Round 1: Brisbane v Swans @ the Gabba

[liz]

I really enjoyed Tom Hickey's game. It's good to have a proper ruckman again. In the second qtr when the Lions caught up it's interesting to note that Hickey was on the bench. It seems he's going to grab the opportunity to be a first ruck with both hands.

Having watched the replay, I think I'd have given Tom BOG honours. He was seriously good.

[dejavoodoo44]

The AFL Coaches Association’s AFL Champion Player Award
Votes for Round 1
10 Callum Mills (SYD)
7 Errol Gulden (SYD)
7 Tom Hickey (SYD)
3 Isaac Heeney (SYD)
2 Dayne Zorko (BL)
1 Harry Cunningham (SYD)

Which is looking good for a rising star nomination for Errol. At a glance, the only other possible nominees in the votes are Flynn and Jiath, with 3 and 1 votes respectively. And I'm not sure about there eligibility?

[Aaron]

Hickey had just one single Brownlow point (in 2016) and guess he would have got some reward last Saturday!

[Ludwig]

The new rule changes favour the ruckman who contributes around the ground and Tom Hickey is one of them. Sinclair is another. So the rule changes which lead to more continuous play and fewer stoppages have us going from a team with poor ruck stocks to one with a couple of good ones for the current state of play.

The effective trade of Aliir for Hickey has worked out okay for us, despite Aliir playing so well for PA. We just have to find the right defensive combo. McCartin, Dawson and Rampe looked undersized, but it seemed to work against the very tall Brisbane forward line. We have a fair few candidates to take on the other tall defender slot. I'm sure something will work out.

[dejavoodoo44]

3 Swans alumni atop the leaderboard: Mills, Membrey and Mitchell.

Maybe we should have a policy not to trade away Swans with last names starting with "M".

Fair point. Errol Mulden, Braeden McCampbell and Chad Marner all seem like keepers.

[Ludwig]

Fair point. Errol Mulden, Braeden McCampbell and Chad Marner all seem like keepers.

[dejavoodoo44]

Having watched the replay, I think I'd have given Tom BOG honours. He was seriously good.

Dermie was pretty sure that he'd add to his one career Brownlow vote. Which I agree with. Although, he did strangely pick Wicks for the night's rising star nomination. Not that Wicks didn't have a great game, but Gulden had a better game and is eligible.

[Aprilbr]

Errol just named NAB Rising Star for Round One!

[liz]

Errol just named NAB Rising Star for Round One!

As predictable as it raining in Sydney tomorrow.

[Mel_C]

The new rule changes favour the ruckman who contributes around the ground and Tom Hickey is one of them. Sinclair is another. So the rule changes which lead to more continuous play and fewer stoppages have us going from a team with poor ruck stocks to one with a couple of good ones for the current state of play.

This morning on SEN there was discussion about what the new rules mean for ruckmen. Apparently Max Gawn mentioned that the pace of the game meant he was always behind the ball. They read out the decrease in stats for rucks like Gawn and Grundy.

[i'm-uninformed2]

I love watching him leap too, but I love watching him land even more. He's like a cat. And I especially love it when his landing and next movement become part of the same action, something we were granted the pleasure of a couple of times against the Lions.

He’s got the best balance I’ve seen in a player since Goodes at his peak. I remember Eade once described the great man as someone who moved like a ball.

That play leading up to one of McDonald’s goals when he almost lost his balance in a contest, but held it, tapped the ball, gathered and then straightened to deliver a left foot bullet to Logan was phenomenal.

[mcs]

Having watched the replay, I think I'd have given Tom BOG honours. He was seriously good.

Amazing how well he recovered from an absolutely nightmarish first 5 minutes. Credit where credit is due.

[mcs]

He’s got the best balance I’ve seen in a player since Goodes at his peak. I remember Eade once described the great man as someone who moved like a ball.

That play leading up to one of McDonald’s goals when he almost lost his balance in a contest, but held it, tapped the ball, gathered and then straightened to deliver a left foot bullet to Logan was phenomenal.

Add to that his workrate too - the 'mark of the week' on the Swans website/facebook or wherever I saw it showed that whole wonderful piece of play where he was involved in the initial contest, then worked his utter butt off to get up the field and take the terrific mark. Lets hope he gets a good run at being injury free for a while now!

- - - Updated - - -

No if this team is a dynasty then the watershed moment will be threefold

When we signed Warner
When Kangaroos rejected McDonald
When we matched the bid on Gulden

Wasn't when we matched the bid on Gulden.... the real watershed element was that other clubs lets him slide that far in the draft, allowing us to match with such ease. We planned for a much earlier bid, and time could well tell that he really he should have gone much closer to where Campbell and Mcdonald were drafted - I'm pretty certain we still would have matched the bid but would of been a much tougher call to make potentially.

Will be interesting to see who eventually becomes the better player of the 3 main picks from that draft - Campbell may have the toughest role of the three in terms of his initial learnings in the side, but I reckon he may well end up the most important of the three. But all three are going to be very enjoyable to watch develop.

My comment really wasn't around individual players though - despite you obviously wanting to toot your horn as #1 member of the Warner club lol, I was referring more broadly to a potential point where the team as a collective demonstrated its potential (and its definitely only potential) capability more broadly. A Premiership challenging team isn't built on the back of 3 players alone, although all three are very likely to be central to any future success.

[Thunder Shaker]

Far too early to be making such calls, but we all know most commentators rarely rate us - so nothing will ever change in that regard. Only time will tell, but I do hope we look back on Saturday night as a watershed moment - the beginning of the next phase in SMFC/SSFC history

Yes, it's too early to be making such calls. How about we wait until after round 3. If we're 3-0, then is the time to start discussing it - especially when we would have defeated Richmond in round 3 to get to 3-0.

[mcs]

Yes, it's too early to be making such calls. How about we wait until after round 3. If we're 3-0, then is the time to start discussing it - especially when we would have defeated Richmond in round 3 to get to 3-0.