Past Michael "Grassy" Knoll - delisted 2020

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Michael Knoll

Player Profile
Michael Knoll stamped a stunning rise from US college basketball to Australian rules football when the Sydney Swans snapped him up at the 2019 mid-season draft. The 205-centimetre, 103-kilogram ruckman played his first game of footy with the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL in 2017, before playing with Vermont’s reserves in the Eastern Football League in 2019. He then made the switch to the Swans from the South Adelaide Panthers in the SANFL. Knoll made solid progress in the NEAFL under the expert eye of Sydney assistant coach Dean Cox in 2019, and he’s on a mission to make his AFL debut in 2020.

Michael Knoll

DOB: 27 February 1993
DRAFT: 2018
RECRUITED FROM: Box Hill Hawks (VFL)/Vermont (Vic)/South Adelaide (SANFL)

www.sydneyswans.com.au

Michael Knoll | AFL

Follow Michael Knoll's progress through AFL
www.sydneyswans.com.au www.sydneyswans.com.au
 
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Suspect both Maze and MO are right.

I think Knoll was stationed at FF to see how he would go. A worthwhile experiment in my view.

Yes Ronke kicked 3 but looked really out of touch beyond patches in the third quarter when he played on the ball.
 
Mick Oxlong said:
That’s great that you think yourself some kind of selector in a social sense Masey but the fact is, you’re not. What you and I expect are most likely completely different to the club. What you may have see was 0 tackles and 2 kicks, what the club may have seen was marked improvement 3 goals and 5 tackles. With Knoll, he may well have been tasked with a different role where he actually was expected to stay forward for whatever reason. Who knows, the club wanted to see if he could rest forward and kick goals?
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Apologies!

I mistakenly took this place as a discussion forum where you share your opinions...! I don’t speak for the club, but I can speculate how I think the club might see things, all my opinion, which of course is the entirety of this website (opinions).

I reckon the club would be stoked with his third quarter, not so much the rest of his game. That’s what I think anyway.

If I was picking the team tomorrow and needed a small forward I would select Wicks over Ronke based on form in 2019.
 
TheMase said:
Apologies!

I mistakenly took this place as a discussion forum where you share your opinions...! I don’t speak for the club, but I can speculate how I think the club might see things, all my opinion, which of course is the entirety of this website (opinions).

I reckon the club would be stoked with his third quarter, not so much the rest of his game. That’s what I think anyway.

If I was picking the team tomorrow and needed a small forward I would select Wicks over Ronke based on form in 2019.
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And yet YOU can’t choose WICKS as he’s UNAVAILABLE to be selected. So UNFORTUNATE but your OPINION cannot change that!
 

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Not sure why people are alarmed by Knoll or his performances so far. He’s been at the club 2 weeks. Most recruits have a full pre-season for coaches to have a look, run drills and practice matches. It’s no surprise the coaches are moving him around and trying him in different roles. They probably want to find out as much about him as they can and work that into a development plan.
 
Mick Oxlong said:
And yet YOU can’t choose WICKS as he’s UNAVAILABLE to be selected. So UNFORTUNATE but your OPINION cannot change that!
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Smith is on the long term injury list so he can be promoted and selected actually, Naismith too probably.

Looking forward to you holding all BigFooty users to account for sharing their opinions when they can’t influence the outcome....

I can speculate all I like :)

Have a good day.
 
TheMase said:
Smith is on the long term injury list so he can be promoted and selected actually, Naismith too probably.

Looking forward to you holding all BigFooty users to account for sharing their opinions when they can’t influence the outcome....

I can speculate all I like :)

Have a good day.
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And has he been promoted? There’s been plenty of time to do that, yet it hasn’t appeared to happen. No need to cry over it. I will have a good day!
 
If Knoll has just come from the SANFL (or VFL or NEAFL... wherever!) aren't we expecting a bit much for him to instantly make it? Surely if he was that good he would have gone in the draft? I reckon we cut him some slack, give him the rest of the season and a full preseason and then see what he's got for us then.

If Naismith could get it together, based on today's efforts, we'd be formidable.
 
There will be very few success stories from mid-season drafts imo. The successful ones will be amplified though.
 
Why was Knoll played forward most of this game (if he was - 4 HOs ) given Cameron got smashed in the HOs?

Are they trying to add goals to his game as a longer term strategy? He's kicked 3 more for us than he managed in 9 SANFL games now.
 
mikey_san said:
Why was Knoll played forward most of this game (if he was - 4 HOs ) given Cameron got smashed in the HOs?

Are they trying to add goals to his game as a longer term strategy? He's kicked 3 more for us than he managed in 9 SANFL games now.
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No one here could tell you why Cameron started however Knoll was less effective in the ruck during his stints than Cameron was.
 
scaryness said:
There will be very few success stories from mid-season drafts imo. The successful ones will be amplified though.
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Don’t let a good story get in the way of history mate. It may have been 20 odd years ago since the last one but we got 2 beauties out of it in Dale Lewis and Sydney Team of the Century player Daryn Cresswell. We are but one club in a competition and I couldn’t tell you what others clubs gained, because I don’t care. Let’s just hope we continue to do it right. And yes, I just amplified two of the best!

Clubs exploited the MSD this year to grab future talent when it was actually designed to assist clubs with injuries/retirements immediately. Will be keen to see how they restrict it next year because the AFL will be figuring that one out guaranteed!
 

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It a reasonable expectation for knoll to have an impact at neafl level straight away. Cominh from arguably the strongest state league, the neafl is quite a downgrade in competition
 
TheMase said:
Imo no.

If Sinclair wasn’t to get up, which I doubt as I think he will be fine, I would think it would be Cameron and not Knoll.
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Yeah but remember that time we thought anyone would be picked over Hiscox?
 
TheMase said:
True, let’s hope we don’t make similar mistakes!

Knoll is a long way off AFL level right now from what I’ve seen.
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Yeah, fair call, the adjustment period is warranted. Who knows, he may be one of those players that plays better a the stakes get higher...it happens (not saying it will).
 
Mick Oxlong said:
Yeah, fair call, the adjustment period is warranted. Who knows, he may be one of those players that plays better a the stakes get higher...it happens (not saying it will).
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Well he is fairly new to the game still. Hopefully for him he does enough to warrant an extra year as I think a full preseason would be invaluable for him.
 
www.sydneyswans.com.au

NEAFL: Knoll on the rise

Sydney Swans ruckman Michael Knoll is not even a month into his AFL experiment, but the former US college basketballer believes his ties with his followers is already beginning to click.
www.sydneyswans.com.au www.sydneyswans.com.au
 
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