Changes for Round 5 - GWS

[Mug Punter]

Fair effort from MP OP!

Cheers

The Ins were pretty close and think it would have been 5/5 had Naismith not been injured.

Not quite so close with the outs, still cannot believe Foote is playing again but he has a good tank and could well be a decent run with player

[S.S. Bleeder]

Team balance or not, omitting Newman makes no sense. His performances have been as good as you could ask. Aliir I can understand. He's been poor and he's not playing with any accountability. Florent will just need more time but is going to be a great player in a couple of years. I'm so happy for Melican. He's had a terrible time with injuries. He will be far more accountable in defence than Aliir.

I must say that I'm really looking forward to the day that Maibaum, Melican, Aliir, O'Riordon, Newman and hopefully AJ play together. That will be one really solid backline.

[Mug Punter]

It has been a remarkable period of giving young players a chance and I'm sure it will pay dividends in the years to come.

In terms of debutants I can also see Cameron, COR and Maibaum getting their chances this year which by my calcs makes it NINE debutants in 2017

[707]

Newman out is a shock, really liked his poise, getting a lot of the ball and delivering too. Really like to know the thinking there given Foote and Cunningham survived and let's not mention KJack! I see Newman as best 22.

[CureTheSane]

As he was contracted the club could not get rid of him. My opinion everyone deserves a second chance, he has not tested positive and should be given that second chance.

I don't know the wording of the contract, but if there aren't some specific out clauses then I'd be pretty shocked.
Either way, I don't care. I had my opinion, and it appears that the club saw it differently (so did many here) so he stays and I accept that and embrace him as a lasted Swan.
My assumption is that the club also holds no ill will and he is being given a fair go.

- - - Updated - - -

Hard to say specifically why players were omitted.
Perhaps Newman refused to do as he was instructed on the day?
Maybe AA is being put in the 2's to allow some experimenting with his game. Trying some things that are best not played with in the seniors.

[Auntie.Gerald]

My guess re Newman being out is simply defensive matchups this week against a team that loves massive run and carry from their backline and wings and secondly our own rotation in our backline

We have to have a run with player against GWS and a traditional tagger as there is too much strike power outside

Shiels, Kelly, Wilson, Williams, Scully

So Cunningham and Foote and Marsh stay to run with / tag

I do believe Jones and Lloyd have proved at a higher level their ability rotating through our backline to get our transitions going

Mills in my opinion is borderline and could have easily been dropped for Newman but they are persisting with helping Mills thru this period due to his upside being higher and current form just acceptable me thinks

I think we may see Newman straight back in unless macca comes back next week and we see macca playing that half back link role like last season

[Nico]

It looked to me that Allir ran out of petrol tickets in the 2nd half last week. Maybe it is a fitness issue. Newman's omission is puzzling though. Could it be he looks good when he has the footy but is unaccountable for his man. Over to you Ludwig on that one.

[Flying South]

Hmmmm. An out of form Grundy (192cm) and a 1st gamer Melican (193) up against Patton (197), Cameron (196) and Lobb (205). I can only assume Reid will play down back as the third tall in place of Newman.

[Ludwig]

Hmmmm. An out of form Grundy (192cm) and a 1st gamer Melican (193) up against Patton (197), Cameron (196) and Lobb (205). I can only assume Reid will play down back as the third tall in place of Newman.

I called for Melican coming in for just this reason, because now Marsh will have to take one of these 3. I didn't think Aliir would be dropped. Then, like you, I remembered that we could always move Reid back if help is needed. We still have plenty of firepower up forward, especially with Sinclair, who is so good a dropping bombs.

My guess re Newman being out is simply defensive matchups this week against a team that loves massive run and carry from their backline and wings and secondly our own rotation in our backline

I think we may see Newman straight back in unless macca comes back next week and we see macca playing that half back link role like last season

As players come off the injury list, we will get to see that we really have a lot of depth across the ground, although much of it with little experience. If we suppose the current side does well, we still have Aliir, Newman, Rampe and Macca to come back into our defence. So what happens to the one's that will be there on Saturday?

[wolftone57]

Hmmmm. An out of form Grundy (192cm) and a 1st gamer Melican (193) up against Patton (197), Cameron (196) and Lobb (205). I can only assume Reid will play down back as the third tall in place of Newman.

No Reid won't. He'll play where he should play as CHF. Putting Reid back would be admitting defeat before the game even started. Marsh will probably play on Cameron, who is not a pack mark generally, Reg on Lobb and Melican on Patton. Melican played on Patton recently in the reserves trial and kept him to 2.

[wolftone57]

Personally I don't think we can win this. Our set ups are old and worn out. the opposition simply set up to combat every move we make. Horse has not introduced anything new this season so far. In the preseason games we played a few new moves, the short game, fast game, patient game, we experimented. It seems to me all the experiments were for nothing as all those strategies have been abandoned for the tried, trusted and obvious old game plan. GWS have our measure on the way we play. We don't change our plan to suit the new players, we are still working on the old plan to suit old players. It worked last year because of the sensational form of the players we had. But have a look what happens to it when a few players are down on form. Bullies have not been playing well either but they manage to win because they have a better plan and they have tweaked it over the summer. Bevo also has the ability to think fast in the game situation when things are not going right and make the right moves. Horse at the moment cannot. I think mainly because there are no moves that are obvious. but sometimes you have to come out of left field. In the 2012 Finals Horse pulled one out of the bag, Mummy off Parker on, Mummy was injured and needed to rest. This left us with one ruck but it worked. The extra run and in and under won the game. I am baffled he can't come up with left field moves. He has in selection, baffling moves really more so than innovative. I don't understand where the inventiveness has gone.

[AB Swannie]

I think you're right. Reid will play at CHF but may be used in an emergency back. I hope I'm wrong but I think Cameron would be a chance to kick 6 if Marsh is his opponent. This is the game Rampe being injured really hurts (pardon the pun). His ability to play on the likes of Cameron is priceless. I still kind of hope that Laidler gets brought in as an emergency and they play Melican or Marsh as a loose, intercepting defender.

However, to be fair, any chance we have to keep the GWScum from kicking a heap will be on the shoulders of the midfield as quick entries will kill us.

[SeanM]

I think Aliir had poor preparation for the season. So maybe best to drop him for a week since he is still relatively young and inexperienced in a demanding position. Though it would have been nice to have another tall in the team possibly Laidler.

Grundy and Smith have had a poor start to the season but I think we need to back them to gradually get back into form. It is ridiculous people saying they should be retired immediately. It is only four games into the season.

Fox is injured. I think it is good to rest Florent given the opposition and he has played four games straight. Newman has done well but someone had to make way for returning players. People have mentioned leaving out Foote, Cunningham and Jack but they are different type of players. Also not sure how natural a defender Newman is, he may end up more of a midfielder.

I am not optimistic about winning. But it would be good to be competitive for the whole game, see players return and not give up on the season.

[Billericay]

There was a time last year when Horse used to explain why he'd dropped players. It would be really good if he resurrected that.

[rb4x]

The left field solution I can possibly see to the lack of a third tall defender is to put Sinclair back on Lobb. He is the only spare tall we have and could probably spoil Lobb. He can easily spoil himself by dropping marks. No way Smith, Marsh or Jones can match Lobb unless they take a step ladder or chain saw out with them. We also have match up problems preventing Shaw, Williams and Wilson running the ball out of defence and we need speedy midfielders to combat the likes of Scully, Kelly, Shiel and Ward. Quietly confident of my tip for tomorrow, GWS. It is going to be an interesting radio call of the game with three Kennedy's, two Sam Reid's and two Smiths.