Autopsy What did you learn from the NAB Challenge

[The King!]

What did you take away from the swans performances in the NAB challenge?

For me it was the following

1- not much has changed, this is the same old sydney game plan IMO, might be the odd tinker but look as though we have decided it almost got us a flag lets go again and call the grand final a one off, just the way i see it maybe i am wrong, and i am not saying it is not the right way to go

2- obvious one but Heeney is ready to go in the seniors now

3- Dean Towers looks so far the main candidate for most improved again just my view but he looks like he knows what he is doing

4- I continue to be baffled by Tom Mitchells treatment. More specifically what the coaching staff actually have planned for him and how they see him? surely he is best 22 or worthy of starting a nab game, or does the sub vest mean nothing?

5- based on the nab and it is early but Shaw looks done- i was worried about him most of 2014 the nab has done little to alleviate the concern for me hope i am wrong

6- Reid- needs to go back to the twos to start the year and develop as a backman, rather play shorter down there than with him at the moment, if tippett is out he can play forward i guess

7- I still like Rohan leading at the footy

8- Jetta continues to make his grand final performance even more frustrating

9- naismith showed some nice signs and could pass Pyke quickly because Pyke may struggle to play beyond 2015 imo

 

[swansfan51]

10) Players like Hewett, Aliir and Jones are a lot further down the coaches' pecking order than some think

11) Robinson is the coaches' new love child, didn't do much to stand out over these 3 games

12) After saying that Reid played solidly in defence yesterday, Stewart Dew has lower standards than most

 

[Punts]

Heeney and Towers better play R1

Same old kicking skills and ball movement heading into the 50 ( high bombing ).

Tippett would wanna be fit for the best part of the season and become the 2nd ruck.

Reid will play 1s but should be in the 2s.

Clangers are up and clearances down.

Rampe just keeps getting better.

Same old set at the bounces , get it to JPK.

 

[The King!]

Same old set at the bounces , get it to JPK.

which makes Mitchell's game time more baffling to me

 

[cinderella man]

10) Players like Hewett, Aliir and Jones are a lot further down the coaches' pecking order than some think

11) Robinson is the coaches' new love child, didn't do much to stand out over these 3 games

12) After saying that Reid played solidly in defence yesterday, Stewart Dew has lower standards than most

Dew said that ??? Dew has a funny interpretation of Solid. If you ask him if he thinks he is fat he will tell you he's solid. GTFO Stewie FFS !!!

Agree on Robinson. showed glimpses but has not been flash and had trouble finding the ball. Has been given a pretty good go during the NAB.

 

[vonn]

Jetta off HB will be better than Reid as KPD. Unless it's as KPD in reserves which is fine by me.

 

[RUNVS]

No idea what we are doing with Mitchell. The guy is obviously an in and under midfielder but he spent so little time there in the preseason that I wonder if that is what the coaches have planned for him.

 

[Millky95]

Didn't watch a lot of games but what I have read:

1. Pre-season is ******* terrifying for injuries
2. Heeney and Towers in top 22 and 25 respectively. Towers has impressed a lot from when I called him a spud
3. Reid needs some time in the reserves, even if it is to gain confidence that he is a good player with talent. Just needs some more work ethic

 

[Punts]

Oh and I think time has caught up with Shaw

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

1) Reid just hear me out i know everyone would agree he had a shocker but looking at the stats he took 8 marks the most of any player and had 11 disposals.

2) It was either Towers or Membrey im confident that once again we made the right decision to keep the best player, and yep he roved the ball to Bird for that last second snap.

3) Jetta fined $1500 don't care for once a in a long time he looked angry and actually ran through the middle Bedford likes this

4) Hard to say much going forward as we didn't have our forward structure for the whole NAB so a majority of the time it was resting mids up there.

5) Shaw looked good in bursts and doesn't seem to have lost his pace average disposal which is not surprising.

6) Heeney casually slots them for 50 had 13 disposals, 5 marks, 5 tackles and kicked 2 goals playing out of position at 18yrs of age

7) Franklin has a Iron Jaw.

