Andrew Swallow - Talk about Quiet Leaders

[cardje]

Just a love/hate thread about our captain.
Was surprised to see he's 2nd this year in average clearances and 1st since round 12.
I think he's a contest ball machine when he's firing which he looks to be now he's recovered from a Achilles injury. His drawback however is his kicking which is par at best and maybe his captaincy which is a bit quiet at times "most of the time" is a bit like Cotchin i guess.
Just wanted to know thoughts on Swallow or other captains who are a bit quiet

 

[Ancient Tiger]

Tremendous inside player.
Would love him at the tiges!
And a very fair player to boot.
People bag him for his kicking but it's ok and that is not what he is there for. It's a bit like criticising Cale Hooker for not kicking goals. There are others to do that.

 

[worthy]

Tremendous inside player.
Would love him at the tiges!
And a very fair player to boot.
People bag him for his kicking but it's ok and that is not what he is there for. It's a bit like criticising Cale Hooker for not kicking goals. There are others to do that.

It kinda is.

Very good player, kicking is not elite, but it's ok.

Some captains lead by example, some are vocal, some are both, the most important thing is that they have the respect and admiration of their playing group, I seems Swallow has that.

 

[Cynic]

Who would bag Swallow? Genuine gun who plays hard and fair.

The only thing that annoyed me about Swallow were the idiot posters who latched onto his last name as an omen David would join North.

 

[Abstract]

Just a love/hate thread about our captain.
Was surprised to see he's 2nd this year in average clearances and 1st since round 12.
I think he's a contest ball machine when he's firing which he looks to be now he's recovered from a Achilles injury. His drawback however is his kicking which is par at best and maybe his captaincy which is a bit quiet at times "most of the time" is a bit like Cotchin i guess.
Just wanted to know thoughts on Swallow or other captains who are a bit quiet

Great to seem him back to his best after such an injury. Always seems to dominate the clearances against the Crows. Weird considering we are meant to be one of the best at it with Thompson and Dangerfield...

 

[cardje]

Surprised that he is rated so highly previous discussions I've had in the past with other supporters have him rated very low. I think that he's a great contested ball winner, his kicking worries me a lot. It's a bit like Watson and cotchin neither are great kicks but good contested ball winners. Cotchin is better outside player/goal kicker. Watson better kicker/leader. But swallow was like pick 40 so i guess that's okay lol.

 

[mottrain]

North board.

 

[cardje]

North board.

Not really It was more bringing up the contest ball stat and i wanted to know people's thoughts on leadership and quiet leadership

 

[Watson_my_mind]

He is a gun and I'm worried about him this weekend

 

[Running Dog]

Hard to make a lot of noise when you're trying to swallow.

 

[Engimal]

Swallow's definitely a bloke who lets his actions do the talking.

 

[DapperDon]

He has the Lenny Hayes mantra to football. Takes his hits, gets up and goes just as hard at the next contest without a whimper or complaint. Would be respected by all his peers.

 

[Winter]

It's been an interesting month, many have been reminded why he won three B&F's in four years prior to his injury.

Will be close to our most important player on Saturday night, he and Watson likely to go head to head.

 

[ThisIsJake]

His kicking in general is ok, it's more his quick kicks out of the contest can be less than productive at times.

But in general, underrated and i'm on him for next years brownlow.

 

[Tas]

His 'poor disposal' is a bit of a myth, he gets a lot of the contested ball, atm is averaging 12.1 contested possession for 22.2 disposals and an effective disposal rate of 70.3%. He is also averaging 7.4 clearances from those disposals. So he is basically about 55% of his disposals come from winning contested possession and 61% of those contested possession result in clearances.

Ablett has about the same ratio of contested possessions to disposals and his effective disposal rate is 69.0% and averaged 7.9 clearances. I don't think Ablett has the reputation of being a poor ball user.

