Changes to R21 Against St Kilda

[Nico]

No chance is Chad in competition with any of them . Even Stephens and Campbell , rate them but they are not at his level and have not proven themselves like Chad has this year . If stephens goes well then someone else can go for Chad

I don't think Campbell should be in this discussion. He showed enough in the games that he played that he will be automatically top 22. If he had stayed fit I am sure he would still be in the side. Unfortunately some young player's bodies struggle early. The injury he had is due to his body still growing and is not uncommon in young footballers whose bodies are not ready for the physical load they get confronted with. Braeden is an absolute bonus sitting on the sidelines. With a few games left they may just let his body mature and get ready for a tough pre season. A star in the making.

To me Chad is a walk up start when fit. No coincidence that our centre clearance work slowly ebbed away when he left the team. His great asset is he reads the play off the ruckmen beautifully, and unlike our other mids at centre bounces, he gets clean, quick and explosive clearance with his possessions. It will be nice to get him back before the finals, fresh and raring to go. It will give the opposition a lot more to think about.

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I think the primary attribute required of a small defensive forward is the footspeed to chase and harass. Parker is an excellent footballer, but footspeed isn't one of his attributes. I remember reading that the lack was the reason why he fell through to #40.
I'm sure he will continue to make a great contrbution up forward, he's an excellent mark and more than 60% of his scoring shots are goals.

Why on earth would we even entertain changing Parker's role? He is a gun at how he plays his game.

[BRISWAN]

I’ve known a few South Australians over the years and you never take the South Australian out of them. It’s like Queenslanders, you never take the Queenslander out of them. People from NSW or Victoria look at themselves as Australian’s and don’t have that same regionalism inbuilt in their DNA.

HAHAHAHEHEHE. You can tell that they're from NSW & VIC.............................but you can't tell them much !!!

[barry]

We won't lose any player the club sees as integral to our Premierships assault!

Cows in a bit of bother this morning with Tex getting 6 matches for a racist slur at a Cows SANFL match.

6 matches for racial comment not directly at the person.
vs
2 matches for an elbow into someones neck.

Seems disproportionate.

[RogueSwan]

6 matches for racial comment not directly at the person.
vs
2 matches for an elbow into someones neck.

Seems disproportionate.

Agreed, both should be 6 matches

[Markwebbos]

Stephens has come to the realisation that just being a top 10 draft pick does not get you selected. Best thing that could have happened to him is that these other young kids went past him.
He's probably been having his ego pumped up all his junior footy.

This is what the bulldogs did with Jamarra Ugle-Hagan. Smart.

Maybe he’s homesick?

[liz]

Maybe he’s homesick?

He's from country Vic and spent at least some of his schooling as a boarder in SA, so that seems unlikely. It's more likely that he's frustrated with not getting more senior opportunities, but even that is supposition rather than known fact.

Even though competition for midfield spots will remain competitive over coming seasons, I hope he backs himself to win a regular spot in due course. If not, good luck to him elsewhere.

[Ludwig]

I don't think Campbell should be in this discussion. He showed enough in the games that he played that he will be automatically top 22. If he had stayed fit I am sure he would still be in the side. Unfortunately some young player's bodies struggle early. The injury he had is due to his body still growing and is not uncommon in young footballers whose bodies are not ready for the physical load they get confronted with. Braeden is an absolute bonus sitting on the sidelines. With a few games left they may just let his body mature and get ready for a tough pre season. A star in the making.

To me Chad is a walk up start when fit. No coincidence that our centre clearance work slowly ebbed away when he left the team. His great asset is he reads the play off the ruckmen beautifully, and unlike our other mids at centre bounces, he gets clean, quick and explosive clearance with his possessions. It will be nice to get him back before the finals, fresh and raring to go. It will give the opposition a lot more to think about.

It does seem obvious that Campbell and Warner should be in the best 22 of any AFL team, yet it's not at all obvious who would get dropped from the current side to make way.

Chad and Rowbottom each have 13 centre clearances from 12 games this year, although Chad has had a few breakaways that were really impressive. Nonetheless, 1 CC per game isn't enough to turn around this problem area, albeit it should help.

I'm not knocking the enthusiasm expressed for any particular player. We all have our favourites. Personally, I like them all. I think we have a fair few youngsters who each have something special to bring to the team. A few months ago I said that I was comfortable picking a good team from around 30 players and I wasn't too concerned which 22 were picked, as long as we got the team balance right. I still feel that way.

I would suggest that one of the reasons we picked Stephens in the draft is that he comes across as a level-headed kid without a big ego. He must realise that he will be a regular in the Swans' team in the not too distant future, but right now we have a lot of good midfielders that are in the same boat and they each will have to push hard to get to the top of the list.

