SSwans2011
Hall of Famer
Sorry Ticky, I'm going to deliver this thread earlier than expected, but in return I will be taking a lot of creative liberty with the "within reason" part of your invitation to create this thread.I'm giving it to you now 2011. The Preview is yours to do with as you wish...within reason
Hello. I'd like to dedicate this thread to a friend of mine that has gone missing. I speak of course of a football fan's best mate, The Lid. I miss you, and without you there is only crippling hope and expectation.
Anyway, we play the Adelaide Corvi this week, and that's controversial, because a New South Welshmen will tell you the plural for Corvus is Corvuses, and a Victorian will tell you it's Corvi. Up in Queensland, the only school we have is the one of hard-knocks, and to us Latin is the nationality of people from Latvia, so I don't have a clue.
Of course, we have a somewhat storied recent history with the Cuervos, and naturally the talking point will be THAT trade...
If you have been living under a rock and needed a reminder, in 2011 the Crows (its Kurdish for Corvus) traded us Tony Armstrong for Lewis Johnston in the most consequential trade since 2009 when we traded a third round pick to Brisbane for... a third round pick.
Now I don't want to put too much focus on that trade, but Tony Armstrong is killing it these days, and I'm not even sure what Lewis Johnston is up to, so the Corbeaux can cop that. And looking back on it, it gets even better for us, because the Krähen threw in 2 draft picks on top of Armstrong which we would turn into one of our all-time best Irish players (top 5 easily), Tommy Walsh.
There has also been a few other player movements between our clubs, obviously Mattner and Tippett, and then in 2021 uhhhh... ummm... look over there! It's Tony Armstrong cosplaying John and Yoko with Karl Stefanovic!
I'm very sorry for showing you this. But you don't see Lewis Johnston on the cover of newspapers cosplaying John and Yoko, do you?
Ummmmm, where was I? Oh yeah, I prepared a slideshow of what the next 7 weeks look like from here.
But onto this week's game, our opposition, the вране have a number of players. And some of them are actually pretty good.
MIDFIELD
Some of the good players to don a Qarğalar jumper include Rory Laird, and the man he was worked in great tandem with in the midfield this season. That is, of course, Jake Soligo. If our midfield can outplay those two and a rejuvanated Matt Crouch, they don't really have anyone else of note running through there.
For us, Gulden has emerged as quite literally the greatest player the game has seen, but I think we should also note that Rowbottom has started to find some real form. It was around this time last year when he was released from his negating role and he flourished. With our midfield issues and the way that he plays, I think he is one of our most important players for the rest of this season. Warner seemed to spend a fair bit of time forward of centre. I'm a fan of this move and hope we persist with it.
People have started questioning whether Mills and Parker are playing injured, but I don't think that's the problem at all. I've heard that outside of games that they have been covered from head to toe in casts, braces, tape, and bandages. I think the only logical conclusion we can draw from that is unfurling all of those first aid materials wouldn't leave them much time for pre-game warm-ups.
On the wings, Campbell returns from The Hague this week. Whether Stephens keeps his spot or not is something that I'm sure won't be fiercely debated.
DEFENCE
When I have watched the Adelaide カラス this season, I have noticed that if they have shots on goal, they will occasionally kick them. Accordingly, I would personally suggest that the boys try to stop them from having shots on goal. I feel that by not allowing them to score, we will improve our chances of winning the game.
How would I do this? Well, I think tying their forwards' bootlaces together would make it difficult for them to score, so I'd like us try this. Unfortunately, this only really works against Patrick Cripps because he can't see you from all the way up there, so we might have to settle for getting our match-ups right.
Stopping Taylor Walker is critical. Tom McCartin is the best match-up we have available I feel, but he would also be a good match-up for Darcy Fogarty. Ultimately, I think in a situation like this, you need your best key defender going to the best key forward, so I'd be sending Tommy to Lewis Johnston, who I expect to come in for his first game in about a decade. Francis to Fogarty. Blakey/Fox to Thilthorpe.
FORWARDS
Much like the Adelaide کوے, I've noticed this year that when we score lots of goals, we tend to win games. I think the best method to scoring lots of goals is the same as defending your own goals. Unfortunately, even if the three Adelaide defenders were atop one another's shoulders in a whimsically large coat, they would only be about one-third the height of Patrick Cripps, and would still be able to see us tying their laces together, so this is yet another battle we will have to win the hard way.
In my opinion, McLean has become one of our most important players towards the end of this season. He is our most consistent marking threat up forward, and we got a real lift around the ground when he went into the ruck on the weekend. The trio of he, McDonald, and Amartey might not look super flash at times, but we've averaged comfortably over 100 points while all 3 have been in the team this year which is a very good sign. If Amartey is out, that complicates things a bit. I'd probably be in favour of having someone like Parker spend more time forward, rather than brining in Buller. The Crows (English translation) key defenders are not renowned for their intercept marking, and are generally a very inexperienced bunch, so I'd still be confident in bringing the ball to ground and hurting them on the scoreboard.
Hayward and Heeney looked very dangerous on the weekend. When they are on, it seriously helps with our ball movement, and I think they will be real barometers for this weekend. Paps had a field day last time we played at Adelaide Oval. If we can get a few goals between him and Wicks - let's say 12 - that will go a long way too.
RUCK
I've got no ******* idea. McLean looks like our best ruck at the moment, but we need him up forward. UNLESS, we can find another solid forward/ruck to bring in... is it maybe worth trying Sam Reid in that role?
CHANGES
In: Braeden Campbell
Out: Matt Roberts
If Amartey is out, Roberts holds his spot. Otherwise, it's a toss-up between him and Stephens, but I think Stephens has a higher ceiling as far as this season goes, so I would be sticking with him.
PREDICTION
Sydney Swans defeat Adelaide ʻO nā kaʻa by 34 points. Whoever the Ç̷̹̯͍̻̩̺͉͍̻̪̞̪͈̉̇̈̿̂̑̊͒͑͊̌͆͝r̴̡̛̙̜͖̪̳͇̊̊̈̾̂̔͑̈́͘̕͜o̵̳̼̱͑͋̆̃͐̾̽w̶̡̧̤̭̫͇̰͙͕͒̀̈́̇̓͊̚̕s̴͓̙͚͇̜͔͈̥̬̯͕̮̣̗̤̐͊̾́̇́̚̕ captain is to be in tears.
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