lionlova
15 May 2006, 21:27
Big praise for Selwood
2:41:56 PM Mon 15 May, 2006
lions.com.au
While not downplaying Jonathan Brown's brilliant performance in Saturday's win over Hawthorn, AAPT Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews says that of Troy Selwood was almost as important.
Addressing the media at his weekly briefing, Matthews was keen to praise Selwood, who kept Hawks star Luke Hodge to just seven possessions and accumulated 17 of his own.
"The ability to be quite a good player offensively in his own right and actually to shut down one of their really good offensive players (Hodge) - that was almost as important to the game as Jonathan was," Matthews explained.
"The whole idea of a team is everyone playing their roles. And Troy's role was probably as critical as what Jonathan's was in an overall sense.
"No-one in their wildest dreams would have thought he (Hodge) wouldn't get it 10 times. If Luke Hodge hadn't touched the ball and Troy hadn't either - you would have lived with that."
Matthews said Selwood had probably earned the right to have first crack at opposing sides' gun midfielders in the immediate future.
"He has been the best performed," Matthews said of Selwood's standing amongst the Lions' potential tagging options.
"If you talk about the last 12 months and you do averages, his ability to concentrate hard and play really tight, he's done it better than the other guys we have given those tasks to."
The coach was also glowing in his praise of Brown, whose eight-goal performance was reminiscent of the one he unleashed on Essendon in Round 6 of 2005. On both occasions the centre-half-forward's contributions helped deliver a second win of the season for the Lions, with Brown seeing off a variety of opponents and collecting 20-plus possessions and double-figure marks.
"It was an exceptional performance," Matthews said.
"We knew the opposition had light defenders and that was all they had - light, inexperienced defenders, plus Joel Smith, who is small.
"We knew we had the size advantage and they would therefore try to make as little one-one-one contests as possible. And we said to Jonathan the important thing was to try to mark it but at least make sure there was a genuine contest so the worst thing was for the third Hawthorn player in the contest to mark the ball.
"Jonathan really attacked the ball in the air so if he didn't mark it, it came to ground. We got a few ground level goals out of that and, if he had have marked it, we might have got a few more goals.
"We were very happy that he marked the ball as strongly as he did - he's very important to us."
2:41:56 PM Mon 15 May, 2006
lions.com.au
While not downplaying Jonathan Brown's brilliant performance in Saturday's win over Hawthorn, AAPT Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews says that of Troy Selwood was almost as important.
Addressing the media at his weekly briefing, Matthews was keen to praise Selwood, who kept Hawks star Luke Hodge to just seven possessions and accumulated 17 of his own.
"The ability to be quite a good player offensively in his own right and actually to shut down one of their really good offensive players (Hodge) - that was almost as important to the game as Jonathan was," Matthews explained.
"The whole idea of a team is everyone playing their roles. And Troy's role was probably as critical as what Jonathan's was in an overall sense.
"No-one in their wildest dreams would have thought he (Hodge) wouldn't get it 10 times. If Luke Hodge hadn't touched the ball and Troy hadn't either - you would have lived with that."
Matthews said Selwood had probably earned the right to have first crack at opposing sides' gun midfielders in the immediate future.
"He has been the best performed," Matthews said of Selwood's standing amongst the Lions' potential tagging options.
"If you talk about the last 12 months and you do averages, his ability to concentrate hard and play really tight, he's done it better than the other guys we have given those tasks to."
The coach was also glowing in his praise of Brown, whose eight-goal performance was reminiscent of the one he unleashed on Essendon in Round 6 of 2005. On both occasions the centre-half-forward's contributions helped deliver a second win of the season for the Lions, with Brown seeing off a variety of opponents and collecting 20-plus possessions and double-figure marks.
"It was an exceptional performance," Matthews said.
"We knew the opposition had light defenders and that was all they had - light, inexperienced defenders, plus Joel Smith, who is small.
"We knew we had the size advantage and they would therefore try to make as little one-one-one contests as possible. And we said to Jonathan the important thing was to try to mark it but at least make sure there was a genuine contest so the worst thing was for the third Hawthorn player in the contest to mark the ball.
"Jonathan really attacked the ball in the air so if he didn't mark it, it came to ground. We got a few ground level goals out of that and, if he had have marked it, we might have got a few more goals.
"We were very happy that he marked the ball as strongly as he did - he's very important to us."