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Status Update on Mike Pyke.
Give him back his street directory of Canberra.
He will never make it.
Give him back his street directory of Canberra.
He will never make it.
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Est 1874
SMFC
09.18.33.2005 -
To the LRT complainers...only a week ago after the Geelong game these boards were filled with..."We missed LRT"...WTF?Comment
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We are all victims of rose colored glasses with him, when you listen to commentaters and other supporters they all say that he is no where near good enough to be playing AFL, would struggle to get a game in the VFL, just looking at him he just runs around not really knowing where he is going.
I'm sorry to say but Mike Pyke on your bike and back to the seconds.Comment
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Surely Currie is better?Comment
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You seem to have been asleep for the past year and half. While he wasn't great on Sat the lack of pressure in he midfield led to the Bulldogs forwards looking good. LRT has been good for us last year and the most of this year. It just seems that people have a set against LRT no matter how he plays...And the Swans are the Premiers...The Ultimate Team...The Ultimate Warriors. They have overcome the highly fancied Hawks in brilliant style. Sydney the 2012 Premiers - Gerard Whately ABC
Here it is Again! - Huddo SENComment
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..And the Swans are the Premiers...The Ultimate Team...The Ultimate Warriors. They have overcome the highly fancied Hawks in brilliant style. Sydney the 2012 Premiers - Gerard Whately ABC
Here it is Again! - Huddo SENComment
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Back on topic for a moment, to me it defies belief how readily people are writing off Pyke. Sure, he's not that great at the moment. He's also a 10 game ruckman. He's also improved tenfold in terms of reading the play compared to last year. His kicking and handballing have improved out of sight. He is learning at an extraordinary rate. What Pyke has achieved in such little time is nothing short of remarkable. There is no reason to believe he won't keep improving at the same rate until he is a perfectly solid AFL-standard ruckman.
If anybody had said that in mid-2010, Pyke would be leading the ruck (albeit in the absence of our two main ruckmen), picking up 9 disposals, 16 hitouts and 1.5 clearances per game (and he has even had the odd score assist!), they'd be told to sit back down and have a glass of water. Most of us were tipping him to take two years to even get a game! And yet here he is, actually contributing (not much, but then not much is expected) at AFL level.
Now, the question is, how high is his ceiling? Just because he has progressed quickly so far doesn't mean he'll keep doing so indefinitely. That's true. But at the same time, just because he's ungainly and a little bit of a spud now doesn't mean he will be indefinitely either. His form is on a steep upward trend, so to write him off is just stupidity.Officially on the Reid and Sumner bandwagon!Comment
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My money is on Pyke to make it.
With GC and GWS coming in over the next few years, he won't be going anywhere except UP our list.In memory of my little Staffy - Dicey, 17.06.2005 to 1.12.2011- I'll miss you mate.Comment
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I have said so. And i will continue to say exactly what i said. He is an average backman who competes hard. Sometimes he beats mediocre forwards (kosi, Hale). Sometimes he doesn't (Jack Anthony comes to mind).
There are a lot of LRT supporters on this site who think that competing hard makes you immune from criticism. What do you do if your if hard ain't good enough.
The reality is grundy is already a better backman than LRT is. LRT will continue to get games on monster forwards and will continue to get towelled up by them. He will succeed on mediocre forwards and resting ruckmen. Thats not bad. it is what it is.
And no amount of LRT is critical to our structure (which he is) changes him from being a competitor to being a premier backman.
On topic I think Pyke is improving and is our best tap ruckman. The question is whether give him too much leeway because of his inexperience. To say that "if anybody had said...at AFL level" is demonstration of support for him because of his inexperience and at the same time demonstration of how little he is contributing. I like him for the same reason I like LRT and Bevo - they compete. But merely because someone competes doesn't mean they will make it - yet Bevo and LRT have both played milestone games and been premiership players.
and in one sense it doesn't matter. What is the alternative. if the alternative is two ruckmen who aren't ready then that is the relevant comparison. the real question is whether the reserve ruckmen are ready. And that is the question which the twos watchers and pre-season form analysts have to work out.Comment
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Damn fine post."The Dog days are over, The Dog days are gone" Florence and the MachineComment
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Agree Satch. Two ruckmen in ressies who haven't played a senior game as against an experienced hard body who is still on the upward moving scale of ability and experience.
One Ressie ruckman still hasn't played THIS year due to injury......so what are you expecting?
One Ressie "ruckman" who is being played mostly in the forward line, who can take great marks, can kick a goal, but still hasn't got the "it" factor, a slow developer but a nice kid, b ut not being groomed as solely a ruckman, no matter what you mob think.
And the choices are? One Canadian who is working his arse off FOR US and has competed this year against two of the top teams when called in by dire emergency, not because he is ready.....or lets go to LRT , who is not a ruckman but who can pinch hit when required, or Goodsey who is not now a ruckman but will do a bit of tap rucking around the boundary when needed......
Give it a rest. MP is doing fine under the circumstances. He hasn't played this game AT ALL before the beginning of last year, not in junior, not in tac, not at school, not at all. Under the circumstances we find ourselves in today, we are lucky he wanted to have a crack at this game in the first place!!!!If you've never jumped from one couch to the other to save yourself from lava then you didn't have a childhoodComment
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Couldn't agree more Pimmy and for what we pay him he probably is the best value for money we have in the whole club.Comment
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I'm ready to get howled down here, but I thought Pyke did a more then fair job on Saturday all things considered. I'm sure no-one, let alone he himself, would have thought he would be leading our ruck team 18 months after first touching a sherrin and considering the talent he was up against on Saturday, he did better then I expected.
All I can say is God help us this Saturday!Comment
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