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Bret Thornton

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KoutoufidesGhost said:
I think Thornton would be a good player in a strong backline. He reads the play well, has good hands and back himself third man up. His major deficiency is he can be beaten on the lead, but in a stronger backline with other defenders able to come across and help, he could flourish.
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Have to agree with this. I don't think his problem is with his ability but more with Ratten.
 
Hehe, funny stuff.

Bret Thornton had the opportunity to be the leader of the backline, improve his game to another level or two. However, he's become stagnant.

His game nowadays should be infinitely better than 3 years ago. It's not, now you can blame Ratten, Mother Theresa, George Bush or whoever but the facts are that he has not improved one iota.

He only has himself to blame, but as we've seen with T-Birds petulance on field its never T-Birds fault.
 
AlecDuncan said:
Great find BB. There are a lot of short memories around here.
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No one doubts his ability to get possessions and hit targets but joel Bowden was similar. Everyone peeled off him and set up their defense because he was slow moving it out and chipped it around.

We need to move it quick and create mismatches not allow our opposition to set their defense up and clog our forward line.

Sorry Bret
 

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I am not a huge fan of Bret Thornton but he has been a pretty good foot soldier in particular in his early years up against huge odds and mismatches.

But I would be pretty confused and disappointed if we got rid of Bret Thornton and then proceeded to recruit Chris Tarrant not sure how this move would improve our list any - except for satisfying Ratten's need to move on a player he doesnt get on with.
 
BlueTongue said:
Have to agree with this. I don't think his problem is with his ability but more with Ratten.
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ATM its Ratten, but its been everyone from time to time with Thornton, he has been a great servent of the CFC and i personally wish him the best with what ever happens in 2011, if he moves on thank you for great service, if he doesnt he needs to clear the air and get back to what he does best.
 
encino said:
Why hasn't Thornton been tried as a forward? Worth a shot.
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He was tried as a forward and cost us a chance of a win against freo... it was called staging for a free. The opposition cleared the ball in the dying seconds and we lost
 
Dramoth said:
He was tried as a forward and cost us a chance of a win against freo... it was called staging for a free. The opposition cleared the ball in the dying seconds and we lost
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Wasn't this also the game where he took a very gutsy mark going back with the ball in the goalsquare on the half time siren and had to contest the ruck against the biggest unit in AFL history?

If, as stated on an earlier post that he is on somewhere around $400k, who do we reckon is going to pay that sort of cash for a bloke who can't get in the team that had the worst backline in the top 8?

Seems to me that, unless we agree to pay some of his salary, and despite the fact that both he and the club want to part company we look like keeping him.

Appears time for the hatchet to be buried between he and the m/c or we will have another Nick Holland on our books if we haven't already.
 
blue healer said:
If, as stated on an earlier post that he is on somewhere around $400k, who do we reckon is going to pay that sort of cash for a bloke who can't get in the team that had the worst backline in the top 8?
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Since when did Thornton play for Fremantle?

You know we are talking about Bret, not Scott - right?
 
You can criticise Bret for his slow ball movement all you want but AFAIAC a backman's 1st priority is still (and always will be) beating your direct opponent in a contest.

Sure, Bret's form was down on previous years during the middle of the 2010 season, but he went back to the Bullants and produced form that was worthy of a recall.

With these 2 points in mind, if you think that Bower was more deserving of a spot in the team for the final against the Swans, then you've got rocks in your head.
 
Jeremias said:
Since when did Thornton play for Fremantle?

You know we are talking about Bret, not Scott - right?
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This is an attempt at humour, right? And a poor one at that.

Freos backline last week, without Tarrant who we are supposedly chasing, had spuds like Mcpharlin, Roberton, Broughton, Grover, Crowley, Hayden and Silvagni on the bench. Most, if not all would easily get a game in our team at the moment.

And if you don't think our backline cost us wins against Freo and the Swans then we must have been looking at different games or I need a pair of your rose coloured glasses.

I expect your next comment to be along the lines of "what did Geelong do to that backline?" to which I would reply about the same as they did to ours with more at stake and we weren't on the road and playing a venue we hadn't played before.
 

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blue healer said:
This is an attempt at humour, right? And a poor one at that.

Freos backline last week, without Tarrant who we are supposedly chasing, had spuds like Mcpharlin, Roberton, Broughton, Grover, Crowley, Hayden and Silvagni on the bench. Most, if not all would easily get a game in our team at the moment.

And if you don't think our backline cost us wins against Freo and the Swans then we must have been looking at different games or I need a pair of your rose coloured glasses.

I expect your next comment to be along the lines of "what did Geelong do to that backline?" to which I would reply about the same as they did to ours with more at stake and we weren't on the road and playing a venue we hadn't played before.
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What are you on about?

You said we had the worst backline in the top 8.

I showed you we didn't. Freo's backline was worse than ours over the course of season 2010.

Where did I ever say anything about the games against Fremantle or Sydney?

You are a moron.
 
Jeremias said:
What are you on about?

You said we had the worst backline in the top 8.

I showed you we didn't. Freo's backline was worse than ours over the course of season 2010.

Where did I ever say anything about the games against Fremantle or Sydney?

You are a moron.
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You showed me nothing.