When you get a lot of the ball around stoppages you are likely being tackled or bumped as you are disposing of the ball and your accuracy isn't going to be as high as when you are out in space. The reason Ablett is rated as highly is that not only does he have very good inside numbers, on the attack he is lethal. Swallow is just missing that offensive part of the game which has probably held him back from reaching the highest of accolades. However, players like Ablett are very rare.

He excels at the coal face, 61% of his contested possessions result in clearances, Ablett only 45%, so a lot of Swallow's ball winning results in the ball clearing a stoppage which is vital from an inside midfielder. He doesn't do much stat padding, he doesn't really get involved in the give and get type of disposals which turn you from a 25 disposal player into a 30+ disposal player and improve your disposal efficiency from 70% to 75% from padding.

 

[Falchoon]

He reminds me of Luke Ball.

 

[MotleyLemon]

Suspect the Lord will be on his side this week.

Not sure if this clashes with The Shinboner Spirit, but look forward to it nonetheless.

 

[Ahern2Boof]

Just wish he could kick over 40 metres.

 

[mehow2g]

I think hes very good, the thing that annoys me the most about him he could be even better if he didn't track draw in the back every time he gets tackled and I mean it he does it all the time just watch him for a game.

 

[MotleyLemon]

Suspect West Coast fans would hate him for his similarities to Priddis.

 

[MarkT2]

Andrew Swallow is a pretty good player. Not great but definately good. It's hard to argue he's a particularly good captain at this point given his side has lacked leadership on so many occassions and he is not at all overt in his own leadership. Internally things may be different but that's hard to judge from outside. I think this finals series is huge for Swallow, his club, his fellow leaders and the coach. A good showing will see their stocks rise considerably but a poor showing has to result in soul serching that brings action or the board has to face to the music. This is a massive week for North.

 

[Righteo]

Can't think of anyone else on the North list who would make good captain material (Cunnington in a couple years maybe), Swallow is a gun and the obvious choice. Leads by example and not with words and that's ok.

 

[Roobs321]

Personally the likes of Cotchin and Swallow are among my favourite captains, they're my type of leader. Lot of love for their style, and I think Cotchin could be the player to turn around the recent legacy of Richmond.

Glass in some ways was a similar type, although obviously last line of defence which is somewhat different.

About 2-3 years ago I saw the likes of JPK, Boak and A.Swallow as being somewhat of the same mold (similar ages, role, under-the-radar, etc.).

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

Good player for sure. One of those captains that probably does more behind the scenes than we'll ever see.

 

[SterlingArcher]

At the time he was made captain I thought they had stuffed up by not installing Ziebell, but he hasn't come on as you would have hoped a captain would. This final series might define the next captain of the club, seeings as Boomer isn't playing and Petrie has a tough opponent in Hooker.

Cunnington, Ziebell, Macmillan, McDonald...all these guys are young enough to take over from the 27 y.o Swallow. The player who could lead North to victory on Saturday and have a breakout finals performance (Ryan Griffen and Josh Kennedy are two who come to mind as they were good players beforehand and then played their best form of their life in finals and haven't looked back since) could be the next leader. Swallow is a fine player but I don't see him as a long-term leader, not much past 30 anyway.

Agree entirely with this post below. Swallow is not a great player but he wins the ball from the inside and you know that no matter how North perform he will be under the packs trying to dig the ball his teams way. But with Norths finals reputation and their 5th year under Scott, it can't all be left to Swallow. As riteo pointed out, North need some more leaders from below, apart from Cunnington.

Andrew Swallow is a pretty good player. Not great but definately good. It's hard to argue he's a particularly good captain at this point given his side has lacked leadership on so many occassions and he is not at all overt in his own leadership. Internally things may be different but that's hard to judge from outside. I think this finals series is huge for Swallow, his club, his fellow leaders and the coach. A good showing will see their stocks rise considerably but a poor showing has to result in soul serching that brings action or the board has to face to the music. This is a massive week for North.