Round 8, Sydney v Hawthorn

[i'm-uninformed2]

Is Parker a serious hard nut, a tough bugger, or a wrecking ball? Man, he goes straight at it.

[DK_]

Was Longmire too pumped to face the media? I haven't seen his usual post-match debrief.

[Meg]

Yes the video is on AFL site with heading "Franklin's 'fun' reunion with Hawk mates'. He had Buddy with him. Journos were more interested in Buddy than Longmire!

[liz]

Is Parker a serious hard nut, a tough bugger, or a wrecking ball? Man, he goes straight at it.

I was tempted to start a new thread in praise of Parker, but I'll stick in here instead. At the start of the year, I reckoned we needed at least one more mid to step up to the Hanners-JPK-Jack-McVeigh level to ease the workload off that group towards the end of the year. Parker has played some mighty fine footy since almost his first game, but you still sensed he was a notch down. He's now well on his way to joining that group. He probably won't make AA this season - its a tough gig to crack, especially if you're not a glamour name in the competition, but as an ultra-consistent, goal kicking midfielder he's certainly putting his case forward.

The moment I was prepared to mentally don the gold jacket last night was when two Hawks players were converging on a loose ball just outside their forward 50. A clean take-away would likely have created them a scoring shot to keep the pressure on Sydney. In comes Parker. He doesn't make the mistake of anticipating a Hawk gaining possession to give away a free. Instead he makes the ball his only focus. He doesn't get possession himself, but propels the ball away from the central corridor towards an area where the Swans had more numbers to create an even contest.

[Matt80]

Goodes as super sub. They floated it on the post match and I think it's the ideal scenario.

I think he should not be a Sub unless his body needs a rest. Adam lifts the whole team even when he does not get big stats. The Swans feel better about themselves when Goodes is in the team. There best performances last year came in a stretch against Collingwood, Essondon and the Crows when he was in the team.

The same has occurred this year. He is also very smart and needs to be taken seriously by the opposition. With Tippett, Franklin and Reid being dangerous he will never again get the best defender or the best tagger.

[DK_]

Yes the video is on AFL site with heading "Franklin's 'fun' reunion with Hawk mates'. He had Buddy with him. Journos were more interested in Buddy than Longmire!

Thanks! Found it on the end of the TV broadcast.

[ScottH]

I was tempted to start a new thread in praise of Parker, but I'll stick in here instead. At the start of the year, I reckoned we needed at least one more mid to step up to the Hanners-JPK-Jack-McVeigh level to ease the workload off that group towards the end of the year. Parker has played some mighty fine footy since almost his first game, but you still sensed he was a notch down. He's now well on his way to joining that group. He probably won't make AA this season - its a tough gig to crack, especially if you're not a glamour name in the competition, but as an ultra-consistent, goal kicking midfielder he's certainly putting his case forward.

The moment I was prepared to mentally don the gold jacket last night was when two Hawks players were converging on a loose ball just outside their forward 50. A clean take-away would likely have created them a scoring shot to keep the pressure on Sydney. In comes Parker. He doesn't make the mistake of anticipating a Hawk gaining possession to give away a free. Instead he makes the ball his only focus. He doesn't get possession himself, but propels the ball away from the central corridor towards an area where the Swans had more numbers to create an even contest.

Not to mention the contested marks he takes.
Seems to bob up unexpectedly, or takes the tough marks that most would drop.

[bondy]

Excellent summation of Parker, Liz. He'd be close to the most influential player on the ground last night.

[robamiee]

The Good: great game by the boys... aside from the inaccuracy we dominated pretty well.

The Bad: Eddie Macguire on the fox footy coverage was absolutely pathetic last night. totally unprofessional.. if he cannot separate his Collingwood role to his media role, then he should not be doing it/... Even my wife listening in the background made comment about it... simply could not let it go...

[cherub]

The Good: great game by the boys... aside from the inaccuracy we dominated pretty well.
The Bad: Eddie Macguire on the fox footy coverage was absolutely pathetic last night. totally unprofessional.. if he cannot separate his Collingwood role to his media role, then he should not be doing it/... Even my wife listening in the background made comment about it... simply could not let it go...

