Tippett!!

[MattW]

The first half of last year, he was one of the best ruckmen in the comp. Since his hamstring injury, he's been woeful unfortunately; beaten to the ball, pushed off it, caught with it. It must be in his head. I just don't know whether it's a lack of confidence or his heart's not in it. Another month like that and he loses his position to Sinclair or Cameron.

[barry]

Oh yes, remember this time last year Sinclair and tippet were killing it...

[Joel Ridge]

If Tippett does not pruduce this year, will the Swans look to execute a Brock Oswieler style trade to clear his salary from the books in 2018.

An Oswieler trade involves the Swans finding a weak team with plenty of salary cap room. We then offer Tippett and a good draft pick (2nd Rounder) to the team to take Tippett off our hands.

The weak rebuilding team do the deal for the draft pick. They essentially get a 2nd rounder to take on the Swans debt.

Maybe having some money available at the end of the year may be handy for the Swans.

[Mug Punter]

If Tippett does not pruduce this year, will the Swans look to execute a Brock Oswieler style trade to clear his salary from the books in 2018.

An Oswieler trade involves the Swans finding a weak team with plenty of salary cap room. We then offer Tippett and a good draft pick (2nd Rounder) to the team to take Tippett off our hands.

The weak rebuilding team do the deal for the draft pick. They essentially get a 2nd rounder to take on the Swans debt.

Maybe having some money available at the end of the year may be handy for the Swans.

Not a chance he'd have any trade value at all...

[chammond]

He was embarrassing yesterday. So much money. So little return Ryder killed us in the ruck and around the ground.

The money's irrelevant. Tippett's still the best ruck forward in the comp by a long way. There are probably a dozen better ruckmen in the AFL, but none of them come close to Tippett's forward skills, including Naitanui.
And Ryder didn't kill us in the ruck. Naismith had more HOs than Ryder, and Naismith/Tippett outperformed Ryder/Trengove in hitouts, marks and tackles. Ryder dominated for a short period by jumping over the ruck contest (much to the delight of the one-eyed commentators), but once Naismith worked that out and rucked from behind, Ryder's influence wained.
The real ruck problem was that our onballers were sluggish, and the PA midfield roved our tapouts very effectively. We looked slow, and were dead on our feet in the last quarter.

[RogueSwan]

The money's irrelevant. Tippett's still the best ruck forward in the comp by a long way. There are probably a dozen better ruckmen in the AFL, but none of them come close to Tippett's forward skills, including Naitanui.
And Ryder didn't kill us in the ruck. Naismith had more HOs than Ryder, and Naismith/Tippett outperformed Ryder/Trengove in hitouts, marks and tackles. Ryder dominated for a short period by jumping over the ruck contest (much to the delight of the one-eyed commentators), but once Naismith worked that out and rucked from behind, Ryder's influence wained.
The real ruck problem was that our onballers were sluggish, and the PA midfield roved our tapouts very effectively. We looked slow, and were dead on our feet in the last quarter.

Nice summation there Chammond.

I think Tippo will be a lot better for the run and get back to the form he had early last season. It will be interesting to see how Naismith and Tippett go against Boyd as the Dogs solo ruck next week. Will the Swans drop Naismith and bring in an extra mid? Probably not.

[aardvark]

The money's irrelevant. Tippett's still the best ruck forward in the comp by a long way. There are probably a dozen better ruckmen in the AFL, but none of them come close to Tippett's forward skills, including Naitanui.
And Ryder didn't kill us in the ruck. Naismith had more HOs than Ryder, and Naismith/Tippett outperformed Ryder/Trengove in hitouts, marks and tackles. Ryder dominated for a short period by jumping over the ruck contest (much to the delight of the one-eyed commentators), but once Naismith worked that out and rucked from behind, Ryder's influence wained.
The real ruck problem was that our onballers were sluggish, and the PA midfield roved our tapouts very effectively. We looked slow, and were dead on our feet in the last quarter.

So what you're really saying is Ryder didn't need to bother because Naismith was doing such a good job of tapping it to the Port mids?

