How long can it continue?

[Centurions]

I f my memory serves me well , Deboer was a rookie elevation in 2010.

You'd be hard pressed to find better midfielder stats than Deboer's today.
that is two very impressive games from Matt now.
Add Barlow's game today and the two of them ripped up one of the better fancied midfields in the comp.
I think it matters little if they were a No1 draft pick or a rookie.

yesterday helped our midfielders with the rain and your right, DeBoer played a great game yesterday but if you look back in the game against the Crows last week look at the way the midfield delivered the ball inside 50 (crowley to ballantyne for one, deboer not reaching the goal from 40m out), you need quality players in there to reach the top. You can have one or two rookies in there but you need the quality.

The tigers have been riding on Cotchin, Martin, Deledio and Reiwoldt who are all quality ball users and first rounders. We need our A graders up and about and they haven't played that well this year compared to years past and you will also see we don't have many 70m players either which is why Morabito coming back will be a big boost for us.

 

[Freo Shark]

Like it or not......Currently our midfield operates more effectively without Sandilands. Opposition midfield coaches have admitted that they put all theri planning into sharking Sandi's taps. As someone mentioned above, Sandi has been figured out. People are sentimental.....but that doesn't change reality. We are better off with Griffin than Sandi at the moment imho...

Thats the task of Stone along with Burton, to make use of Sandiland's taps. Most other teams would be 100% better @ clearing with 211 in the side.

Its an indictment on our midfield and coaching over the years that we cannot take advantage of his taps as well as his taps being so predictable.

His only value is getting us first use more often than not, he is no use anywhere else - cant mark, rarely kicks and doesnt get paid for arm chopping (why lyon doesnt make a media issue out of this or a tweet or bombards Geischen with clips).

 

[Purple Suit]

This post is embarrassing. You have a go at people's posting simplistic stuff and call us stupid (very mature by the way!) but you are looking at the whole situation too simplistically. The fact is that Sandilands in the ruck is not really working for us at the moment with the midfield players we have. We are up against superior midfields most every week, and they are getting more advantage from Sandi's ruck taps than we are.....this is a fact taht emotion and sentiment can't change. Sandilands may be a superior ruckman to Griffin in his own right, but this is a team game and I am simply pondering who is the best for the team. At this point (and especially with Fyfe and Mora out) I believe Griffin gives us the best oppurtunity to win.

Just because you don't agree with something someone posts is not a reason to label them as stupid. It just makes you look like a jerk.[/

People are blaming Sandi solely for our poor clearances and suggesting trading him or dropping him. This "eat your children" mentality is seen a lot at some other clubs and It isn't good.

I strongly disagree with anyone who thinks Playing Sandi isn't the best for our team. The sharking of his taps isn't amassive percentage, we're just not getting a clearance advantage from his ruck dominance. This is the mids fault as much as his so they need to learn! How can the midfield learn to use Sandi's advantage if he's not playing?

It's like playing kids, they need to play to get better. We're learning a new game plan and we haven't had a settled midfield. Griffen playing would mean we would break even at the ruck but We would never dominate. With Sandi, we have a much much higher ceiling

 

[hoss]

Thats the task of Stone along with Burton, to make use of Sandiland's taps. Most other teams would be 100% better @ clearing with 211 in the side.

Its an indictment on our midfield and coaching over the years that we cannot take advantage of his taps as well as his taps being so predictable.

His only value is getting us first use more often than not, he is no use anywhere else - cant mark, rarely kicks and doesnt get paid for arm chopping (why lyon doesnt make a media issue out of this or a tweet or bombards Geischen with clips).

Agree with your first two paragraphs, but the third is very harsh. I would have thought Sandilands was in our top centre clearance winners over the last 3 or 4 years. I've seen him be a good mark (in fact for much of the past 2 seasons the teams sole strategy at kick outs seemed to be to go to 211. His marking seems down of late, but as you say, marking must be harder when getting your arms chopped.

 

[Paracleet]

Until someone can show me a statistic highlighting Sandi as having a ratio of hitouts to advantage as against hitouts to disadvantage as below league average I am not going to buy into this argument that his ruckwork is somehow holding our midfield back. All I see at the moment is posters repeating the opinions of a few commentators who are too thick to tell the difference between anecdotal evidence and a properly overall-contextual view. It's classic confirmation bias. Like in the Derby when he tapped it straight to Priddis and he goaled. That sort of thing happens all the time, to all ruckman, no matter how good. At the very next centre bounce Nick Nat tapped it straight to one of our midfielders to no comment. Individual events have (within reason) no relationship to overall patterns, I don't get why people can't see that. What does matter is how effective the average tap is. Not individual ones.
Now people are expecting to see it. The idiot Russel even called Sandilands yesterday as tapping straight to Riewoldt for a goal when the reply clearly shows Maric directing the ball down off Sandilands palm.

 

[Freo Shark]

Agree with your first two paragraphs, but the third is very harsh. I would have thought Sandilands was in our top centre clearance winners over the last 3 or 4 years. I've seen him be a good mark (in fact for much of the past 2 seasons the teams sole strategy at kick outs seemed to be to go to 211. His marking seems down of late, but as you say, marking must be harder when getting your arms chopped.

Perhaps a touch harsh but he isnt the most effective player outside the ruck.