We've instituted the " mute if eddie's talking"rule in our house, if the commentary is otherwise tolerable. It says something that both Adam Goodes and Richard Colless were both prepared to publicly admit their dislike of Maguire. It's not often done in footy media circles, and you'd have to think there is quite a lot of long term bad feelings floating around.
Eddie must have done some really seriously unacceptable actions that we don't know about, as well as the offensive and insincere statements of which we are aware.

[crackedactor]

Joining in

I was tempted to start a new thread in praise of Parker, but I'll stick in here instead. At the start of the year, I reckoned we needed at least one more mid to step up to the Hanners-JPK-Jack-McVeigh level to ease the workload off that group towards the end of the year. Parker has played some mighty fine footy since almost his first game, but you still sensed he was a notch down. He's now well on his way to joining that group. He probably won't make AA this season - its a tough gig to crack, especially if you're not a glamour name in the competition, but as an ultra-consistent, goal kicking midfielder he's certainly putting his case forward.

The moment I was prepared to mentally don the gold jacket last night was when two Hawks players were converging on a loose ball just outside their forward 50. A clean take-away would likely have created them a scoring shot to keep the pressure on Sydney. In comes Parker. He doesn't make the mistake of anticipating a Hawk gaining possession to give away a free. Instead he makes the ball his only focus. He doesn't get possession himself, but propels the ball away from the central corridor towards an area where the Swans had more numbers to create an even contest.

I would also like to sing the praises of Parker. When the game was on the edge is when he made some great hard tackling and that lunge for the ball to knock it away from two hawthorn players in the last quarter was fantastic

[giant]

I was tempted to start a new thread in praise of Parker, but I'll stick in here instead. At the start of the year, I reckoned we needed at least one more mid to step up to the Hanners-JPK-Jack-McVeigh level to ease the workload off that group towards the end of the year. Parker has played some mighty fine footy since almost his first game, but you still sensed he was a notch down. He's now well on his way to joining that group. He probably won't make AA this season - its a tough gig to crack, especially if you're not a glamour name in the competition, but as an ultra-consistent, goal kicking midfielder he's certainly putting his case forward.

The moment I was prepared to mentally don the gold jacket last night was when two Hawks players were converging on a loose ball just outside their forward 50. A clean take-away would likely have created them a scoring shot to keep the pressure on Sydney. In comes Parker. He doesn't make the mistake of anticipating a Hawk gaining possession to give away a free. Instead he makes the ball his only focus. He doesn't get possession himself, but propels the ball away from the central corridor towards an area where the Swans had more numbers to create an even contest.

It was a breath-taking moment wasn't it? He was there at all the "big moments" in the last quarter - seriously among the top young mid-fielders in the game.

[RogueSwan]

I would also like to sing the praises of Parker....

I have mentioned this somewhere else a few weeks ago, but you would have to think Parks' would be at least in the top three for the B&F at the moment. At the start of the year when the rest of the midfield was off the pace he was pretty much the only one to be playing well and he has just gotten better since then.

[Auntie.Gerald]

agree Liz

Parks for me is becoming like a Michael Voss type midfielder or a Mark Rusciutto or a Nathan Buckley

Some of his courageous smashing thru tight spaces to offload to our fast moving midfield was just awesome last night !!

Parker is a 21 yr old man playing in a kids body............... every since I saw Parks first playing I thought here is a 200 game player because his decision making, hardness, competitiveness, kicking, marking, vision and all round football ability is simply A1A !

Awesome recruiting and very fortunate he was still available at pick 40 cause i just love watching the kid play football for the swans.

[Doctor]

Was fuming because I got stuck in Canberra, courtesy of cancelled and delayed flights, and didn't get to the game. Stupid bloody work trips. Anyway, I watched it on IQ on delay so didn't miss anything other than the first 10 minutes, when the wife realised she'd recorded the pre-game show rather than the game and started to record it properly! I was so delighted after the win that I waited up for a mate who'd been at the game and we watched the whole thing again on replay. It was a brilliant performance that was only close because of our errant kicking for goal. Great games by so many players. Let's hope we can keep that going against the Bombers before we get a well earned week off.