Round 4: Ainslie Tricolours v Sydney Swans Reserves

[swans]

Ugg nice work
For us Melbourne based supporter we look forward to reading report on the reserves.
It good to hear the lynch and walsh are coming along nicely at presend.
Walsh we got him in the draft as a forward ? I saw him in the pre session game in melbounre and he looked a bit lost. This is expected because he is new to the game.
due to the modern game a full forward need to play ruck duty as well as forward it may be quicker to bring walsh though as a full back who can play forward.
Do you feel he plays better as a future forward out backman

[Big Al]

Morton was pretty good in the 1st qtr yesterday and every coach and a lot of players were giving him a lot of praise at the qtr time huddle. It was like he's so lacking in confidence that people were being over encouraging when something good happened.

In the 2nd qtr he dropped some marks and his body language became terrible. Sadly he's a long way from seeing any senior football unless we get a pretty dramatic change in his attitude and confidence levels.

The other thing I noticed yesterday was the amount of talking TDL does. The shy kid from last year is making way for a confident footballer. His work ethics has also improved greatly and while he didn't influence the contest a great deal yesterday I don't think he's far off a senior call up.

[swans]

Morton was pretty good in the 1st qtr yesterday and every coach and a lot of players were giving him a lot of praise at the qtr time huddle. It was like he's so lacking in confidence that people were being over encouraging when something good happened.

In the 2nd qtr he dropped some marks and his body language became terrible. Sadly he's a long way from seeing any senior football unless we get a pretty dramatic change in his attitude and confidence levels.

The other thing I noticed yesterday was the amount of talking TDL does. The shy kid from last year is making way for a confident footballer. His work ethics has also improved greatly and while he didn't influence the contest a great deal yesterday I don't think he's far off a senior call up.

Morton is a player that we need to give alots of encouragement too. He may take thinks to heart. All player have strength and weaknesses.
swans is a great club that brings that best out of each player that all we ask of anyone to give there best. Norton lead the goal kicking at richmond a few year back. That means he can play afl but he need to feel welcome and sydney well bring out his best opportunity for him to improve and play in this great.club.

[wolftone57]

Anyone worth looking at if we get injuries for next week Ugg, Al, Liz, anyone who was watching yesterday. TDL, Lambchop, Harry, Armstrong, Walsh?

[unconfuseme]

Here are some answers to some earlier questions and some thoughts and opinions, for what they are worth;

If we need to promote someone for the Kangas, I would go with Doggie ... he shows it every week - just a pro who will let no one down and can fit in anywhere. I have been impressed with the couple of times I have seen Armstrong in the Ressies (another one we pinched from under GWS's nose ... played his junior football and grew up in Liverpool!). Has good skills, pace and appears confident and committed ... he's only 22 y.o. and I can see him as a future permanent senior player.

Saturday's game was hard to cop.

Overall, with the withdrawal of the travelling senior emergencies, we fielded a pretty young and physically immature side, against an Ainslie team that looks more balanced and maybe a bit stronger than last year. We were terrific in the first 1/4, great speed and skillful ball movement, strong at contests, and into the second qtr, it was really only their accuracy from limited opportunities that kept Ainslie in the contest. Swans dominated the inside 50's for the first half, but Ainslie's conversion from limited entries (12-1 including a poster!) saw them lead by 3 goals. After our strong start, they moved an extra man back, which was clogging our forward line. Jordan Lockyer had shown plenty up forward, but with the early loss of him and Meredith, we were down to 12 senior players and a heap of very young slightly built and inexperienced top ups*. But that is always going to be a problem against the non-AFL sides with player restrictions, so I don't know why I let it annoy me ... and sadly, whenever we looked to get back into stride, their # 27 wearing all green managed to have an important influence too! ... happily, only one more game in Canberra this year!!!

It is amazing though, what a difference those couple of experienced strong bodies make at this level ... we saw the same thing a few times last year (particularly in the Conference Final). The young guys are very skillful, but they are just not used to the physical and mental pressure, and fail to put a consistent 4 qtrs together. This then seems to infect some of the senior players as well, which is actually a good indicator of who is ready for senior call up and ho is not. So, it turned out to be a very frustrating game to watch, with some really impressive things, and some pretty average stuff as well!

TDL was good early, as was Lockyer ... they were both applying extreme defensive pressure in the forward half.
Armstrong was impressive as mentioned.
Jack Lynch** made contests up forward and was rewarded with some goals.
Doggie was solid and reliable as ever.
Walsh is a big strong bloke who has a crack, and he seems to learn something every game.
I like Mike Pyke! - he's now an elite AFL player - enough said.

Mitch Morton was good early, and I was happy to see him show some class, as he had seemed lost in other games this year. Unfortunately, even allowing that they moved a spare into defence, his hands did let him down after that, and you could see the frustration on his face. The good thing was that he was getting himself into positions to take marks and contest, so I think he will take something from the game.
Jed Lamb seems to be a bit like MM at present ... just struggling to make the right decisions (got caught with the ball a couple of times). You don't go first round in any draft if you cant play, but he is that sort of small to average size player who is not lightening fast, so he needs to get the ball and use it well.
They could well both be trying too hard ... a good challenge for Crouchie to get the best out of them.

Not sure what Kizza was like physically when he was 17 or 18, but Brandon is a totally different specimen to his bro! Probably about 180cm, but I reckon he would be about 65kg ringing wet ... he is skinny! Still, he has a nice left foot, shows some pace and he put his head over it and got some ball when played in the centre at times. He also got bumped off it violently, but kept bouncing up and getting in the face of 100kg opponents (even got pinged for what I could only suggest was "over vigorous play" at one point - # 27 again I think! - which was humorous in itself, and probably what got him a mention in the best!).


* I just wanted to praise all of the top ups (it may not seem that way?) They are generally between 17 & 18 y.o.s, and all very talented young athletes in their own right. This year they are all Swans Academy boys, and will be played on a roster basis from a pool of about 30 (unless they have age representative commitments that weekend and then Sydney AFL players will be invited). I believe it is a great initiative, provides priceless experience, and we will reap the rewards in coming years. But it is naive to think that these boys are immediately going to step up, some of them virtually from junior football and make an impact at this level ... as we see week in week out, some listed players struggle to do that.


**Jack Lynch has had an injury interrupted pre-season, he was Rookie Listed this season as a NSW Scholarship holder, and been in the Swans/AFL Talent systems since he was 13. I would not be concerned about his "motor", he has some exceptional "beep test" results from junior testing.

[Meg]

Great read, really interesting. You have certainly unconfused me about this match! I too like Mike Pyke. But for his bad luck with injury last year I think he might have become a regular in the firsts. I hope he gets his chance this year.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Is Pike able to jump freely again?

[Melbourne_Blood]

Just watched the highlights, that commentater does sound like a piss take version of Hughesy! Ha! Walsh took some nice grabs and looked confident (in a defensive role, interesting) , didnt notice much else in the 2 mintues and thirty seconds but is it just me or does TDL look like he's had a bit of a crack in the gym over the pre-season? Just appears a bit stronger through the torso and arms than the skinny spaghetti armed kid im used to seeing.