[Bangalore Swans]

I don't think Campbell should be in this discussion. He showed enough in the games that he played that he will be automatically top 22. If he had stayed fit I am sure he would still be in the side. Unfortunately some young player's bodies struggle early. The injury he had is due to his body still growing and is not uncommon in young footballers whose bodies are not ready for the physical load they get confronted with. Braeden is an absolute bonus sitting on the sidelines. With a few games left they may just let his body mature and get ready for a tough pre season. A star in the making.

To me Chad is a walk up start when fit. No coincidence that our centre clearance work slowly ebbed away when he left the team. His great asset is he reads the play off the ruckmen beautifully, and unlike our other mids at centre bounces, he gets clean, quick and explosive clearance with his possessions. It will be nice to get him back before the finals, fresh and raring to go. It will give the opposition a lot more to think about.

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Why on earth would we even entertain changing Parker's role? He is a gun at how he plays his game.

People on here love Wicks. He’s a big favourite on Red and White.

Talent wise, he’s inferior to Chad, Campbell, Logan and Rowbottom.

He’s in the side purely to play a role and being versatile is not his role.

I’m one for playing the most talented footballs and working with that.

The coaching staff and Red and White have a different view.

[TheBloods]

People on here love Wicks. He’s a big favourite on Red and White.

Talent wise, he’s inferior to Chad, Campbell, Logan and Rowbottom.

He’s in the side purely to play a role and being versatile is not his role.

I’m one for playing the most talented footballs and working with that.

The coaching staff and Red and White have a different view.

I usually see eye to eye with you but on this one you are wrong . Wicks might not be as talented as them but his specialty is chasing like a mad man on the run and causing turnovers , which is what our game is based on . I agree he doesnt have enough else going for him so if his pressure and tackling ever drops away then he will be exposed for that lack of weapons , but that hasnt happened yet so he belongs in the team .

Chad and Campbell might be quick , but they can not chase and harass like Wicks can , Logan is a KPF so no idea what he even has to do with it , we play him instead of Wicks and we are too tall . Your other one is less talented than Wicks .

You mentioned Parker too , he is a superstar but quick he is not , so good luck getting him to run around in the fwd 50. Any quick HB flanker from the oppo would run straight past him.

Face it no one can do what Wicks is doing atm , and the team is better for it so he deserves more credit from you .

[Ludwig]

People on here love Wicks. He’s a big favourite on Red and White.

Talent wise, he’s inferior to Chad, Campbell, Logan and Rowbottom.

He’s in the side purely to play a role and being versatile is not his role.

I’m one for playing the most talented footballs and working with that.

The coaching staff and Red and White have a different view.

I agree that he's not the most talented player on our list, but he is quite versatile and doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. He runs well, marks and kicks well and we know he's a good tackler. He doesn't sky away from the physical contest, even though he's only 21. He played a fair amount in the midfield when in the ressies and regularly got over 20 possession and 10+ tackles. I think he could become a good midfield/wing tagger.

On a team with lots of offensive weapons, it's important to have some players willing to stick to the role assigned to them and do it well. There has to be some players focused on stopping the other side.

[Maltopia]

Wicks also has a bit of that aggro/mongrel in him. We lost some of that in the team after Zac went to St Kilda.

We need some of that fire now and then, though I think he went a bit too far last week when he (think it was him) gave away a downfield free kick by barrelling into the kicker way after the ball was disposed.

It is great to see how upset he is with himself when he messes up as he cares so much about doing well on the field.

One of our most passionate players I reckon.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Why on earth would we even entertain changing Parker's role? He is a gun at how he plays his game.

No idea, it's Bangalore's idea. I just suggested that it wasn't a great idea because Parks isn't suited to the role of defensive small forward.

[111431]

I agree that he's not the most talented player on our list, but he is quite versatile and doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. He runs well, marks and kicks well and we know he's a good tackler. He doesn't sky away from the physical contest, even though he's only 21. He played a fair amount in the midfield when in the ressies and regularly got over 20 possession and 10+ tackles. I think he could become a good midfield/wing tagger.

On a team with lots of offensive weapons, it's important to have some players willing to stick to the role assigned to them and do it well. There has to be some players focused on stopping the other side.

Fully agree - he's good at his role. Don't change a successful formula. Castagna at Richmond has played in 3 premierships doing exactly what Wicks does. He has been dropped this week but it is about the first time in 4 years. A team is a combination of skills, not all can be tearaway midfielders who can run forward but seem to find the wind against them when running defensively

[royboy42]

Yes, they flew to Melbourne this afternoon ..... into lockdown [emoji22]

Photos of Joey reunited with his family. I think they did their iso in Queensland?

[joeykanga]

Fully agree - he's good at his role. Don't change a successful formula. Castagna at Richmond has played in 3 premierships doing exactly what Wicks does. He has been dropped this week but it is about the first time in 4 years. A team is a combination of skills, not all can be tearaway midfielders who can run forward but seem to find the wind against them when running defensively

That last sentence says it all
+1