2014 round 1 team vs GWS

[Ludwig]

Yes and the big money they are said to be paying him. I know I'm a bit mean (and I do wish Lamb the best fot a great career) but I had a little smile when I read his name on the emergency list. Reality strikes - AFL is a tough gig!

Shows that Jed made a good move going to GWS. If he can't get a gig at the Giants, what chance at the Swans? He'd have to sneak ahead of Ryan just to get on the emergency list.

[Mr Magoo]

Shows that Jed made a good move going to GWS. If he can't get a gig at the Giants, what chance at the Swans? He'd have to sneak ahead of Ryan just to get on the emergency list.

In the trial against us and one other I watched , I cant say i was overly impressed with his form, so didnt suprise me. Feel for him but sometimes these guys can get a little ahead of themselves. He would actually have been better off going to someone other than GWS as they have a lot of players that arent that much younger than him now and are all top draft picks.

As for ROK, again trial form wasnt impressive and really shouldnt be that worried. He's in his last season or so, still being paid well and its not like beig demoted if you were a 24 year old trying to establish yourself. He's not fighitng to impress for another five years , so if he can keep his ego in check , its not that bad a situation.

[Matt80]

I hadn't realised this until a colleague just pointed it out to me. That is almost as eyebrow raising as ROK not making our team, given the fuss they made about pursuing him.

The GWS Giants were furious that the Swans landed Franklin ahead of them, so they thought they would teach the Swans a lesson by dragging out two of our players by threatening the Pre-Season draft.

It was reported in the smh that Mumford is being paid around $650,000 a season (twice his swans rate) and Lamb is also being paid handsomely for what he has shown thus far in his career. I don't think that Mumford is worth that much, and Lamb has not made the starting 22 of a team that won one game in 2013.

The GWS should have conserved their money, maybe front ended some contracts (although this could dangerous), and used some big free agency fire power once there youngsters were more mature and the club had won some respect.

Instead the probably paid around $1,000,000 a year for Mumford and Lamb to go with the reported $1,000,000 for Tom Scully. This is not savy recruiting and use of funds!

[wolftone57]

So ROK does a couple of errant kicks. So why is McGlynn in the side. He does multiple errant kicks every game he plays.

Nico if you had seen the preseason games you would know ROK was not that good. He wasn't turned on or tuned in. Benny was pretty good with his delivery in fact, it has improved substantially from last year. That may have something to do with Buddy being there. Benny has been doing extra work on his field kicking this preseason. ROK is a renowned late starter, in other words he doesn't start to really motor until at least 3-4 games into the season. By seasons end he is a top gun. I don't see a problem with Horse wanting to take pace and form into the first match.

[ScottH]

Any chance this is simply a player management issue. Other clubs have done this in previous years. It might simply be saving him for a certain number of games.

Yep my thoughts too Nico, if he's not named in the squad in two weeks time to play Collingwood then we'll know there's an issue.

Me 3.

They have already used that excuse with Goodes and Tippett a few weeks ago.

[Doctor]

We've all seen his pre-season playing form but not his training form, so perhaps that hasn't been all that good either. I'm sure the coaching staff have had some concerns for a while and felt that this was what they had to do. I feel for ROK but I'm very glad that the team is being picked on form.

[Blood Tunnel]

Something I have heard is that Mummy had trouble doing all the sessions required. Perhaps a reason why we didn't wish to give or believe he was worth a 4 year contract.

[Cheer_Cheer]

It looks to me that ROKs omission is simply good list management.. The younger players are known for running out of steam in the later part of the year.. Look at Hanners last year.. He was killiing it early.. The days of playing all H&A games may be a thing of the past for all but a few key position players.. I expect the coaches to plan it so we have the best possible team as fresh as possible going into the finals..

[Swansongster]

Wonder what has been said internally and how the players feel about this.

Luke Abletts reaction on Twitter was interesting...

Then again Luke did his best to lose us the 05 GF so who cares if he is shocked!

Unnecessarily harsh. Lukey earned his dough.

[Ludwig]

It looks to me that ROKs omission is simply good list management.. The younger players are known for running out of steam in the later part of the year.. Look at Hanners last year.. He was killiing it early.. The days of playing all H&A games may be a thing of the past for all but a few key position players.. I expect the coaches to plan it so we have the best possible team as fresh as possible going into the finals..

ROK had a reasonable game against WCE. I think he got 28 possies. I've been saying we need a rotation policy for some time. Looks to be the right move to me.
Interesting bringing up Hanners, because his form has been rather subdued, and KJ hasn't set the world on fire either. Maybe Hanners is trying to pace himself for a big season.

[annew]

It looks to me that ROKs omission is simply good list management.. The younger players are known for running out of steam in the later part of the year.. Look at Hanners last year.. He was killiing it early.. The days of playing all H&A games may be a thing of the past for all but a few key position players.. I expect the coaches to plan it so we have the best possible team as fresh as possible going into the finals..

Yeah I reckon the irst few rounds are all about speed, then about round 5 the season gets serious

[The Big Cat]

Then again Luke did his best to lose us the 05 GF so who cares if he is shocked!

Don't want to remount my hobby horse but if Lukey hadn't kicked to Cousins there is no guarantee we would have won the flag that year! Don't mess with the space-time continuum!

[Alan]

What did Luke Ablett say on twitter? Oh yeah....happy new year to one and all

[wolftone57]

ROK had a reasonable game against WCE. I think he got 28 possies. I've been saying we need a rotation policy for some time. Looks to be the right move to me.
Interesting bringing up Hanners, because his form has been rather subdued, and KJ hasn't set the world on fire either. Maybe Hanners is trying to pace himself for a big season.

Sorry Ludwig but did you go to the game? I did. Ryano did not hit too many players with those 28. His disposal was woeful. Much like a first year player out of the Ovens & Murray League (I am sure many of them are better in disposal than he was against Weagles). He got plenty in the back half that were just simply bombed up to nobody or into Weagles hands or he HBed to a player in a worse possie to him. He was not the super cool player we are used to. We did not get the ball into our forward line too many times after quarter time until half way through the last quarter. Ryano was playing on the ball and loose in defence. he really did not do too much for an experienced player. If you take disposals as a barometer then he played well but if you take effective disposals into account then he played a bummer.

[Ludwig]

Sorry Ludwig but did you go to the game? I did. Ryano did not hit too many players with those 28. His disposal was woeful. Much like a first year player out of the Ovens & Murray League (I am sure many of them are better in disposal than he was against Weagles). He got plenty in the back half that were just simply bombed up to nobody or into Weagles hands or he HBed to a player in a worse possie to him. He was not the super cool player we are used to. We did not get the ball into our forward line too many times after quarter time until half way through the last quarter. Ryano was playing on the ball and loose in defence. he really did not do too much for an experienced player. If you take disposals as a barometer then he played well but if you take effective disposals into account then he played a bummer.

I saw the WCE game on AFLTV. No one played well in slippery conditions. I wasn't impressed by Ryan's game. Only saying that in slow conditions he can accumulate possies and get around the ball. I have been marveling at our midfield depth for a while and support the decision not to play Ryan just because he had runs on the board. It's not often that you get the number of high quality inside mids over such a short period of time the way we have, so something has to give, and it's generally going to be the older players that have to make way.

I felt that Laidler was going to be selected, because the timing was good, and his name kept coming up in the praise section of several interviews. I was expecting the disappointment of Horse leaving out either Rampe or Cunningham. So pleased that Horse had the guts to make what must have been a difficult call, but the right call.