Match Day Rnd 14 Sydney V Essendon. SCG 19.50 pm.

[Industrial Fan]

Only had 3 kicks in the 4th and two of them were absolute shockers, the other was a long kick to a contest.

[aardvark]

Along with Richmond the last 2min will be taught in Universities in years to come on how not to ice a game of football.

Goddard you legend. Sent about 10kg of pretzels to the dressing room after the game.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Loving having you back BIG AL....

[707]

Towers out this week and given the healthy list of burgeoning talent may not return. Has a contract for next year I think so that will save him.

I thought Reg was huge last night, Mills too.

[neilfws]

Nope, it's not the PNG causing the problem. It seems that if you don't preview it, for some reason it doesn't show in-line, but just as an attachment.

Had the same issue the other day. If you just post straight off, image doesn't appear. If you "go advanced", you get the preview, then it's all good.

[bloodspirit]

I wouldn't put too much stock in fantasy points. They are a very crude measure. Champion data are much more sophisticated and they had Florent as our second-best player.

Thanks Beerman. I feel a little bit vindicated. Totally agree about Champion data. Where do you get it?? Fabulous chart. Thanks for posting. (And last week.) The verdict on Towers is damning and unambiguous. This is why I gave up on Towers 12 months ago (even though I have conceded that, until last week, Towers has done enough since his recall to hold his spot). Now I say replace him with Dawson. Maybe Jones for Jack?

I would favour dropping a ruckman (Sinclair) if Naismith could ruck a whole game (or even 80%) but I don't think he can. Maybe, if Aliir is recalled, we can use Reid and Aliir to pinch hit and that will suffice. Alternatively, when Tippo recovers from injury and gets back to form he can play mostly forward and replace Sinclair.

Our depth at the moment is looking good, as it should while we have relatively few injuries. We've got Tippett, Macca, Robbo, Dawson, Harry C, Aliir, Talia, Foote, Laidler all out of the best 22 for now but who have shown some ability to play at senior level. Plus we have other promising talent coming through - Murray, Ronke, Fisher, Maibaum, Cameron - and project players like Pink, O'Riordan and I would almost put AJ in that category too for the time being since we have no idea if he's going to come good or not. It's a good list. It will be hard to trade in more good players because it will be hard to promise them games. Some of these players are inevitably going to be poached by other clubs. I only hope we get some decent picks in return.

[stellation]

Towers numbers pretty damning from that chart

Jobe Watson's numbers pretty damning, too. I wonder who spent time on him?

[111431]

Agree Barry, it was our experienced players that got it done. Rohan saves his bacon, but he is the golden haired boy.

Papley's smother was outstanding but he had 5 kicks and most of them clangers. Hewett; did he play? Unfortunately for Dean Towers he melted when it got hot in the kitchen. Hayward had 6 kicks and one of them was the goal he scored. The rest.......Ollie did some good things but he goes missing a lot. Next year. On the plus side I thought Melican was very cool under pressure.

Of the senior brigade it appears that when it is a bit greasy the Hanners clanger count goes through the roof. Reid....seriously Sam please string a few good ones together please. His kicking both for goal and field was horrible.

Very easy to be sucked in by the stats- Hewett looked like he played a defensive role on Heppell. I think you'll also find Towers may have been shadowing Watson

[ugg]

Haven't seen a replay (except for the last two minutes of which I have replayed 9 times) so keep that in mind but I would be very surprised if Towers was on Watson. Jobe plays as an inside mid and occasional forward so unless Towers spent time as the opposing mid or in defence I can't see this matchup happening. I felt Towers was a half forward so would have drawn the attention of someone like Kelly McKenna or Gleeson

[stellation]

That probably read as being a tad more coy than it was meant to- I don't know if Dean was on him or not, I actually was just wondering who was because they seem to have done a good job!

[Steve]

We have about 10-15 on any given week who make the play, and the rest play a role. The way we play relies on the latter to apply a lot of pressure. Last night:

Towers = 4th most 'pressure acts' for Sydney, equal 2nd most tackles for either side
Hewett = 3rd most clearances for either side, played a defensive role very well

I thought Florent was fantastic early, less involvement later but is so clean and composed. We wouldn't have him if Tom Mitchell stayed - I think over time we'll end up way ahead on that one, and the fact we were able to also get Hayward is the icing on the cake.

I can't remember a game where we've been able to pull off the miracle comeback like that at the death - when it was completely inconceivable that we could win from the position(s) we were in late. Sure there's been many exciting finishes and a late goal to seal a win, but to need 3 scoring shots to win with 1:30 on the clock - we just don't do that.

[barry]

I think we can conclude from this thread is that stats can tell you whatever you want to hear.

[bloodspirit]

I don't think Towers was useless but he was a liability with the ball in hand. The stats are damning not because they tell of low possession, suggestive of limited involvement, but because they show he used the ball horribly and had a negative impact on the game for us. By that I mean, over the whole game, and according to the sophisticated measurements of Champion Data, he actually did more harm than good for us! I'm sure that's not entirely fair or accurate but it is enough to corroborate our perceptions that he was crap and to drop him for next week.

[dimelb]

The thing I guess everyone likes about Towers is his pace. It showed up particularly well against Richmond last week when he took a pass from (I think) Parker and just motored straight past defenders, then followed up the knocked-down kick to put the ball where Papley could put it through.

And let's not dismiss him as a terrible kick - I wouldn't be surprised if his figures turned out a bit better than, say, Hanners' efforts.

I can see him making way for better players, but if he can continue to gain in confidence - and I think he is very much a confidence player - the very least he can do is to provide a useful trade.

[PerthSwannie]

Last minute on Facebook................ https://www.facebook.com/sydneyswans...4321186711324/

[Blood Fever]

Haven't seen a replay (except for the last two minutes of which I have replayed 9 times) so keep that in mind but I would be very surprised if Towers was on Watson. Jobe plays as an inside mid and occasional forward so unless Towers spent time as the opposing mid or in defence I can't see this matchup happening. I felt Towers was a half forward so would have drawn the attention of someone like Kelly McKenna or Gleeson

I reckon you hold the record at 9 Ugg. I'm up to 6 times and haven't tired of it yet. Miraculous!