 

[dangle]

1) Heeney is ready.
2) I enjoyed seeing Jetta fly the flag and increase his physicality.
3) Jake Lloyd is so clean an uses the ball so well. Will be a good player for a long time.
4) Shaw looks old and slow, as does Goodes unfortunately.
5) Luke Parker looks like he'll have a monster year and improve yet again. Looks very focused and driven.
6) Despite all the Reid hate, I like him behind the ball. I think he did some good things yesterday and although he got beaten a few times in one on ones, his positioning and intercept marking on a couple of occasions was good to see.
7) I like Rohan leading out of the square and think he can make our forward line less predictable. He could be a difficult match up. 6'3, super quick, good hands on the lead and a great set shot for goal.

 

[dangle]

7) Franklin has a Iron Jaw.

How he didn't break his cheek bone, I have no idea!

 

[cinderella man]

Oh and I think time has caught up with Shaw

I agree as he looks slow to react and also very slow getting ball to hand or foot. Sure sign he is on the wane. Owes the club nothing though as he has been a great servant as member of a premiership winning defensive 6 that was rock solid and a wonderful leader and mentor to young players. Having said all that he will feature during the season purely because of a lack of players who can play or are ready to play the role. Ted is not far behind him unfortunately but he will play until he drops for the very same reason.

 

[J_Moore]

Robinson, Cunningham, Lloyd - Pick one. I reckon.

 

[dangle]

Robinson, Cunningham, Lloyd - Pick one. I reckon.

Definitely a place for both Lloyd and Cunningham in my eyes. Robinson the one to miss at this stage.

 

[The King!]

Robinson, Cunningham, Lloyd - Pick one. I reckon.

robinson wouldnt be in the best 27 surely? despite yesterdays selection

 

[Jack2Jack]

- Mitchell, Towers, Heeney & Laidler are the ones outside of the GF players who have earned a spot in the round 1 side but given our selection 'policy' probably only 2 will play.

- Reid is worth persisting with down back, played terribly but at least you knew he was on the field which wasn't the case in a lot of the forward games. Give him the benefit of the doubt it was his first real game of the season but he should earn his spot through the ressies, won't be hugely upset if he plays round 1 in the seniors though...but no more gifting games if he doesn't perform against the bombers..drop him straight away and make him warrant selection.

-Jetta gets first crack at Malceski's role, torn on what to do with Rohan and I think the coaches are too, is he a rebounding defender or a pressure forward. They need to give him a defined role though, throwing him back and forth isn't doing him any good atm, let him find his feet at AFL level before doing that.

-Lots of Robison, BJ and XR talk over the preseason but they look a long way off on exposed form. The fact Jones, Allir, Hewett didn't even get a go isn't a very promising sign either. Besides the guys mentioned in the first point, doesn't look like we'll have a great lot of depth to fall back on. Derickx is a battler and while Naismith looked okay, they are purely ruckman and only useful should Pyke go down. Desperately need a couple of guys to come on in a hurry so we have some players to fall back on when we get inevitably get a few injuries, 25 AFL standard players simply won't cut it if we want a flag.

-The main thing I wanted to see was improved clearance work and that didn't really happen. We already have a player who will immediately give us a hand here, in Mitchell, why he doesn't seem to get awarded the same chances as so many others have received and baffling and frustrating. We cannot keep expecting Kennedy to be our sole saviour in this area every single week.

 

[Superstar swan]

I was hesitant to believe heeney was as good as the media was making us believe as i thought there would be a great deal of exaggeration to help their fight against academies....i was wrong...he is the real deal and i regard him as a senior player already!!!

I was not a fan of towers last year but now firmly believe he belongs in the 22. Terrific nab challenge...did not star but hardly made a mistake

 

[sataris]

People's talk of Mitchell's lack of speed made me think he'd be getting blown away constantly.

Didn't notice his lack of speed at all.

 

[Superstar swan]

- Mitchell, Towers, Heeney & Laidler are the ones outside of the GF players who have earned a spot in the round 1 side but given our selection 'policy' probably only 2 will play.

- Reid is worth persisting with down back, played terribly but at least you knew he was on the field which wasn't the case in a lot of the forward games. Give him the benefit of the doubt it was his first real game of the season but he should earn his spot through the ressies, won't be hugely upset if he plays round 1 in the seniors though...but no more gifting games if he doesn't perform against the bombers..drop him straight away and make him warrant selection.

