Rnd 15 MDT Sydney V Western Bulldogs. SCG 16.35pm

[Plugger46]

Sinclair is nearly 27. Not sure where this sudden improvement is going to come from. Just a battler.

[kilroy]

Yeah I dont think at 27 he needs more time, he should be primed as a ruckman by now. He just isnt that good, has a lot of drive and heart but skills wise he lacks.

[AnnieH]

Sinclair is nearly 27. Not sure where this sudden improvement is going to come from. Just a battler.

Yeah, I know.
He hasn't really had that much game time... was he second or third string to NicNat?
The pressure is on him now to perform.
We really, really, really need him.

[56-14]

Seems to me that Sinclair does a couple of handy things, but is not up to scratch.
If he's on a low salary, will be useful as a last resort back-up.
(Surely Derickx has to go.)

[Ludwig]

I would rank our Ruck-Forward players as follows: Tippett, Naismith, Nankervis
And would rank our Forward-Relief Ruck players as follows: Reid, Sinclair, Davis

We could go with a Tippett-Naismith as our first choice combo because both offer a lot as forwards and around the ground.

The problem we have now is that our best players in both categories are injured and our second best ruckman has not yet been deemed ready to play, so we've been playing our 4th and 5th options to cover these 2 positions.

The Dogs were missing 2 of their best players in Murphy and Dahlhaus, so injury is not an excuse for the loss. They just took their opportunities when they came and kicked a few goals out of nothing. We, on the other hand, had many good goal scoring opportunities that we let slip by. That and some mental errors cost us the game.

[Triple B]

I am intrigued about the OOB decision when Sinclair appeared to take a single grab inside the line before crossing it. Can't tell from the replay. Did anyone at the ground see it because I thought that actually changed the trend at the time?

Unfortunately he clearly juggled it....

[Plugger46]

Yeah, I know.
He hasn't really had that much game time... was he second or third string to NicNat?
The pressure is on him now to perform.
We really, really, really need him.

He ended up being 2nd string last year. Lycett started in the role and Sinclair was able to overtake him.

[giant]

The ironic thing about Lloyd not being able to find anybody running to space to provide a get out target in the dying stages, is that Lloyd is usually that guy.

Fosdike was the master of gut running to space and provided a get out for the likes of Leo and Tadhg. Lloyd does a similar job...

I was sitting right behind Lloyd at that play, he clearly chose against (an admittedly tough) pass to Hewitt in the centre to screw blind across his shoulders. It was a poor choice. What made it (and the choices of many of his team-mates in those final seconds) look so ghastly was how well drilled Daniel/Bont/Johanssen were in comparison.

Love how well our youngsters have played this year and the effort all season has been tremendous - but there's a part of me not keen to see us make the GF this year as our efforts under pressure this season suggest we'll be smashed.