All you did was make a stupid comment about me getting the 2 Thorntons confused when the actual point of my post was to ask whether anyone really believed we'd be able to trade our Thornton when he is on the money that he is and couldn't get into our team.

My reference to our backline quality is based on my view of how it has performed this season and I will defend my right to that opinion.

You brought Freo into it and I've no doubt that your reasoning was the statistical points against numbers at the end of the H&A.

Raw stats mean SFA. If they truly reflected the season Geelong (with the best %) would have finished minor premiers, they didn't. Adelaide and Melbourne have a better backline than us and Freo and I don't think this is true either.

If you want to quote stats look a little further. We had 548 scoring shots against us @ 50% efficiency. Freo had 552 against them @ 60%. Which could be construed as us being a tad lucky our opponents couldn't kick straight.

Again this means nothing but serves as an example that stats can be turned around to mean what a good stats man wants them to mean.

I am neither a good stats man nor a MORON. You, I can't vouch for either way but I reserve my right to an opinion.

And BTW who do you think will trade for Thornton, It couldn't be Hawthorn as stats say they already have a better defence than ours.
 
blue healer said:
Adelaide and Melbourne have a better backline than us and Freo and I don't think this is true either.
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I agree, come finals week, we had the worst back line in the top 8 last week but its a little unfair to compare us to the top 2 backlines outside the top 8. .. Adelaide has always had a solid backline. .. However take a look at the following and inform our top backline would be this and I like the looks of that a lot. .. I do agree that I would have played Thornton ahead of an out of form Bower in that final but that is with 20-20 hindsight. ..

Russel : Jamison : Walker/Armfield
Bower : Waite : Gibbs

The fact is we are missing a CHB, Thornton is not that player but he is a good flanker (which we have plenty of). .. So Thornton is not our 6th best backman he is more likely our 3rd best flanker and like been the 2nd best CHF its hard to get a game when the others are in form. ..

I would keep him, if he and the club can bury the hatchet. ..
 
Claypigeon said:
I agree, come finals week, we had the worst back line in the top 8 last week but its a little unfair to compare us to the top 2 backlines outside the top 8. .. Adelaide has always had a solid backline. .. However take a look at the following and inform our top backline would be this and I like the looks of that a lot. .. I do agree that I would have played Thornton ahead of an out of form Bower in that final but that is with 20-20 hindsight. ..

Russel : Jamison : Walker/Armfield
Bower : Waite : Gibbs

The fact is we are missing a CHB, Thornton is not that player but he is a good flanker (which we have plenty of). .. So Thornton is not our 6th best backman he is more likely our 3rd best flanker and like been the 2nd best CHF its hard to get a game when the others are in form. ..



I would keep him, if he and the club can bury the hatchet. ..
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Sorry CP I wasn't comparing Adel and Melb against us, merely pointing out to someone who called me a moron (cuts to the quick) that 'points against' stats are meaningless when assessing relative merits of 2 different sides.

I don't have to claim 20-20 hindsight as I've been saying for about 6 weeks on this board that IMO we need Thornton and I still think we do and I also think that a suitable trade will be difficult given his apparent salary. So will be surprised if he goes anywhere.

I just hope, if he doesn't that he's given a chance. If he is and he's not up to it well and good.
 

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Roberton and Silvagni wouldn't be walk up starts in our backline.

Jamison or Bower have arguably shown more than either of these two put together.

Not sold on Silvagni.

On two occasions against Sydney, Jamison was left high and dry by Bower who didn't leave his man (was out of the contest) and spoil contests he could have reached. Part of our problem is we don't have a team defence with midfielders and our defenders helping each other out in that sort of situation.

Davies and Lucas were playing back this year.

We're underrating these two.
rickbrah said:
remember this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRxU2hbAltw
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi6MVTCF1W4
 
Not sure what the point of those 2 youtube videos was. That Essendon are diving, cheating scum?:mad: The Lloyd incident was play-on every time.

None of those incidents were free-kick worthy, shows you what a precious lot the umpiring fraternity have become.

I think it says more about the character of Robert Walls than Thornton.:o If Bret can recapture that aggression and hunger over the off-season it's exactly the fighting spirit that will see him back in the team - umpires be damned.
 
rickbrah said:
remember this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRxU2hbAltw
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Ha ha. I was at the game and had never seen that. Nice impartial commentary from Wallsy there.


Thornton kicked 2 when he was swung forward against the almighty backline that Melbourne apparently has. Not sure why they are so highly rated? James Frawley has played some good games this year, but who else is down there?
 
Dramoth said:
He was tried as a forward and cost us a chance of a win against freo... it was called staging for a free. The opposition cleared the ball in the dying seconds and we lost
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So alas we condemn him for 1 free kick. Experiment Over! :rolleyes:

Do you seriously think he was going to dominate after 1 or 2 forays into the forward line? He needed to be left there for a few full games but we know there is obviously something between Bret & Ratts, so it was never going to work. As for 'Costing us a chance' well if we didn't continually play catchup football we'd be a lot better placed on the ladder.
 
how long has Thornton got left on his contract and at what price ?

and who would take it on or will the ants just have a good vfl chb all year untill contract runs out
 
Proutstar said:
how long has Thornton got left on his contract and at what price ?

and who would take it on or will the ants just have a good vfl chb all year untill contract runs out
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Not sure on price, but he has 1yr left on his contract.
 

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