Autopsy Deja Voodoo - Clawed at the Cattery

[The King!]

I just assumed you were talking to The King! when you posted this. To my surprise, it wasn't a Tassie joke.

 

[Mister B]

View attachment 1671077

Because I live a sad and lonely life.

 

[Gimmeafree]

Now I get it after watching Ted Lasso tonight. Horse must have downloaded the episode early cos he pretty much employed the Total Football strategy. Backs as Forward, midfielders as defenders, forwards as midfielders.
At the moment we need more Roy Kent and less Ted Lasso. I note that Coach Beard is on this forum, interested in his thoughts….

 

[RubbaDuck]

You're pretty much asking Ladhams to be an elite mid & ruck. That's not going to happen. Blicavs is the best at what you describe & he's a freak of nature. I think people need to temper their expectations with Ladhams considering it's only his 2nd season with us, that also with a proper ruck coach. Sam Reid is a close comparison to Blicavs with the things you've mentioned. Sam Reid is a different player to Ladhams, it's unfair to expect either player to play like each other. Reid has made plenty of mistakes during his career too. He's let players mark against him, he's let players break through tackles etc. Reid isn't perfect & neither is Ladhams.

Ladhams went at nearly 80% disposal efficiency, previous week v tigers he led the clearances & was one of our top contested possession getter. He's showing different attributes, it's inconsistent but it's improving.

Swans fans expectations about Ladhams are unrealistic & it's an unfair expectation on him. He's not Blicavs, he's not Gawn, he's not Tim English nor Sean Darcy. It's fine to expect him to improve but the outcry over his performances have been over the top.

It's easy to blame Ladhams when the real issue has been our poor contested ball numbers & pressure. That's on the midfield & team as a whole. I would love to see Ladhams improve on his contested ball work but I know right now it's going to be inconsistent, similar to our young mids.

I'm not asking for Ladhams to become an elite mid at all, but it's not a lot to ask for more 2nd efforts and perhaps a bit more smarts. His brain fades suggest there isn't much happening between the ears and that's going to limit his potential. He's not Blicavs but he could be formidable in his own way. The rucks you mention have learned to add more to their arsenal. Rowbottom came into our midfield under-sized and hardly rated, yet he's a classic example of the size of the fight in the dog being more important than the size of the dog in the fight. He made up for lack of size and skill by sheer will power. He went harder, he got better, he learned from others. Reid has found ways to reinvent himself, to add to his armoury. There are lots of areas Ladhams could work on but just turning up for training isn't enough.

Our expectations on Ladhams probably are too high, as we've been a bit spoiled by what Hickey and Ried have given us over the past few years. It's up to Ladhams to improve while he has the role to himself, otherwise he can't expect to get picked ahead of Hickey, Reid or even Amartey if they can offer more to the team as a ruck/forward or around the ground. If Ladhams were a great tap ruckman he might get by on that alone, but he isn't. His taps are rarely to advantage. That means he has to add other strings to his bow, such as offering a marking target out of defence. A clean set of hands would add to his game but he fumbles badly and often. Kicking is another thing. Is he the only Swan who isn't a better than average kick? I suspect so. I can't recall him lowering his eyes and hitting a lead inside 50, mostly he bombs it in high.

I'd love to see Ladhams become a first class ruck, as much as anyone would. He has a golden opportunity to progress while our talls options are so limited. He needs to make hay while the sun shines. He's playing below par for the team as a whole and he needs to find ways to add more. Plenty of much younger players have copped a pasting for not meeting the expectations of fans. Campbell was one of our most recent whipping boys but he showed continuous improvement. Blakey reinvented himself as a defender but that didn't happen because he played in defence. It came about because he learned what he needed to fill out the role and worked on it. McDonald has clearly made a leap forward over the off-season. Amartey too. That takes hard work in the off-season. Franklin's long career is as much due to the extra work he does as it's due to his natural talent. Hayward turned his career around after he'd coasted for a while. McInenery also appears to be coasting and unless he ups his game he may find himself in the twos.

Ladhams has the ideal opportunity, a walk up start in a hungry, well disciplined team under some of the very best coaches, including one of the best ruck coaches in the AFL. He has no excuse not to make solid progress, so naturally fans are hungry to see that progress. I appreciate you feel defensive of him but I'm not calling for him to be dropped. I'm calling on him to give more, to find ways to improve. He should be a lot more critical on himself than any fan. He should not be accepting "good enough" or that he'll just get better with time. I hope we can get a hungrier young ruckman coming through to put pressure on Ladhams.

 

[RubbaDuck]

I disagree

Midfield was at full strength

Some excuses I understand but a drubbing and not to even kick a goal after half time is not afl standard

We are a joke

I disagree with your disagreement. Hickey with Reid as backup would be needed for our full strength midfield, plus we needed Mills, who was tied up baby-sitting a gorilla. We ended up with a half-gamer newbie minding the gorilla. We didn't have the tools to stop Dangerfield in full flight, nigh impossible to stop, and he was sharking any taps we won. He's torn us so many new a-holes we had a selection of orifices to s**t out of, and s**t we did.

How we beat Richmond with that team is the real mystery

 

[RubbaDuck]

Not go for it? have a duty of care, I dunno

Buddy did something very similar early in the season, player dropped as Buddy went to bump shoulder to shoulder, copping his head instead. It cost him a week and the instant hostility of the Victorian media. Consistency would be good. Giving excuses for deliberate bumps to the head should never happen. If that had been Paddy McCartin instead of Stephens, that would've cost him his career and a one-way ticket back to the black depths of depression. It would also have cost Tom McCartin an 8-10 week ban for throwing retalitory punches at Duncan's face

 

[The King!]

Buddy did something very similar early in the season, player dropped as Buddy went to bump shoulder to shoulder, copping his head instead. It cost him a week and the instant hostility of the Victorian media. Consistency would be good. Giving excuses for deliberate bumps to the head should never happen. If that had been Paddy McCartin instead of Stephens, that would've cost him his career and a one-way ticket back to the black depths of depression. It would also have cost Tom McCartin an 8-10 week ban for throwing retalitory punches at Duncan's face

you can't make the punishment fit who the victim is though

 

[sataris]

Big bodies matter,

 

[KingV23]

Big bodies matter,

All bodies matter

 

[Dubai Quacker]

And here we are, in the finals, on a winning streak -

Makes it fun to look back at the truly dark times.

 

[The King!]

And here we are, in the finals, on a winning streak -

Makes it fun to look back at the truly dark times.

Good turn around now we don't want to see another dismal exit

But thanks for reminding me of this game

 

[The Unforgiven]

You guys made finals, we missed out. Not many saw that eventuating after the conclusion of this match. Things can turn quick in footy. Good luck in the finals.