thought his intensity was 10X that of his last game. He actually tackled, busted his gut chasing and putting pressure on the Pies ball carriers, and broke a few tackles himself (won 5 contested possessions, not a bad effort). His ball use was also very decent, and he sent it inside 50 4 times. Not sure what people are complaining about. I fear he may become the new LRT, judged by many purely on preconceived notions, no matter how well he plays.

Just in from the game.

Agree with all the above. I thought Barlow showed more endeavour without the ball tonight than I've ever seen him. Some of his chases were excellent and very, well, unBarlowlike.

Crouchy was lamentable and that spray that Roos has given him above is very, very damning. First time I've heard Roosy, in fact I can't remember any coach, straight out admit a player has done the selfish thing by declaring himself fit when he wasn't. On tonights performance Crouch certainly deserves to be dropped, on the years performance maybe he deserved a reprieve. On Roosy's comments, we may have seen him play his last game.

[rojo]

IN

Barlow - for the rest of the season. Let's give him a go to see if he can realise his potential. If not then consider - OUT.
I thought he did some good things tonight - definitely no worse than a some of the others. Surely someone in the coaching staff can work with him re getting a bit more grunt into his game!

[BSA5]

I'm sure you would appreciate, the bloods are not judged by what they do with the ball, but without it. IMO he does not look interested in getting involved when he may get hurt. Harsh call I know.

See, I agree with all that, but I think tonight was an exception. Tonight he DID look interested in getting involved. Previously when he has played, he hasn't shown any interest in chasing his opponent down. If a player gets a break, he just gives up and hopes he can make space and hurt on the rebound. Tonight, I didn't see him give up on a chase ONCE.

I actually thought from the get-go his intent was good, though he still didn't seem quite sure of himself early. He was trying to put in physically, but wasn't sure how to go about it. He laid a good chase and tackle sometime in the first quarter, and I think that got his confidence up, and from then on he started to really improve.

Also, DST, Barlow only picked up Maxwell in the third quarter, and this coincided with the Swans starting to come back. Barlow led hard and strong up the ground and made Maxwell accountable. Eventually, the Pies pulled away in the last quarter, but that was hardly down to Maxwell getting away. More the two goals gifted to Davis, heads going down, perhaps old legs tiring, etc.

I should also say that reading that Crouch was injured, I've changed my mind. He needs next week off, and as many as needed after that, to get himself right. When fit, he's still our best small defender, and we have no other players screaming out for that position.

[Haz]

i don't understand people criticising barlow for lack of 'grunt'
I thought he was hard at it and not at all soft.
He did some great things, was unlucky at times, but I think instead of being critical of his performance people should be excited by the good he did, and excited about his upside. which is huge in my opinion!
leave him in for the rest of the season, then make a judgement.
just don't criticise him for lack of effort!

[UglyDuckling]

I think anyone criticizing Barlow's game tonight is suffering from pre-conceived notions of 'soft' and 'lazy' and a lack of mental flexibility. It was the best game of seniors he has played in a long time chased and tackled hard ran and carried and his disposal was alright. He has been 'soft' and looked disinterested in the past but definitely not tonight. The best of the 3 young guys that came in, he will play again next week because he deserves to

[Haz]

here here!

[UglyDuckling]

Roosey sounds pretty dejected, not happy jan

Mediaplayer - Video, Sports News Video - Sportal

[Robbo]

Barlow was decent I liked his game. He won't make it as a midfielder though, he always looks much better up forward and he is a beautiful set shot for goal so that's where he should stay.

[sWAns63]

Barlow is one to keep Crouch is on his final curtain call though like Leo and Mickey O.

[shaun..]

Barlow's effort was unquestionable, I've never seen him chase that hard before.. a very welcome sight in an other wise shattering loss.

[connolly]

The sad part about Crouch is he didn't know what to do when he got the ball. Time has past where you can get away with his type down back that offers no run from defence. Negating, big deal if he has lost all idea of the elemntary thing called disposal.

Not only has he slowed down alarmingly, his kicking is absolutely atrocious (master of the mongrel), gives no on field leadership as a senior player to the kids, but unforgivably was having a look tonight. His fumbles were caused by him taking his eye off the ball and looking for the tackler. His selection was a bloody disgrace given that we are in critical need of giving the opportunity to the youngsters to show their wares. I don't buy the latest Roosey spin that Crouch stiffed us. It was obvious from the Hawks game that he is too slow, lacking in skills and plays an obsolete game. All the kids showed something. Crouch has simply nothing to offer at this stage of the clubs crisis.