[Ludwig]

The money's irrelevant. Tippett's still the best ruck forward in the comp by a long way. There are probably a dozen better ruckmen in the AFL, but none of them come close to Tippett's forward skills, including Naitanui.
And Ryder didn't kill us in the ruck. Naismith had more HOs than Ryder, and Naismith/Tippett outperformed Ryder/Trengove in hitouts, marks and tackles. Ryder dominated for a short period by jumping over the ruck contest (much to the delight of the one-eyed commentators), but once Naismith worked that out and rucked from behind, Ryder's influence wained.
The real ruck problem was that our onballers were sluggish, and the PA midfield roved our tapouts very effectively. We looked slow, and were dead on our feet in the last quarter.

+1

[Meg]

Tippett had his head slammed into the ground in a tackle at one point - can't remember when, think about half way through match - which had me very worried after the various head knocks he has suffered in his career. I'm sure it would not have helped him Saturday.

[Mug Punter]

The money's irrelevant. Tippett's still the best ruck forward in the comp by a long way. There are probably a dozen better ruckmen in the AFL, but none of them come close to Tippett's forward skills, including Naitanui.
And Ryder didn't kill us in the ruck. Naismith had more HOs than Ryder, and Naismith/Tippett outperformed Ryder/Trengove in hitouts, marks and tackles. Ryder dominated for a short period by jumping over the ruck contest (much to the delight of the one-eyed commentators), but once Naismith worked that out and rucked from behind, Ryder's influence wained.
The real ruck problem was that our onballers were sluggish, and the PA midfield roved our tapouts very effectively. We looked slow, and were dead on our feet in the last quarter.

I tend to agree with this but my expectation was that we were getting a power forward not a decent ruckman who could also play forward a bit and kick goals.

The money isn't irrelevant as he is taking up a hug chunk of salary cap that could could be used elsewhere but I agree making it personal against Tippo because he is on a good whack isn't fair.

I think overall he gives it everything and plays his role, I just had higher expectations, and I think we all did....

[chammond]

I tend to agree with this but my expectation was that we were getting a power forward not a decent ruckman who could also play forward a bit and kick goals.

The money isn't irrelevant as he is taking up a hug chunk of salary cap that could could be used elsewhere but I agree making it personal against Tippo because he is on a good whack isn't fair.

I think overall he gives it everything and plays his role, I just had higher expectations, and I think we all did....

I understand the concern about Tippett's salary, but in reality that's a sunk cost that doesn't affect the team at all. It doesn't become relevant until the contract is up for renewal - or he gets traded out.

Like everyone else, I thought we were buying a 4 goal a-game forward in Tippett. But a 20 hit-out, 2 goal a-game big-man is still pretty good, particularly when you add his strong around the ground marking.

As has already been pointed out, the big test this season is how he'll cope working alongside Reid, who plays a similar role in the forward fifty and also likes to work up the wing and take a mark. Mind you, they're both so injury prone that it might never be a problem.

[Meg]

Like everyone else, I thought we were buying a 4 goal a-game forward in Tippett. But a 20 hit-out, 2 goal a-game big-man is still pretty good, particularly when you add his strong around the ground marking.

That was probably the intent when Tippett was recruited at the end of 2012 when we had two specialist ruckmen in Mumford and Pyke. And Tippett only played half of 2013 anyway because he was serving out his suspension from his Adelaide salary deal.

But it's been pretty clear that from year 2 of Tippett's contract (2014), when we recruited Buddy, Longmire has viewed Tippett as a forward/ruck. I think that was one of several reasons why Mumford was let go.

[jono2707]

We haven't received very good value for money for Kurt to date.

He'd better have a huge year for us to get anything like a decent return on our investment.

[Nico]

Naismith was a duffer yesterday. Was jumping too early or into Ryder instead of using his height and getting Ryder to come to him.

[mcs]

Naismith was a duffer yesterday. Was jumping too early or into Ryder instead of using his height and getting Ryder to come to him.

In my take of the game, that was what was happening early, and by the sounds of it the commentary team were wetting themselves over Ryder as a result. But as the game wore on, Naismith seemed to correct that part of it, as reflected in the final hitout stats. His biggest issue I thought was he just wasn't getting many hitouts to advantage at all all day long - and neither was Tippo.

Naismith took a few games to wind up last season as well till he found some good form - I expect it'll be the same this year as well.