-Jetta gets first crack at Malceski's role, torn on what to do with Rohan and I think the coaches are too, is he a rebounding defender or a pressure forward. They need to give him a defined role though, throwing him back and forth isn't doing him any good atm, let him find his feet at AFL level before doing that.

-Lots of Robison, BJ and XR talk over the preseason but they look a long way off on exposed form. The fact Jones, Allir, Hewett didn't even get a go isn't a very promising sign either. Besides the guys mentioned in the first point, doesn't look like we'll have a great lot of depth to fall back on. Derickx is a battler and while Naismith looked okay, they are purely ruckman and only useful should Pyke go down. Desperately need a couple of guys to come on in a hurry so we have some players to fall back on when we get inevitably get a few injuries, 25 AFL standard players simply won't cut it if we want a flag.

-The main thing I wanted to see was improved clearance work and that didn't really happen. We already have a player who will immediately give us a hand here, in Mitchell, why he doesn't seem to get awarded the same chances as so many others have received and baffling and frustrating. We cannot keep expecting Kennedy to be our sole saviour in this area every single week.

Not sure i would play in mals role,mal was a loose man and even though he was our main avenue out of defence he was also the loose man and would chop off passes...jetta is not capable of that.. however i do think jetta should be our main avenue ouf of defence...he has a better kick than mal and alot more pace.

I would use rampe as the loose man (mals role) but try get the ball into jettas hands as much as possible.

On a negative side note,this would be a greay year to feed jetta the ball. He is out of contract this year and i reckon he is a strong chance of going home. This way he will be getting alot more of the footy and will drive his market price up but if he does re sign we have added another dimension to one of our players games.

If he continued to play his role from last year,we would not get alot at the trade table

 

[RUNVS]

I was hesitant to believe heeney was as good as the media was making us believe as i thought there would be a great deal of exaggeration to help their fight against academies....i was wrong...he is the real deal and i regard him as a senior player already!!!

I was not a fan of towers last year but now firmly believe he belongs in the 22. Terrific nab challenge...did not star but hardly made a mistake

I don't get to do this often but I feel a bit smug about Towers as while everyone was bagging him last year I kept pointing out the progression he was making each game, how he was looking more and more composed each game and that given time he could become a good AFL player. I am very happy that I may have been proven right.

 

[RUNVS]

Not sure i would play in mals role,mal was a loose man and even though he was our main avenue out of defence he was also the loose man and would chop off passes...jetta is not capable of that.. however i do think jetta should be our main avenue ouf of defence...he has a better kick than mal and alot more pace.

I would use rampe as the loose man (mals role) but try get the ball into jettas hands as much as possible.

On a negative side note,this would be a greay year to feed jetta the ball. He is out of contract this year and i reckon he is a strong chance of going home. This way he will be getting alot more of the footy and will drive his market price up but if he does re sign we have added another dimension to one of our players games.

If he continued to play his role from last year,we would not get alot at the trade table

Laidler should play the loose man as back in 2011 or something like that he dominated in that role for Carlton.

 

[Superstar swan]

I don't get to do this often but I feel a bit smug about Towers as while everyone was bagging him last year I kept pointing out the progression he was making each game, how he was looking more and more composed each game and that given time he could become a good AFL player. I am very happy that I may have been proven right.

You must have seen something that most didnt...i am happy to be proven wrong in this case

 

[RUNVS]

You must have seen something that most didnt...i am happy to be proven wrong in this case

Well it doesn't happen all the time as I thought Ed Barlow was going to be a great player

 

[Superstar swan]

Laidler should play the loose man as back in 2011 or something like that he dominated in that role for Carlton.

Yer he is capable of chopping off opposition entries because he reads the play so well,howver i do think he is limited by his speed and foot skills. When he marks he will almost certainly always have to find a better disposal of the ball to give it to.

My reasoning for rampe is that he can read the play well but he is a very aggressive player. He can play on quickly and clear the ball long or even go for a trott. The blose has ablett hips and is almost impossible to tackle. Very good at shrugging tackles and fend offs